‘It Was Chaos’: US Troops Who Survived Deadly Iranian Attack Dispute Pentagon’s Version of Events

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Troops in Kuwait who survived the deadliest Iranian attack on U.S. forces since the war began told CBS News that the Pentagon wasn’t being truthful with its description of events.

Six U.S. Army Reserve service members lost their lives when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations center in Kuwait on March 1. Additionally, more than 20 soldiers were wounded.

CBS News spoke to some of the survivors who detailed the attack that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed was the result of an anomalous “squirter” drone that just happened to get through the fortified unit inside Kuwait.

One injured soldier told CBS News, “Painting a picture that ‘one squeaked through’ is a falsehood. I want people to know the unit…was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.”

The soldiers said they were moved to “a bunch of little tin buildings” in Kuwait where they set up “makeshift offices” before Operation Epic Fury got underway, while other soldiers were moved to safer locations in Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The injured soldiers told CBS News, “they had questions about why they remained well within range of Iran’s missiles and drones,” at the base inside Kuwait. “One soldier said they saw intelligence showing the post was on a list of potential Iranian targets,” according to the report.

“We moved closer to Iran, to a deeply unsafe area that was a known target,” one soldier said. “I don’t think there was a good reason ever articulated.”

The CBS News report said, “In a post on X addressing prior CBS News reporting on the incident, Assistant Secretary of Defense Sean Parnell said “every possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops — at every level” and that “[t]he secure facility was fortified with 6-foot walls.”

But the soldiers told CBS News, “they were protected by little more than a thin layer of vertical standing blast barricades that did not provide cover from above.”

“From a bunker standpoint, that’s about as weak as one gets,” the soldier said.

When the Iranian drone detonated in the middle of the U.S. soldiers’ worksite, “It was chaos,” an injured soldier said. “There was no single line of patients to triage. You’re on one side of the fire or you’re on the other side of the fire.”

The service members described the aftermath: “Head wounds, heavy bleeding, lots of perforated eardrums, and then just shrapnel all over, so folks are bleeding from their abdomen, bleeding from arms, bleeding from legs.”

“Word of Hegseth’s description of the events at a press conference in Washington did not sit well with some of the survivors,” the report said.

“It’s not my intent to diminish morale or to disparage the Army or the Department of War more holistically, but I do think that telling the truth is important and we’re not going to learn from these mistakes if we pretend these mistakes didn’t happen,” one soldier said.

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