US airbase at risk as Iran mulls strike, Qatar shuts airspace
A U.S. Air Force base in Qatar has been placed on an 'imminent threat' alert due to concerns that Iran may be preparing to launch an attack on America's largest military installation in the Middle East.
The 'credible threat' alert was focused on the Al Udeid base in Qatar, which hosts over 10,000 US troops as well as over 100 aircraft, strategic bombers and tankers, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
It comes as warned the United States will 'directly pay' for strikes on its nuclear facilities 'rather than standing behind Israel,' with the Islamic Republic prepared for a war lasting up to two years, a senior Iranian official told reporters.
Tehran's mission to the UN said the US and Israel, as well as the United Kingdom, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency director personally, will all 'bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran.'
The threats come as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Iran posed an 'imminent threat' - one that Donald Trump is the 'first president with the guts to actually do something about.'
The world is now bracing for Tehran's response after the Trump administration used 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs to hit its nuclear facilities on Saturday night.
The US leader sparked Iranian fury when he raised the prospect of regime change, with Iranian officials warning that the regime could hit US forces 'within 48 hours'.
An Iranian television mouthpiece said that up to 50,000 American soldiers would be returned to Washington in 'coffins', and the nation has repeatedly vowed to retaliate to Trump's strikes with 'heavy consequences.'
Iranian media then reported that Israel was carrying out new strikes on the Fordow nuclear facilities today, with Israeli media saying the IDF was targeting an access road at the site.
Israel also launched an attack on 'regime targets' in Tehran, with 'hundreds' of members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said to have been killed in a huge wave of strikes.
Similar news
