IRAN has warned it will strike the US back after Donald Trump ordered the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, and could use a range of methods, according to one expert. But, as Tehran plans its retaliation, the US Defence Secretary has warned even though America does not seek a war with Iran, it is “prepared to finish one”.
Details are still coming in, but Iran has launched a massive missile attack against U.S. forces in Iraq,
including Al Asad Air Base, in retaliation for the American drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander, last week. A major rocket barrage on Al Asad, which sits around 115 miles west of Baghdad, may have also preceded the strikes. U.S. President Donald Trump has already threatened a major response, including potential strikes on cultural sites, against Iran in the event of any such attack.
Al Asad, also known as Ain Assad, hosts a large number of U.S. military personnel, as well as significant numbers of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and drones. It is also the base that U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to in 2018 in his first visit to Iraq. Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, as well as Iran itself and its other regional proxies, had vowed to retaliate against U.S. forces throughout the Middle East over the death of Soleimani, who had been head of the Quds Force, last week. The Quds Force is responsible for providing aid and assistance to foreign terrorist and militant groups and otherwise conducting covert activities outside of Iran.
The exact scale and scope of the attack is unclear, but Iranian state media has confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, of which the Quds Force is a part, carried out the attack. Reports say that as many as 10 ballistic missiles may have been launched toward Al Asad.
There are also reports that additional missiles were fired toward Erbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. U.S. defenses there may have shot at least one of these down. The U.S. military, as well as the U.S. State Department, makes heavy use of portions of the airport in Erbil and the U.S. consulate there is a major diplomatic facility.
There are additional reports of additional missile strikes on other targets in the country, as well.
