One of the largest U.S. bases in the Middle East was attacked Monday by an Iranian missile strike just days after the U.S. carried out an unprecedented strike on that country's nuclear facilities, the Pentagon said.
A defense official confirmed that Al Udeid Air Base, which is located in Qatar, was attacked by "short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran today." President Donald Trump later said in a social media post that 14 missiles had been fired. Officials added that there were no reports of U.S. casualties and the base appeared undamaged.
The attack comes on the heels of a U.S. strike on three key Iranian nuclear facilities, carried out over the weekend by a small fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, fighter jets and cruise missiles, and revealed by Trump on Saturday. It was the largest B-2 operational strike in history.
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In his social media post, Trump said that "hardly any damage was done" to the air base, which typically houses anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 personnel, but said they weren't aware of any missiles making it past defenses and striking the base.
Trump's post also said that, of the 14 missiles launched by Iran, 13 were "knocked down, and 1 was 'set free,' because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction." Defense officials said they couldn't immediately offer details about whether that was done by Qatari or U.S. forces or what platforms were used.
Furthermore, reports last week suggested that the U.S. military dispersed many of its forces in the region in what appeared to be an effort to make any one base a less lucrative target for Iran, which had threatened retaliation on American troops in the region.
Satellite images of Al Udeid from last week showed it was emptied of all visible aircraft. Navy officials also told Military.com that it put six patrol craft, four mine countermeasure ships, and a littoral combat ship to sea from its base in Bahrain.
Officials have said that they were prepared to defend bases in the region from an attack following Iran's public statements that it would retaliate following the U.S. strike.
In a rare press briefing, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine told reporters on Sunday that, while he wouldn't comment on what force protection measures were being taken in the region, "what I will say is we're being proactive and not reactive, and being very thoughtful about ensuring that we do all that we can to protect our forces out there."
Trump, in his post, said that Iran gave the U.S. advance notice of the strike and claimed that it meant Iran has "gotten it all out of their 'system,' and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE."
In the same briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he didn't see the U.S. strikes as walking Americans into yet another open-ended conflict in the Middle East over the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
"As the president has directed and made clear, this is most certainly not open-ended," Hegseth said Sunday, and he also described the strike as "intentionally limited."
"We ultimately demonstrated that Iran cannot have a nuclear capability -- that is a very clear mission set on this operation," he said.
However, he did concede that "anything can happen in conflict -- we acknowledge that."
Meanwhile, the State Department also issued a worldwide warning of caution for all Americans abroad. The alert, which was sent Sunday, noted that "there is the potential for demonstrations against U.S. citizens," and the department advised "U.S. citizens worldwide to exercise increased caution."
Editor's note: This story was updated with comments from the president.
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