Exclusive video obtained by CBS News documents the intensity of Iranian attacks on Camp Buehring, a sprawling U.S. military installation in Kuwait, during the opening phase of the war with Iran seven months ago. The footage, recorded on the ground, shows missile impacts, drone strikes and the aftermath of fighter jet runs that left buildings and equipment damaged - offering the clearest public look yet at how exposed American forces were in those early days.
What the Footage Shows
The recordings, authenticated by CBS News through embedded metadata and cross-referenced with other photographic evidence, capture explosions and structural damage at Camp Buehring, a base roughly 25 miles from the Iraqi border that has served as a staging ground for American deployments across the Middle East for more than two decades. Witnesses described ballistic missiles, drones and Iranian F-5 fighter jets flying low enough that one service member said he could see the pilots' helmets. The jets, according to the account, made rapid passes - striking and withdrawing before any meaningful response could be mounted.
A Base Stripped Down, Then Overwhelmed
Most of the roughly 7,000 troops normally stationed at Camp Buehring had already been relocated under the Pentagon's "get off the X" strategy, a doctrine built around moving personnel away from predictable, vulnerable positions before conflict escalates. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in March that more than 90% of American personnel on regional bases had been repositioned out of range of Iranian fire. Yet more than 100 soldiers remained at Camp Buehring, and those who stayed described running critically low on .50-caliber ammunition as the attacks continued - a shortfall confirmed by a senior Army logistics official who also cited concerns over supplies of Patriot missile interceptors and other high-demand munitions.
Retreat Into the Desert - and Its Own Hazards
Facing sustained bombardment, soldiers eventually loaded what equipment they could and moved under cover of darkness into the Udari Desert, establishing makeshift forward operating bases. No one was killed by enemy fire at Camp Buehring or at these improvised positions, but the exposure brought a different kind of danger: two soldiers were struck by lightning during desert sandstorms in late April, suffering burns and a ruptured eardrum. Army leaders had reportedly been trying to move troops out of the area before the strike occurred but could not do so in time. By May, remaining personnel had relocated to Camp Arifjan and other posts in and outside the region.
The Broader Toll and the Accountability Question
The Pentagon's inspector general has already disclosed equipment losses of up to $3.7 billion, including close to 60 aircraft, in a mandatory report to Congress covering the conflict. The Congressional Research Service separately tallied 81 fixed-wing, rotary-wing and drone assets lost or damaged by Iranian action since February. The same inspector general report confirmed Iranian strikes hit U.S. bases not just in Kuwait but across Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan - yet visual documentation of the damage has remained scarce, making the Camp Buehring footage, along with earlier images from Prince Sultan Air Base and Camp Arifjan, unusually significant.
U.S. Central Command declined to comment when contacted, and the Pentagon referred only to Hegseth's earlier remarks. That silence leaves open the question one soldier raised directly: why reinforcements never arrived at a base already stripped of most of its defenses. With the war's deadliest single attack on American troops - the strike on the Port of Shuaiba that killed six service members - still under scrutiny, the Camp Buehring videos add further pressure for a fuller public accounting of how prepared, or exposed, U.S. forces actually were.