Iran retaliated against the U.S. on Monday, launching missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, according to a U.S. defense official and a statement from the Qatar foreign ministry. The missiles targeted Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha and were intercepted by air defenses before they could strike the base, the Qatari government said. “At this time, there are no reports of U.S. casualties” from the barrage of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles, the U.S. defense official said.
Thousands of U.S. service members are stationed at Al Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters for U.S. Central Command and an important American military outpost on the Persian Gulf. Iranian officials had promised to strike back after an American bombing raid on Saturday hit three nuclear program sites inside Iran.
President Donald Trump called the volley of 14 missiles “a very weak response” from Iran. Of the 14 missiles Iran launched toward the U.S. base, Trump said, 13 were knocked down and one headed in a “nonthreatening” direction. Trump declared that Iran has gotten it “all out of their ‘system’” with the Qatar attack, and thanked Iran for giving the U.S. “early notice.” Trump signaled that he wanted to bring an end to the tit-for-tat attacks. “Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same,” Trump wrote.
It’s unclear if Iran’s leaders will decide to retaliate further against the U.S. The Iranian missile attack comes after the State Department on Monday told U.S. citizens living in Qatar to shelter in place. On Sunday, the State Department had warned all American travelers worldwide to exercise “increased caution.” The U.S. embassy in Baghdad ordered additional personnel to leave Iraq over the weekend and issued a security alert warning Americans in Iraq of an “increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence or attacks against U.S. businesses and locations frequented by U.S. citizens.”
The Pentagon dismissed early reports that U.S. forces on Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq were also targeted by Iranian missiles. “We are not aware of any additional attacks against U.S. forces in the region today,” said a U.S. defense official late in the afternoon on Monday.
Authorities inside the U.S. are on alert for cyber attacks and potential violence in the wake of the U.S. strikes on Iran. A Department of Homeland Security advisory issued an advisory on Sunday that the “ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States.”
Ahead of the attack on Qatar on Monday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “dragging the United States into yet another costly war” and the U.S. had “recklessly chosen to sacrifice its own security merely to safeguard Netanyahu.”
Read more: How U.S. Strikes May Have Inadvertently Helped the Iranian Regime
In an address to Americans after the air strike on Iran on Saturday, Trump threatened to hit more targets in Iran if the country’s leaders refused to “make peace.”