FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Trump says Iranian strike caused no American or Iraqi casualties

Trump says Iranian strike caused no American or Iraqi casualties

In an address to the nation from the White House on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said no Americans were wounded when Iranian forces launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against two military bases in Iraq early Wednesday local time, marking the most significant Iranian attack in a growing conflict with the United States.

"The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed in last night's attack by the Iranian regime," he said. "We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases."

He also called on European nations, Russia and China to abandon a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. "They must now break away from the remnants of the Iran deal," he said.

"The United States is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it," he said.

He added that the United States would impose additional sanctions on Iran, without offering further details.

"Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world," Trump said.

The al-Asad air base in western Iraq, which houses some U.S. troops, was hit by at least six missiles, according to a U.S. defense official familiar with the situation. In a tweet late Tuesday, Trump proclaimed "All is well!"

But Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that dozens of U.S. troops were killed in revenge for a U.S. airstrike last week that killed a top Iranian commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

Iran "slapped" the United States "on the face" with the barrage of ballistic missile strikes, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said. In an address in the holy city of Qom, Khamenei said that "military action is not enough" to avenge Soleimani's death.

The "corrupt presence of the United States in the region should come to an end," Khamenei said. He then praised Soleimani, who was buried in his hometown Wednesday morning, as a "brave and prudent" military and political strategist.

"He would go into the heart of danger to keep others safe," the Tasnim news agency quoted Khamenei as saying.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also alluded to the strikes in Iraq overnight, saying that the United States may have "cut off the arm" of Soleimani but that American's "legs" would be cut off in the region, too.

Iraqi President Barham Salih has described the intensifying U.S.-Iranian showdown on his country's soil as a "dangerous" development.In a statement, Salih condemned Iran's overnight rocket attacks "against Iraqi military locations on Iraqi soil" and said he rejects attempts to turn Iraq into a proxy battlefield.

The prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said he spoke to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the early hours of Wednesday morning, urging deescalation and saying that the region must not be dragged into the fray.

In a statement hours later, Masrour Barzani's government stressed that Iraq's Kurdish region would "not be a field of conflict."

Officials of the United Arab Emirates called for de-escalation after Iranian missiles crashed down on U.S. bases in nearby Iraq, while maintaining that the flow of oil from the region so far was unaffected.

In a tweet, Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said it was "essential that the region pulls back from the current & troubling tensions. Deescalation is both wise & necessary."

UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei, meanwhile, said war had not yet broken out and the situation should not be exaggerated. 

"We will not see a war," he said at a conference in Abu Dhabi, according to Reuters. "This is definitely an escalation between the United States, which is an ally, and Iran, which is a neighbor."

He added that the OPEC cartel of oil producers would make up for any shortages caused by the tensions between the United States and Iran in the region. 

"We are not forecasting any shortage of supply unless there is a catastrophic escalation, which we don't see," he said.

In London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he opposes any further military actions in the escalating conflict between the United States and Iran. Johnson also said that the "United States has a right to protect its bases and its personnel" and that Soleimani was responsible for sustaining the "brutal Assad regime in Syria" and supplying weapons and explosives to terrorists. 

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned Wednesday the Iranian missile attack on coalition bases in Iraq expressing concern over "reports of casualties and use of ballistic missiles."

In a statement, Raab urged Iran not to engage in further attacks, adding that a war in the Middle East would only help the Islamic State group and other terrorist groups."

Iraq's security communications office confirmed that 22 missiles were fired at its territory against coalition bases, with no Iraqis killed. The tweets said 17 missiles hit in the area of the al-Asad air base with two not exploding and five missiles hit Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region.

Iran's military has said that more than 100 U.S. targets in the region have been identified. In earlier statements, leaders have said the response would be restricted to military and civilian targets.

U.S. authorities have told commercial shipping to be cautious in waters near Iran and the FAA has banned U.S. carriers from Iraqi, Iranian and Persian Gulf airspace because of the "potential for miscalculation or misidentification" for civilian aircraft.

 

 

 

RELATED
nationthailand