Iran attack on U.S. air base in Qatar likely hit geodesic dome used for U.S. communications

DUBAI — An Iranian attack on an air base in Qatar that’s key to the U.S. military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analyzed Friday by the Associated Press show.

The U.S. military and Qatar didn’t respond to requests for comment over the damage, which so far hasn’t been publicly acknowledged.

The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar’s capital, on June 23 came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran — and provided the Islamic Republic a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by President Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage — likely because of the fact that the U.S. evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command, before the attack.

Trump also has said that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East, but otherwise didn’t tip over into the regional war long feared by analysts.

Images show burn marks, dome gone after attack

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show the geodesic dome visible at the Al Udeid Air Base on the morning of June 23, just hours before the attack.

The U.S. Air Force’s 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates out of the base, announced in 2016 the installation of the $15-million piece of equipment, known as a modernized enterprise terminal. Photos show a satellite dish inside of the dome, known as a radome.

Images taken June 25 and every day subsequently show the dome is gone, with some damage visible on a nearby building. The rest of the base appears largely untouched in the images.

It’s possible a fragment or something else struck the dome, but given the destruction of the dome, it was likely an Iranian attack, possibly with a bomb-carrying drone given the limited visible damage to surrounding structures.

The London-based satellite news channel Iran International first reported on the damage, citing satellite photos taken by a different provider.

Trump downplayed attack while Iran boasted about it

In the U.S., Trump described the Iranian attack as a “very weak response.” He had said that Tehran fired 14 missiles, with 13 intercepted and one being “set free” as it was going in a “nonthreatening” direction.

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” he wrote on his website Truth Social.

After the attack, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted that the air base had been the “target of a destructive and powerful missile attack.” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also said that the base had been “smashed,” without offering any specific damage assessments.

Potentially signaling that he knew the dome had been hit, an advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei separately said that the base’s communications had been disconnected by the attack.

“All equipment of the base was completely destroyed and now the U.S. command stream and connection from Al Udeid base to its other military bases have been completely cut,” said Ahmad Alamolhoda, a hard-line cleric.

Gambrell writes for the Associated Press. Nasser Karimi contributed to this report from Tehran.