The barrage of missiles that Iran fired at US bases in Iraq Jan. 8 frightened Iraqis in the middle of the night. The missiles were a response to the Jan. 3 killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iraqis, among others, anticipated the news of US casualties and whether Washington would react in a way that could transform Iraq into a real battleground. Some warned that World War III was closer to Iraq than ever before.

​Soon after the strikes, however, surprising statements came from Washington and Tehran.

Iran had fired more than 20 ballistic missiles, 17 of them at the US Ain al-Asad base in the Anbar province of western Iraq, according to the Iraqi military. Five other missiles were aimed at Erbil airport in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Immediately after the strike, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched,” adding, “We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”