More than 3,000 troops head in … US commits to Kuwait – ‘Retaliation expected’

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CALLS FOR UNITY AS KUWAIT URGES RESTRAINT

U.S. Army soldiers with their gear head to an awaiting bus Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 at Fort Bragg, N.C., as troops from the 82nd Airborne are deployed to the Middle East as reinforcements in the volatile aftermath of the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 4, (Agencies): The US Chargé d’Affaires in Kuwait Larry Memot said Friday the United States remains committed to the security of Kuwait and the stability of the region, reports Al-Rai daily.

In a statement to the Al-Rai daily, he said retaliation from Iran in response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani is expected, but stressed the embassy, as usual, will keep Americans and our Kuwaiti friends informed about any developments related to the threats and possible dangers with total accuracy and transparency.

He added that Soleimani and the terrorist organization he heads are responsible for killing hundreds of Americans, members of the coalition forces, innocent civilians, and wounding thousands of them. He pointed out, the American strike was to deter future Iranian attacks which Soleimani was planning.

The United States is, meanwhile, sending nearly 3,000 more Army troops to the Mideast as reinforcements in the volatile aftermath of the killing of the Iranian general in a strike ordered by President Donald Trump, defense officials said Friday.

Also Friday, the Pentagon placed an Army brigade in Italy on alert to fly into Lebanon if needed to protect the American Embassy there, part of a series of military moves to protect US interests in the Middle East. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official said the US could send 130 to more than 700 troops to Beirut from Italy.

The official was not authorized to be identified. Reinforcements were ordered as US officials said they had compelling intelligence that Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force who was killed in the US strike early Friday, was planning a significant campaign of violence against the United States. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision not yet announced by the Pentagon, said the troops are from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

They are in addition to about 700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne who deployed to Kuwait earlier this week after the storming of the US Embassy compound in Baghdad by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters. The dispatching of extra troops reflects concern about potential Iranian retaliatory action for the killing Thursday of Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force.

But it also runs counter to Trump’s repeated push to extract the United States from Mideast conflicts. Prior to this week’s troop deployments, the administration had sent 14,000 additional troops to the Mideast since May, when it first publicly claimed Iran was planning attacks on US interests. The reinforcements took shape as Trump gave his first comments on the strike, declaring that he ordered the killing of Soleimani because he had killed and wounded many Americans over the years and was plotting to kill many more. “He should have been taken out many years ago,” he added.

The strike marked a major escalation in the conflict between Washington and Iran, as Iran vowed “harsh retaliation” for the killing of the senior military leader. The two nations have faced repeated crises since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions. The United States urged its citizens to leave Iraq “immediately” as fears mounted that the strike and any retaliation by Iran could ignite a conflict that engulfs the region.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the strike as “wholly lawful,” saying that Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat against the US and its interests in the region. “There was an imminent attack,” Pompeo told Fox News. “The orchestrator, the primary motivator for the attack, was Qassem Soleimani.”

The White House did not inform lawmakers before the strike. It was expected to give classified briefings to members of Congress and staff in the afternoon. Defense Secretary Mark Esper notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the strike shortly before the Pentagon confirmed it publicly. P

ompeo called world leaders Friday to explain and defend Trump’s decision to order the airstrike that has sparked fears of an explosion of anti-American protests as well as more violence in the already unstable Middle East. The State Department said Pompeo had spoken Friday with top officials in Afghanistan, Britain, China, France, Germany and Pakistan.

In his calls with the British and German foreign ministers as well as China’s state councilor, Pompeo stressed that Trump acted to counter an imminent threat to US lives in the region but also that the US is committed to “de-escalation” of tensions, according to the department’s summaries of the conversations. De-escalation was not mentioned in the department’s summary of his call with the French foreign minister, nor in his calls with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani or the Pakistani military chief of staff.

In those calls Pompeo “underscored the Iranian regime’s destabilizing actions through the region and the Trump Administration’s resolve in protecting American interests, personnel, facilities and partners,” the department said. Trump opted not to play a round of golf on Friday, and he was not expected to be seen publicly until he travels to Miami for an afternoon event for his reelection campaign.

Thousands of mourners chanting “America is the Great Satan” marched in a funeral procession Saturday through Baghdad for Iran’s top general and Iraqi militant leaders, who were killed in a US airstrike. Iran has vowed harsh retaliation, raising fears of an all-out war.

US President says he ordered the strike to prevent a conflict. His administration says Soleimani was plotting a series of attacks that endangered American troops and officials, without providing evidence. An official with the US-led coalition in Iraq said it has scaled back operations and boosted “security and defensive measures” at bases hosting coalition forces in the country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations. The mourners, mostly men in black military fatigues, carried Iraqi flags and the flags of Iran-backed militias that are fiercely loyal to Soleimani.

They were also mourning Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a senior Iraqi militia commander who was killed in the same strike. The mourners, many of them in tears, chanted: “No, No, America,” and “Death to America, death to Israel.” Mohammed Fadl, a mourner dressed in black, said the funeral is an expression of loyalty to the slain leaders. “It is a painful strike, but it will not shake us,” he said. Two helicopters hovered over the procession, which was attended by Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and leaders of Iran-backed militias. The procession later made its way to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, in central Iraq. The gates to Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies, including the US Embassy, were closed. Iraq, which is closely allied with both Washington and Tehran, condemned the airstrike that killed Soleimani and called it an attack on its national sovereignty.

Parliament is to meet for an emergency session on Sunday, and the government has come under mounting pressure to expel the 5,200 American troops based in the country, who are there to help prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group. Hadi al-Amiri, who heads a large parliamentary bloc and is expected to replace al-Muhandis as deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Iran-backed militias, was among those paying their final respects. “Rest assured,” he said before al- Muhandis’ coffin in a video circulated on social media.

“The price of your pure blood will be the exit of US forces from Iraq forever.” The US has ordered all citizens to leave Iraq and closed its embassy in Baghdad, where Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters staged two days of violent protests earlier this week in which they breached the compound. Britain and France also warned their citizens to avoid or strictly limit travel in Iraq. No one was hurt in the embassy protests, which came in response to US airstrikes that killed 25 Iran-backed militiamen in Iraq and Syria.

The US said the strikes were in response to a rocket attack that killed a US contractor in northern Iraq, which Washington blamed on the militias. Tensions between the US and Iran have steadily intensified since Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal and restore crippling sanctions. The administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign has led Iran to openly abandon commitments under the deal.

The US has also blamed Iran for a wave of increasingly provocative attacks in the region, including the sabotage of oil tankers in the Arabian Gulf and an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure in September that temporarily halved its production. Iran denied involvement in those attacks, but admitted to shooting down a US surveillance drone in June that it said had strayed into its airspace. On Saturday, billboards appeared on major streets in Iran showing Soleimani and carrying the warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “harsh revenge” awaits the US. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Soleimani’s home in Tehran to express his condolences. “The Americans did not realize what a great mistake they made,” Rouhani said. “They will see the effects of this criminal act, not only today but for years to come.”

On the streets of Tehran, many said they mourned Soleimani and some demanded revenge. “I don’t think there will be a war, but we must get his revenge,” said Hojjat Sanieefar. America “can’t hit and run anymore,” he added. Another man, who only identified himself as Amir, was worried. “If there is a war, I am 100 percent sure it will not be to our betterment. The situation will certainly get worse,” he said. Global powers had warned Friday that the killing of Soleimani could spark a dangerous new escalation, with many calling for restraint. Iran’s state TV reported that Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, made an unplanned trip to Iran where he met with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The Qatari diplomat was also set to meet with Rouhani. Qatar hosts American forces at the Al-Udeid Air Base and shares a massive offshore oil and gas field with Tehran. It has often served as a regional mediator. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, took to Twitter to reiterate the Kingdom’s call for “self-restraint” to avoid “unbearable consequences.” Another Saudi official confirmed to The Associated Press that the US did not give a heads-up to Saudi Arabia or its other Gulf allies before carrying out the strike that killed Soleimani.

The official was not authorized to discuss security matters and so spoke on condition of anonymity. Italy’s Foreign Minister meanwhile condemned the strike that killed Soleimani, in a rare criticism of the US strike from a Western ally. In a Facebook post, Luigi Di Maio said the use of violence threatens to bring “destabilization and devastating humanitarian and migratory effects.”

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