Newly surfaced footage obtained by CBS News is offering the first detailed look at how badly Camp Buehring, a major U.S. military base in Kuwait, was battered during the opening days of the war with Iran. The video, recorded by a service member stationed at the base, captures the moment Iranian missiles, drones and F-5 fighter jets struck the installation, along with the smoking, rubble-strewn aftermath. CBS said it authenticated the clips using embedded metadata and by cross-referencing the footage against other photos of the damage. Most of the roughly 7,000 troops normally stationed at Camp Buehring had already been moved out before the war began, but more than 100 remained behind when the strikes hit.

Soldiers who stayed told CBS the fighting grew desperate as defenders ran critically low on .50-caliber ammunition, eventually forcing troops to pull back overnight into the open desert and set up makeshift forward operating bases. "It was horrible. There were a lot of brave guys who stayed to fight there, and people at home don't know what happened," one service member said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another questioned why reinforcements never arrived as the assault intensified. U.S. Central Command declined to comment on the footage, and the Pentagon instead pointed back to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's March 4 remarks on withdrawing American forces from the region, as the full scope of U.S. military losses from the Iran war continues to come into focus months later.