Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired a volley of missiles at the US‐run Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar late Monday, calling the attack “a mighty and successful response” to Washington’s weekend bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.
However, Qatar’s air defense network intercepted all incoming rounds, and officials in Doha reported “no injuries or human casualties,” according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.
Tehran framed the operation as calibrated, not cataclysmic. A statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said the number of missiles “matched the number of bombs dropped by the United States,” underscoring what it cast as a proportional riposte.
“We neither initiated the war nor seek it,” President Masoud Pezeshkian asserted on X before the launch, but Iran “will not leave invasion… unanswered.”
Qatar, which hosts both the Combined Air Operations Center and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at Al Udeid, condemned the strike as “a flagrant violation of sovereignty.” Nonetheless, its swift interception and the prior evacuation of base personnel signaled close coordination with US forces. The base’s continued functionality preserves Washington’s regional command-and-control hub—an outcome likely factored into Iran’s decision to target a military site “outside of populated areas,” as Tehran noted.
Qatar shut its airspace, prompting flight diversions from Doha—one of the world’s busiest airports—following a security alert by the US.
Similarly, neighboring Bahrain—home to the US Fifth Fleet—suspended flights in its airspace and urged residents off major roads, while the White House moved senior defense officials into the Situation Room.
The White House confirmed that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are in the Situation Room, though it’s unclear if the National Security Council meeting has begun.
This story is developing.
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