Photographs obtained by the BBC's US partner CBS from active military personnel show extensive damage at several US bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait caused by Iranian strikes, with one unnamed service member saying the scale of the damage "hasn't been communicated to the American public." The images, which the BBC has not independently verified, emerged a day after a Pentagon watchdog report confirmed that hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases across the Middle East had been damaged or destroyed by Iran, underscoring the significant, previously underreported toll of the conflict on US military infrastructure.

Among the photos is one showing a Boeing E-3 Sentry radar aircraft ripped in half at Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia, an attack that reportedly wounded 12 US personnel, two seriously, according to a US official cited earlier by Reuters. Other images show crumpled trailers and a shredded structure at Camp Buehring, and a damaged four-storey building at Camp Arifjan, both in Kuwait. The Pentagon watchdog report put equipment losses at $3.7bn (£2.8bn) and total US spending on the war at $33.4bn (£24.7bn) up to 29 June, while a separate Congressional Budget Office assessment estimated combat equipment losses at $1.9bn (£1.4bn) and noted the ageing E-3 aircraft, no longer in production, would need replacing with the newer E-7.