Iran's missile strikes on US troops in Iraq on Wednesday were precisely targeted to avoid massive human casualties.

NHK obtained satellite images of Ain al-Assad air base in western Iraq, which hosts US troops, hours after the missile strikes on Wednesday.

Experts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, found at least seven locations around the base that appear to have been attacked.

An image from December 30 shows a row of five tent-like facilities that appear to be military aircraft hangars.

In the image taken on Wednesday, the three facilities in between were destroyed while those on both ends remain intact.

A large crater on a runway was not there last month.

Other possible attack sites were also limited to hangars and warehouses.

Research Associate Margaret Croy notes that many of the impacts are direct and centered on storage buildings.

She says "It seems as if the missiles used by Iran to strike this military base in Iraq are of a quality and precision such that they are able to target specific facilities."

NHK