After more than a month since the deadliest Iranian attack on US forces in Kuwait, several survivors from the US Army’s 103rd Support Command have come forward to dispute the official US version. Following the March 1 attack, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had mentioned a drone capable of penetrating fortified defenses as merely a coincidence. However, soldiers present at the scene contradicted this claim in interviews with CBS News on Thursday.
“One of them explained that it was a lie,” stating, “the unit was not prepared to defend itself. It was not a fortified position.” Another soldier confirmed, “From a bunker perspective, it is the weakest, in terms of defense against drones… There is no fortification.”
On March 1, Tehran targeted a US military base near Port Shuaiba, one of Kuwait’s largest ports, using a Shahed drone on the base’s tactical operations center, resulting in six deaths and 20 injuries. Prior to the attack, missile alarms had prompted around sixty soldiers to seek refuge in a concrete bunker while a ballistic missile flew overhead.
Approximately 30 minutes later, a soldier recounted, “everything was shaking,” likening the experience to scenes from movies with ringing ears, blurred vision, dizziness, dust, and smoke everywhere. One survivor described “head injuries and severe bleeding.”
Deputy Secretary of Defense Sean Parnell claimed that “all possible measures were taken to protect our troops at all levels” and that the “secure installation was fortified with 1.80m high walls.”
