The US military believes that Iran wanted to strike the Incirlik base in Turkey

The target of the ballistic missile launched by Iran's military was allegedly the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, which hosts a significant U.S. Air Force contingent.

As reported by BAKU.WS, this claim was made by The New York Times (NYT), citing a high-ranking American military official and a representative of a Western country.

The publication notes that the missile flew over Iraq and Syria and was intercepted over the Mediterranean Sea while heading toward Turkey. The newspaper's sources specified that the Iranian missile was shot down by an SM-3 interceptor missile launched from the U.S. Navy destroyer "Oscar Austin." The debris of the downed missile fell in the Turkish province of Hatay near the border with Syria, and no one was injured as a result.

The newspaper reminds that Turkey is a NATO member country, and an attack on it could potentially draw all 32 members of the alliance into the conflict.

Incirlik Air Base, located near the city of Adana in southern Turkey, is the easternmost base of the U.S. Air Force and NATO command in Europe. It was established in the mid-1950s and was subsequently transformed into the 10th Main Air Force Base of Turkey.