US military eyes adjustments after Iran surprises with attack in Iraq, official says

The U.S. military is weighing possible adjustments to its defensive posture in the Middle East after Iran upended assumptions by staging a missile attack in Iraq, a country where it has influence, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday.

The senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran -- which had been expected to retaliate over the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general -- had been seen more likely attacking U.S. positions in another country than in Iraq, where Tehran counts some influential allies.

The U.S. military has deployed Patriot air defenses in other Middle East locations like Saudi Arabia, where it would have been able to shoot down incoming Iranian missiles. But it did not have that capability at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, where at least 11 of Iran's ballistic missiles hit in Wednesday's attack.