By MEG KINNARD and ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran retaliated Monday for the U.S. attacks on its nuclear sites by targeting Al Udeid Air Base, a sprawling desert facility in Qatar that serves as a main regional military hub for American forces.

A U.S. defense official says no casualties have been reported.

As of this month, the U.S. military had about 40,000 service members in the Middle East, according to a U.S. official. Many of them are on ships at sea as part of a bolstering of forces as the conflict escalated between Israel and Iran, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations research and policy center.

Bases in the Middle East have been on heightened alert and taking additional security precautions in anticipation of potential strikes from Iran, while the Pentagon has shifted military aircraft and warships into and around the region during the conflict.

The U.S. has military sites spread across the region, including in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.

Here’s a look at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar:

Al Udeid hosts thousands of service members

The sprawling facility hosts thousands of U.S. service members and served as a major staging ground for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the height of both, Al Udeid housed some 10,000 U.S. troops, and that number dropped to about 8,000 as of 2022.

The forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command, Al Udeid is built on a flat stretch of desert about 20 miles southwest of Qatar’s capital, Doha.

Over two decades, the gas-rich Gulf country has spent some $8 billion in developing the base, once considered so sensitive that American military officers would say only that it was somewhere “in southwest Asia.”

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Trump has visited Al Udeid

Trump visited the air base during a trip to the region last month.

It was the first time a sitting U.S. president had traveled to the installation in more than 20 years.

Al Udeid cleared its tarmacs

Last week, ahead of the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Al Udeid saw many of the transport planes, fighter jets and drones typically on its tarmac dispersed. In a June 18 satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by The Associated Press, the air base’s tarmac had emptied.

The U.S. military has not acknowledged the change, which came after ships off the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also had dispersed. That’s typically a military strategy to ensure your fighting ships and planes aren’t destroyed in case of an attack.

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee are backing nonprofit founder Molly Coleman for the open Ward 4 seat on the city council, as are a series of labor unions. Members of Starbucks Workers United plan to knock doors alongside Ward 4 candidate Cole Hanson, who has drawn endorsements from City Council Member Nelsie Yang and the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.

Chauntyll Allen, a leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, has received the support of a number of elected officials, including Ramsey County Commissioner Rena Moran, fellow school board members Halla Henderson, Carlo Franco, Jim Vue and Uriah Ward, and City Council Member Anika Bowie. Carolyn Will, a former television journalist turned marketing specialist, is the latest candidate to jump in the race for Ward 4.

With early voting opening Friday, political endorsements are rolling in for the four candidates, who will meet in at least six candidate forums leading up to the Aug. 12 special election.

Voters in the city’s Ward 4 neighborhoods — Hamline-Midway, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park and parts of Macalester-Groveland and Como — will choose their next council member by ranked-choice ballot, which means they could rank all four candidates by order of preference.

The candidates include Allen, who serves on the St. Paul Board of Education; Coleman, the founder of the nonprofit People’s Parity Project, which seeks progressive court reform; Hanson, a statewide online education coordinator who teaches nutrition to recipients of federal food assistance, or SNAP; and Will, founder of CW Marketing and Communications.

Candidate forums scheduled

With the St. Paul DFL not hosting caucuses or endorsing conventions for Ward 4 this summer or in this year’s mayor’s race, other endorsements could gain more prominence, as could candidate forums. The position is officially non-partisan but typically draws strong partisan interest.

“I was kind of disappointed that the St. Paul DFL wasn’t going to have an endorsement process,” said Al Oertwig, chair of the St. Paul chapter of the DFL Senior Caucus. The Senior Caucus will convene a Ward 4candidate forum from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday in the meeting room at Mississippi Market, 740 East Seventh St.

The St. Paul Historic Preservation Political Committee, which advocates for historic building preservation, will host its July 14 forum at Hamline Methodist Church, 1514 Englewood Ave. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the forum is expected to conclude at 8 p.m. There is no admission charge. For more information, visit the organization’s website at tinyurl.com/StPreserveW425. Questions from the audience will be accepted, time permitting.

Additional forums will be hosted by the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing, or MICAH, and multiple faith-based, immigration advocacy and social justice partners from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on July 17 at St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, 2323 Como Ave.; the League of Women Voters on July 22; and the Senate District 64 DFL on July 30.

Unidos MN held an hour-long climate forum with the candidates on May 27, and video of the forum is online at tinyurl.com/UnidosSTP25.

Chauntyll Allen

Allen, who was born and raised in Rondo, is a former St. Paul Parks and Recreation and Central High School basketball coach and the founder of Love First Community Engagement, which connects volunteers to work with Black youth. In addition to counting on the support of Bowie and multiple school board members, her endorsements include the Stonewall DFL, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, the LPAC organization, state Rep. Cedric Frazier, DFL-Crystal/New Hope, and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong. Her campaign website is chauntyllforward4.com.

“From my family’s displacement from Rondo to seeing my former students on the streets to difficulty finding affordable housing for me and my wife, I know what fellow residents are facing because I live it everyday,” said Allen, a fifth-year school board member and mother of two who lives in the Midway with her wife.

She publicly listed her core priorities as “housing options for all,” community safety, economic stability and workforce and youth development. “Come and enjoy St. Paul, the same way we go and enjoy Woodbury, or Maple Grove or Duluth,” she said. “We need a marketing plan that really draws people into the city.”

Molly Coleman

Coleman, daughter of former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, lives in Hamline-Midway with her husband and 1 1/2-year-old son. Her major endorsements include the mayor, former Council President Amy Brendmoen, state Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, Ramsey County Commissioner Garrison McMurtrey, Council Member Saura Jost and interim Council Member Matt Privratsky. Her campaign website site is coleman4council.com.

“Economic justice is my big one — making this the best city in the country to work and live in,” said Coleman, when asked Monday to list her priorities. “The other big one for me is restoring faith in true, multi-racial, inclusive democracy … everything from using administrative citations to enforce workplace standards, to building more affordable housing.”

Coleman also has the support of Sustain St. Paul, gun control advocates Moms Demand Action, the St. Paul Building Trades, the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 110.

Cole Hanson

Hanson lives near Snelling and University avenues in the Midway and has a young child. In addition to receiving the backing of Nelsie Yang and the Twin Cities DSA, he’s received an official endorsement from Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley and a series of everyday Ward 4 residents he features prominently on his website, which is coleforward4.org.

The International Association of Firefighters Local 21 and the St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28 have not made official endorsements in the race, but both organizations gave Hanson letters of recommendation. In July, he plans to go door knocking alongside Starbucks Workers United using the campaign banner “St. Paul is a Union Town.”

“I’m really proud of that one,” said Hanson, a former president of the Hamline-Midway Coalition, whose platform includes advocating for a downtown municipal grocery and city-owned affordable and market-rate housing. “They’re scrappers. They’re really fighting for what they want to win. They’re retail workers, and they’re organizing against billionaires who own Starbucks.”

Carolyn Will

Will spent Monday in Bemidji helping her parents clean up after extensive storm damage and was not available for comment. She has lived in four wards in St. Paul for 33 years, and has two adult children and one grandchild.

Will, who has been active in efforts to oppose the Summit Avenue bikeway and force changes to the city’s prospective tree preservation ordinance, said in a recent campaign statement she is a politically-moderate independent who believes in “safety that starts with accountability and neighbors helping neighbors, budgets that respect taxpayers, and a city that welcomes growth without forgetting its roots.”

Former Ward 4 Council Member Mitra Jalali stepped down from office in February, citing health concerns, and interim Council Member Matt Privratsky was later appointed by the mayor’s office to fill her role until voters elect a new member to complete the four-year term, which ends in 2028. In November, voters also will choose between three candidates for mayor — Carter, Yan Chen and Mike Hilborn — and determine whether to give the city council the option of imposing non-criminal fines, or administrative citations, on rule-breakers.

Watch this space for updates to this story.

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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of a police officer who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack.

The eight-member jury ordered that man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith’s estate for his pain and suffering.

The judge presiding over the civil trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful-death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating last week. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said no reasonable juror could conclude that Walls-Kaufman’s actions were capable of causing a traumatic brain injury leading to Smith’s death.

On Friday, the jury sided with Erin Smith and held Walls-Kaufman liable for assaulting her 35-year-old husband — an encounter captured on the officer’s body camera.

“Erin is grateful to receive some measure of justice,” said David P. Weber, one of her attorneys.

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Walls-Kaufman said the outcome of the trial is “absolutely ridiculous.”

“No crime happened. I never struck the officer. I never intended to strike the officer,” he said. “I’m just stunned.”

After the jury left the courtroom, Reyes encouraged the parties to confer and discuss a possible settlement to avoid the time and expense of an appeal and for the sake of “finality.”

“You guys settle, you can move on with your lives,” the judge said.

Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, Hughie Hunt, described the jury’s award as “shocking.”

“We’re talking about a three-second event,” he told the judge.

“It’s not shocking, Mr. Hunt. A lot of things can happen in three seconds,” Reyes replied.

Jeffrey Smith was driving to work for the first time after the Capitol riot when he shot and killed himself with his service weapon. His family said he had no history of mental health problems before the Jan. 6 riot. Erin Smith claims Walls-Kaufman struck her husband in the head with his own police baton, giving him a concussion and causing psychological and physical trauma that led to his suicide.

Walls-Kaufman, who lived a few blocks from the Capitol, denied assaulting Smith. He says any injuries that the officer suffered on Jan. 6 occurred later in the day, when another rioter threw a pole that struck Smith around his head.

The police department medically evaluated Smith and cleared him to return to full duty before he killed himself. In 2022, the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board determined that Smith was injured in the line of duty and the injury was the “sole and direct cause of his death,” according to the lawsuit.

Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to a Capitol riot-related misdemeanor in January 2023, but he was pardoned in January. On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack.

More than 100 law-enforcement officers were injured during the riot. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died a day after engaging with the rioters. A medical examiner later determined he suffered a stroke and died of natural causes. Howard Liebengood, a Capitol police officer who responded to the riot, also died by suicide after the attack.

By JOSEPH KRAUSS and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As President Donald Trump floats the idea of “regime change” in Tehran, previous U.S. attempts to remake the Middle East by force over the decades offer stark warnings about the possibility of a deepening involvement in the Iran-Israeli conflict.

“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on his social media site over the weekend. The came after the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites but before that country retaliated by firing its own missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday insisted that Trump, who spent years railing against “forever wars” and pushing an “America first” world view, had not committed a political about-face.

“The president’s posture and our military posture has not changed,” she said, suggesting that a more aggressive approach might be necessary if Iran ”refuses to give up their nuclear program or engage in talks.”

Leavitt also suggested that a new government in Iran could come about after its people stage a revolt — not necessarily requiring direct U.S. intervention.

“If they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn’t the Iranian people rise up,” she asked.

That’s a perilous path that other U.S. administrations have taken. And it’s a long way from Trump’s past dismissal of “stupid, endless wars,” and his scoffing at the idea of nation-building championed by his Republican predecessors — including in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the U.S. helped overthrow governments.

Some lessons learned from previous conflicts:

Initial success is often fleeting

U.S. special forces and Afghan allies drove the Taliban from power and chased Osama bin Laden into Pakistan within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. American tanks rolled into Baghdad weeks after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

But then, both wars went on for years.

FILE – A U.S. Army tank is parked outside the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad on May 6, 2003. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer, File)

The Taliban waged a tenacious, two-decade insurgency and swept back into power as the U.S. beat a chaotic retreat in 2021. The overthrow of Saddam plunged Iraq into chaos, with Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias battling each other and U.S. forces.

Israel has so far largely succeeded in taking out Iran’s air defenses and ballistic missiles and the U.S. strikes on three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker-buster bombs has wrecked its nuclear program, Trump says. But that still potentially leaves hundreds of thousands in the military, the Revolutionary Guard and forces known as the Basij, who played a key role in quashing waves of anti-government protests in recent years.

Ground forces are key — but don’t guarantee success

Airstrikes have never been enough on their own.

Take, for example, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. His forces withstood a seven-month NATO air campaign in 2011 before rebels fighting city by city eventually cornered and killed him.

There are currently no insurgent groups in Iran capable of taking on the Revolutionary Guard, and it’s hard to imagine Israeli or U.S. forces launching a ground invasion of a mountainous country of some 80 million people that is about four times as big as Iraq.

FILE – A member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force flashes a victory sign during a military parade outside of Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

A split in Iran’s own security forces would furnish a ready-made insurgency, but it would also likely tip the country into civil war.

There’s also the question of how ordinary Iranians would respond.

Protests in recent years show that many Iranians believe their government is corrupt and repressive, and would welcome its demise. But the last time a foreign power attacked Iran — the Iraqi invasion of 1980 — people rallied around the flag.

At the moment, many appear to be lying low or leaving the capital.

Be wary of exiled opposition groups

Some of the biggest cheerleaders for the U.S. invasion of Iraq were exiled opposition figures, many of whom had left the country decades before. When they returned, essentially on the back of U.S. tanks, they were marginalized by local armed groups more loyal to Iran.

There are several large Iranian opposition groups based abroad. But they are not united and it’s unclear how much support any of them has inside the country.

FILE – Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, holds a news conference in Paris on June 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, File)

The closest thing to a unifying opposition figure is Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the theocracy to power. But many Iranians have bitter memories of repression under the shah, and others might reject Pahlavi over his outreach to Israel, especially if he tries to ride to power on the back of a foreign invasion.

Chaos is practically guaranteed

In Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — and in Syria and Yemen after their 2011 uprisings — a familiar pattern emerged when governments were overthrown or seriously weakened.

FILE – Hundreds of people desperate to escape Afghanistan run alongside a U.S. Air Force plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport in Kabul, Monday, Aug.16. 2021. (AP Photo, File)

Armed groups emerged with competing agendas. Neighboring countries backed local proxies. Weapons flowed in and large numbers of civilians fled. The fighting in some places boiled over into full-blown civil war, and ever more violent extremist groups sprouted from the chaos.

When it was all over, Saddam had been replaced by a corrupt and often dysfunctional government at least as friendly to Iran as it was to the United States. Gadhafi was replaced by myriad militias, many allied with foreign powers. The Taliban were replaced by the Taliban.

Weissert reported from Washington.