Donald Trump has vowed to hit Iranian military targets if Tehran “strikes any Americans or American assets.” “We have … targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” and “if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets… Iran itself WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593974679769093
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112
Two mortar rounds hit the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone Saturday and two rockets slammed into a base housing US troops, security sources said, a day after a deadly American strike.
General Qassem Soleimani — head of the Quds Force was killed in a drone attack before dawn in Baghdad on Friday, an attack that has sparked fears of a regional war between the US and Iran. Iran pledged “severe revenge” in response, as a number of nations urged restraint.
In Baghdad, mortar rounds on Saturday evening hit the Green Zone, the high-security enclave where the US embassy is based, security sources said. The Iraqi military said that one projectile hit inside the zone, while another landed close to the enclave. Sirens rang out at the US compound, sources there told AFP.
A pair of Katyusha rockets then hit the Balad airbase north of Baghdad, where American troops are based, security sources and the Iraqi military said. “Several rockets targeted Celebration Square and the Jadriya area in Baghdad, and the Balad airbase in Salahuddin province, with no loss of life. Further details to come,” the Iraqi military said in a statement.
Security sources there reported blaring sirens and said surveillance drones were sent above the base to locate the source of the rockets.
Iraqi Troops Warned
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia group, asked the Iraqi security forces to stay away from areas where the U.S. military bases are located. The security forces were told to stay at least 1,000 meters away from the U.S. military bases from Sunday evening onwards.
According to the Iraqi security sources, two missiles landed near the embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad on the edge of the Tigris River. Another attack was carried out at the Balad airbase in the northern Salah ad-Din province, located some 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of Baghdad, which includes the U.S. troops and government contractors.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks. The statement also came during the escalated tension in the region following the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad early Friday.
