Is Iran avoiding confrontation with America?

In the early hours of 8 January 2020, Iran targeted two US camps in Iraq with close to two dozen ballistic missiles and said the attacks were to avenge the assassination of Commander General Qasim Suleimani. READ MORE

Sulaimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad city of Iraq last Friday.

After his death, Iran had said that America would have to pay a heavy price for it.

But despite fierce warnings from Iran, no American soldiers were hurt. US President Donald Trump has confirmed this in his statement.

So did Iran deliberately save the troops stationed in American camps? READ MORE

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has said that Iran had on Wednesday launched a surface-to-surface missile that targeted the US-held al-Assad camp in Iraq.

Al-Assad is a strong American camp in western Iraq, from where the United States conducts military operations.

Iranian news agency, which is said to be close to the IRGC, has reported that Iran used the Fateh-313 and Qiam missile in the attack. The US military failed to intercept these missiles as they were fitted with ‘cluster warheads’. Because of these, tens of explosions occurred in al-Assad.

The US Defense Department says Iran has released more than a dozen ballistic missiles that targeted two Iraqi military bases — Irbil and al-Assad — in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

US President Donald Trump has said that not a single member of the US military was hurt. There has been minor damage in the military base as well. While giving a statement on TV, Trump said that due to caution, the spread of military forces and the functioning of the warning system did not cause damage.

However, America’s top military officer, Army General Mark Miley, believes the attack was indeed fatal. “Our personal assessment is that Iran attacked to destroy vehicles, equipment and aircraft and kill military personnel,” he said.

The Iraqi army has also said that they did not have any military casualties. According to the Iraqi Army, 22 missiles fell in Iraq between 1:45 and 2:15 on Wednesday morning, of which 17 missiles were fired towards Al-Assad Air Base.

Satellite photographs were taken by commercial company Planet Labs for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies show that at least five structures at the Al-Assad air the base has collapsed.

David Schmurler, an analyst at the Middlebury Institute, has reported that “satellite images show many places that seem to have been targeted exactly at the centre of the structure.”

But it is also clear that some missiles did not fall in the airbase. According to the Iraqi army, the two missiles that were targeted by al-Assad camp fell near Hitan village in the Heit region and did not explode.

Some pictures of one of these missiles have also been shared on social media, in which the missile appears broken into three pieces.

The Iraqi Army says Iran sent five missiles to Irbil Air Base, which is located in northern Kurdistan. It cannot be said at the moment how many of these missiles fell in the airbase, but according to Iraq’s official TV channel, two of these five missiles fell in the village of Sidan, about 16 kilometres northwest of the city of Irbil.

Some reports have also stated that one of the missiles sent towards the Irbil camp fell 47 km northwest of the city of Irbil.

Sources in the US and European governments have told the news agency Reuters that they are confident that Iran has done this intentionally to minimize the damage and Iran has largely saved the US camps in the attack so that the crisis is looming. It should not get out of control, while there is still a hint of a solution between the two countries.

American news channel CNN journalist Jake Tapper tweeted a senior Pentagon official, saying that Iran chose targets where there was minimal loss of life and property.

The US newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ wrote in a report that US officials came to know on Tuesday afternoon that Iran had made up its mind to attack US bases in Iraq, but had no idea what Iran would do. Will attack the camp.

The newspaper wrote, “America received a warning from Iraq through its intelligence sources that Iran is about to strike.”

A senior defence official in the US quoted the media as saying that the United States had received an alert several hours before the attack, which gave American soldiers sufficient time to take shelter in the bunkers.

This Defense Department source has said that the United States received this warning with the help of a combination of satellites and signals. This is the same system that monitors the missile tests of North Korea.

These officials did not agree with the speculation that Iran knowing the targets were wrong.

Martin said that he had not found any senior official of the US Department of Defense who could tell that any prior information was given to the US by the Prime Minister of Iraq.

This American officer said that our soldiers should be safe because of changing their places.

According to Defense experts, “The reason was the design or manufacture of Iranian missiles because of which the target was not accurate, it is not yet clear. However, launching long-range missiles against US military targets is a risky path for Iran. Was. “

According to observers, “Looking at the early satellite photos, Iranian missiles at al-Assad airbase have damaged many structures, but if the casualties were no casualties in this attack, it is not due to any lack of design, but instead of soldiers. “

Originally published at https://www.mubahisa.in.