DOHA: Qatar intercepted an Iranian missile attack on the major US military base on its soil and said it could respond in kind as the Iran-Israel war lurched into the Gulf on Monday.
Bright flashes lit up the night sky and blasts echoed across wealthy Doha in an attack that followed US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.
The missiles targeted Al Udeid Air Base, the biggest US military facility in the Middle East, in what Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned as a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.
“We affirm that the State of Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in a manner proportional to the nature and scale of this blatant aggression,“ foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari added in a statement.
Air traffic was suspended over Qatar, neighbouring Bahrain and Kuwait. Qatar’s defence ministry said there were no deaths or injuries.
Qatar’s interior ministry said that the security situation was “stable” and there was “no cause for concern”.
A US defence official in Washington said Al Udeid was “attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran”.
Iran’s National Security Council confirmed the attack on Al Udeid, insisting it did not “pose any threat” to Qatar.
It said the number of missiles used “was the same as the number of bombs that the US had used in attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities”.
“This action does not pose any threat to our friendly and brotherly country, Qatar,“ the Iranian body said.
AFP journalists heard several rounds of blasts in central Doha and across the Qatari capital, with projectiles stopped by interceptors illuminating the sky.
- US regional HQ -
Gas-rich Qatar lies 190 kilometres (120 miles) south of Iran across the Gulf. Al Udeid hosts the regional headquarters of the Pentagon’s Central Command.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s sprawling neighbour and the world’s biggest oil exporter, slammed the attack as “unjustifiable”.
The United Arab Emirates condemned it in the “strongest terms”.
Earlier, the US embassy in Qatar advised Americans there not to go out, with other Western embassies echoing the warning.
“Out of an abundance of caution we recommend American citizens shelter in place until further notice,“ the US embassy said on its website.
Britain and Canada later cited the US security alert in their own recommendations to nationals.
Qatar Airways, the national flag carrier and a major international airline, said it was suspending its flights until Qatari airspace reopened.
Iran’s armed forces threatened on Monday to inflict “serious, unpredictable consequences” on the US after it joined its ally Israel’s campaign against the Islamic republic with heavy strikes on three nuclear sites.
Last week, dozens of US military aircraft were no longer on the tarmac at Al Udeid, according to satellite images published by Planet Labs PBC and analysed by AFP.
Nearly 40 military aircraft -- including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft -- were parked on the tarmac at the base, the regional headquarters of the Pentagon’s Central Command, on June 5, but in an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft were visible.
In Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, the American embassy had “temporarily shifted a portion of its employees to local telework” on Monday, it said on X.
Bahraini authorities had already told most government employees to work from home until further notice, citing “regional circumstances”.
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