Middle East & North Africa
US Army major alleges senior officials ignored warnings before the deadly attack in Kuwait
Major Stephen Ramsbottom, who survived the Iranian drone attack on the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on March 1, filed a whistleblower complaint with Congress saying commanders ignored warnings. The Pentagon declined to comment.
A US Army major who survived the deadly Iranian drone attack in Kuwait has filed a whistleblower complaint with Congress, alleging that senior military officials ignored warnings and failed to plan the counter-drone defence properly before the war with Iran. CBS News revealed the case on Sunday, November 15. Major Stephen Ramsbottom spoke exclusively to Norah O’Donnell of “60 Minutes”. His complaint was filed on Friday, November 13 with the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, and the US network has it.
The attack took place on March 1 at a US command post in the port of Shuaiba, Kuwait, one day after the United States and Israel launched Operation “Epic Fury”, which began the war with Iran. An Iranian drone killed six American service members in the first twenty-four hours of the conflict. It was the deadliest attack on US forces in the whole war. The major claims that Army leadership dismissed concerns about the site’s inadequate fortifications.
The complaint describes a facility with minimal medical support. The port, according to the major, “had no doctor, no permanent aid station, and only one ambulance”. He does not absolve himself of responsibility. “I consider this a tactical failure of the Army, of our leadership, and of me, all the way up the chain to my own level,” he told “60 Minutes”. “We simply did not plan it well, and we have to learn our lesson from it,” he added.
The interview is part of an eight-month investigation by the programme into the attack. CBS presents eyewitness accounts, as well as photographs and video taken after the attack, which show how poorly fortified the port facility was. That picture contrasts with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a press conference the day after the attack. Hegseth insisted then that the troops were well protected. “From time to time, unfortunately, one can slip through,” he had said, adding that in this case a fortified tactical operations centre was hit, but “these are powerful weapons”.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, made a series of requests to Hegseth after studying the complaint. In a letter dated November 15 he asks the secretary to brief senators in a classified session and to hand over “all force protection assessments” for the port of Shuaiba. “The families of the six fallen, the wounded who survived and the American people deserve transparency and accountability,” Blumenthal wrote. Democrats have announced an investigation into the administration’s handling of the war once they regain control of both chambers of Congress next year, after the elections.
The Pentagon declined to comment on Ramsbottom’s allegations. A spokesperson also refused to answer whether there were adequate force-protection measures at the port of Shuaiba on the day of the attack. The Iranian side of the war is covered in our reports on the Revolutionary Guards’ claim about a US radar in Bahrain and on the attacks in the Gulf.
