‘Leaked’ photos allegedly show Iranian damage to US bases in Middle East. Here’s what we know

In September 2026, a series of images circulated online that social media users claimed (archived) showed Iranian damage to U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

For example, one X user shared a video consisting of six photographs that appeared to show a damaged aircraft, vehicle and structures, and wrote:

BREAKING: Troops leaked photos of their wrecked bases to CBS, saying they’re “standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face” 

Active service members sent the images anonymously.

The images also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). 

The images came from an exclusive CBS News report that said its reporter Jonah Kaplan had received the photos from “active service members on condition of anonymity because of rigid media restrictions within the military.”

It wasn’t possible for Snopes to independently verify the authenticity of the images. We don’t rely on anonymous sources. Therefore, in order to independently verify them, we would need to speak to the people who took the images and verify their metadata (information about where and when a photo was taken). This did not appear possible given the sources told CBS News they didn’t want their names published alongside the images. Therefore, we leave claims about the authenticity of the images unrated. 

We contacted Kaplan to ask how he verified the authenticity of the photos. We also contacted U.S. Central Command, which directs U.S. security operations across the Middle East, to ask about the authenticity of the images. We await replies to our queries.

What we know about images

The CBS News report included six photos. The first claimed to show a damaged plane at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The image resembled photos verified by the BBC in March 2026 after Reuters and The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian strikes damaged an E-3 sentry aircraft and injured 12 troops at the base. 

Snopes could not verify the exact location of the plane at the base, though CBS News’ image did show a sign reading “35L S2.” 35L is the name of one of the runways at the Prince Sultan Air Base, suggesting the damaged plane was parked on or near that runway when Iranian strikes hit. The image showed what appeared to be a drain or tunnel under the runway. Google Earth imagery showed identical structures along the 35L runway. 

A report about Operation Epic Fury (the U.S. government’s name for the war in Iran) that the lead inspector general submitted to Congress in September 2026 found one E-3 aircraft had been “damaged on the ground in Saudi Arabia by Iranian strikes” during the conflict (Table 5).

The next two images in the CBS News article claimed to show damage to a large tent structure and several trailers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a public policy research organization that analyzes military and foreign affairs, Iran has claimed to have struck Camp Buehring at least five times since the start of the war. 

One of the images, which showed a burned-out vehicle, also showed a mural that included a hand grasping three lightning bolts. This was the same imagery used by the 136th Expeditionary Signal Battalion. That battalion has previously been deployed to Camp Buehring. The unit was deployed to Central Command’s area of operation, which includes the Middle East, around April 2026.

Another image appeared to show damage to the Unaccompanied Officers Quarters at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. The ISW reported that Iranian forces had struck Camp Arifjan at the start of March 2026. CNN reported on March 3 that six U.S. service members had been killed in strikes on the Port of Shuaiba, which is around 18 miles north of Camp Arifjan, suggesting the Iranian military had targeted the area.

The sixth image claimed to show damage to a large tent structure at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Snopes could not independently confirm the location or date of that image.

Foreign base damage difficult to confirm

Verifying damage to U.S. bases or equipment overseas is difficult because U.S. authorities generally do not publicly confirm such strikes so as not give away equipment locations or military capabilities. For example, in April 2026, the Pentagon declined to comment on reported damage to U.S. bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia for operational security reasons.

The September 2026 report to Congress about Operation Epic Fury included damage estimates only for diplomatic facilities such as embassies and consulates (Page 19), not military bases.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said (at 32:57) on March 3, 2026, that the six people killed near Camp Arifjan in early March 2026 died because a “squirter” passed through U.S. air defenses and hit a “tactical operation center.”

Hegseth said such incidents happened “every once in a while.” 

Speaking to CBS News about the September 2026 images, a service member reportedly refuted that characterization of the alleged damage caused to U.S. bases in the Middle East, instead saying, “We’re not defending these bases. We’re just watching them get destroyed.”

For further reading, Snopes has investigated a number of claims related to the war in Iran.

Sources