WASHINGTON, Sept. 15– A U.S. government watchdog on Monday released its first report on the impact of the Iran war, detailing shortfalls in advanced weapons and damage to U.S. aircraft, military bases and diplomatic facilities in the Middle East, multiple U.S. media outlets reported.
The Pentagon inspector general’s report, covering the period from April 1 to June 30, offered the fullest official accounting so far of the conflict’s costs in American lives, taxpayer dollars and physical damage.
The war with Iran “has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply” of advanced weapons, said the report.
The report said Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan. Dozens of U.S. aircraft and drones were also damaged or destroyed.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress in late July that the war had cost 37.5 billion U.S. dollars at that point.
The report also provided previously undisclosed figures on damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities.
U.S. diplomatic posts in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE suffered the most extensive physical damage, with the estimated cost reaching 184 million dollars, according to the report.
The evacuation operation, carried out through private and commercial flights as well as land and sea transportation, cost more than 11 million dollars as of late June, it added. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
