U.S. officials stand near a damaged installation hit by Iranian airstrikes inside the Ain al-Asad base near Anbar, Iraq, on January 13, 2019.© Emilienne Malfatto for The Washington Post
Washington Post: Al-Asad base had minutes’ notice before the Iranian rockets came crashing down in an hour-long barrage
AIN AL-ASAD, Iraq —U.S. commanders at the Iraqi military base targeted by Iranian missiles last week said Monday they believe the attack was intended to kill American personnel, an act that could have pushed the two powers closer to outright war.
On a visit to the sprawling Ain al-Asad air base in the Iraqi province of Anbar, reporters saw deep craters and the crumpled wreckage of living quarters and a helicopter launch site. The attack lasted more than an hour and a half, troops said, with each explosion illuminating the landscape for miles.
With tensions between the United States and Iran reaching a boiling point, the base had already been on high alert, expecting the sorts of rocket attacks that have target U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces across Iraq for months. The base hosts some 2,000 troops, 1,500 of them from the U.S.-led coalition.
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WNU Editor: We are now learning about the extensive damage at the base .... Photos taken at Iraq base where US troops are stationed show scale of damage following Iranian airstrikes (FOX News). More here .... New images show damage caused by Iranian missile strike on US military base in Iraq as soldiers clear the compound (Daily Mail).
1 comment:
Other articles say 3 hours notice was given which seems realistic. What is disturbing is they're no defenses capable of dealing with a missile attack on a major staging base.
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