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The conflict between the United States and Iran has flared dangerously in Iraq — and in few places more so than a remote desert air base, more than 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. Iran fired at least 10 ballistic missiles at the sprawling Ain al-Assad base last week in response to the Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed top Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi paramilitary leader.
Damage from some of the ballistic missiles fired by Iran is visible at Ain al-Assad air base. The missiles incinerated containers that served as living quarters for military personnel flying drones and damaged a nearby airfield. The U.S. military had roughly 15 minutes' notice before the missiles hit. Before that, it dispersed personnel around the base and had them take cover in concrete bunkers.
NPR international correspondent Jane Arraf and freelance photographer Alexander Tahaov were among a group of journalists invited to tour the base earlier this week.
An Uno playing card lies in the rubble of the Ain al-Assad air base. The base, used by the U.S. since 2003, houses about 1,500 U.S. troops and additional coalition troops supporting Iraqi anti-ISIS operations.
Opened in 1987 during Iraq's war with Iran, Ain al-Assad is the size of a small city — it takes half an hour to drive across. The target of the Iranian strikes was the American side of the base, where about 1,500 U.S. troops support Iraq's fight against ISIS, train Iraqi troops and send armed and unarmed drones into Iraq and Syria.
A view of the Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq's Anbar province, northwest of Baghdad.
U.S. military officials say the barrage of rockets lasted more than two hours early in the morning on Jan. 8. Hours before, the U.S. received warnings that one of four or five bases in Iraq would be attacked. Those warnings allowed the military to disperse personnel on the base and sent them rushing to bunkers. About 15 minutes before the attack, personnel at the base were warned the missiles had been launched.
One of the bunkers where military personnel took shelter during the almost two-hour long barrage of Iranian missiles.
Because of the precautions, no one was killed or seriously injured, but the missiles heavily damaged living areas and left huge craters.
A U.S. service member stands in an entryway looking at some of the destruction from the missiles in the area where he used to live on the Ain al-Assad base. Wreckage included containerized housing units used by U.S. drone operators. They were destroyed when a ballistic missile hit a few hundred yards away.
U.S. officials won't say if the drone strike that killed Soleimani was launched from this base. But the area from where U.S. troops launch drones suffered some of the worst damage in last week's strike.
An Iranian ballistic missile left a large crater after it landed on and obliterated a housing trailer at the Ain al-Assad air base. Another missile destroyed a dining facility, which had been closed on the night of the attack as a precautionary measure but would normally have been open at that time.
Here are some scenes from the base.
First Sgt. Westley Kilpatrick commands drone operators. "We heard there was a potential foreign enemy attack but we didn't know where exactly it was going to happen," he says. "I think our biggest fear was the ground attack. We weren't quite expecting the attack with the missiles. It was a lot bigger than we were expecting."
U.S. service members stand at Ain al-Assad base at dusk on Monday.
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