AIN AL-ASAD BASE, Iraq — US troops are clearing rubble and debris today from a military base housing American soldiers in western Iraq, days after it was struck by Iranian ballistic missiles.
The Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s western Anbar province is a sprawling complex about 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of Baghdad and houses about 1,500 members of the US military and the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
It was struck by a barrage of Iranian missiles on Wednesday, in retaliation for the US drone strike that killed a top Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani, whose killing raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.
This satellite image provided on January 8, 2020, by Middlebury Institute of International Studies and Planet Labs Inc. shows the damage caused from an Iranian missile strike at the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq. (Planet Labs Inc./Middlebury Institute of International Studies via AP)
An Associated Press crew touring the Ain al-Asad base today saw large craters in the ground and damaged military trailers as well as forklifts lifting rubble and loading it onto trucks from a large area the size of a football stadium.
The US said no American soldiers were killed or wounded in the Iranian attack.
— AP
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