US knew of Iranian attack: Troops sheltered in bunkers hours ahead of raid

AL-ASAD, Iraq: The United States troops at the Al-Asad air base in Iraq were aware that an Iranian attack was imminent, allowing them to take shelter two-and-a-half-hours before the missiles struck on Wednesday.

An American media house which was given an exclusive tour of the devastated site reported. Most troops were either flown out of the base or sheltering in bunkers by 11:00 p.m. local time Tuesday -- shortly before the first of the four volleys of the missiles began hitting the base at just after 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, officers briefed newsmen. It is the first time that the troops at the base have spoken in detail of the moments before the attack.

The attack which lasted around two hours, only targeted the US areas of the air base, which comprise around a quarter of the Iraqi base. Officers called it a "miracle" that there were no casualties at the blasted sites, with missiles landing just a few meters from bunkers, as only some essential personnel remained outside the bunkers throughout. The US troops knew there was going to be an attack on their base -- they just didn't know what the nature of the attack would be. The Iranian attack on the Al-Asad airbase, was one of two on Iraqi military bases housing US troops on Wednesday. The attacks were in retaliation for a drone strike at a Baghdad airport that killed Iran's most powerful military commander, Qasem Soleimani, earlier in the week.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi previously said Iran sent Iraq an official verbal message that an attack "had begun or would begin shortly," on unspecified US military locations. An Arab diplomatic source also told CNN that Iraq gave advance warning to the US on "which bases would be hit" after Iranian officials passed on the information. The first strike hit at 1:34 a.m. and after a brief pause of around 15 minutes, the next volley began. Two more volleys of missiles followed over the next two hours.

At dawn, officers finally emerged from bunkers to discover the full scale of destruction. The Al-Asad air base, which houses US troops, is one of the largest and oldest military bases in Iraq. It is located in Anbar province, a hotbed of ISIS activity in the western Iraq between 2014 and 2017. The US military presence in Iraq has fluctuated greatly since the 2003 invasion. At its height, the US had 170,000 troops in Iraq. In 2011, former President Barack Obama withdrew US forces from the country. Around 5,000 troops were deployed to Iraq in 2014 at the request of the Iraqi government, seeking US assistance in the fight against ISIS. Troop levels have been roughly the same since.