iran launches more than a dozen ballistic missiles at 2 iraqi air bases both of which host u.s. forces. i'm kemal santamaria here in doha with continuing coverage on al-jazeera all of the latest developments out of the gulf the u.s. aviation or thora he has banned u.s. airlines from flying over parts of the region. also the iranian military chief whose death sparks the escalation in tension between the u.s. is being laid to rest in iran. there is

a lot of fear and anxiety and just worry about what's to come and what customs in amman his assassination is cause fear among iranian americans in the united states . it's just going to tell you i'm in baghdad 830 in teheran it is midnight in washington d.c. i'm kemal santa maria following developments here on al-jazeera out of the gulf this wednesday the top line is that iran has launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at 2 iraqi air bases which host u.s. forces this is in response to the assassination of the iranian general qassam so the money it was killed in a u.s. drone strike on friday it's the analysts that air base in anbar province which was hit also another air base in erbil was targeted no wood yet on any casualties but iran's revolutionary guard has also warned of a harsh response if the u.s.

retaliates against these attacks and also says u.s. allies will be attacked if their countries are used for strikes against terror. the other development is that the us a federal aviation authority has now banned u.s. airlines from flying over airspace in iraq in iran in the gulf of oman and the waters between iran and saudi arabia i.e. the gulf itself it cites the potential for miscalculation or mis identification so let's start going through the response and it starts with the us president himself a couple of hours ago on twitter he said curiously all is well missiles launched from iran to military bases located in iraq assessment of casualties and damage is taking place now so far so good you have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world by far i will be making a statement tomorrow morning that could be around 8 or 9 hours from now meanwhile senior republican senator lindsey graham has called the missile strikes an act of

war the missiles were launched from iran at targets inside of iraq housing u.s. military personnel the president has all the authority and needs under article 2 to respond and hiring spies is yet to be determined but he has that authority to respond it was an act of war by regime for the last 40 years spent a cancer in the mid east when they say they want to destroy israel they're not kidding they're the largest state sponsor of terrorism. here's the team covering events at this hour is in teheran gavrilo it's on to washington d.c. also harry falls that in west jerusalem starting though where it happened iraq asama binge of a desire kept is our correspondent in the capital baghdad i should say take us through the events which you've been covering asama for a good well i guess 5 or 6 hours now. just about 6 hours now c'mon

we started getting reports of missiles being fired from iranian state t.v. which was later on confirmed by iraqi security forces more than a dozen of them landed in the base in our province multiple missiles landed near us bases in erbil as well the iranians saying that all of their missiles hit the targets but so far no reports of damage at u.s. facilities and they're being or at been hearing of some material damage damage but no casualties have been reported it is one of the most significant bases in our problems it's sprawling complex which houses at least a few 100 troops from coalition as well as the united states and then in addition to iraqi security forces as well so we've been hearing reaction from everywhere but the iraqi government so far officially has not responded through the night we've been in touch with political and security sources who have been telling us about

what has been happening but the iraqi government to the last time we heard from it was from the iraqi prime minister was off tuesday evening where he told cap that ministers the only way to get out of the situation is to follow the advice that he gave to the parliament which was to make foreign troops leave his country also it's interesting the lead up to these developments was the iraqi government being. contradicted by both the secretary of defense and the secretary of state in the united states where both got both officials coming up with statements about customs and money not carrying any diplomatic message as well as the net which was the cause of so much confusion here in iraq which essentially signaled that u.s. forces would be leaving was just a matter of wasn't a change in policy and the iraqi prime minister and still insisting that he thinks that it was the case u.s. forces will be moving out but. in the in the last few hours you you've seen the

kind of. response that we've had from all sides the kurdish prime minister also tweeting that he's spoken to the u.s. secretary of state and suggested some loss of options to deescalate the situation but here's where we stand iran has responded on iraqi soil the iraqi fears were that they're all again going to be dragged into the theater of war between 2 sides really don't want to be and that is the sentiment that has existed on the streets and apart from the sentiment coming from pruitt on groups who were out for revenge and this is the thing for iraq isn't it of some of these of their bases i know the iranians say well we're you know going off to u.s. military its interests in the region but these are specifically iraqi military bases. but that is what the iraqi government has been saying that it is precisely the reason why it wants foreign troops to leave because its facilities

are being used again because it asked the foreign troops to come here in 2014 when it was trying to fight isis but now the iraqi prime minister is saying that the mission of these forces this change especially of the after the events on friday were present in the money and have met the in mind this were assassinated that the function of these forces according to the iraqi pm will be to defend themselves 'd and it will be an additional burden for iraqi troops to defend them so that's why he wants them to leave but it is interesting that you know i made all of this you are still waiting for iraqi government to respond the iraqi government has been adamant in saying that this is what it wants but old though it has been adamant in saying is it does not have the full support of the broad spectrum of the rockies the kurds that we've heard from this evening have been boycotting the session where the iraqis decided that they want to push out foreign troops and the sudanese have been absent from that there is well so there is this is

a divisive issue in iraq but what unites iraqis is the fear and the apprehension that it is not the war of their choosing they're not a party to this conflict they're being dragged by both sides into yet another round of uncertainty and despair that iraq has found itself in nearly 3 decades ok some a big divide in baghdad but the update thank you for that. and now we move on to iran as our correspondent in teheran assad i'd like us to just scrutinize a little bit the response that we've had from the iranian foreign minister mohammad just read out his tweet which says iran took and concluded proportionate measures in self-defense under article $51.00 of the un charter targeting the base from which cowardly attack against us citizens and senior officials were launched we do not seek escalation of war but will defend ourselves against any aggression that last line that's not terribly surprising i think of even the u.s.

is saying that as well we don't want a war but we'll fight one if we have to the 1st words interest me where he said iran talk and concluded past tense is that iranian saying we're done here we're retaliated for the assassination of their money and that is ideally where we'd like to leave it. absolutely they have been under tremendous pressure from the public here to retaliate to seek revenge for the assassination of carson so the money this was not we all knew that it was a matter of when not if iran would react to the assassination iran is concerned they fired these missiles into waves of missiles are fired towards the united states united states forces and that's if however if the united states respond then we will see a reaction from iran we've had a revolutionary guard commander with

a few lines just just just moments ago and he said that that retaliatory measures were the most simple and the weakest scenario iran had to punish the united states and if they show a city reaction then there would be a bigger response there's been tough talk coming out of iran for the last few days but there's been popular support for revenge but right now where we stand right now is that as far as iran is concerned they have reacted if the united states carries out any attacks against iran that iran would be forced to escalate that's what the revolutionary guard is same diff sent warnings out to regional countries that host united states bases saying that if an attack is using those bases in those countries and become a target they sent a warning to israel saying that they don't see any difference between israel and the united states and iran lol. the united states has overwhelming firepower iran

does have the ability to change the face of the middle east they have proxies and militias in iraq they have his rely on they have the hutu rebels in yemen they have militias in syria but also strategically where iran is placed in that strait of hormuz important water. a that sees 20 percent of the world's oil passing through at its most narrowest point between iran and on mine is only 33 kilometers wide and the and the shipping lanes are only 3 kilometers wide and iran has always threatened say that if there is a war iran will close down the strait of hormuz. just a quick wit if you don't mind as well and. funeral the burial which was supposed to happen yesterday of course there was that stampede which killed upwards of 40 people and so it was postponed what's been happening today.

but in the early hours of this morning customs of the money was buried it was postponed because this is a city of martin says home city he want to be buried in the cemetery next to people for people that had died fighting in the iran iraq war and it has a population of 820000 people but hundreds of thousands of people from around the country came to bid farewell in this final procession as his body has been taken to the cemetery but the authorities had to postpone that because they didn't want to risk another incident after that stampede so he's been laid to rest. and it's and this was a message to iran wanted to send that as he was being laid to rest as he's often is making its way to the cemetery iran responded and that's the message that iran had to send out this is the population many people are asking for revenge and iran i

used iranian weapons they've made it very public they said that it was then that these attacks and we do expect the supreme leader ayatollah khamenei to speak later on today thank you for the update from. and just the statement we've had from the iranian or the chief of staff of the iranian armed forces just quickly and again even though they might talk about retaliation and notice collation is still saying our response to any new american aggression will be stronger harder and wider it is time for washington to deal in another way and start withdrawing its forces from the region hitting american bases is just part of our ability to respond to america so both sides very much seeing it as a response and counter-response that's with evade the net to be an escalation which goes into the realms of war which we want to find out in the meantime gabrielle is on down in washington d.c. what is it now a quarter past midnight then now lights out at the white house waiting for the

morning to hear from the president. yeah that's what the president said we were expecting or there was some anticipation at least that the president might address the nation late tuesday evening that was particularly the case where we thought that could be the case when there when this attack was going on on the base 2 bases in iraq and one trump a summoned his war cabinet essentially secretary of state secretary defense joint chiefs of staff all rushed to the white house at urgent meetings with the president however he did not address the nation just in that tweet said that he will be speaking about this wednesday morning at some point so this all really kept an evening here that was really quite hectic and as it was everywhere else as well but right now i think the scene is we do not expect to hear any more from the white house this evening here local time or from the pentagon what you're seeing now is by the pentagon is a damage assessment of exactly what happened in terms of how many missiles hit the

bases what kind of damage was done exactly on those bases and i think that's what we have not heard from the pentagon yet i think the 1st thing the pentagon was doing was trying to assess were any american service members killed or injured that appears to be not be the case so i think that immediately took a little bit of the urgency of the pressure off if you will and i think that's why you're seeing trump's tweet basically saying all is well kind of putting up pause on this at least until wednesday morning when he decides to address address this issue further then what about some of the other u.s. players then the likes of. sexist secretary of defense marcus. you know we heard on tuesday from many administration officials all with the same message that they wanted to deescalate the situation they wanted to pursue deescalate tensions they wanted to find it diplomatic solution to this and then of

course the missile attacks on the 2 bases so on one side you're still hearing ministration officials wanting to talk about deescalating it we saw even a what from president trump we heard from a white readout from the white house saying that he spoke to the qatari amir time in how many thought any about the situation she he spoke of sort of the german chancellor angela merkel as well so i think you're seeing some diplomatic avenues being pursued in washington but with that said on the other hand the iranian foreign minister was planning to come to new york to attend the united nations security council meeting on thursday however the state department so far has denied his visa to attend that so what you're seeing here is on one side the administration saying we want to deescalate we want diplomacy but on the other side when he rants top diplomat is trying to come to the united nations the u.s. is saying no now is not the right time there but others on those in washington with

the update thank you the other breaking news out of iran in the past 2 hours or so is the crash of a boeing 737 belonging to ukraine international airlines that have been shortly after takeoff from many airports in teheran 180 people on board all believed to have died no suggestion that this has anything to do with other events in iran in fact a spokesperson for iran's civil aviation authority said it was due to technical problems thoughts clearly the timing is unfortunate at the very least that say you can see the explosion there. in the distance this is there it is in teheran. you without 0 just a reminder all the developments this would stay around launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles at 2 iraqi air bases which host u.s. forces. province was hit and other advice and o.b.l.

was targeted no word yet on casualties iran's revolutionary guards warned of a hard harsh response if the u.s. retaliates against the attacks and also says u.s. allies will be attacked if they countries they used to strikes against terror ron. as we just mentioned out of iran the boeing 737 belonging to ukraine international airlines which has crashed shortly after takeoff from terror from a spokesperson for iran's civil aviation authority said it was due to technical problems 180 people on board. will go back to those missile strikes now on the iraqi military bases which host u.s. troops i spoke to a solid rod not long ago a senior fellow at the national iranian american council who said there is still time she believes for a diplomatic solution. to give credit to president from one credit is due to his reaction on twitter and quite different it seems to be restrained. there is

a sort of reassuring tone though it's very concerning to have to wait till the morning to hear what the united states intends to do and so have to wait until then to have assessment full assessment and a full detail of what actually happened we have to be very careful not to jump to any conclusions there were earlier reports that there were 30 casualties now we're saying there doesn't seem to be casualties so we don't have all the information to draw conclusions in terms of the iranian side and it would be you know why i said think about iranian decisions not just in this situation that we're seeing now but over the last year and a half since the united states pulled out of the nuclear deal iran has taken very clear measured steps after the after the united states with the nuclear deal and i it seems as though this is another very carefully measured retaliation it was explicitly stated by your own scoring mr jevons that you that this was a retaliation that you don't does not seek an escalation and does not seek war so

we'll have to see what the united states assesses there's always room for diplomacy and that's because you can be what the united states and iran have done in the past is there are 3rd parties who can facilitate that diplomacy and unfortunately because of what's happened since the united states with iran those channels for diplomacy have been close but there's always room for diplomacy before we get any full scale conflict it's very important to remind ourselves that this is not a full scale conflict for the same thing that we went in ourselves just 5 days ago when the u.s. assassination of us and so when he was carried out this is still not a full scale conflict and that has to be emphasized there's still a road for diplomacy to know the idea of diplomacy looking at what you're on announced in terms of the d.c.p. a way iran did not quite the d.c. way they the decision that they made. to reduce their last limitation was something that they decided before the assassination of so long so this was again

a series of steps that he wanted planned to take specifically in their statement they said that if sanctions were lifted and all parties are trying to do it they were joined with you as well so that means the framework of the deal is still in place and that deal is emblematic of diplomacy along has played a role as mediator in the past you have japan has tried to play a rule the french president has tried to play a role at this point really any party in unity between the 2 sides should intervene because whatever conflict whatever escalation could occur is not something that will be isolated to your own united states of course everybody knows that it will have extreme will back within the region itself what the consequences go further than this is really an issue of global impact and so we need those parties to intervene well following the missile attacks the u.s. federal aviation authority the f.a.a. has now banned u.s. airlines from flying over as spies airspace in iraq iran the gulf of oman and

waters between iran and saudi arabia so we're looking at flight right now 24 here showing some of the gulf traffic big hubs in this area as you will know in dubai here in. as well and a lot of u.s. carriers do come through the region so just keeping an eye on how busy or not the skies are they will still have planes in the sky obviously from other airlines because this applies only at this stage to usa lines it's come from their own federal aviation authority aviation analyst kyle bailey spoke to us earlier to explain the potential impact of that decision. basically means is the f.d.a. is being proactive in protecting the airspace and ensuring that u.s. based aircraft and aircraft flying over the region are safe because there are obviously there have been missiles launched listing missiles and they're being very proactive here in ensuring safe operation of aircraft in the region in fact we have

to keep in mind also that there are countermeasures so if if a ballistic missile is launched you know the opponents actually have defensive measures on the ground to try to intercept those missiles that are being launched and quite often those are seeking missiles so also if those are if an airliner is giving off a signature from its engines it could possibly interfere with the countermeasures from what's intercepting the missile and in fact a commercial aircraft flying overhead and reading that would primarily affect i would think you know long range international flights where you might have some kind of fuel constraints for a long haul flights but you know i think for for sure sure hope flights i think it pretty much will be business as usual for the most part but yet obviously there will be some lost time for. some quite minor diversions as

a result of this air airspace thing was my gut feeling is you know there's a lot of uncertainty now on if there is or if there is not going to be a reaction until the f.a.a. is confident that everything is settled down as far as the possibility of any projectiles or or or any kind of arms going up into the air through the airspace when that risk is 100 percent eliminated i feel that the f.d.a. will you know possibly well will lift the restriction on commercial aircraft as far as restrict go i'm not aware of any big typically no fly zones in the. area where for example if security is let lax in a particular area based on you know a civil unrest or a conflict the state department will put out directives to u.s. passengers were warning them. of the particular activity that that that is happening such as civil busy unrest. or or or any kind of oh you know we're

activity and that would be issued by usually the u.s. department of state. on the streets of the baghdad hotel around the assassination of general concepts so the money by the u.s. was really sent shock waves through a large iranian american community in california. that's that story from the sensuous. well sensualist is home to more people of iranian descent than in any city other than tehran the crisis over the assassination of general qassam soleimani has cast a fearful shadow over the sunlit streets there's a lot of fear and anxiety and just worry about what's to come people are worried about yet another war in the region and in their homeland impacting their family and loved ones in a farsi language book shop on westwood boulevard proprietor sam begs the day says president trump is only interested in his own political ambitions for reelection

he's trying to make it a lot at the media at least and because of that he made everything on safe at holborn president tom is not a military president thrawn is not a politician mini be he was a businessman he doesn't understand anything he's brainless travel agent michael amir he says the crisis has affected his business a lot of people are they confident they are you confident dead dead dead as there is you know if they go out of the day want to return as soon as possible still he approves of solmonese killing that they are the biggest terrorist and i'm glad you know that they've got to know that by contrast the national iranian american council condemned the assassination extremely reckless and extremely. irrational several days ago los angeles area iranian americans took part in

a protest rally over the assassination many were shocked by president trump's threats to destroy iranian cultural sites i think that for many of us this actually feels like terrorism when someone from. your cultural and historic sites some iranian americans fear they will be subject to harassment by the. government war individuals if the crisis worsens there have been multiple reports of u.s. citizens of iranian heritage being stopped by authorities at the u.s. border and questioned at length about their political views this community has whether crisis after crisis between the u.s. and iran but this one feels different this is the most serious action that has been taken i think an and and greason history which is i think the most worried we have borne about 00 a warren iran and a possible war that's broader than a wrong

a community united in fear of more violence robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles we'll of course stay on top of all developments from the story but just a bit of other news as well out of venezuela where the opposition leader has called for a new wave of protests against the government of president nicolas maduro in america added to the scene newman reports now from caracas. yet. another chaotic chapter in the fight for control of that israel's parliament oh and while a government backed deputy tried to show that he was in charge. outside opposition leader one by door against 4 of soldiers attempting to prevent him from entering the national assembly. this time he and some 90 opposition deputies succeeded in pushing their way into the chamber as the previous group fled the building. rules for the leader of the majority opposition faction of parliament reclaiming

his seat as speaker of the house for however long was an important symbolic victory . this is proof of what is possible when we are united organized and determined determination venezuela determination. but the opposition may be overstating its victory what's obvious is the president nicolas maduro could have employed far more force as he did on sunday to prevent one by door and his deputies from entering this legislative palace the government of course will argue that the opposition has every right to take it seat in the chamber but just as an ordinary deputies not as the leaders of parliament. but there's likely a more strategic objective to regain control of the only institution not under the command our parliament. probably missouri will say that all the spectacle is between warring factions prove that venezuela needs new parliamentary elections why

because he knows that if he doesn't give the opposition a transparent conditions for a free election which is unlikely. an important percentage will boycott the poll so his party will win control of it we have no. but my door is hoping that this latest discoloration of the political conflict will reignite sluggish popular support for his leadership he's calling now and it is wayland's to again take to the streets to demand regime change and to believe that this time it will make a difference. in al-jazeera. very busy wednesday here on al-jazeera let's take you through the developments with iran launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles at iraqi air bases which host u.s. forces it is in response to the assassination of iranian general qassam soloman who

was killed in a u.s. drone strike on friday. was also hits and erbil an air base in o.b.l. was targeted so no word yet on casualties but iran's revolutionary guard has warned of a harsh response if the u.s. retaliates against the attacks it also says u.s. allies will be targeted if their countries are used for strikes against some of it has more from baghdad we started getting reports of missiles being fired from iranian state t.v. which was later on confirmed by iraqi security forces more than a dozen of them landed in the. province multiple missiles landed near u.s. bases in. the iranians saying that all of their missiles hit the targets of but so far no reports of damage at u.s. facilities and they're being or at been hearing of some material damage damage but no casualties have been deported. u.s.

president on a trump has responded to the strikes tweeting all is well and said an assessment of casualties and damage was taking place senior republican senator lindsey graham they called the strikes an act of war. and the u.s. federal aviation authority has now banned u.s. airlines from flying over airspace in iraq iran the gulf of oman and the waters between iran and saudi arabia it cites quote the potential for miscalculation or mis identification and other breaking news from iran in the past 2 hours the crash of a boeing 737 belonging to ukraine international airlines that happened shortly after takeoff from the many airport in tehran 180 people on board all believed to have died no suggestion this has anything to do with other events in iraq. back with more for you in about 25 minutes time. the story of a british italian man experiencing life close up in a palestinian refugee camp the big it's. coming face to face with the daily

lives of its residents some of whom have lived there for 70 years but it's been the refugio masoud his life it's not known for sure 7 days in beirut. on al-jazeera. hello i'm richard gaisford you're watching a special edition of the listening post on a new kind of reporting open source journalism citizen journalism allows anybody with a mobile phone to document a news story to produce content that is now routinely used by news organizations open source journalists often start with that kind of material and then they apply some of the same investigative techniques that are used by police and intelligence agents so this is a growth industry par.