BAGHDAD: Iran on Wednesday (Jan 8) launched a missile attack on an Iraqi airbase where US forces are based, threatening "more crushing responses" if Washington carried out further strikes, Iranian state media said.
It said the missiles were in response to a US strike last week that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi top commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Security sources told AFP that nine rockets hit the sprawling Ain al-Asad airbase in the country's west, the largest of the Iraqi military compounds where foreign troops are based.
The attack came in three waves just after midnight, the sources said.
Iran swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack, with state TV saying it had launched "tens of missiles" on the base and promised "more crushing responses" if the US carried out further strikes.
A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran was considering several scenarios to avenge Soleimani's death. Other senior figures have said the Islamic Republic would match the scale of the killing when it responds, but that it would choose the time and place.
"We will take revenge, a hard and definitive revenge," the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, told the throngs in Kerman, Soleimani's hometown in southeastern Iran.
AT LEAST 2 BASES ATTACKED: PENTAGON
In a statement, the Pentagon said Tehran had fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian territory against at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US-led coalition personnel.
"At approximately 5.30pm (2230 GMT) on Jan 7, Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military and coalition forces in Iraq," Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
"It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US military and coalition personnel at Ain al-Asad and Irbil."
CNA
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