CBS News
Who would live and who would die: The inside story of the Iranian attack on Al Asad Airbase
60 Minutes contributor David Martin and producer Mary Walsh report on the January 2020 attack on American forces stationed in Iraq. 2021 Feb 28 Facebook
In January 2020, when the U.S. launched a drone strike to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, 2,000 American troops at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq braced for a retaliatory attack. They thought it probably would be a volley of rockets lobbed into their base, each carrying at most a 60-pound warhead.
Instead, Iran began moving ballistic missiles carrying warheads weighing more than 1,000 pounds into place for a full bombardment. An Army intelligence officer gave Major Alan Johnson his assessment of the Iranian threat: Their intention is to level this base and we may not survive.