More than six United States Air Force fighter jets left Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates early Wednesday, according to media reports obtained by Igbere TV.
The report says the fighter jets were possibly heading to Iran to respond to Tuesday night’s Iranian attack on American troops in Iraq.
“The warplanes left the UAE just about two minutes after the Ain Al-Asad Air Base came under rocket and missile fire from Iran, and from a local Iranian proxy militia in Iraq.”
There are at least 5,000 American troops in Iraq. The US army said the president was closely monitoring the situation. “There is no plan to withdraw forces at this time; we’re defending, we’re not leaving (Iraq)”, an official was quoted as saying.
The Iranian military fired at least 12 ballistic missiles from Iran at various sites where American forces are located, including many which were aimed at Ain Al-Asad.
The missiles exploded in the US military camp in Ain Al-Asad, which hosts US and UK personnel as well as Iraqi forces, according to a popular online medium in the Middle East.
Ain Al-Asad was not the only military base that was attacked, however; two other bases in use by the US Army in and near Erbil were also targeted by the Iranian IRGC Aerospace Base.
The attack is seen as the “official launch” of the start of Iran’s “Operation Soleimani” – the military operation intended to wreak vengeance on the US in retaliation for last week’s targeted killing of Iranian Force commander, Qassem Soleimani.
