(Wall Street Journal) Nancy A. Youssef - A deadly American drone strike Thursday in Baghdad was the first known targeted killing of an Iranian-backed militia leader by the Biden administration, marking a more aggressive bid to stop ongoing attacks on its forces there, U.S. officials said. "What the U.S. showed was that it can pick a specific terrorist leader, track him in a vehicle and kill him. We haven't seen the Biden administration do anything like that with Iran-backed militias until now," said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, "People need to stop taking strikes against our soldiers, and if they take strikes against our soldiers, we're going to do what we need to protect ourselves, as any country would do." Militias supported by Iran have carried out at least 120 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17.
2024-01-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive