U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran or its proxies planned a sneak attack on U.S. targets in Iraq, and warned they would pay a “very heavy price” but gave no details. In effect, President Trump threatens Iran with dire consequences should the Mullahs in Tehran act irrationally.
With America busy containing the coronavirus, Iran sees it as an opportune moment to strike U.S. troops in Iraq.
Trump said in a post on Twitter:
Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq. If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2020
Trump must have been referring to intelligence or chatter the U.S. picked up in the region. He posted the tweet after his scheduled 12 p.m. ET intelligence briefing.
U.S. INTELLIGENCE
A a U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that U.S. intelligence about a potential Iran-backed strike in Iraq suggests it would likely be a deniable attack; as opposed to the kind of overt missile strike that Tehran carried out on Jan. 8.
The official said intelligence threads about a potential attack by Iran or Iran-backed forces had been building for some time. The official did not disclose intelligence on the timing or precise locations of any attack.
Speaking before Trump’s tweet, a top military aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Washington against “provocative actions” in Iraq, Iranian news agencies reported.
U.S.-Iranian relations have been bitter since the Islamic Revolution toppled the U.S.-backed shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in 1979 and ushered in an era of theocratic rule of terror.
After President Obama signed the Iran Deal with Tehran, relations have deteriorated after Iran began invading Arab countries and threatening the existence of Israel. As a result, Trump abandoned the Iran Deal in favor of strict sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
CRIPPLING SANCTIONS AND STRIKES WHEN NECESSARY
A Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who founded Iraq’s Shi’ite Kataib Hezbollah militia after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Iran retaliated with a rocket attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad base where U.S. forces were stationed on Jan. 8. The attack did not kill or injure any U.S. troops, but more than 100 were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury.
The United States has blamed Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah for a March 11 rocket attack that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier in Iraq. A day later, the U.S. carried out air strikes against its militants in Iraq.
Phillip Smyth, an expert who tracks Shi’ite militias at Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, said he believed Trump’s warning was prompted by the emergence of the League of the Revolutionaries. It’s a group specifically formed to give deniability to Kataib Hezbollah to attack U.S. targets.
The United States and Iran have also been engaged in a war of words over U.S. sanctions. Their aim is to force Iran to curb its nuclear and missile programs as well as its use of proxies to terrorize in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Washington has repeatedly tightened its sanctions, which are designed to choke off Tehran’s oil exports. Specially in the last month as the coronavirus outbreak has spread in Iran.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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