Satellite images show damage to Al-Asad base in Iraq after attack on US troops
Damage to base clear in pictures, but still hard to assess whether US troops were killed in the attack
January 09, 2020
Satellite images released by news agency Reuters on Wednesday appeared to show the damage done to the Al-Asad Air Base housing coalition troops in Iraq that was attacked by the Iran on Tuesday in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Iran had claimed on Wednesday afternoon that at least 80 US troops had been killed in the attack that was carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said Iran had delivered a "slap in the face" to the US with the attack.
US President Donald Trump, who had tweeted immediately after the attack that America would respond after assessing the damage, rejected the Iranian claims late on Wednesday, and announced new economic sanctions on Tehran in the wake of the attacks on US troops.
Also read: Trump says Iran standing down, US 'ready to embrace peace'
The images released by Reuters do indicate that the air base targeted in the attack sustained some damage, but it is still unclear what the extent of that damage was, or how many US troops died as a result of it. The Pentagon, which handles military affairs in US, has also remained mum on the issue.
US-based news publication The Washington Post on Wednesday published a report that claimed that the Trump administration knew about the Iranian strikes well in advance of the actual missile attacks. Statements from Iraqi officials lend further credence to the claim.
The contradictory statements from the two warring parties has led to a slew of news reports that appear to either claim that the Iranians provided the warning to Iraq on purpose, while others say that the Iranians intended to hit Americans directly and without warning.
According to news agency AFP, Iraq's prime minister's office said Wednesday it had received "an official verbal message" from Iran informing it that a missile attack on US forces stationed on Iraqi soil was imminent. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif backed the comments of the Iraqi government on Wednesday.
Defence experts on social networking website Twitter further corroborated the Iraqi claims. One expert, Jeffery Lewis of the Middlebury Institute, said that the strikes showed just how precise the missiles of the Iranians were, as they destroyed selected buildings.
Reuters had reported on Wednesday that Iran’s launching of more than a dozen missiles at American-led forces in Iraq came after years of preparing for a confrontation with its superpower foe, whose forces are vastly larger and more advanced.
The Gulf country has more than 500,000 active-duty personnel, according to a report last year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But international sanctions and restrictions on arms imports have made it hard for Iran to develop or buy more sophisticated weaponry to confront the United States.
To compensate for the imbalance, Iran has developed “asymmetrical” responses — ballistic missiles, deadly drones and a web of militia allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, among other things — with the aim of being able to inflict pain while avoiding the traditional battlefield.
Also read: Iran missile strike: Tehran claims 80 dead in attack on US bases
However, there were also those who took the opposing point of view, saying the Iranians launched the strikes without warning and used heavy-duty ballistic missiles designed to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, wanting to kill scores of American soldiers on the ground.
National Security Correspondent for Fox News Jeffery Griffin claimed that an American general had said that the defensive actions and counter measures of the US forces helped saved American lives in the attack, as the Iran had wanted to do as much damage as possible to the base.
The statement put out by US President Donald Trump, who is considered to be very tough on Iran by defence experts, would seem to suggest that no American lives were lost in the attack, since Trump did not order military action against Iran, and instead imposed economic sanctions.
As leaders around the world urge for caution and restraint after the tensions between the US and Iran, it still remains to be seen how Iran responds to American claims that Tehran intentionally missed targeting US troops out of fear of a conventional conflict with the Washington.
