Rocket strikes on US airbases in Iraq have intensified a regional crisis sparked by the US killing of an Iranian general. Our maps and graphics explain how we got here and what could happen next

The strikes overnight hit US bases in Iraq in Anbar province and in Erbil with more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles. The attacks began at just before 1.30am local time on Wednesday 8 January.

Iran claimed 80 US casualties, but the US, UK, Canada and Australia all said none of their troops had been injured or killed. Satellite pictures appeared to show damage from the impact of several missiles at the Al-Asad air base.

Why did Iran attack the bases?

Iran had been promising to retaliate since Friday 3 January, when its most senior military leader, General Qassem Suleimani was killed in an American airstrike at Baghdad.

The Iranian foreign minister said the strikes were “proportionate measures in self-defence … targeting the base from which a cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials was launched”.



An unmanned US drone killed Suleimani, and several others, in the early hours of Friday as he was being driven away from Baghdad international airport.

The strike was carried out by an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, a weapon made by California-based General Atomics that has been in use by the US military since it replaced the MQ-1 Predator in July 2017.

According to the US Air Force website, the MQ-9 Reaper’s “significant loiter time, wide-range sensors, multi-mode communications suite and precision weapons” mean that it “provides a unique capability to perform strike, coordination and reconnaissance against high-value, fleeting, and time-sensitive targets”.

How long has the crisis been brewing?

Tensions between Washington and Tehran had been escalating since a US contractor was killed on an Iraqi airbase near the city of Kirkuk on 27 December. The American citizen was killed in a rocket attack by the Shia militia group Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH). The group is backed by Iran.

The US then launched a series of retaliatory attacks on KH bases, three in Iraq and two in Syria. Iran and Russia condemned the attacks, which are reported to have killed at least 25 people.

Hundreds of protesters also stormed the US embassy inside Baghdad’s Green Zone on 31 December. After declaring the embassy safe, Trump tweeted: “Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!”

So is the Iranian missile strike the end of it?

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that Iran “took and concluded proportionate measures” with the attacks and that “we do not seek escalation or war”. This may mean that Iran feels Suleimani’s death has been avenged and this matter is now closed. But on the one hand it has also said it does not mean to comply any more with a deal struck to end its nuclear development. On the other it has allies and proxies throughout the region who it will presumably continue to support in their struggles against the US and its allies.