Iran retaliated against the U.S. early today for last Friday's drone strike killing of General Qassem Soleimani, firing a series of ballistic missiles at two military bases in Iraq where American troops are housed. U.S. and Iraqi officials said there were no immediate reports of casualties, but that buildings were still being searched, even though Iranian state TV claimed that, quote, "at least 80 terrorist U.S. soldiers" were killed." AP cited U.S. officials as saying a total of 15 missiles were fired; 10 hit the Ain as-Asad base and one hit another base in Irbil and four of them failed. Iran’s foreign minister tweeted that Tehran, quote, "took and concluded proportionate measures in self-defense," and said Iran did not seek escalation, but would defend itself against further attacks.President Trump tweeted soon after the missiles hit, "All is well!" and "So far, so good" regarding casualties. He also said would address the nation this morning.
- The strikes came as Soleimani was buried in Iran. On Tuesday, a stampede broke out at his funeral among the thousands at the procession and and at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 injured.