Esper promises to pre-emptively strike Iran if U.S. receives intelligence of impending attacks
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday that the U.S. was anticipating more attacks from Iran following an assault on the American embassy Tuesday that caused serious damage, promising to pre-emptively strike the Islamic Republic if reliable intelligence of a forthcoming attack surfaced.
While Esper said Iranian hostility was “nothing new,” he also called the embassy attack in which hundreds of supporters of Iran proxy Kataeb Hezbollah smashed windows and burnt up a lobby an indication that “the game has changed” in the long-running tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
“If we get word of attacks or some type indication, we will take preemptive action as well to protect American forces to protect American lives,” Esper said, adding that the U.S. was “prepared to do what is necessary to defend our personnel and our interests and our partners in the region.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley elaborated at the same meeting that the “thirty-one rockets” from an Iranian attack on an American base Friday that killed one American service contractor and wounded several others “weren’t designed as a warning shot” but were “designed to inflict damage and kill.”