Trump vows to hit 52 Iranian targets if Iran retaliates after drone strike

[rooster59]

Trump vows to hit 52 Iranian targets if Iran retaliates after drone strike

By Ahmed Aboulenein, Maha El Dahan and David Shepardson

 

Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces hold a funeral for the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, top commander of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, and the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

 

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites "very hard" if Iran attacks Americans or U.S. assets after a drone strike that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader, while tens of thousands of people marched in Iraq to mourn their deaths.

 

Showing no signs of seeking to ease tensions raised by the strike he ordered that killed Soleimani and Iranian-backed Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad airport, Trump issued a stern threat to Iran on Twitter. The U.S. strike has raised the spectre of wider conflict in the Middle East.

 

Iran, Trump wrote, "is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets" in response to Soleimani's death. Trump said the United States has "targeted 52 Iranian sites" and that some were "at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD."

 

"The USA wants no more threats!" Trump said, adding that the 52 targets represented the 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days after being seized at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November 1979.

 

Trump did not identify the sites. The Pentagon referred questions about the matter to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Among the mourners in Iraq included many militiamen in uniform for whom Muhandis and Soleimani were heroes. They carried portraits of both men and plastered them on walls and armoured personnel carriers in the procession. Chants of "Death to America" and "No No Israel" rang out.

 

On Saturday evening, a rocket fell inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy, another hit the nearby Jadriya neighbourhood and two more rockets were fired at the Balad air base north of the city, but no one was killed, the Iraqi military said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

 

Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said Tehran would punish Americans "wherever they are in reach", and raised the prospect of possible attacks on ships in the Gulf.

 

Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia warned Iraqi security forces to stay away from U.S. bases in Iraq, "by a distance not less than a thousand metres starting Sunday evening," reported Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to Lebanon's Hezbollah.

 

Trump said on Friday that Soleimani had been plotting "imminent and sinister" attacks on American diplomats and military personnel. Democratic critics said the Republican president's action was reckless and risked more bloodshed in a dangerous region.

 

With security worries rising after Friday's strike, the NATO alliance and a separate U.S.-led mission suspended their programmes to train Iraqi security and armed forces, officials said.

 

"The safety of our personnel in Iraq is paramount. We continue to take all precautions necessary," acting NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement.

 

Soleimani was the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' foreign legions. The attack took Washington and its allies, mainly Saudi Arabia and Israel, into uncharted territory in their confrontation with Iran and its proxy militias across the region.

 

France stepped up diplomatic initiatives on Saturday to ease tensions. French President Emmanuel Macron talked with Iraq President Barham Salih, Macron's office said. Macron also spoke with the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

 

VOTE ON U.S. TROOP PRESENCE

 

The United States has been an ally of the Iraqi government since the 2003 U.S. invasion to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, but Iraq has become more closely allied with Iran.

 

The top candidate to succeed Muhandis, Hadi al-Amiri, spoke over the dead militia commander's coffin: "The price for your noble blood is American forces leaving Iraq forever and achieving total national sovereignty."

 

The Iraqi parliament is convening an extraordinary session during which a vote to expel U.S. troops could be taken as soon as Sunday. Many Iraqis, including opponents of Soleimani, have expressed anger at Washington for killing the two men on Iraqi soil and possibly dragging their country into another conflict.

 

Soleimani, 62, was Iran's pre-eminent military leader - head of the Revolutionary Guards' overseas Quds Force and the architect of Iran's spreading influence in the Middle East.

 

Muhandis was de facto leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) umbrella body of paramilitary groups.

 

A PMF-organised procession carried the bodies of Soleimani and Muhandis, and those of others killed in the U.S. strike, through Baghdad's Green Zone.

 

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi also attended. Mahdi's office later said he received a phone call from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and they "discussed the difficult conditions facing Iraq and the region."

 

BODIES TAKEN TO HOLY CITIES

 

Mourners brought the bodies of the two slain men by car to the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, then to Najaf, another sacred Shi'ite city, where they were met by the son of Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and where Muhandis and the other Iraqis killed will be laid to rest.

 

Soleimani's body will be transferred to the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan that borders Iraq. On Sunday it will be taken to the Shi'ite holy city of Mashhad in Iran's northeast and from there to Tehran and his hometown Kerman in the southeast for burial on Tuesday, state media said.

 

The U.S. strike followed a sharp increase in U.S.-Iranian hostilities in Iraq since last week when pro-Iranian militias attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad after a deadly U.S. air raid on Kataib Hezbollah, founded by Muhandis.

 

Washington accused the group of an attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor.

 

Abuhamzeh, the Revolutionary Guards commander in Kerman province, mentioned a series of possible targets for reprisals including the Gulf waterway through which about a third of the world's shipborne oil is exported to global markets.

 

"The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there," Abuhamzeh was quoted as saying on Friday evening by the semi-official news agency Tasnim.

 

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Maha El Dahan in Baghdad and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Ghazwan Jabouri in Tikrit, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Nadine Awadallah in Beirut, John Chalmers in Brussels, and Kate Holton in London; Writing by Will Dunham, Mark Heinrich and Grant McCool; Editing by Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-05

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[Tug]

That’s our trump un encumbered by the thought process it’s all about visceral emotion no end game at all did anyone take a close look at the guys getting deployed again as Donald golfs on our dime they weren’t happy who can blame them all of this mess is so unessary 

[ExpatOilWorker]

Iran need to stop their action of terror and destruction around the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism

[URMySunshine]

9 minutes ago, Tug said:

That’s our trump un encumbered by the thought process it’s all about visceral emotion no end game at all did anyone take a close look at the guys getting deployed again as Donald golfs on our dime they weren’t happy who can blame them all of this mess is so unessary 

He gave a nod and a wink to his rich mates at Mar-El-Lago to trade the conflict ahead of the game though. 

[unamazedloso]

These pricks are terrorists and there is no denying it. Hit em hard and fast! 

 

[ezzra]

Iran despot regim is playing brinkmanship games with the wrong person ever pushing the red line, Trump is not a person you can read and take it to the bank and Iran has dropped the ball on that big time, provoking the US on many occasions thinking that Trump is a white Obama and that the US can put up with Iran BS attacks on US and its allies, and such an embarrassment and a moral downer to Iran was the assassination of this Sulimani that it will resonate for long time to come...

[Chomper Higgot]

Just now, ezzra said:

Iran despot regim is playing brinkmanship games with the wrong person ever pushing the red line, Trump is not a person you can read and take it to the bank and Iran has dropped the ball on that big time, provoking the US on many occasions thinking that Trump is a white Obama and that the US can put up with Iran BS attacks on US and its allies, and such an embarrassment and a moral downer to Iran was the assassination of this Sulimani that it will resonate for long time to come...

Right, so its Iran playing brinkmanship. 

 

'Trump' and 'bank' in one sentence, was that Freudian?

[neeray]

42 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

"The USA wants no more threats!" Trump said, adding that the 52 targets represented the 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days after being seized at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November 1979.

Interesting that Trump should draw on this number of 52 targets based on an incident from 40 years ago. Perhaps this is meant as a "hands-off" warning on behalf of the embassy.

[Salerno]

26 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Iran need to stop their action of terror and destruction around the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism

Yet "we" are happy to protect Saudi Arabia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#Saudi_Arabia

Edited January 5, 2020 by Salerno

[sammieuk1]

2 minutes ago, neeray said:

Interesting that Trump should draw on this number of 52 targets based on an incident from 40 years ago. Perhaps this is meant as a "hands-off" warning on behalf of the embassy.

He read somewhere there is 52 weeks in a year and 2020 will be the year of smoking turbans????

[rabas]

31 minutes ago, Salerno said:

55 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Iran need to stop their action of terror and destruction around the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism

Yet "we" are happy to protect Saudi Arabia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#Saudi_Arabia

Edited 6 minutes ago by Salerno

International terrorism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force

Internal terrorism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps

 

Mehdi Khalaji [a Persian] of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy argues that the IRGC is "the spine of the current political structure and a major player in the Iranian economy."[96] The once theocratic state has evolved into a garrison state, like Burma, whereby the military dominates social, cultural, political, and economic life, protecting the government from internal rather than external opponents.[96]

 

Shah's net worth $1B

Supreme leader Khamenei's net worth $92B

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by rabas

[Somtamnication]

Sure, why not start WW3 to avoid leaving office and be impeached.

[AlexRich]

Trump having a “wag the dog” moment, should keep impeachment out of the headlines for a bit. Don’t care for Trump but happy to see a world class scumbag taken out of this world. Can only see this escalating ... would be amusing to see Trump issue a fatwa on the Ayatollah ... interesting times.

[EricTh]

Those Arabic and other Muslim countries are going to side their Muslim brothers ie. Iranians against the Americans and allies.

 

Trump is a warmonger. First, it is a trade war against China and now this.

 

Do I see a World War 3 coming?

[ezzra]

Astonishing to see the juvenile and overly simplistic views in many of the comments here, as if Trump and the US are the bad guys here in Iran is just this underdog little helpless country who doesn't really understand what the world want from it and why they're being blamed for acts of aggression when all the they want to do is to protect their little peace loving country, many of the poster here either too young or too ignorant to learn from history of the middle east conflicts and of iran bloody history of wars and aggressions towards its neighbours and far away countries and iran hate anyone that is not a Shia, the US and Israel and will go to any length to show this hate... 

[RuamRudy]

3 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Astonishing to see the juvenile and overly simplistic views in many of the comments here, as if Trump and the US are the bad guys here in Iran is just this underdog little helpless country who doesn't really understand what the world want from it and why they're being blamed for acts of aggression when all the they want to do is to protect their little peace loving country, many of the poster here either too young or too ignorant to learn from history of the middle east conflicts and of iran bloody history of wars and aggressions towards its neighbours and far away countries and iran hate anyone that is not a Shia, the US and Israel and will go to any length to show this hate... 

Or maybe they are old enough or educated enough to know how the mullahs got control of Iran in the first place?

[metisdead]

Some troll posts and replies have been removed. 

[spiekerjozef]

I wouldn't stay in the Trump tower if I were you....

[ballpoint]

We've seen this type of thing before.  Trump accusing his "enemies" of something that he has either done, or will do, himself:

"In media appearances prior to the 2012 election, Donald Trump repeatedly predicted that then-President Barack Obama would start a war with Iran in order to win reelection".

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/03/politics/kfile-trump-obama-2012-iran-war-reelection/index.html

 

And, as for effectively declaring war on Iran without Congressional approval, well we've seen what happens when presidents try to do that as well.  In 2013 Obama asked for approval to launch strikes on Syria following the sarin gas attacks there.  The Republican controlled Congress denied it, and furthermore warned him that only Congress has the power under the Constitution to declare war (which is correct), and he would be up for impeachment if he were to bypass them in doing so.  I can't wait for Trump's 2020 campaign slogan, "Hypocrisy?  You know it makes sense!"  

 

[Bundooman]

3 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Iran need to stop their action of terror and destruction around the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism

So does the USA!

[Boon Mee]

Trump most assuredly will give those terror mongers a good and hard lesson not to <deleted> with American interests. 

We haven't forgotten about the the 52 Embassy hostages thus the number of sites we'll hit if Iran doesn't become a normal country. 

 

MAGA 

[Boon Mee]

Time is up. 

Unleash the dogs. 

[30la]

For Americans it is impossible to have peace at least for a short time!
All wars and conflicts after WWII were provoked by the Americans or Israelis!
Was there ever an American president without a war?
Stop it, you have already reduced the Middle East into an explosive cluster, ENOUGH !!!

[spidermike007]

I think this is tantamount to saying "bring it on". The last time a president said that it did not end well. Come to think of it, 17 years later, it has not ended. There is little doubt that Iran will retaliate, and there is little doubt they are not scared of Don Donald. What he did was the equivalent of Iran taking out Pompeo, the NSA director, and the CIA director, all rolled into one person. Iran can retaliate in ways the pentagon, the very White House, and the CIA has not even dreamed of. Expect utter mayhem in the coming weeks. 

 

President Donald Trump, contemptuous of his predecessor’s every policy, replaced diplomacy with “maximum pressure,” tore up the nuclear deal (with which Iran had been in compliance), and imposed suffocating economic sanctions. Soleimani's death doesn’t decapitate anything, as he was only the agent of a government policy that preceded him and will continue without him.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/suleimani/604402/

Edited January 5, 2020 by spidermike007

[URMySunshine]

Tucker Carlson a Trump stalwart has taken a widely different view to his master on this. Maybe some of the 'chest beaters' should take note. 

 

While he mostly refrained from criticized Trump directly, Carlson condemned "chest-beaters" who advocate for foreign interventions. He asked four questions that made clear his anti-war point of view: "Is Iran really the greatest threat we face? And who's actually benefiting from this? And why are we continuing to ignore the decline of our own country in favor of jumping into another quagmire from which there is no obvious exit? By the way, if we're still in Afghanistan, 19 years, sad years, later, what makes us think there's a quick way out of Iran?"

 

 

[Opl]

51 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Trump most assuredly will give those terror mongers a good and hard lesson not to <deleted> with American interests. 

We haven't forgotten about the the 52 Embassy hostages thus the number of sites we'll hit if Iran doesn't become a normal country. 

 

MAGA 

what about S.A and 911 victims? 

[MaxYakov]

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Sure, why not start WW3 to avoid leaving office and be impeached.

We've been in WWIII since 9/11 (if you're not even counting the Cold War with Russia). Where have you been? We should be worried about WWIV, the probable nuclear one.

Edited January 5, 2020 by MaxYakov

[Cory1848]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Trump most assuredly will give those terror mongers a good and hard lesson not to <deleted> with American interests. 

We haven't forgotten about the the 52 Embassy hostages thus the number of sites we'll hit if Iran doesn't become a normal country. 

 

MAGA 

You’re right, we haven’t forgotten about the 52 embassy hostages, but what’s remarkable about them is that they all got out of Iran alive, through long patience and restraint on the part of Jimmy Carter and his negotiating partners in Iran. In fact, no one died during the whole ordeal, with the exception of some ten people during the attempted helicopter rescue (thwarted by a sandstorm).

 

What’s astonishing to me is not so much the venality and willful ignorance of men rushing into war (like Trump, or Bush II, or even LBJ), but the readiness of whole populations, swayed by propaganda into a blind fury, to follow along like sheep.

 

It seems like you’re hungry for slaughter. As I asked somewhere else, I assume then that you’ll be the first to send your own children, or your neighbor’s children, into the thick of it (?)

 

Iran is indeed a troubled country (I have friends there, and they tell me). But what I’m waiting for more is for the United States to itself become “normal.”

[ThaiBunny]

7 minutes ago, Cory1848 said:

What’s astonishing to me is not so much the venality and willful ignorance of men rushing into war (like Trump, or Bush II, or even LBJ), but the readiness of whole populations, swayed by propaganda into a blind fury, to follow along like sheep.

It's foreign policy conducted at the level of the kindergarten playground

[ratcatcher]

1 hour ago, sanuk711 said:

Just seen a news clip of Soleimani's funeral... ...I had no idea it was taking place in Bradford. ..

This is Soleimani's funeral pyre.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by ratcatcher