Satellite photos hint Iran attack on Qatar airbase hit geodesic dome used for US communications

An Iranian attack on an airbase in Qatar key to the US military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analysed on Friday by The Associated Press show.

The US military and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the damage, which so far has not been publicly acknowledged.

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

The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage — likely due to the fact that the US evacuated its aircraft from the base home to the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command ahead of the attack.

Trump also has said Iran signalled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defence 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 airbase on the morning of 23 June, just hours before the attack. The US Air Force's 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates out of the base, in 2016 announced the installation of the USD 15 million piece of equipment, known as a modernised enterprise terminal. Photos of it 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 US, Trump described the Iranian attack as a “very weak response.” He had said 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 the air base had been the “target of a destructive and powerful missile attack.” Iran's Supreme National Security Council also claimed the base had been “smashed,” without offering any specific damage assessments.

Potentially signalling he knew the dome had been hit, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei separately claimed the base's communications had been disconnected by the attack.

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