Satellite photos show damage to air base
Iranian missiles damaged or destroyed seven buildings in the part of Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq that houses US military personnel, satellite photographs appear to show.
Two images provided by commercial satellite company Planet Labs Inc., and reviewed by Reuters, show five missile impact points in that part of the base.
The extent of the damage can be gauged by comparing the photographs, taken after Wednesday’s attack, with images from Dec 25 last year.
At least three of the structures appear to be aircraft maintenance hangers. Some of the buildings or structures have completely disappeared. Only parts of the others remain.
“They targeted the American portion of the base. They meant to hit it and they did hit it,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.
US President Donald Trump said no Americans were harmed in the strikes, which Iranian said it launched in retaliation for the killing last week in Iraq of an Iranian general.
After the strikes, Iran said Wednesday said it respects Iraq’s territorial integrity. The early Wednesday strike led Iraq to say it would summon the Iranian ambassador.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said his country has full respect for “the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Republic of Iraq.”
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