A geodesic dome that houses equipment used by the Americans for secure communications was struck by an Iranian attack on an air base in Qatar that is critical to the US military, according to satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Friday.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledged that an Iranian ballistic missile struck the dome, hours after the AP report was published. Qatar did not respond to inquiries regarding the damage.
The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base, located outside of Doha, the capital of Qatar, on June 23 was a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran. This attack provided the Islamic Republic with a means of retaliation that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump, which ended the 12-day Iran-Israel war.
The Iranian assault caused minimal damage, which is likely due to the fact that the US evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command, prior to the attack.
Trump has also stated that Iran provided a signal regarding the timing and manner of its retaliation, which enabled American and Qatari air defense to prepare for the attack. The attack briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East, but it did not escalate into the regional conflict that analysts had long anticipated.
Burn traces are visible in the images, and the dome has been removed following the attack.
The geodesic dome was visible at the Al Udeid Air Base on the morning of June 23, as evidenced by satellite images from Planet Labs PBC, just hours prior to the attack.
In 2016, the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing of the US Air Force, which is based at the base, announced the installation of a $15 million piece of equipment known as a modernized enterprise terminal. Photographs depict satellite dishes, or radomes, within the dome.
The dome is no longer visible in the images captured on June 25 and each subsequent day, and a nearby building has sustained some damage. The remaining portion of the base is essentially unaltered in the images.
Parnell stated in a statement that the missile strike “did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base".
“Al Udeid Air Base remains fully operational and capable of conducting its mission, alongside our Qatari partners, to provide security and stability in the region,” he further added.
Iran International, a satellite news channel based in London, was the first to report on the devastation, citing satellite images captured by a different provider.
Iran boasted about the assault, while Trump downplayed it.
Trump characterized the Iranian assault as a "very weak response" in the United States. He had stated that Tehran fired 14 missiles, of which 13 were intercepted and one was "set free" because it was traveling in a "nonthreatening" direction.
“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” he stated on his website, Truth Social.
Parnell's acknowledgment on Friday elicited no immediate response from the White House. As part of his Mideast mission, Trump visited Al Udeid Air Base on May 15.
In the aftermath of the assault, the Revolutionary Guard, Iran's paramilitary force, maintained that the air base had been the “target of a destructive and powerful missile attack". The Supreme National Security Council of Iran also declared that the base had been "smashed," but it did not provide any specific damage assessments.
Separately, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that the base's communications had been disrupted by the attack, potentially suggesting that he was aware that the dome had been struck.
