Iran Targets Qatar Base Used by US Military in Retaliation for Unprovoked Trump Attack

Loud explosions were heard over Qatar's capital Doha Monday as Iran launched missiles targeting a military base in the Gulf nation used by U.S. forces and another American installation in Iraq in retaliation for last week's illegal and unprovoked bombing of Iranian civilian nuclear strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.

An unnamed Israeli source told Axios that at least 10 missiles were launched toward Qatar and one at Iraq. The attack on Qatar targeted al-Udeid Air Base, located approximately 20 miles outside Doha. More than 8,000 U.S. troops are stationed at al-Udeid, which also hosts Qatari, British, and other forces.

Iranian officials said they launched the same quantity of missiles as the number of bombs used in the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites on Saturday.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that "following the blatant military aggression of the criminal regime of the United States of America against the peaceful nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the clear violation of international law" IRCG "has targeted the Al-Udeid base in Qatar with a devastating and powerful missile attack."

An announcement on Iranian state media called the attack "a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America's aggression."

However, there have not yet been any reports of casualties or damage at al-Udeid or any other U.S. base. There have also not been any reports of U.S. military response.

The New York Times reported that Iran warned the U.S. of the imminent attack. Iran's apparently symbolic retaliation was similar to Tehran's response to the 2020 Trump-ordered assassination of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani and likely meant to give both sides a deescalatory offramp, experts said.

The Qatari Ministry of Defense said the country's air defenses "successfully intercepted a missile attack targeting al-Udeid Air Base."

Qatar, which enjoys good relations with Tehran, condemned the Iranian attack and stressed that it "reserves the right" to respond "directly" and "in line with international law."

Monday's developments came amid Israel's ongoing U.S.-backed wars on Iran and Palestine and Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Israel.

Responding to the Iranian retaliation, Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said on X that "there is a scenario, similar to the 2020 strikes against Iraqi bases, in which both sides call it quits after one round of fire."

"But I find that scenario unstable because of the Israeli element," he continued. "Israel will continue to strike Iran and vice versa, and as long as that is the case, the Israelis will continue to put relentless pressure on Trump to join the war in various ways."

"None of this would have happened had Trump rejected the first step that Israel pushed him to take—shifting his red line to 'zero enrichment,'" Parsi asserted. "That misstep deliberately set up a cascade of events that predictably led to this current war."

"Trump's only exit out of this is to discard the Israeli red line of zero-enrichment and return to the American red line of no weaponization," he added.