Iran deployed missiles to ‘save face’ after US killed Soleimani, expert says

“They picked bases that are really big, where you can hit the base without hitting anyone,” Michael Pregent, a former intelligence officer who studies the Middle East at the Hudson Institute, told the Washington Examiner. “Talking to people inside government, they’re saying that they think that this was a ‘save face’ gesture by Iran because they picked big bases and they’re using missiles that were accurate enough not to hit something.”

Wa Ex: When Iran chose to attack U.S. forces at two Iraqi bases on Tuesday, it relied on its missile arsenal, which is considered the largest in the region.

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday evening that Iranian forces fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at the bases, though officials were not able to confirm what types of missiles may have been used.

“I don’t even know if the people on the ground know that yet,” Pentagon spokesman John Supple told the Washington Examiner.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in Iraq, told the Washington Examiner that 10 of the missiles hit Al Asad air base, a joint Iraqi-U.S. facility in western Iraq. Five missiles targeted a base in Erbil in the country’s north, but only one successfully hit the base. Pentagon officials could not confirm if the four failed missiles reached their targets or were shot down by air defenses.

While Iran has a large and diverse missile arsenal, experts told the Washington Examiner the country likely used what are known as short-range ballistic missiles in the attack, weapons with a range of 620 miles or less.

“If I had to guess, Iran relied on the Fateh class or any of its variants here,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who studies Iranian security, said. “As a reminder, the Fateh class are Iran’s most accurate missile.” read more