Iran's missile strike caused no casualties and did little significant damage. Was that Tehran's intent, or just a lucky accident?
The commercial satellite images show the damage Iranian missiles left on the remote Iraqi air base — charred rubble where hangars or other facilities once stood and a gaping crater alongside a runway, while nearby buildings stood unscathed.
The missile salvo was “intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft and to kill personnel,” said Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Iran’s leaders claimed a major victory, and state-run TV broadcast endless video of fiery objects arcing through the night sky as just retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that targeted and killed Gen. Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander, near Baghdad on Friday.
Some analysts argued that Iran used the attacks to showcase significantly improved targeting capabilities on its missiles as a warning to the West that it could do far greater damage if a more serious conflict erupts. Iran unveiled the Fateh 313 in 2015, reportedly after equipping it with a satellite guidance system. Along with wings on the rocket body that adjust in flight, that improvement could enable the missile to change course as it dives toward its target, improving its accuracy.
“The Iranians are very proud of being able to target specific buildings,” Fabian Hinz, an expert on the Iranian arsenal also at the Middlebury Institute. “They would have satellite pictures, they would have targeting information.”
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