The Iranians have responded to our attack on their nuclear development facilities with a counter-attack on our base in Qatar. Barak Ravid remarks at Axios:
Iran launched multiple missiles against an American military base in Qatar on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities this weekend.
The latest: Iran coordinated its attack on Al Udeid Air Base with Qatar, and the Trump administration was aware of the threat in advance, a source familiar with the matter told Axios. The U.S. had “good advance warning” of the Iranian attack, a second source said.
Similar to past Iranian responses, this counter-attack is largely performative in nature. If it produced serious damage or casualties, it’s our own fault.
As I see it there are two alternatives. Either we can just ignore it as an exercise in swatting flies or we can follow through with President Trump’s warning of a catastrophic response. Keep in mind that despite the missile launches Iran still does not have control over its own airspace. Israel and the United States are able to do pretty much whatever they want there. Whether they should is a different subject.
Sounds like the latest lull in the fighting is here.
One surprise in this war was how fast Israel (and the US had little to do with it) was able to establish traditional air superiority over Iran.
Think about how different it is compared to Ukraine / Russia, which is all about drones and missiles and little on traditional air superiority (although that isn’t core to Russian war doctrine).