Iran launches missile attacks on US bases in Qatar and Iraq

Iran has launched missile attacks on US military bases in Qatar and Iraq, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites and escalating tensions in the volatile region.

People in Doha, Qatar’s capital, stopped and looked up as missiles flew and interceptors fired and struck at least one missile in the night sky.

Iran announced on state television that it attacked American forces stationed at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base.

A caption on screen called it “a mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression” as martial music played.

Iran also targeted the Ain al-Assad base housing US troops in western Iraq, an Iraqi security official told The Associated Press.

The attacks came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran.

Just before the explosions, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”

In the past, Iran has threatened American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.

Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.

Earlier in the day, Israel expanded its war against Iran to include targets associated with the country’s struggling theocracy, striking the gate of a Tehran prison notorious for holding political activists and hitting the headquarters of the military force that suppressed recent protests.

As plumes of thick smoke rose over Tehran, Israel was attacked with yet another barrage of Iranian missiles and drones.