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Pentagon confirms Iran's attack on Qatar air base hit dome used for US communications
Pentagon confirms Iran's attack on Qatar air base hit dome used for US communications

ABC News

time12-07-2025

  • Politics
  • ABC News

Pentagon confirms Iran's attack on Qatar air base hit dome used for US communications

New satellite images show Iran's attack on a US military base in Qatar in June hit a dome housing equipment used for secure communications. Hours after the Associated Press published an analysis of the photos, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledged an Iranian ballistic missile hit the dome. Qatar did not respond to requests for comment about the damage. Tehran attacked Al Udeid Air Base outside of Qatar's capital Doha on June 23 in response to the US bombing three nuclear sites in Iran. The strike also provided the Islamic Republic with a way to retaliate which quickly led to a ceasefire, brokered by US President Donald Trump, that ended the 12-day Iran-Israel war. The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage — likely because the US evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command, before the attack. Mr Trump also said Iran had signalled when and how it would retaliate, allowing US and Qatari air defences to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East, but otherwise did not spark a regional war long feared by analysts. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show the geodesic dome intact at the Al Udeid Air Base on the morning of June 23, just hours before the attack. The photo shows a satellite dish inside of the dome, known as a radome. But images taken on June 25 and every day since show the dome is gone, with some damage visible on a nearby building. The rest of the base appears largely untouched in the images. In a statement, Mr Parnell said the missile strike "did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base". "Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region," he said. The London-based satellite news channel Iran International first reported on the damage, citing satellite photos taken by a different provider. The White House had no immediate comment after Mr Parnell's acknowledgement. After the attack, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the air base had been the "target of a destructive and powerful missile attack". Iran's Supreme National Security Council also said the base had been "smashed", without offering any specific damage assessments. Potentially signalling that he knew the dome had been hit, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei separately said the attack disconnected the base's communications. "All equipment of the base was completely destroyed and now the US command stream and connection from Al Udeid base to its other military bases have been completely cut," Ahmad Alamolhoda, a hard-line cleric, said. However, Mr Trump described the Iranian attack as a "very weak response". He said Tehran fired 14 missiles, with 13 intercepted and one being "set free" because it was going in a "non-threatening" direction. "I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured," he wrote on his website Truth Social. Mr Trump visited Al Udeid Air Base on May 15 as part of his Middle East tour. AP

Qatar tells of huge cost of Iranian missile attack
Qatar tells of huge cost of Iranian missile attack

The National

time30-06-2025

  • Politics
  • The National

Qatar tells of huge cost of Iranian missile attack

Iran's attack on Al Udeid airbase in Qatar last week was 'not harmless' but Doha opted for de-escalation in its wake, Qatar 's Foreign Ministry spokesman said, in one of the most detailed accounts yet of the strikes and the ceasefire deal that followed. Iran launched missiles at the base, which houses US troops alongside Qatari and British air forces, in response to America's strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran less than 48 hours beforehand. These prompted closure of Qatari, Kuwaiti and Bahraini airspace, and the activation of Doha's air defence systems. 'We're talking about the huge cost on the military side and a huge cost on the economic side, because our airspace was closed for more than six hours, our national airline had to divert,' Dr Majed Al Ansari told a panel hosted by the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs. This was, "of course, alongside the reputational damage when it comes to safety and security", he added. "This was not a harmless attack on Qatar. But again, we chose peace, because this is what we've all learnt and this is what we will do in the future.' Qatar deployed three Patriot air defence batteries in two locations and more than 200 missiles to down all but one of 20 missiles fired on the night of Monday, June 23, said Mr Al Ansari, who is also adviser to Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The missiles were launched in two barrages of seven and 13 missiles by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The first salvo was downed at sea, while one missile from the second group landed at Al Udeid, Mr Al Ansari added. No injuries were reported, a Qatari military official said previously. Mr Al Ansari refuted the idea that the attack was co-ordinated with the Iranians, although he said the first warning that missiles were on the way came on the morning of June 23, hours before the first one was launched around 7.30pm. 'It was an attack that we tried to make sure did not happen, that we have always been afraid of as a scenario and have always strategised against,' he said. Qatar's leaders 'did not know for sure it was happening', until it was launched and Mr Al Ansari was sitting alongside Mr Al Thani and Qatari Minister of State Dr Mohammed Al Khulaifi, who has led some of Doha's interactions with Iran. The officials then received word that US President Donald Trump wanted to engage Qatar to broker a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel, and put an end to nearly two weeks of conflict that left hundreds dead and destroyed infrastructure in both countries. We do believe that the ceasefire will hold, as long as the momentum that was created by the ceasefire would lead to other positive points Dr Majed Al Ansari, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman The truce deal had to account for 'technical information' such as finding parameters and language on which both parties would agree, Mr Al Ansari said. But equally as crucial was dealing with 'the optics around the ceasefire', he added. 'I cannot stress enough how important the national pride element was on both sides of the discussion when it came to a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, how the political narrative needed to be controlled between both sides to make sure that there was no political posturing that would lead to the collapse of a ceasefire," he said. "Doing both together, through our discussions with both sides, liaising with the Americans, is what brought us to the ceasefire.' Qatar was keen on de-escalation because even before the attack on Al Udeid, the Iran-Israel war had come perilously close to tis borders. On June 14, Israel hit the South Pars offshore gasfield, which connects to Qatar's giant North gasfield in the Arabian Gulf, sending off alarm bells in Doha. Peace through diplomacy Iranian officials have been at pains to explain that attacking Al Udeid was a retaliation against US strikes on its nuclear sites, and there was no intention of provoking Qatar. Tehran has been attempting to improve its relations with neighbouring countries in recent years. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian 'expressed his regret' to Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim in a phone call the day after the attack, according to a statement from the emir's office. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said at the that Iran 'remains fully committed to its good-neighbourliness policy with respect to the State of Qatar". The 'violation' was 'completely inconsistent with the principle of good neighbourliness". the emir's statement read. The truce will hold as long as the renewed peace paves the way for diplomatic interaction over Iran's nuclear programme, Mr Al Ansari said. 'We do believe that the ceasefire will hold, as long as the momentum that was created by the ceasefire will lead to other positive points,' he said. 'We have seen the positive statements of the US regarding talks with Iran. We've seen some positive statements coming in from Iran talks with the US, kick-starting that process immediately, and making sure that we have talks on the wider issues is the only safeguard against another escalation taking place.' US President Donald Trump last week claimed negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme would resume 'next week'. Iranian officials have denied that talks have been scheduled and want guarantees that future discussions will not be interrupted by military operations. They are believed to be seeking some concessions in terms of sanctions relief or other incentives as a sign, Iranian sources previously told The National, of Washington's sincerity in negotiations. That could prove difficult for the Trump administration. The EU and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, including Qatar, can work together to ensure peace continues through diplomacy, Mr Al Ansari said. He highlighted Oman and Italy, which hosted five rounds of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington before the Israeli attacks prompted a cancellation of a sixth. 'It showed very clearly that between Europe as a whole, the GCC as a whole, we can do a lot together,' he said. Regional peace can come only with a solution for the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Mr Al Ansari added. Conflicts across the region are not only destabilising countries including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen – they are causing a 'a wave of radicalisation and negative sentiment towards the West that we should not take lightly", he said. This is not a by-product but a 'major result' of the escalation that lasted for nearly two years. 'It will lead to problems for all of us, collectively in the region, unless we are able to deal with it.'

Pete Hegseth is like his boss — a crybully who thinks the media should be nicer to him
Pete Hegseth is like his boss — a crybully who thinks the media should be nicer to him

Yahoo

time29-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Pete Hegseth is like his boss — a crybully who thinks the media should be nicer to him

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in full crybully mode during a Thursday news conference that, according to a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, was intended 'to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots' and provide 'interesting and irrefutable' evidence of the 'LEGENDARY' success of last week's unilateral U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. But Hegseth didn't provide definitive evidence of the actual extent of the damage inflicted on those facilities by 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs — or clarity on whether Iran pre-emptively moved its stash of weapons-grade uranium. Instead, the secretary complained that certain media outlets failed to act as unquestioning cheerleaders of a stunning act of aggression against a longtime U.S. adversary — an attack that the president had immediately declared an unequivocal success. The 42-minute press conference was a useful distillation of the Trump administration's posture vis-à-vis news coverage: playing the pure-as-driven-snow victim while lashing out in thuggish fashion. Hegseth insisted the attack was successful in 'decimating — choose your word — obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities.' He blasted the press for reporting on a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, which asserted that the U.S. attack may have only set back Iran's nuclear program by months. The secretary repeated the fact that the DIA's initial assessment was of 'low confidence' and insisted the reporting should have instead been about the awesomeness of the weapons and the bravery of the pilots who conducted the mission. I'm sure the weapons were awesome and the pilots were brave — and details of those tools of war and the risks of the mission were, in fact, reported widely in the mainstream press. But no matter which party is in power, it is quite literally the job of reporters to ask the government for evidence to back up its claims. And few details are more crucial to verify than those pertaining to military conflict. That's not how Hegseth, a former co-host of 'Fox & Friends,' sees the media's role in covering the Trump administration. 'How about we celebrate … how about we talk about how special America is that only we have these capabilities? I think it's too much to ask, unfortunately, for the fake news,' Hegseth added. 'We're urging caution about pre-premising entire stories on biased leaks to biased publications trying to make something look bad. How about we take a beat, recognize first the success of our warriors, hold them up, tell their stories, celebrate that, wave an American flag, be proud of what we accomplished.' But that's the thing. We don't know 'what we accomplished.' That's what journalists are asking the government, represented by Hegseth, to prove by sharing actionable evidence. Hegseth even lashed out at his former colleague, longtime Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, for having the temerity to ask the defense secretary about satellite imagery that showed at least a dozen trucks at one of Iran's nuclear facilities days before the attack. 'Jennifer, you've been about the worst. The one who misrepresents the most intentionally,' the former daytime talk show host scolded the longtime hard-news reporter. Griffin retorted, 'In fact, I was the first to describe the B-2 bombers, the refueling, the entire mission with great accuracy … so I take issue with that.' Trump, long known to hire people based on their Fox News appearances, gave Hegseth high marks for his performance. The president — a notorious anti-free speech ideologue — was on a press-hating tear of his own this week. He called for the firing of CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand, posting to Truth Social, 'I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out 'like a dog.'' And the president also had his lawyer threaten to sue The New York Times and CNN for reporting on the DIA's initial post-attack intelligence report. According to the Times, Trump's lawyer wrote that the paper's reporting 'had damaged Mr. Trump's reputation' and demanded a retraction and apology for 'false,' 'defamatory' and 'unpatriotic' reporting. It doesn't get much more 'crybully' than the most powerful person in the world siccing his lawyer on news outlets whose reporting on a government document hurt his feelings. But there's a lesson here for institutions, including universities, white shoe law firms and media corporations that continue to face Trump's shakedown threats: Don't give the schoolyard bully your lunch money in the hopes that he won't demand it again. The Times' deputy general counsel, David E. McGraw, responded to Trump's legal threat with a letter of his own, writing that it would be 'irresponsible for a president to use the threat of litigation to silence a publication' for reporting on the government's own intelligence that suggested 'the President may have gotten it wrong in his initial remarks to the country.' 'No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so,' the letter concluded. That's how you do it. Simply ignore being insulted as 'unpatriotic' for asking questions to which the public deserves to know the answers. Don't report on war as if it were a child's game of heroes and villains and super-cool fireworks and explosions. Make the government prove its own claims. And do not agree to settlements when it comes to Trump's bogus, anti-free speech lawsuit lawfare. Refuse to be bullied and all the bullies can do is cry more. This article was originally published on

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