When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described a deadly Iranian strike in Kuwait as a rare \u201csquirter\u201d that had broken through the defenses of a U.S. military base, it didn\u2019t quite sound right\u2014especially to the service members who actually lived through it. \u201cPainting a picture that \u2018one squeaked through\u2019 is a falsehood,\u201d one of the injured soldiers told CBS News<\/a> Thursday. \u201cI want people to know the unit \u2026 was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position.\u201d<\/p>\n The injured soldier, a member of the Army\u2019s 103rd Sustainment Command who spoke to CBS News under the condition of anonymity, highlighted the valiant efforts of his fellow service members who were left in a dangerous situation by their leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that the security environment or any leadership decision diminishes in any way their sacrifice or their service,\u201d the injured soldier told CBS in an interview. \u201cThose soldiers put themselves in harm\u2019s way and \u2026 I\u2019m immensely proud of them, and their family should be proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahead of Operation Epic Fury, U.S. troops in the Gulf region were instructed to move away from the \u201cX,\u201d or danger zone. But a group of soldiers were sent from Kuwait City to Port of Shuaiba, still well within striking distance for Iran. There, they would establish a makeshift portside tactical operations center in a series of small tin buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe moved closer to Iran, to a deeply unsafe area that was a known target,\u201d another soldier told CBS News. \u201cI don\u2019t think there was a good reason ever articulated.\u201d<\/p>\n The soldier described how the troops had been protected by only a thin layer of vertical standing blast barricades. \u201cFrom a bunker standpoint, that\u2019s about as weak as one gets,\u201d he told CBS News. Images of the base<\/a> showed that it had limited defenses against drone or missile strikes.<\/p>\n When asked to describe the degree of fortification at the makeshift operations center, the soldier told the outlet: \u201cI mean, I would put it in the \u2018none\u2019 category. From a drone defense capability \u2026 none.\u201d<\/p>\n This runs counter to the Pentagon\u2019s repeated assertions that the operations center was fortified. \u201cEvery possible measure has been taken to safeguard our troops\u2014at every level,\u201d Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n The Iranian strike on that base killed six U.S. service members, making it the deadliest Iranian strike of the first five weeks of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Iran. More than 30 military members were hospitalized<\/a>, with dozens suffering from injuries, including burns, shrapnel wounds, and brain trauma.<\/p>\n The Defense Department did not initially release information about how many were hurt in the strike, and U.S. Central Command initially claimed that five had been seriously wounded. This isn\u2019t the only case of the Pentagon downplaying the toll of Trump\u2019s reckless war in Iran The government has published<\/a> outdated numbers in statements on casualties, resulting in an undercount of how many troops have been wounded or killed, and a U.S. official said last week that the Pentagon appeared to be engaged in a \u201ccasualty cover-up\u201d in Iran.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Hegseth.jpg\")
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