The Department of Defense on Tuesday evening confirmed that a missile attack targeted at least two military bases in Iraq housing United States troops, including Al-Assad Airbase, where President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump memorably posed for a group photo holding a University of Alabama flag with U.S. troops on December 26, 2018.
Per a statement from Jonathan Huffman, a DoD spokesman, Iran launched “more than a dozen ballistic missiles” at approximately 4:30 p.m. CST Tuesday. Al-Assad and Irbil bases were confirmed as targets; both house American and allied coalition forces.
Huffman wrote, “It is clear these missiles were launched from Iran…”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has already taken credit for the attack. This comes in the wake of the U.S. military killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
A three-day mourning period in Iran for Soleimani ended Tuesday.
Huffman advised that the Pentagon is still “working on initial battle assessments.” The U.S. military had already placed the two bases on high alert ahead of the attack due to recent Iranian threats. Appropriate safeguards were reportedly in place at the time of the attack.
When Trump visited Al-Assad Airbase the day after Christmas in 2018, he said his administration would be “maintaining the U.S. presence in Iraq to prevent an ISIS resurgence and to protect U.S. interests, and also to always watch very closely over any potential reformation of ISIS and also to watch over Iran. We’ll be watching.”
The soldiers seen posing with the UA flag and the Trumps at the time were Army Reserve Soldiers from the 375th Engineer Company deployed out of Huntsville. That unit returned from deployment in September of 2019.
UPDATE 7:20 p.m.
In an interview with CNN shortly after the news of the attack broke, Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) said, “[W]hat we know is that the president and the administration, with the killing of Soleimani, has put Americans at risk.”
Jones said that senators will be briefed tomorrow and that he is currently only going off of publicly available information, just as members of the media are.
“What I want to know is what are we doing now,” Jones added. “We can go back and we can revisit what happened, why was there an imminent threat, but I’m really obviously — more important, I’ve got Alabama men and women who are going to be going over there. I want to know if they’re going to be at risk, and we need to have a briefing, a full and complete briefing on what’s going on and what they expect in the near future.”
Sen. Doug Jones calls for a full briefing after Iran fires missiles at US forces in Iraq: “I’ve got Alabama men and women who are going to be going over there. I want to know if they’re going to be at risk” https://t.co/kP7db521Ou pic.twitter.com/hAMDTbJLgR
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 8, 2020
In the immediate wake of Soleimani’s death last week, Jones said, “I commend our intelligence personnel for their critical role and our military personnel who successfully implemented President Trump’s orders. Qassim Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of countless American service members and innocent civilians. The world is most certainly a better place without him at the helm of Iran’s notorious Quds Force.”
Jones is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services.
UPDATE 7:50 p.m.
National media outlets are widely reporting that there were no American casualties immediately apparent from the attack. President Trump is not currently expected to address the nation Tuesday.
It is still unclear to what extent there were injuries or casualties among Iraqi forces.
Our prayers are with the President, his national security team, and our brave men and women in uniform.
— Rep. Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) January 8, 2020
UPDATE 8:55 p.m.
After an event in Marshall County on Tuesday night, Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) told Yellowhammer News’ Jeff Poor, “[I]f this is the [expected retaliatory] strike and there are no casualties — I hate to see any strike happen and I hate to see any destruction of our property but — it doesn’t strike me as being something that is serious enough for us to continue to get into a fracas with them (Iran) about.”
Poor then asked if Trump would be justified in ordering an American military strike within Iran’s borders if there are no casualties from the Tuesday attack.
“If this was the equal strike against our people (from Iran) — taking out Soleimani was a huge deal. And so far from what I know, and we don’t know everything, I don’t consider this strike to be anywhere near as significant as that one,” Byrne responded.
Please join me tonight in praying for our troops abroad, our President and our country.
— Rep. Bradley Byrne (@RepByrne) January 8, 2020
UPDATE 9:00 p.m.
In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville said, “The swamp tries to divide us even during the nation’s most somber moments. Put politics aside tonight and pray for our troops and for God to give our leaders wisdom.”
This is breaking news and may be updated.
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Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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