An Iranian attack on an air base in Qatar key to the U.S. military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications.
An Iranian attack on an air base in Qatar that’s key to the U.S. military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analyzed Friday by The Associated Press show.
The U.S. military and Qatar didn’t respond to requests for comment over the damage, which so far hasn’t been publicly acknowledged.
The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar’s capital, on June 23 came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran — and provided the Islamic Republic a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war.
The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage — likely because of the fact that the U.S. evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command, before the attack.
Trump also has said that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East, but otherwise didn’t tip over into the regional war long feared by analysts.
