Iran launched missile attacks Monday on U.S. military bases in Qatar and Iraq, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites and escalating tensions in the volatile region, the Associated Press has reported.
The report said people in Doha, Qatar’s capital, stopped and looked up as missiles flew and interceptors fired and struck at least one missile in the night sky.
Iran also targeted the Ain al-Assad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq, an Iraqi security official was quoted. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The attacks came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran.
Just before the explosions, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”
Iran said its missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar matched the number of bombs dropped by the United States on Iranian nuclear sites this weekend, signaling Iran’s likely desire to deescalate.
Iran made the announcement Monday night in a statement from its Supreme National Security Council after the attack, which Qatar said caused no injuries.
Iran also said it targeted the base because it was outside of populated areas.
In the past, Iran has threatened American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.
Earlier in the day, Israel expanded its war against Iran to include targets associated with the country’s struggling theocracy, striking the gate of a Tehran prison notorious for holding political activists and hitting the headquarters of the military force that suppressed recent protests.
As plumes of thick smoke rose over Tehran, Israel was attacked with yet another barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. The persistent fire has become a reality for civilians in both countries since Israel started the war to target Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
On the 11th day of the conflict, Israel said it attacked “regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran,” but Israeli officials insisted they did not seek the overthrow of Iran’s government, their archenemy since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Israeli military warned Iranians that it would continue to attack military sites around Tehran over “the coming days” as its focuses has shifted to symbolic targets as well. The military issued the warning on the social platform X, though Iranians are struggling to access the outside world as an internet shutdown has crippled the country.
The latest strikes unfolded only hours after President Donald Trump openly raised the possibility himself after just a day earlier inserting America into the war with its unprecedented stealth-bomber strike on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” he asked on his Truth Social website.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later described Trump as “simply raising a question.” However, suggestions of overthrowing the Iranian government drew new anger from Tehran, which insists it will not negotiate at this time and is threatening to retaliate directly against either American troops or interests in a Mideast already inflamed by the still-raging Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

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