MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Iran warned Iraqi authorities about the Iranian missile strike on the Ayn al-Asad US military base in advance, says Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, according to Tasnim News Agency.

"The Iraqi government was informed [by Iran] ahead of the missile strike on US Ayn al-Asad air base," Mousavi said, adding that "Iraqi security is very important for Tehran."

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated on January 3, following the widely-reported US drone strike near Baghdad airport, which killed Qasem Soleimani, a top general in Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Quds Force. In response, on January 8, Tehran retaliated with a missile barrage on two Iraqi facilities used by US forces: the Ayn al-Asad airbase and Erbil airport.

On January 17, the Defense One news website reported that 11 US servicemen were shell-shocked during the Iranian strike on the Ayn al-Asad airbase.