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The blowback has begun.
Delivering on promises to retaliate after the assassination of general Qasem Soleimani, Iran has launched missiles at at least two U.S. bases in Iraq, including the Al-Assad airbase. The strikes were reportedly touted by Iran as a “successful attack… in the name of the martyr” Soleimani.
Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman confirmed the Iranian missile attacks in a statement. “Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq,” he said, targeting “at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. military and coalition personnel at Al-Assad and Irbil.” The results of the attack were not immediately clear. Hoffman said the Department of Defense was “working on initial battle damage assessments.”
The Iranian counter-attack significantly increases the risk of an all-out war between the United States and Iran. The two nations have a decades-long history of animosity, dating to a 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran, countered by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-backed shah. America now stands at the precipice of a third major bloody conflict in the Middle East since the turn of the century.
The widening of the conflict is tragic because it was utterly avoidable. President Trump’s reckless decision to target a senior member of the Iranian government for assassination was predictably interpeted by Iran as an act of war. The government immediately promised revenge, which it has now exacted.
New York Times reporter Farnaz Fassihi linked the timing of the attacks to the hour that a U.S. drone struck and killed Soliemani.
Attacks were timed around 1.20 am exact same time the US assassinated Gen. Soleimani.#Iraq #AlAssadBase #Iran
— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 7, 2020
Farnaz also passed on a statement from the Iranian government calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region to “prevent more damage.”
#BREAKING: #Iran IRGC statement:
“We call on Americans to recall all their soldiers back home to prevent more damage.”#Iraq #AlAssadBase— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 7, 2020
In a tweet, Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote: “The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team.” A deputy to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi confirmed that Vice President Pence has briefed her “on the Iranian attacks on facilities housing U.S. troops in Iraq.”
In 21st century form, the missile attack has been accompanied by online trolling. Iranian diplomat Saeed Jalili taunted Trump — who had celebrated the death of Soleimani by pinning an image of the American flag to the top of his Twitter feed — with a simple image of the Iranian flag.
— Saeed Jalili (@DrSaeedJalili) January 7, 2020
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Featured via: Rollingstone
