War in Iran: The United States suffered much more damage than what Washington is willing to admit

Will Donald Trump ever play the transparency card? Since the beginning of the war in Iran – on February 28, 2026 during the direct and coordinated attack with Tel Aviv on Tehran, which led to the death of Ayatollah Khamenei – he has been claiming that the United States has the advantage. That Iran is in trouble. What he didn’t say is the extent of the damage suffered by American bases since the beginning of the conflict.

The Washington Post analyzed satellite images of the Middle East over the past two months. Journalists counted 228 American targets hit by Iran on military bases in the region. This includes hangars, barracks, fuel depots, radars, and communication and air defense equipment. In total, 15 American bases were targeted, with 217 structures and 11 pieces of equipment hit within them.

Satellite image censorship remains an obstacle to the truth

To carry out this essential count – since neither the White House nor the Pentagon have disclosed the damage suffered by the United States in this war – journalists from the Washington Post had to rely on Iranian satellite images. This hundred images have obviously been verified – notably with lower resolution images provided by European satellites – to ensure they were not altered or fabricated by the Iranian regime for propaganda purposes.

If journalists couldn’t use images from American satellites, it’s because the companies that broadcast them across the Atlantic were instructed to no longer make views of the Middle East available – at least not in real time – a censorship decided in March 2026, about ten days after the start of the conflicts, making journalistic work, as well as academic analyses by researchers, very difficult.

The United States underestimated the Iranian strength

The Washington Post also had the Iranian images analyzed by experts. According to them, the extensive damage visible in the satellite reports indicates that the United States greatly underestimated Iran’s capabilities to strike military bases, particularly through their drone arsenal. According to specialists, Washington should have better prepared, especially by analyzing the evolution of the war and the use of drones made in Ukraine. The Iranian strikes visible in satellite images are surgical. A possible proof of Russian intelligence aid.

Other American media tried to count the damages caused by Iran on American bases in the Middle East. None came to this conclusion. The American authorities, however, remain silent in front of journalists and elected officials demanding answers. “No one knows anything, and it’s not for lack of asking,” recently denounced a member of the American Congress on NBC. However, these damages, and the United States’ inability to prevent them, will eventually cost them millions of dollars.

And if it turns out that the White House did not take the necessary measures to protect its men – including the six soldiers killed on a base in Kuwait in early March – and the territory of its allies in the region, the political consequences will be even greater.