“The United States will do what is necessary”: Caution! Washington escalates tensions with Iran on Iraqi soil

United State. After several days Rockets You will reach the base with the allied forces on IraqChief of the Pentagon Lloyd Austin, Confirmed it United State He will do “whatever it takes” to defend himself. The data came out on Sunday, March 7, adding to tensions between Washington and … Iran On Iraqi soil.

Austin V. said ABC News The United States is investigating who was behind the launch of 10 missiles that struck the vast Ain Al-Asad military base in the middle of the desert in western Iraq on March 3. As France Press agencyNo US official was injured, but a contractor of this nationality had a heart attack while on his way to asylum and died shortly after, according to the Pentagon.

Austin said Washington was urging Iraqi authorities to act quickly and investigate who was behind the attack, the fourth in recent weeks against places where US forces are operating. We want to make sure that we, once again, understand who is responsible for it. The message to those who carry out an attack of this kind is that they must expect us to do what is necessary to defend ourselves. ” ABC News‘ “this week”.

“We will attack if this is what we think we should do at the time and place that we choose,” he added. Wednesday’s attack came five days after the United States responded to previous attacks, by bombing a border warehouse in Syria, which the Pentagon said was used by Iraqi armed factions supported by Iran and linked in the past to missile attacks.

Observers say that the missiles may be a way for Tehran to pressure Washington, which since President Joe Biden came to power has offered to reactivate the nuclear agreement with Iran, which his predecessor Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. Biden also said that the United States is working on countries to identify those responsible, And that it “will make judgments from that point.”

Austin was also asked whether Tehran had been informed that the response fell short of escalation. “I think Iran is fully capable of assessing (…) the attack and our activities, and they will come to their own conclusions,” he said. But what they have to take away from this, again, is that we are going to defend our forces and our response will be thoughtful and appropriate. We hope they will choose to do the right thing. ”