Iran has inflicted billions of dollars in damage on U.S. forces in the Middle East at a never-before-seen scale, according to insiders.
In the latest leak likely to provide a headache for the porous Trump administration, four people with knowledge of the situation told NBC News that U.S. intelligence stations around the Middle East have been crippled. This is despite President Donald Trump’s continued insistence that the U.S. has destroyed Tehran’s military might.
Intelligence posts and surveillance hardware in the region, some of which is shared with the military and spans a dozen countries, have been depleted by drone and missile strikes, they said. The insiders added that the level of damage is unprecedented, with repair costs soaring into the billions.
An Iranian drone barrage slammed into the CIA station in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. Foreign operatives also targeted a secondary American intelligence facility situated in eastern Iraq, pummelling key intelligence assets early in the conflict.
Iran has launched more than 2,000 missiles, drones and airstrikes during the war, hitting at least 20 U.S. government sites across eight countries. These strikes were aided by satellite surveillance imagery handed over from Russia and China, as well as electronic intelligence from Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The Iranian strikes have forced Congress to scramble for funding to patch up the facilities. Two sources told NBC News that officials have mulled over a change of tack to address the threat.
Military experts and former U.S. officials have been left scratching their heads at why the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the State Department were not ready for this kind of response from Iran and the following unprecedented destruction.
NBC News suggested that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were shocked by the size of the aerial effort from the Iranians. It reported that the agencies had not seen such a violent response from the skies “in decades.”
Despite the aerial onslaught, insiders insist that the intelligence effort in the region is unharmed.
But some experts aren’t convinced. “The U.S. walked into this war and had not sufficiently thought through base defense in any way, shape or form,” Seth Jones, president of the defense and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said. “And we got hammered.”
A Pentagon spokesperson said it “does not comment on intelligence-related matters” as a “matter of practice”.
The White House and CIA have been contacted for comment.
