Iran launches rocket attacks targeting US troops at two Iraq bases in retaliation over Qasem Soleimani killing

Iran has launched a series of missiles at two Iraq bases where US troops are stationed in retaliation over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani.

Iranian state TV said the attacks were in revenge for the killing of the Revolutionary Guard General, who was killed in a US drone strike last week.

Tweeting after the strikes, US President Donald Trump said "all is well!" and that an assessment of potential causalities and damages was "so far, so good."

The Revolutionary Guard warned the US and its allies against retaliating as tensions escalated following the strikes on the Ayn al Asad airbase and the Erbil base the early hours of Wednesday.

The Pentagon confirmed that Iran had launched "more than a dozen ballistic missiles" at two targets hosting against US military and coalition forces.

Defence Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said the attacks "targeted at least two Iraqi military bases" at Ayn ​al Asad and Erbil.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries in the two strikes, which unfolded at about 1.30am local time on Wednesday (10.30pm UK time).

In the early hours of Wednesday, a Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 176 people has crashed and burst into flames shortly after taking off in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

There are no survivors, Iranian state television reported after the aircraft came down in the early hours of Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident near the city’s primary international airport is linked to the Iran-US confrontation.

Soleimani's killing and the strikes by Iran came as tensions have been rising steadily across the Middle East after Mr Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw the US from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

They also marked the first time in recent years that Washington and Tehran have attacked each other directly rather than through proxies in the region. It raised the chances of open conflict erupting between the two enemies, which have been at odds since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Soleimani’s funeral on Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman prompted angry calls to avenge his death, which drastically raised tensions in the Middle East.

"We are warning all American allies, who gave their bases to its terrorist army, that any territory that is the starting point of aggressive acts against Iran will be targeted," The Guard said following the strike.

Ayn ​al Asad (also known as Ain Assad) air base is in Iraq's western Anbar province. It was first used by American forces after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Dictator Saddam Hussein. It later saw American troops stationed there amid the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Mr Trump and top national security officials have justified the airstrike that killed Solemani with general statements about the threat he posed. The top general commanded proxy forces outside Iran and was responsible for the deaths of American troops in Iraq.

"He's no longer a monster. He's dead," Mr Trump said earlier on Tuesday. "And that's a good thing for a lot of countries. He was planning a very big attack and a very bad attack for us and other people and we stopped him and I don't think anybody can complain about it."

Soleimani was targeted while he was at an airport in Baghdad with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who also was killed.

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