U.S. B‑2 bombers flew 18 hours to reach the targets, and 14 GBU‑57 bunker‑busting bombs were dropped operationally for the first time ever and then U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Iran’s nuclear sites were destroyed — yet Iran’s response was a modest, coordinated rocket salvo.
Israeli officials assessed that Iran would reply symbolically, in a limited, calibrated and coordinated manner against the United States in order to to signal that “we responded” in the form of a “show”—and that’s exactly what happened. Ten rockets were launched toward Al‑Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest American base in the Middle East—but no one was hurt and no damage was reported.
Iran launches missiles at US targets in Qatar
After the launch, Tehran signaled a return to the negotiating track. “Iran has the necessary rationality to begin diplomacy after punishing the aggressor,” an Iranian official told Reuters. “But if they want talks, the Israeli and American strikes must cease.” Israel believes that Iran does not want to be drawn into a war of attrition, yet officials made clear: “We stop and then they fire? That won’t happen.”
These are the reports indicating Iran coordinated the assault on the American base:
A senior regional official told Reuters that Iran informed the United States through two diplomatic channels before its attack on Qatar, and also informed Qatar. The New York Times reported, citing three Iranian sources, that Tehran coordinated the attack on the American base with senior officials in Qatar, giving advance notice to minimize casualties.
Celebrations in Tehran after missiles launched at Qatar
Those sources said that “Iran needed to strike the United States symbolically, while simultaneously carrying out an operation from which all sides would have a way out.” They added that the nature of the response was similar to that taken by Iran after the U.S. assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020—then, too, Iran launched a rocket salvo at U.S. bases in Iraq, but only after early warning.
That strike resulted in no deaths—and Trump restrained the response to allow the crisis to pass. This time too, it was reported that Trump received advance warning before the strike. Afterward, he posted a statement on his social media platform Truth Social without referring to the Iranian missile attack on the U.S. base. A senior White House official told CNN that Trump does not want further military engagement in the region. “We knew they would react. They had a similar response after Soleimani,” he said.
Further evidence of coordination is Qatar's announcement that the large U.S. base was evacuated in advance. On the other hand, military sources told Reuters that troops were indeed at Al‑Udeid and were ordered to take cover in bunkers. In any case, there were no casualties from the missile strike.
In fact, even after the American strike on the nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff remained in contact with Iranian officials, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who also noted the difficulty Iran has in communicating with its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is hiding in a secret location.
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According to CNN, Khamenei must approve any major decision, especially one related to resuming nuclear talks. Receiving information from him has recently become increasingly difficult, so ties between the U.S. and Iran—both direct and indirect—have effectively been severed.
Panic in a makk in Qatar
An Israeli source said before the strike: “We estimate that perhaps the Americans will not respond at all, or that if they respond it will be limited. The Americans want to stay out. They have no problem with us continuing until absolute victory, but from their standpoint they’ve done their part and want to remain out.”
“We have other targets and objectives and this operation will end when we complete our goals,” he added. “We estimate it could conclude within a week. We also think Iran wants to end this. We have no knowledge that they want to drag us into a war of attrition. We can end this when we achieve our objectives and Iran stops firing. We stop and they fire? That’s not happening. We have many more targets and capabilities, and Iran would make a grave mistake trying to draw us into a war of attrition.”