{"id":41086,"date":"2020-01-08T03:06:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T02:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=41086"},"modified":"2025-01-08T00:07:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T23:07:43","slug":"iran-launches-ballistic-missiles-against-american-forces-deployed-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/01\/08\/iran-launches-ballistic-missiles-against-american-forces-deployed-in-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran launches ballistic missiles against American forces deployed in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military targets in Iraq. The goals would be the North American bases of Al-Assad and Erbil, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/missile-attacks-target-us-forces-in-iraq-senior-military-source-says-iran-suspected\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fox News<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2018\/05\/07\/asi-es-la-base-gran-capitan-en-la-que-trabajan-los-militares-espanoles-en-irak\/\">This is the 'Gran Capit\u00e1n' Base in which the Spanish military work in Iraq<\/a> [Spanish]<\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2018\/08\/22\/iran-presents-an-f-5f-of-more-than-40-years-ago-as-its-new-national-construction-fighter\/\">Iran presents an F-5F of more than 40 years ago as its new national construction fighter<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><big>The missiles used in the attack would be short range<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Stephanie Grisham, White House press secretary, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PressSec\/status\/1214695482418700289\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has communicated at 0:49<\/a> (UTC + 1, Spanish peninsular time): <em>\"We are aware of the reports of attacks on US facilities in Iraq. <strong>The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team.\"<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mDh1lCr8Wsk\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Daily Wire has posted this video of the missiles launched<\/a>, noting that what US military media have declared to reporter Jennifer Griffin of Fox News: <em>\"Under missile attack from Iran. <strong>These are either cruise missiles or short range ballistic missiles. <\/strong>All over the country.\"<\/em> The image that tops these lines comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/Ain+Assad+Air+Base\/@33.794578,42.4515321,691m\/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x15453657bfd1876b:0x6203e5f25eaa6dba!8m2!3d33.793896!4d42.442989\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Maps<\/a> and shows the Al-Assad base, which would be one of the US targets attacked by Iran. This base is located in western Iraq, halfway between Baghdad and Syria.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mDh1lCr8Wsk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><big>An escalation that began with the assault on the US Embassy in Baghdad<\/big><\/p>\n<p>On December 31, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infobae.com\/america\/fotos\/2019\/12\/31\/las-fotos-del-ataque-de-hezbollah-en-irak-a-la-embajada-de-estados-unidos-en-bagdad\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">members of the terrorist group Kataeb Hezbollah, backed by Iran, stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad.<\/a> In the assault a US citizen was killed. US President <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1211981022084128768\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump blamed Iran for the attack<\/a>: <em>\"Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. <strong>Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible.<\/strong> In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>The elimination of General Soleimani, a terrorist linked to the Kataeb Hezbollah<\/big><\/p>\n<p>In retaliation for that attack, on January 3, a href=\"https:\/\/www.elmundo.es\/internacional\/2020\/01\/03\/5e0e7faefdddfff5b48b45eb.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US military forces killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad<\/a> through a drone attack. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infobae.com\/america\/mundo\/2020\/01\/03\/cual-era-el-vinculo-entre-qassem-soleimani-y-abu-mahdi-al-muhandis-lider-de-kataeb-hezbollah-en-irak\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The same attack also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, leader of the Kataeb Hezbollah<\/a>, the terrorist group responsible for the aforementioned attack against the US Embassy in Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/es\/TXT\/HTML\/?uri=CELEX:32019D0025&from=EN#d1e139-6-1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Soleimani is on the list of terrorists in the European Union<\/a> with the number 15. The US included him on his list of terrorists in 2011. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USembassyMadrid\/status\/1214542213067280384\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The US Embassy in Spain said about Soleimani: <em><strong>\"He caused the deaths of thousands of people and spent decades exporting terrorism and leading the IRGC terrorists who attacked and killed more than 600 Americans\".<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>The attacked bases were already on high alert following Iranian threats to the US<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Seg\u00fan ha se\u00f1alado el Pent\u00e1gono a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/missile-attacks-target-us-forces-in-iraq-senior-military-source-says-iran-suspected\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fox News<\/a>, <em>\"en los \u00faltimos d\u00edas y en respuesta a las amenazas y acciones iran\u00edes, el Departamento de Defensa ha tomado todas las medidas apropiadas para salvaguardar a nuestro personal y socios. <strong>Estas bases han estado en alerta m\u00e1xima debido a las indicaciones de que el r\u00e9gimen iran\u00ed planeaba atacar nuestras fuerzas e intereses en la regi\u00f3n.<\/strong> A medida que evaluamos la situaci\u00f3n y nuestra respuesta, <strong>tomaremos todas las medidas necesarias para proteger y defender al personal, socios y aliados de los Estados Unidos en la regi\u00f3n\"<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><big>The US already has a naval group and B-52 bombers in the area<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Fox News notes that <strong>US intelligence estimates that Iran has more than 2,000 ballistic missiles.<\/strong> The US response could be immediate, since according to USNI News, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2020\/01\/06\/usni-news-fleet-and-marine-tracker-jan-6-2020\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the USS Harry Truman carrier attack group is in the area<\/a>. Fox News indicates that this attack group <strong>includes guided-missile destroyers, a guided-missile cruiser and at least one submarine, ships that have hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles<\/strong> <em>\"with pre-planned targets locked into the missiles.\"<\/em> To that it should be added, as published by The Aviationist yesterday, that <a href=\"https:\/\/theaviationist.com\/2020\/01\/07\/first-two-of-six-b-52-bombers-deploying-to-diego-garcia-amid-growing-tensions-with-iran\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the USAF would be deploying six B-52 bombers from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, to the Diego Garcia Base, in the Indian Ocean<\/a>, located on a British island that already served as a platform for the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n<p><big>The current state of the Spanish military contingent deployed in Iraq<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Spain has about 500 military in Iraq, most of them deployed in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2018\/05\/07\/asi-es-la-base-gran-capitan-en-la-que-trabajan-los-militares-espanoles-en-irak\/\">the 'Gran Capit\u00e1n' Base of Besmayah<\/a>. The current rotation consists mainly of members of the 'Canarias' XVI Brigade of the Spanish Army. Their mission is to train the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS terrorists. Due to the escalation of tension in the area, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.es\/internacional\/abci-otan-empieza-retirar-parte-personal-irak-razones-seguridad-202001071718_noticia.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NATO decided to withdraw part of its personnel deployed in that country.<\/a> As Abc reported yesterday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.es\/internacional\/abci-otan-empieza-retirar-parte-personal-irak-razones-seguridad-202001071718_noticia.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">only 3 of the 13 Spanish soldiers who were deployed there remain in the Union III Base in Baghdad<\/a>, while in Besmayah the situation \"is completely normal.\"<\/p>\n<p><big>The links of one of the partners of the new Spanish Government with Iran<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The most alarming thing is that this conflict takes Spain in full formation of a new government with a partner, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2015\/07\/04\/pablo-iglesias-en-el-orgullo-gay-y-en-la-tele-de-la-republica-islamica-de-iran-el-mismo-dia\/\">the Podemos party, whose leader, Pablo Iglesias, has ties to the Iranian dictatorship.<\/a> In fact, a year before he founded his party, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2014\/11\/12\/pablo-iglesias-reconoce-que-se-ha-dejado-usar-por-iran-para-desestabilizar-espana\/\">Iglesias acknowledged that he had been used by Iran to destabilize Spain (the statements are in a video).<\/a> These links openly clash with Spain's role in NATO and with our status as US allies. It remains to be seen how Pedro S\u00e1nchez deals with this.<\/p>\n<p><big>+ UPDATED 3:24h<\/big> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FAANews\/status\/1214726433492393984\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The US Federal Aviation Administration has just issued<\/a> a notice to airmen (NOTAM) warning of <em>\"flight restrictions that <strong>prohibit U.S. civil aviation operators from operating in the airspace over Iraq, Iran, and the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>+ UPDATED 3:29h<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Lucas Tomlinson, a Fox News reporter who covers the news about the Pentagon, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LucasFoxNews\/status\/1214722825782726659\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">says<\/a>: <em><strong>\"No U.S. casualties in Iraq after missile strike from Iran, <\/strong>, but assessment still ongoing.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><big>+ UPDATED 3:33h<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Blesa Shaways, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kurdistan24.net\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kurdistan24<\/a> correspondent, has published images of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bilesa_Shaweys\/status\/1214708265935867910\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the remains of one of the missiles launched by Iran against the US base in Erbil<\/a>, in Iraqi Kurdistan:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49348479811_f753fbd49c_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49348479836_cd3c45eb07_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><big>+ UPDATED 4:45h<\/big><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1214739853025394693\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump statement<\/a>:  <em>\"All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good!<strong> We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far!<\/strong> I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.\"<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran has fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military targets in Iraq. The goals would be the North American bases of Al-Assad and Erbil, according to Fox News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10373],"tags":[13490,7950,13486,9189,822,11785,13489,13488,10431,3190],"class_list":["post-41086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-world","tag-abu-mahdi-al-muhandis","tag-brigada-canarias-xvi","tag-diego-garcia","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-kataeb-hezbollah","tag-qasem-soleimani","tag-united-states","tag-uss-harry-s-truman-cnv-75"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}