{"id":200536,"date":"2020-01-09T08:52:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T08:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200536"},"modified":"2020-01-11T07:01:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T07:01:20","slug":"irans-missile-launch-against-two-u-s-bases-in-iraq-calls-trumps-bluff-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200536","title":{"rendered":"Iran&#8217;s Missile Launch Against Two U.S. Bases in Iraq Calls Trump&#8217;s Bluff &#8211; Updated"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Moon of Alabama \u2013 Jan 8, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Updated below<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_132059\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IRGC-Qiam-ballistic-missile-fired-from-Underground-Silo-based-launchers2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-132059\" class=\"size-full wp-image-132059\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IRGC-Qiam-ballistic-missile-fired-from-Underground-Silo-based-launchers2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-132059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IRGC Qiam ballistic missile in an underground silo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Last night Iran fired 22 Qiam missiles towards two U.S. bases in Iraq. Between 1:45 and 2:15 local time (~22:00 UTC) seventeen missiles hit the Ain al Assad airbase west of Ramadi. Five missiles were aimed at Erbil airport in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. There were no casualties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents the U.S., was warned at least one hour before the attack happened. Around 0:00 UTC the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ethanklapper\/status\/1214718817361891329\">issued<\/a><\/strong><\/span> a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) which prohibited civil U.S. flights over Iraq, Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">This attack was the &#8220;open&#8221; and &#8220;proportional&#8221; response for the U.S. assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani which Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had promised. It will certainly not be the only response but represents the opening shot of a long and much more silent campaign to kick the U.S. out of the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">U.S. President Donald Trump, who <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/eu.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2020\/01\/07\/iran-cultural-sites-22-images-unesco-heritage-sites\/2830806001\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>had threatened<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to destroy 52 targets in Iran including cultural sites if Iran would take any revenge, seems to have understood that this attack was intentionally limited to avoid a larger war:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump &#8211; <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1214739853025394693\">2:45 UTC \u00b7 Jan 8, 2020<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties &amp; damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Qiam missiles Iran launched are a derivative of the Soviet Scud type. They are liquid fueled with a warhead of about 700 kilogram. They have a range of some 800 kilometer. Iran has more capable and precise solid fueled missiles it could have used.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Ain al Assad airbase which was hit is where the drones that killed Soleimani and the Iraqi leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were launched from. Erbil airport is the logistic center for the U.S. forces in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Videos show the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PressTV\/status\/1214692978654089218\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>launch<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nafisehkBBC\/status\/1214706860982493185\">impact<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of the missiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">No U.S. air or missile defense against the incoming projectiles was observed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The message from Iran is thus: &#8220;We can attack all your bases and you can do nothing to prevent that.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Iran&#8217;s leader said that the attack was &#8220;slap in the face&#8221; for the U.S. and that this military reaction to the U.S. crime is<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.mehrnews.com\/news\/154311\/Military-operations-won-t-suffice-US-corrupting-presence-in\">not the only one<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that will happen:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Continues with an aerial photo of the Ain Assad Airbase that reveals the accuracy of Iran&#8217;s missile strike:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/2020\/01\/irans-missile-launch-against-two-us-bases-in-iraq-calls-trumps-bluff.html#more\">Cont. reading: <em>Iran&#8217;s Missile Launch Against Two U.S. Bases in Iraq Calls Trump&#8217;s Bluff &#8211; Updated<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moon of Alabama on the Iranian missile strikes, which were accurate and delivered the message that Iran can strike U.S. bases in the region with impunity   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58,51,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran","category-Iraq"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200536"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200539,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200536\/revisions\/200539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}