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US bases in Iraq under missile attack


Gil Bang

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Officers told journalists that the troops knew a few hours in advance that they were going to be hit.

And they only targeted American areas of the air base, which is only about a quarter of the entire base.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/middleeast/iran-strike-al-asad-air-base-exclusive-intl/index.html

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United States troops at the Al-Asad air base in Iraq were aware that an Iranian attack was imminent, allowing them to take shelter two-and-a-half-hours before missiles struck on Wednesday, CNN has been told during an exclusive tour of the devastated site.

Most troops were either flown out of the base or sheltering in bunkers by 11:00 p.m. local time Tuesday -- shortly before the first of four volleys of missiles began at just after 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, officers said during the first tour by journalists of the air base.

Yeah, they were really fucking accurate

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The attack lasted around two hours, only targeting the US areas of the air base, which comprise around a quarter of the Iraqi base.

Officers called it a "miracle" that there were no casualties at the blasted site, with missiles landing just a few meters from bunkers, and some essential personnel remaining outside throughout.

It is the first time troops at the base have spoken in detail of the moments before the attack, revealing that they were able to seek shelter in bunkers shortly before missiles struck.

US troops knew there was going to be an attack on their base -- they just didn't know what the nature of the attack would be.

Quote

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi previously said Iran sent Iraq an official verbal message that an attack "had begun or would begin shortly," on unspecified US military locations.

An Arab diplomatic source also told CNN that Iraq gave advance warning to the US on "which bases would be hit" after Iranian officials passed on the information.

 

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8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/middleeast/iran-strike-al-asad-base-iraq-exclusive-intl/index.html

I'm sure this was a coincidence - one of the structures hit was a housing unit for drone pilots and operators.

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If I had to guess they were probably hoping to hit the command and control shelters.  Drone C&C shelters look just like CHUs.  

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Just now, TXSG8R said:

If I had to guess they were probably hoping to hit the command and control shelters.  Drone C&C shelters look just like CHUs.  

Given that a huge chunk of the base's population were Iraqis, I feel fairly confident the Iranians had a solid map from somebody on the ground, of where everything was.  Hitting the living quarters of drone pilots is pretty damned symbolic.

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Just now, atomheartbevo said:

Given that a huge chunk of the base's population were Iraqis, I feel fairly confident the Iranians had a solid map from somebody on the ground, of where everything was.  Hitting the living quarters of drone pilots is pretty damned symbolic.

True, but whats better, hitting a symbolic set of CHUs, or taking away the ability to operate drones?  With the other impacts hitting clamshells that contain toolsets and other aircraft maintenance equipment, I'm leaning towards trying to reduce capability.  Could also be a little of A, little of B.  Just glad they didn't target the bunkers.  I doubt any of them would have held up to even a single impact.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

New reports are saying up to 34 servicemen are reported to have TBIs from the missile attack.  Not entirely surprising, most of the bunkers on a FOB are just square concrete tubes surrounded by HESCOs and covered in sand bags.  They arent sealed, so they would do very little to reduce the concussive effects of shock waves from something as big as a missile.  They were built to protect against mortars and rocket attacks.  

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There were no injuries as a result of the attacks.

Twelve service members suffered headaches.

Twelve service members suffered brain injury.

Thirty-four service members suffered traumatic brain injuries.

The fact that anyone believes anything that comes out of this completely corrupt administration astounds me.  What type of coward must a person be to willing accept bullshit being fed into their mouths over and over and over again?  

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1 hour ago, Longhornfan1024 said:

There were no injuries as a result of the attacks.

Twelve service members suffered headaches.

Twelve service members suffered brain injury.

Thirty-four service members suffered traumatic brain injuries.

The fact that anyone believes anything that comes out of this completely corrupt administration astounds me.  What type of coward must a person be to willing accept bullshit being fed into their mouths over and over and over again?  

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This.

This is us now.

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On 1/24/2020 at 12:00 PM, Longhornfan1024 said:

There were no injuries as a result of the attacks.

Twelve service members suffered headaches.

Twelve service members suffered brain injury.

Thirty-four service members suffered traumatic brain injuries.

The fact that anyone believes anything that comes out of this completely corrupt administration astounds me.  What type of coward must a person be to willing accept bullshit being fed into their mouths over and over and over again?  

has to be confirmed by Q or it didn't happen

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  • 1 year later...

New round of bombings since we started bombing along the Syrian border again last week. Both my deployments in Iraq were in and around the Al-Asad air base area, in one of my deployments we even built a FOB in Baghdadi (note the i at the end, it's different from the capital). This was literally a daily occurrence for us. Only 1 US dead but not from the rockets. This comes just 2 days before the Pope is expected to visit Iraq.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AV0J4

New attack on Iraqi air base fits profile of Iran-backed militia, U.S. officials say
By Reuters Staff

3 MIN READ

 

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