WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Iran retaliated Monday for the U.S. attacks on its nuclear sites by targeting Al Udeid Air Base, a sprawling desert facility in Qatar that serves as a main regional military hub for American forces.
President Donald Trump said in a social media post that no Americans were harmed and 鈥渉ardly any damage was done.鈥 A Qatari military officer said one of the 19 missiles fired by Iran was not intercepted and hit the base.
As of this month, the U.S. military had about , according to a U.S. official. Many of them are on ships at sea as part of a bolstering of forces as the conflict escalated between Israel and Iran, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations research and policy center.
Bases in the Middle East have been on heightened alert and taking additional security precautions in anticipation of potential strikes from Iran, while the into and around the region during the conflict.
The U.S. has military sites spread across the region, including in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Here's a look at in Qatar:
Al Udeid hosts thousands of service members
The base hosts thousands of U.S. service members and served as a major staging ground for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the height of both, Al Udeid housed some 10,000 U.S. troops, and that number dropped to about 8,000 as of 2022.
The forward headquarters of the U.S. military鈥檚 Central Command, it also was used in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Al Udeid is built on a flat stretch of desert about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Qatar鈥檚 capital, Doha.
Over two decades, the gas-rich Gulf country has spent some $8 billion in developing the base, once considered so sensitive that American military officers would say only that it was somewhere 鈥渋n southwest Asia.鈥
Trump has visited Al Udeid
Trump visited the air base during a trip to the region last month.
It was the first time a sitting U.S. president had traveled to the installation in more than 20 years.
Al Udeid cleared its tarmacs
Last week, ahead of the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Al Udeid saw many of the transport planes, fighter jets and drones typically on its tarmac dispersed. In a June 18 satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press, the air base鈥檚 tarmac had emptied.
The U.S. military has not acknowledged the change, which came after ships off the U.S. Navy鈥檚 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also had dispersed. That鈥檚 typically a military strategy to ensure your fighting ships and planes aren鈥檛 destroyed in case of an attack.
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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at
