Iranian strikes damaged hundreds of U.S. military buildings: IG — SkimNews
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- Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings at U.S. bases across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan, according to CENTCOM's testimony to DoD Inspector General investigators.
- U.S. diplomatic facilities in four countries suffered physical damage totaling roughly $184 million, with Iraqi diplomatic sites hit more than 600 times and embassies in Kuwait City and Riyadh also struck.
- Operation Epic Fury cost $33.4 billion as of June 29 — $22.3 billion in munitions, $3.7 billion in equipment losses, and $7.4 billion beyond CENTCOM's normal operating expenses — but does not include infrastructure repair costs.
- Congress never appropriated funds for the Iran war, forcing the Pentagon to divert money from training and maintenance budgets to cover costs, per the IG report.
- USTRANSCOM flew more than 1,500 missions supporting the operation at a cost of $2.4 billion, with the agency warning that delayed payments will accelerate as service funding is depleted without a supplemental appropriation.
- U.S. aircraft losses include four F-15Es, one A-10, four AH-6 helicopters, one AH-64, one MH-60, one MQ-4C drone, and as many as 30 MQ-9 Reapers destroyed or damaged, based on a Congressional Research Service tally vetted by CENTCOM.
- U.S. casualties stood at 18 dead as of Aug. 27, with wounded totals rising from 417 on June 30 to 774 by late August.
Why it matters: The war has burned $33.4 billion in six months with no dedicated Congressional funding, forcing the Pentagon to cannibalize training and maintenance budgets — a fiscal pressure that compounds the physical damage to hundreds of facilities and the loss of dozens of aircraft across eight host countries, leaving the U.S. with a bill for repairs it hasn't even begun to estimate.
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