Iran announced on Monday that it had launched missiles at a major US base in Qatar in retaliation for American strikes on key nuclear facilities, with explosions heard in Doha and projectiles observed streaking across the sky.
Qatar, located 190 kilometres (120 miles) south of Iran and home to the largest US military installation in the Middle East, stated that its “air defences successfully intercepted a missile attack targeting Al Udeid Air Base”.
Iran’s National Security Council confirmed it had targeted the base “in response to the US’s aggressive and insolent actions against Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities”.
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The council’s statement noted that the number of missiles fired “was the same as the number of bombs the US had used”, signalling that its response was calibrated to be directly proportional.
Following over a week of Israeli strikes on nuclear and military sites across Iran, the United States joined its ally’s campaign on Sunday, launching attacks on three key Iranian nuclear facilities, including an underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo using large bunker-busting bombs.
With international concern mounting that Israel’s campaign in Iran could spark regional escalation — a fear heightened by the US strikes — French President Emmanuel Macron said after Iran’s retaliation that “the spiral of chaos must end”.
Iran’s security council insisted that its “action does not pose any threat to our friendly and brotherly country, Qatar”.
However, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said his country “reserves the right to respond directly in a manner proportional to the nature and scale of this blatant aggression”.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s much larger neighbour and historically a rival of Iran, condemned Tehran’s attack “in the strongest terms” and pledged “all its capabilities to support the sisterly State of Qatar in any measures it takes”.
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AFP reporters heard blasts in central Doha and in Lusail, north of the capital, on Monday evening, and witnessed projectiles crossing the night sky.
A US defence official said Al Udeid had been “attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran”, adding there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Ansari confirmed that the base had been evacuated as a precaution in advance of the attack.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that six missiles had struck the base, according to state media reports.
The Iranian official news agency IRNA also reported missile launches at a US base in Iraq, though the National Security Council’s statement made no mention of Iraq.
Iraqi security and military sources told AFP that Iran had not attacked US bases there “so far”.
Earlier on Monday, Qatar announced the temporary closure of its airspace due to “developments in the region”, while foreign embassies, including that of the United States, warned their citizens to shelter in place.
Neighbouring Bahrain and Kuwait also temporarily suspended air traffic in response to the missile attack.
President Donald Trump boasted that Sunday’s strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but other officials cautioned it was too early to assess the full impact on Iran’s atomic programme.
