Trump Warns Iran After Rockets Hit US Embassy
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that Iran fired “several rockets” at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and he warned the Islamic nation of severe consequences if an American is killed.
“Our embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday by several rockets,” Trump said on social networking site Twitter, referring to an attack that caused damage but no deaths.
“Guess where they came from, IRAN,” he stressed. “Now we hear chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq,” he added. He then offered “some friendly health advice to Iran: if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.”
News of the attack came as the first anniversary of the killing of an Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike approaches.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had pledged to avenge the blood of his most favored military commander. Iran hailed Soleimani as a heroic national figure.
But the U.S. called the commander and his Quds Force “terrorists” and holds them responsible for the deaths of at least hundreds of American personnel.
THOUSANDS INJURED
Trump claimed in January that Soleimani had “killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans.” He said the January 3 drone strike that killed the general was needed because he “was plotting to kill many more” Americans and “should have been taken out many years ago.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear that Tehran ordered the latest attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Separately the U.S. military command for the region concluded that the rocket attack “was almost certainly conducted by an Iranian-backed rogue militia group.”
It said that while it “caused no U.S. injuries or casualties, the attack did damage buildings in the U.S. embassy compound, and was clearly NOT intended to avoid casualties.”
And it echoed Trump’s words saying the United States will hold Iran “accountable for the deaths of any Americans that result from the work of these Iranian-backed rogue militia groups.”
Amid the tensions, Washington recently reduced its diplomatic staff in the Iraqi capital adding to concerns in the region that it could close the mission altogether.
Reports of the attack also came on the day that Israel reportedly confirmed it was trying to convey sensitive messages to declared President-elect Joe Biden about dealing with Iran. Biden plans to rejoin the nuclear pact with Iran, which was abandoned by Trump.
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