By midnight, not a single fighter jet or helicopter remained out in the open, said one of the sources, an intelligence officer.January 8 missile attack on US forces at bases in Iraq, American and Iraqi soldiers at Ain al-Asad air base scrambled to move personnel and weaponry to fortified bunkers, two Iraqi officers stationed at the base told Reuters.
Such accounts add to the evidence that the Iranian attack was among the worst kept secrets in modern warfare – but the reasons why remain mysterious after days of conflicting statements from officials in Iran, Iraq and the United States. By Friday, however, top US officials had rejected that narrative. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that day that there was “no doubt” that Iran had the “full intention” of killing US personnel. That echoed earlier comments from Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who credited US intelligence – rather than warnings or leaks from Tehran – with the advanced notice that allowed US troops to avoid casualties.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force, was later quoted in state media saying, “We did not intend to kill. We intended to hit the enemy’s military machinery.” And yet Hajizadeh repeated the spurious claim that the attack had killed US soldiers. At the sprawling Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western Anbar desert on Monday, US Air Force and Army teams cleared piles of metal and concrete debris from the airfield and around bunkers using bulldozers and pickup trucks.
“I was 60 meters away from the blast when it hit this aircraft parking area,” said Staff Sergeant Tommie Caldwell of the US Air Force. “It’s the first time we’ve had an actual missile hit, rather than rockets. The damage was considerably bigger.”
They're taking us for fools.These are just games made for TV audiences.
Pls dont just spew out the same nonsense that US, UK mainstream media does.