Murphy describes Riyadh embassy strike damage as ‘extraordinary’
Sen. Chris Murphy returned from Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week and told reporters that the Pentagon blocked him from Al Udeid air base — the largest US military installation in the Middle East — during a congressional oversight visit. Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Senate foreign relations and appropriations committees, accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of working to keep the war’s costs from public view.
“He is determined to hide the cost and the consequences of this war from the American public,” Murphy said on a call with reporters.
The United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28. Two Iranian drones struck the US embassy compound in Riyadh in the early hours of March 3, days later, setting off a fire and sending black smoke over the surrounding district. The building was reportedly empty at the time, and no injuries were reported. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry initially described the damage as minor.
Murphy described the destruction he witnessed in Riyadh as “extraordinary” and said the public account understated what he saw. The strike, he said, hit “an area of the embassy in which there are a lot of people” and caused extensive damage across several floors. “Part of that space is uninhabitable and will likely remain uninhabitable,” he said, adding that some of it would not be repaired because the embassy is moving soon.
“Had that attack happened during the daytime, there’s no doubt that there would have been many, many Americans killed,” Murphy said.
In Qatar, Murphy visited Ras Laffan, the gas complex where Iranian drone strikes halted liquefied natural gas production early in the war. He said the strikes had eliminated 17% of Qatar’s exports — a loss likely to last at least three years while repairs are made. Murphy said he saw just one LNG tanker in port, compared with the usual six, and roughly one tanker a day leaving the facility rather than ten.
Murphy said he gave the Pentagon notice of his visit weeks in advance and submitted a written request for access to Al Udeid. He also raised the request with Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of US Central Command, who Murphy said appeared surprised that military leaders had been barred from speaking to him. On arrival in Qatar, Murphy said, he was told he would not have access to the base and would have no contact with military leadership.
A senior Pentagon official told the Guardian that Murphy’s office “was informed before his trip” that he would not receive department support to access Al Udeid, citing Hegseth’s March 3 directive on travel restrictions in the region.
“That decision was communicated in advance by the office of the secretary of war for legislative affairs,” the official said in a statement. “The department applies the secretary’s guidance evenly.”
Murphy said he would draft language in the coming days requiring the Pentagon to give members of Congress access to overseas bases, which he would seek to include in next year’s appropriations and defense authorization bills. If the war is still under way by early next year, he said, Congress should withhold defense funding unless the legislation includes a provision to end the conflict.
“We will potentially have power of both the House and the Senate,” Murphy said of Democrats in next month’s midterm elections, “and we should make the end of the war a priority.”
The administration, he said, was “giving its middle finger to the Congress, pretending as if we are totally irrelevant,” and he vowed accountability and investigations if Democrats win one or both chambers in the midterms.