Skip to main content

"We Are Going To Respond": White House On US Military Base Attack In Iraq

The United States is taking the attack by Iran-backed operatives on a base hosting US forces in Iraq over the weekend "extremely seriously," the White House said Sunday.

"Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets" were fired by Iranian-backed operatives at Al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq late Saturday, the US military said, leading to one Iraqi and possible American casualties.

"It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat," White House Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said Sunday.

"We are going to respond... to establish deterrence in these situations, and to hold these groups accountable that continue to attack us," Finer added during his appearance on ABC's This Week.

"You can be assured that we are taking this extremely seriously."

Most of the projectiles fired at the base were intercepted by air defense systems, Finer and the Pentagon said.

Since mid-October, there have been dozens of attacks on the approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq and the around 900 in Syria, deployed there with other coalition forces to fight jihadists of the Islamic State group.

Most incidents, including Saturday's attack, have been claimed by "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.

The use of ballistic missiles marks an escalation in the attacks, which had previously been carried out with lower-tech rockets and drones.

Saturday's air base attack comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/hUeqMFC
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Power Firm Admits It May Have Sparked Texas' Largest Wildfire Ever

A US power company admitted Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas' history. Xcel -- the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state -- said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the blaze that charred more than a million acres (over 400,000 hectares). "Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire," the company said. Hundreds of homes are thought to have been destroyed in the fire, which is known to have killed at least two people and over 3,000 farm animals. Xcel, which is facing at least one lawsuit, denied its equipment was improperly maintained. "However, we encourage people who had property destroyed by, or livestock lost in, the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim to Xcel Energy through our claims process," the statement said. The W
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a
Post a Comment
Read more

All You Need To Know About Donald Trump's 1st Criminal Trial

Donald Trump goes on trial Monday for allegedly covering up hush money payments to hide affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election which propelled him into the White House. He will become the first former US president to go on criminal trial when jury selection begins next week. Here are the key questions ahead of the landmark trial: What is Trump accused of? As Trump closed in on victory in the 2016 presidential election, adult film star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual tryst with Trump. The payments, made by Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, were revealed by The Wall Street Journal in January 2018. Prosecutors have seized on the concealment of the payments as "legal fees" in the Trump Organization's accounts when Cohen was reimbursed as the heart of their case. Prosecutors say Trump "concealed the reason for these payments... which clearly were paid in order to influence voters," former prosec
Post a Comment
Read more