President Trump has given Defense Secretary Mark Esper authority to strike back at Iran following a rocket attack by an Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Iraq that killed two U.S. servicemen and wounded others.
“You don’t get to shoot at our bases and kill and wound Americans and get away with it,” Esper said Thursday of the attack at Camp Taji the prior night.
“We’re going to hold those persons accountable,” Esper said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley called the firing of some 30 Katyusha rockets at the base yesterday a “serious attack, significant attack.” But he declined to state if the attack on what would have been the birthday of deceased Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani was directed by Iran.
“We do know they are backed by Iran,” said Esper of the group, believed to be Kataib Hezbollah. “We are focused on the group, groups that perpetrated this attack in Iraq.”
Milley, also at the off-camera press gaggle, confirmed that about 18 of the Russian-made 107mm Katyusha rockets made impact, causing structural damage and the death of two U.S. servicemen and one British serviceman, and causing “blood wounds” to 14 others, including American, British, and Polish coalition forces.
A Pentagon official told the Washington Examiner that the low-flying profile of the rockets, fired from a truck some miles away, could not be stopped by anti-missile defenses. A return strike would require identifying an appropriate military target for a militia group that reincorporates into a community.
