Military officials question fortifications at site where U.S. troops were killed in Iranian strike
Source: CBS News
Updated on: March 3, 2026 / 12:26 AM EST
The first American service members to die in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran were killed in an apparent Iranian drone attack on a makeshift office space in Kuwait, three U.S. military officials with direct knowledge of Iran's attack told CBS News.
At least six Americans were killed in a strike on a tactical operations center at the Shuaiba port in Kuwait, one of several U.S.-allied countries in the Persian Gulf region that have faced intense Iranian missile and drone attacks since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran early Saturday. U.S. Central Command has publicly confirmed the deaths.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the deadly strike was caused by a powerful Iranian weapon that made it through both air defenses and the operations center's fortifications. "You have air defenses, and a lot's coming in, and you hit most of it," Hegseth said during a news conference at the Pentagon. "Every once in a while, you might have one, unfortunately, we call it a squirter, that makes its way through. And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons."
But the three U.S. military officials questioned the assertion that the building was adequately fortified. They told CBS News the operations center was a triple-wide trailer made into an office space — a common setup at U.S. bases abroad. The trailer's only fortifications were T-walls, which are 12-foot-tall, steel-reinforced concrete barriers used to protect military personnel from explosions, rocket attacks and shrapnel, the military officials said. But T-walls could not protect the facility from an overhead strike.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-strike-kuwait-officials-question-fortifications/
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