Iran attacked an American base in western Iraq early Wednesday, Iranian official news media and United States officials said, the start of what Iran had promised would be retaliation for the killing of a top Revolutionary Guards commander, The New York Times reported.
“The fierce revenge by the Revolutionary Guards has begun,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement on a Telegram channel.
Iranian news media reported the attack hours after the remains of the commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, were returned to his hometown in Iran for burial.
Hossein Soleimani, the editor in chief of Mashregh, the main Revolutionary Guards news website, said that short-range ballistic missiles had been fired at the American base at Asad, in Anbar Province, in western Iraq.
One American official said six rockets had landed at Al Asad air base, but could not confirm that they were missiles.
Iraq’s Joint Military Command said seven rockets had hit the base. Iranian officials said the attack began at 1:20 a.m., the time that General Suleimani was killed by an American drone at the Baghdad airport on Friday.
The White House said in a statement that it was “aware” of attacks on American facilities in Iraq. “The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team,” the statement said.
President Trump visited American military forces at Al Asad in December 2018, making his first trip to troops stationed in a combat zone.
The strike at Al Asad came less than two hours after reports circulated that rockets had been fired on Taji Air Base, an Iraqi military base where American troops are deployed. Officials said the reports of an attack there appeared to be false.
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