Iran launches ‘more than a dozen’ missiles at Iraqi bases used by American forces; UPDATE

By J.E. Dyer
Iran launches ‘more than a dozen’ missiles at Iraqi bases used by American forces; UPDATE
Iran launches a missile, 7 Jan 2020. Iranian military video via Twitter

Updates at bottom. – J.E.

Within the last three hours, Iran has launched “more than a dozen” missiles from Iranian territory at bases in Iraq where U.S. forces are or have been present.

This is according to a Pentagon update clarifying previous news and social media reporting. The initial Pentagon statement gave two bases as targets.

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So far, the missiles have landed at or near three bases: Al-Asad air base in Anbar Province, Irbil (the military facilities co-located with the international airport), and Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad. (Note: so far, the Pentagon is not including Taji in their tally of bases struck.Β  See UPDATE 3 below.)

Iraqi bases with U.S. presence reportedly attacked by Iranian missiles, 7 Jan 2020. Google map; author annotation

There are no reports of casualties at this point.Β  Please duly note: these are Iraqi bases.Β  There are no “U.S. bases” in Iraq.Β  The U.S. is hosted by Iraq at some of Iraq’s military bases.Β  There are or have been other coalition contingents (e.g., UK) at Al-Asad; not sure if there are any still at Irbil.Β  Reporting has indicated some national contingents pulling out of Iraq in the last few days.

It’s likely that most have been pulling and relocating forces, including the U.S.Β  When I wrote about the infamous “poorly worded draft letter” on Monday, my going-in assumption was that we were removing troops (and probably civilians in Baghdad and elsewhere) from locations where Iran would probably target them.

Based on previous short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) launches by Iran at targets in Eastern Syria, the launch area was probably as depicted on the map, in extreme Western Iran near Kermanshah.

The president is said to be preparing to address the nation this evening (Tuesday).

 

I urge caution on all spot reporting about this.Β  There are a lot of “reports” out there of things that make no sense or couldn’t happen.Β  Iran has posted video supposedly showing “dozens” of missiles being launched at U.S. targets in Iraq, but Iran publishes so many misleadingly edited videos and video fakes that it’s not worth bothering with them.Β  The Pentagon’s count of “more than a dozen” (Jennifer Griffin of Fox had it as just about a dozen, perhaps a few more, an hour ago) is more reliable.

Encouraging note to go out on for the moment:

Although there have reportedly been Iraqi casualties. Nothing solid on where or how many.

In the interest of getting this posted, I will put it up as-is at this point.

*UPDATE*:Β  Multiple news sites now saying Trump will not address the nation tonight. (Tuesday)Β  This tells me Trump wants to continue having an atmosphere of uncertainty, one free of binding declarations, for at least the next 12-18 hours.Β  That doesn’t mean nothing will happen, nor does it mean anything or everything could.Β  (It means in part that Trump knows he’s under informational assault in everything he does, and that affects his timing in making communications, as well as other aspects of his comms posture.)

UPDATE 2:Β  And now a word from POTUS.

He mentions no (American) casualties, which is a relief.

UPDATE 3: Per the Daily Mail article linked from this tweet, the attack on Taji was by Katyusha rockets, which means they came from nearby (presumably Iran-backed PMF) and were not launched from Iran.

That would be why the Pentagon is not including the Taji attack in the updates on the missiles launched from Iran.

 

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer is a retired Naval Intelligence officer who lives in Southern California, blogging as The Optimistic Conservative for domestic tranquility and world peace. Her articles have appeared at Hot Air, Commentary’s Contentions, Patheos, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, and The Weekly Standard.

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