First video from US base describes alarm, massive impact

CNN has taken the first tour of the American Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, which was hit by Iran's missile strike in retaliation for the US assassination of senior commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

It showed ruined remains of the living and sleeping quarters, saying there was a fire that ended up raging those sites.

"It's clear that Iran wasn't that concerned with trying to save US lives. A lot of these impacts did happen in places where they could potentially have caused significant US casualties," CNN reported.

It said Iran's attack lasted around two hours, only targeting the US areas of Ain al-Assad, which comprise around a quarter of the facility situated in Iraq’s western Anbar Province.

The first strike hit at 1:34 a.m. local time and after a brief pause of around 15 minutes, the next volley began, according to the report. Two more volleys of missiles followed over the next two hours.

US Lieutenant Colonel Staci Colemsan claimed that American personnel had sheltered in bunkers before the missile strike due to advanced warnings.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Iran launched several missiles at Ain al-Assad and another American military base in Kurdistan’s regional capital, Erbil, in revenge for the US terrorist act of assassinating General Soleimani and his companions in Baghdad.

None of the missiles were intercepted and they hit their targets precisely despite a high level of readiness in US bases across the region in the wake of Iran’s pledge to take revenge for the targeted killings.

Hours after the attack, President Donald Trump claimed that US forces had "suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers were safe and only minimal damage was sustained."

The Al Mayadeen TV channel, however, reported that the Americans had prevented Iraqi soldiers and intelligence forces from approaching the targeted air base.

Iraqi lawmaker Naim al-Aboudi told the channel that the American-run section of Ain al-Asad had been completely demolished in Iran’s missile strike.

Another Iraqi MP, Hassan Salem told the Al Forat TV network, that Iran's missile attack was like an earthquake that inflicted damage on the US base and caused fatalities among the American service members deployed there.

The casualties had been transferred to Tel Aviv, he added.

The lawmaker further called on the US to let Iraqi intelligence services and media personnel into the base to inspect the damage for themselves and find out the truth about the aftermath of the Iranian raid.

IRGC: Operation in Iraq start of more strikes against US across region

The IRGC describes its recent revenge strikes against the US’ Ain al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq as only “the starting point of a great operation.”

Speaking on Thursday, head of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said dozens of US troops had been killed and injured in Iran's operation.

Brigadier  General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said after the attack, the US military had conducted at least nine sorties of C-130 flights taking the wounded to Jordan and Israel while Chinook helicopters transferred the injured to the US hospital in Baghdad.

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