Satellite images show Iran attack damaged US comms dome in Qatari base
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Weeks after the Israeli war on Iran ended, satellite images suggest an Iranian strike on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar destroyed a US communications dome.
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This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows damage after an Iranian attack at the Al Udeid Airbase outside of Doha, Qatar, June 25, 2025 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
An Iranian attack on a key US military air base in Qatar likely struck a geodesic dome housing American equipment used for secure communications, an analysis of satellite images by The Associated Press on Friday showed.
The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatar's capital, on June 23 was a retaliatory response to the US bombing of three nuclear sites in Tehran, which ultimately led to a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump that ended the 12-day Israeli war on Iran.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC captured the geodesic dome at Al Udeid Air Base on the morning of June 23, just hours before the attack. The $15 million modernized enterprise terminal housed within it had been installed by the US Air Force's 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, which operates from the base, after being announced in 2016.
Images from June 25 onward show the dome missing, with visible damage to a nearby structure, while the remainder of the base appears largely unaffected in the satellite imagery.
According to the AP analysis, while a fragment or other object could have struck the dome, the destruction suggests an Iranian attack was likely, possibly involving a bomb-carrying drone, given the minimal visible damage to nearby structures.
Trump downplays Iran's attack
In the US, Trump characterized the Iranian attack as a "very weak response," claiming Tehran had launched 14 missiles with 13 intercepted and one deliberately allowed to continue unimpeded as it was heading in what he described as a "nonthreatening" direction.
“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” Trump wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, corroborating the AP analysis, an advisor to Iran's Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Ahmad Alamolhoda, had separately asserted that the attack disconnected the base's communications, potentially signaling prior knowledge that the dome had been hit.
“All equipment of the base was completely destroyed, and now the US command stream and connection from Al Udeid base to its other military bases have been completely cut,” said Alamolhoda, a cleric and advisor to Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
