Iran launches missiles at US base in Qatar in retaliation for bombing of nuclear sites

Explosions were reported around the Qatari capital, Doha, late on Monday, as Tehran announced it had launched a missile attack on US bases in the Gulf state and Iraq, in what it said was retaliation for US participation in Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran the day before.

The attacks followed a wave of missile strikes between Israel and Iran, with Israel bombing the notorious Evin prison, and came after Donald Trump raised the prospect of regime change in Tehran, further provoking a situation that was drastically inflamed by US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.

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It was unclear whether any of Monday night’s Iranian missiles had evaded Qatari air defences and hit their targets. The Qatari defence minister was quoted by Al Jazeera television as claiming the country’s defences had intercepted the incoming missiles, and that there had been no injuries. Al Jazeera showed footage of debris, reportedly from intercepted missiles lying on an unidentified street, surrounded by residents.

A US defence official confirmed that Iran had targeted the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the largest US military facility in the Middle East, in “a retaliatory but largely symbolic response” to the weekend US strikes.

The official said Iran launched medium-range ballistic missiles after communicating the move in advance to Qatari and US officials. There were no reports of US casualties.

Trump later dismissed the attack as a “very weak response” but in a post on his own online platform, Truth Social, he went on to thank Iran for warning of the impending attack, saying: “Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their “system,” and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE… Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”

There were no immediate details of any missile impacts in Iraq. An Iraqi security official told the Associated Press that the Iranian missiles had targeted Ain al-Asad base where US troops are deployed in western Iraq.

Iranian state media said that the missile launches were part of a retaliatory operation dubbed “Victory Message”. In a statement posted on the X social platform while the missiles were in the air, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said: “We neither initiated the war nor were we seeking it. But we will not leave aggression against the great Iran without answer.”

Iranian armed forces said they had aimed at Al Udeid base, in what the statement said was “a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America’s aggression”.

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The statement stressed the barrage was not directed at Qatar itself which it described as a “friendly and brotherly” regime.

Qatar insisted it had the right to hit back.

“We consider this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations Charter,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said in a social media post. “We affirm that Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression, in line with international law.

The missile barrages set the whole region on edge. Reuters quoted a Syrian security official as saying that the main residual US base in the north-east of the country, Qasrak, was on full alert. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain closed their airspace, and the Bahrain authorities sounded air raid sirens and told residents to seek shelter.

Saudi Arabia condemned Iran’s attack “in the strongest terms” offering to deploy “all its capabilities” to support Doha, with whom it has had fraught relations in the past.

Tehran presented its retaliatory strikes as a calibrated response to Donald Trump’s decision to participate in Israeli attacks, using the same number of munitions that the US used on Sunday. That attack on three nuclear sites included 14 bunker-busting bombs, 20 cruise missiles and other projectiles.

The Iranian response however risked opening a new and uncertain chapter in the widening war. Donald Trump and his top officials had earlier declared that the US bombing sortie against Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday would be the beginning and end of US participation in the attacks, unless Iran tried to strike back, in which case the administration threatened a devastating response.

It remained unclear how much damage the US strikes had inflicted. In a post on social media, Trump said the Iranian sites “were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it”.

However, the UN’s nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, said: “At this time, no one, including the [International Atomic Energy Agency], is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordow.”

Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with Qatar, but he also warned that the US strikes against Iran had no “framework of legality” adding that any regime change in the country should be a result of the will of the people, not of bombs.

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Trump was reported to have gone to the White House situation room on Monday where he was joined by the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine.

Shortly before the blasts were reported, the Qatari government had temporarily closed its airspace in a move its government said was for the safety of residents and visitors, and both the US and the UK instructed their nationals in Qatar to shelter in place. The United Arab Emirates was also reported to have closed their airspace.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to carry out reprisals against the military bases and ships of any state seen as supporting the Israeli war effort.

Earlier in the day, Israel bombed Evin prison and internal security forces sites in Tehran, deeming them “governmental repression bodies” as Israeli government ministers embraced regime change as the ultimate objective of its operation, Rising Lion.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday it was “intensifying the attack on the military capabilities of the Iranian regime” with sorties involving 50 warplanes. Some of Monday’s attacks were aimed at the Fordow uranium enrichment plant, which had been struck by heavy US bunker-busting bombs the previous day.

The IDF Farsi spokesperson, Kamal Pinhasi, issued a warning to Tehranis to “stay away from weapons production centres, military bases, and security institutions affiliated with the regime”.

An Israeli strike on Monday badly damaged the main gate to Evin prison in the north of the capital, used to detain political prisoners and ordinary criminals. Israeli bombs also targeted the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards and of the Basij, a volunteer militia which reports directly to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the armed forces were “currently striking, with unprecedented force, regime targets and governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran”.

Over the first 11 days of its attacks on Iran, the governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that regime change was a formal war aim, though the prime minister has said it would be a welcome outcome, and called on Iran’s people to rise up against the regime in Tehran. On Monday however, members of his cabinet openly called for the overthrow of Iran’s theocratic regime.

“As long as the Nazi ayatollah regime sits in Tehran, it has the potential to rebuild its destructive capabilities,” the science and technology minister, Gila Gamliel, said on X, according to a translation by the Haaretz newspaper. “Therefore, we must continue the campaign until the conditions are created for revolution and the removal of the ayatollah regime,” Gamliel, a leading member of Netanyahu’s Likud party wrote, signing off with the slogan: “Next year in Tehran.”

The heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu told an Israeli television news channel that Israel was “working with the opposition in Iran”, describing the collaboration as a “blessing”.

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The overt Israeli government support for the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic Republic came a day after Trump had taken to Truth Social to declare: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on social media. “MIGA!!!”

Iran’s judiciary confirmed the damage to Evin, but through its mouthpiece, the Mizan news agency, insisted that the situation was under control.

“The situation in the prison is under control and all means have been used to manage the prison complex,” Mizan reported.

A Washington-based group, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, said: “Many families of current detainees have expressed deep concern about the safety and condition of their loved ones held inside the prison.”

Evin is not just used by the regime to incarcerate Iranian dissidents, but also foreigners and dual nationals who have been seized over the past several years for use as hostages and bargaining chips.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said there were two French prisoners in Evin, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who he said had been held as hostages there for three years. He said the strike on the gate had put them in danger and was “unacceptable”. Barrot also demanded information about their wellbeing and their immediate release from the Iranian government.

On Monday, Israel’s security service, the Shin Bet, announced that an Israeli citizen was arrested last month on charges of spying for Iran. A statement said that the suspect was a 27-year-old from Haifa alleged to have “carried out surveillance missions on Israeli citizens under the direction of an Iranian official with whom he was in contact”.

It is the latest in series of such arrests. The Iranian authorities have carried out several executions in recent days of Iranians accused of spying for Israel.