US troops describe ‘miraculous’ escape at Iraqi base attacked by Iran

Troops at the Iraqi air base that bore the brunt of
Iran’s first direct missile attack against US forces said they were shocked by
its intensity and grateful to emerge unscathed.
The scale of the damage at the Ain al-Assad base
showed Iran’s destructive capability at a time when US officials say they are
still concerned that Iran-backed groups across the region could wage attacks on
the United States.
“It’s miraculous no one was hurt,” Lt Col Staci
Coleman, the US air force officer who runs the airfield, told reporters on
Monday at the vast base deep in the western Anbar desert in Iraq, where 1,500
Americans were deployed.
“Who thinks they’re going to have ballistic missiles
launched at them ... and suffer no casualties?”
The January 8 attack came hours after US Defense
Secretary Mark Esper said the United States should expect retaliation over the
US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in
Iraq the previous week.
The killing raised fears of a new Middle East war,
but the United States, Iraq, and other countries with troops at the base said
no one was hurt. US military leaders have said that was thanks to commanders on
the ground, not Tehran’s goodwill.
At one site, a cruise missile had left a large
crater and incinerated living quarters made from shipping containers.
Heavy concrete blast walls were knocked over and the
shipping containers were smashed and charred along with contents including
bicycles, chairs and other furniture. Several soldiers said one of their number
had come very close to being blown up inside a shelter behind the blast walls.
Almost a dozen missiles hit the air base, where US
forces carried out “scatter plans” to move soldiers and equipment to a range of
fortified areas apart from one another.
The United States did not have Patriot air defenses
at the base, putting the onus on local commanders to protect their troops.
“We’d got notification there could be an attack a
few hours prior so had moved equipment,” said US Staff Sergeant Tommie
Caldwell.
‘It’s like terror’
Lt. Col. Coleman said that by 10pm all the staff she
manages were ready to take cover. “People took this very seriously,” she said.
Three-and-a-half hours later the missiles started
arriving. Several soldiers said they continued for two hours.
Staff Sgt Armando Martinez, who had been out in the
open to watch for casualties, said he could not believe how easily one missile
levelled the concrete blast walls.
“When a rocket strikes that’s one thing; but a
ballistic missile, it’s like terror,” he said.
“You see a white light like a shooting star and then
a few seconds later it lands and explodes. The other day, after the attack, one
colleague saw an actual shooting star and panicked.”
One missile landed on the tarmac of a parking and
servicing area for Blackhawk helicopters helping to ferry equipment in the
fight against ISIS insurgents.
The helicopters had been moved but it destroyed two
light hangars and badly damaged portacabins nearby.
“We must have been in the bunkers for more than five
hours, maybe seven or eight,” said Kenneth Goodwin, Master Sgt in the US Air
Force. “They knew what they were aiming at by targeting the airfield and
parking area.”
It was the latest strike against an air base that
has figured prominently in high-ranking US officials’ visits to Iraq.
“After these missile attacks, when we hear of
possible militia rocket attacks, we tend to think, ‘Oh only rockets ... that’s
a change’,” Coleman said, describing the common feeling when the missile
attacks were over as “sheer relief.”
On Sunday, the Iraqi military said four people had
been wounded in an attack on Balad air base in northern Iraq, which also houses
US personnel. Military sources identified the wounded as Iraqi soldiers.