Iran launches missile attacks at US airbase in Qatar
Tehran says strike is retaliation for American assault on nuclear facilities
- Qatar reports no casualties from Iranian attack
ISTANBUL
Iran launched a barrage of missiles at the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions following the US targeting of three Iranian nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend.
The strikes, announced by Iran’s state-funded Press TV, marked the start of what Iranian officials are calling Operation Bashayer Al-Fath, or Glad Tidings of Victory.
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency)
“The Iranian Armed Forces carried out a destructive and powerful missile attack on Al Udeid base in Qatar in response to US aggression,” said Iranian media.
The number of missiles launched was equal to “the number of bombs the US used in its attack on our nuclear facilities,” said Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which claimed responsibility for the attack, said the strikes were a direct message to Washington and its allies.
“Our message to the White House and its allies is clear — Iran will not leave any aggression against its sovereignty and land unanswered,” it said in a statement.
Qatar’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted the missile attack targeting Al Udeid Air Base and no casualties were reported.
The official IRNA news agency reported that simultaneous missile attacks had been launched towards US bases in Iraq, without providing further details.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said that sirens were activated in the country following the attacks and urged the public to seek shelter in the nearest buildings or take cover in concealed places until the danger passes.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed his country’s “strong condemnation” of the Iranian attack, calling it “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law and the United Nations Charter.”
He stressed that “Qatar reserves the right to respond proportionately and directly to this blatant aggression, in accordance with international law.”
On Sunday, Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and currently a senior aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that any country in the region that allows the US to use its territory against Iran will be considered a legitimate target by the Iranian Armed Forces.
He said the attack grants Iran a “right to a legitimate response,” hinting at the possibility of Iran’s armed forces targeting US military bases in West Asia.
Regional tension sharply escalated Sunday after the US bombed Iran’s Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
The attacks were the latest escalation in a US-backed Israeli military assault on Iran since June 13, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory attacks on Israel.
Israeli authorities said at least 25 people have been killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks.
Meanwhile, in Iran, at least 430 people have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded in the Israeli assault, according to the Iranian Health Ministry.
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