DOHA/ISTANBUL/TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Iran’s military said it carried out a missile attack on the Al Udeid U.S. airbase in Qatar on Monday after explosions were heard across the Qatari capital following Tehran’s threat to retaliate for U.S. airstrikes on its nuclear sites.
The Iranian military said the attack was “devastating and powerful” but U.S. officials said no U.S. personnel were killed or injured in the attack on the airbase, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East.
Iran, which had been warned by Washington not to retaliate or face massive U.S. military action, had informed the U.S. via two diplomatic channels hours ahead of the attack, as well as Qatari authorities, a senior regional source told Reuters.
Qatar’s defence minister told Al Jazeera its air defences had intercepted missiles directed at the Al Udeid air base, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East.
Iran had issued threats to retaliate against the United States after U.S. bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-busters on Iranian underground nuclear facilities at the weekend, joining Israel’s air war against Tehran, and President Donald Trump mooted the possibility of the Iranian government being toppled.
The attack came shortly after a Western diplomat told Reuters there had been a credible threat to a U.S. military base in the Gulf state following the unprecedented U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Qatar, situated just across the Gulf from Iran, had shut its airspace after receiving the advance warning from Iran.
Bahrain, another U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state just to the north of Qatar, said it had also shut its airspace after the Iranian strike against the Al Udeid base.
In addition, the U.S. Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq had activated its air defence system out of concern for a potential attack, military sources said.
The main U.S. military base in Iraq’s western neighbour Syria was also on full alert for possible attack by Iran or Iran-aligned militia groups, a Syrian security source said.
Qatar, a small, wealthy Gulf Arab state, had earlier announced it had closed its airspace temporarily to ensure the safety of residents and visitors. That followed an advisory from the U.S. embassy in Qatar to Americans to shelter in place, out of what it said was “an abundance of caution”.
Two U.S. officials said Washington had assessed that Iran could carry out attacks targeting American forces in the Middle East soon, although the U.S. was still seeking a diplomatic resolution that would see Tehran forgo any reprisal.
Earlier on Monday, Israel bombed a political prison in Tehran, in a renewed demonstration of its willingness to strike not only beyond military and nuclear targets but key pillars of Iran’s ruling system.
Despite Iran’s threats to challenge oil shipments from the Gulf, oil prices fell 4% in volatile trading <LCOc1>, suggesting traders doubted the Islamic Republic would follow through on any action that would disrupt global supplies.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as Tehran sought backing from one of its last major power friends for its next steps.
‘VIVA LA LIBERTAD’
Israel made clear that its strikes on Evin prison and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, and its ability to sustain power.
“Viva la libertad!” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X, accompanying a video of an explosion at a building with a sign identifying it as an entrance to Evin prison.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video posted by Saar, although other videos showing the aftermath of the strike on the prison were verified as genuine.
Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster released video showing rescue workers combing the flattened wreckage of a building at the prison, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher. The Mizan news outlet of Iran’s judiciary said urgent action was being taken to protect the health and safety of inmates there.
Evin has long been Iran’s primary prison for housing political detainees and security prisoners, as well as the site of executions that remain strong memories for the opposition. Several high-profile foreign prisoners are also held there.
Israel’s military said it had also struck Revolutionary Guard command centres responsible for internal security in the Tehran area.
The military was “currently striking, with unprecedented force, regime targets and governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Much of Tehran’s population of 10 million has fled after 10 days of bombing. Tasnim news agency reported a strike at an electricity feeder station in the Evin neighbourhood. Power company Tavanir reported some areas in the capital saw electricity cuts.
LIMITED OPTIONS
Since Trump joined Israel’s campaign by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear production sites on Sunday morning, Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate.
“Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it,” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, said on Monday in a recorded, English-language video statement.
The Trump administration maintains that its aim is solely to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme, not to open a wider war. But in a social media post on Sunday, Trump spoke of toppling the hardline clerical rulers who have been Washington’s principal foes in the Middle East since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Five insiders with knowledge of the discussions said efforts had been ramped up to anoint a successor for Iran’s 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His son Mojtaba, 56, and Hassan Khomeini, 53, grandson of the revolution’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, are now seen as the frontrunners, they said.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich; editing by Bernadette Baum, Timothy Heritage and Deepa Babington)
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