U.S. forces under fire in Middle East as America slides towards brink
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[November 09, 2023]
By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Ahmed Rasheed
WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A defective drone in Iraq may have helped
keep America from being dragged deeper into a widening Middle East
conflict.
The drone, which was launched at the Erbil air base by an Iranian-backed
militia before sunrise on Oct. 26, penetrated U.S. air defenses and
crashed into the second floor of the barracks housing American troops at
about 5 a.m, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
But the device laden with explosives failed to detonate and in the end
only one service member suffered a concussion from the impact, said the
officials, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the
attack. The U.S. had got lucky, they added, as the drone could have
caused carnage had it exploded.
The incident was among at least 40 separate drone and rocket attacks
that have been launched at U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias in
Iraq and Syria over the past three weeks in response to American support
for Israel in the Gaza war, according to Pentagon data and the two U.S.
officials.
The bombardment has only caused a few dozen minor injuries so far, with
many of the rockets and one-way attack drones intercepted by U.S. air
defenses in Iraq and Syria, where a total of 3,400 American troops are
based.
David Schenker, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank, cautioned that
while neither Iran and its allied groups nor the U.S. appeared to want a
direct confrontation, the risks were growing. The possibility of a major
strike that draws America into a conflict is "a very realistic concern,"
he said.
"I think they are calibrating the attacks to harass rather than kill en
masse U.S. troops," he said of Iraqi and Syrian militias. "But there's a
lot more they can do."
It's unclear how President Joe Biden would respond to a major attack
that kills a large number of Americans. Struggling in opinion polls
ahead of next year's presidential election, Biden has so far sought to
limit the U.S. role in the conflict mostly to ensuring military aid to
Israel.
The war broke out when gunmen from Hamas - the Iranian-funded militant
group that rules the Palestinian enclave of Gaza - burst into southern
Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking
more than 240 hostages. Since then, Israel has bombarded the coastal
territory relentlessly, killing more than 10,000 people, many of them
children.
Iran says it had no role in Hamas' Oct. 7 raid on Israel, though it has
welcomed the attack.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Iraq - where
most of the attacks on U.S. forces have taken place - to push Iraqi
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to crack down on the militias
operating there and avert any escalation.
Yet Sudani has had little luck in persuading the militia groups from
letting up their assault, or convincing their bankrollers in Iran to
rein them in, according to five senior lawmakers in Sudani's governing
coalition, a security adviser to the premier and a militia commander.
The prime minister and around 10 senior members of his government met
with the commanders of about a dozen militia groups in Baghdad on Oct.
23 to press the groups to halt their attacks on U.S. forces, said the
seven people, who were either present or were briefed on the meeting.
The plea largely fell on deaf ears, though, with most of the commanders
vowing to keep up their assault until Israeli forces ended their siege
and bombardment of the Gaza Strip, they added.
"No one - not the prime minister or anyone else - can stand against our
religious duty," said Ali Turki, a Shi'ite lawmaker in the governing
coalition as well as a commander with the powerful Iranian-backed Asaib
Ahl al-Haq militia.
Arif al-Hamami, another Shi'ite lawmaker, said the prospects for
diplomacy looked bleak: "I don't think that the prime minister has the
power to stop the attacks as long as Israel is committing atrocities in
Gaza with American help."
The Iraqi and Iranian governments didn't immediately respond to requests
for comment on the militia attacks and the risk of escalation.
IRAQ LEADER'S APPEAL TO IRAN
Iraq's prime minister has limited control over the militias, whose
support he needed to win power a year ago and now form a powerful bloc
in his governing coalition. The militant groups, which proliferated in
Iraq in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam
Hussein and his Sunni government, are trained and funded by Shi'ite
power Iran.
For Sudani, it's been a case of shuttle-diplomacy.
Hours after meeting Blinken on Sunday, the premier flew to Tehran to
directly appeal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other
Iranian officials for help, according to a senior Iraqi politician close
to the prime minister who was briefed on the visit.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken exchanges challenge coins
with the U.S. Marine Corps embassy security guard detachment in
Baghdad, Iraq, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Pool/File
Photo
Sudani asked the Iranian officials to pressure the militias into
halting their attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, fearing his
politically and economically unstable country could ill afford an
escalation that would see the Americans strike back against the
militants, the politician said.
The officials told him that the militias in Iraq made their own
decisions and Tehran wouldn't interfere in the situation there, the
politician added.
Iran has decried the retaliatory Israeli assault on Gaza as a
genocide and warned that if it isn't halted, the U.S. will not be
"spared from this fire." Meanwhile, the Hezbollah movement backed by
Tehran in Lebanon - a group that sources say have acquired powerful
Russian anti-ship missiles - has warned Washington that it would pay
a heavy price in a regional war.
'LAUGHING AT US IN TEHRAN'
Biden faces his own dilemmas as he receives a steady stream of
reports about hostilities in the region. Among attacks outside Iraq
and Syria in recent weeks, Iranian-aligned Houthi fighters unleashed
15 drones and four cruise missiles off the coast of Yemen that were
shot down by U.S. Navy destroyer with a crew of hundreds of sailors,
U.S. military officials say.
The present crisis has erupted following years of steady U.S.
withdrawal of military assets from the Middle East, including air
defenses, as Washington seeks to focus on Russia's invasion in
Ukraine and mounting tensions with China. That refocus accelerated
after Biden's complete pullout from Afghanistan and the Taliban's
takeover there two years ago.
The response by Biden has been cautious so far; he ordered overnight
strikes on two Iranian-linked arms storage facilities in Syria last
month while they were unoccupied, but has not ordered any strikes in
Iraq. On Wednesday, Biden followed up with a similar strike in Syria
and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cautioned: "We urge against
any escalation."
Biden has warned Iranian-backed groups across the region, including
the large Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, against expanding the
conflict but he and other officials have declined to be explicit
about what they would do in response.
The U.S. hopes a military show of force will dissuade any serious
attack and has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups and even
taken the rare step over the weekend of announcing that an
Ohio-class submarine had moved to the region.
Beyond sending air defenses like the Patriot system and a
high-altitude system, the U.S. military is also taking additional
steps to protect its tens of thousands of troops in the region,
according to officials.
The measures include beefing up security at U.S. military bases in
the region by increasing patrols, restricting access and boosting
intelligence gathering, they said.
The response to the crisis from Biden, a Democrat, hasn't been
strong enough for many of his critics, including Republicans in
Congress.
"They are laughing at us in Tehran," said Republican Senator Tom
Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Iran will
continue to target Americans until President Biden gets serious
about imposing severe costs on Iran."
At a hearing with Austin on Oct. 31, Republican Senator Lindsey
Graham repeatedly asked if the deaths of U.S. service members would
trigger a direct response against Iran. Austin demurred, only saying
that Iran should be held "accountable."
"I wish you would be more clear, because if one of these soldiers is
killed..." Graham said, pausing for effect.
For some, the recent attacks on U.S. troops stir painful memories of
the massive truck bomb in Beirut that shredded a Marine barracks,
killing 241 U.S. service members, 40 years ago last month. The
United States holds Hezbollah responsible for the suicide bombing
though the group has denied involvement.
David Madaras was a 22-year-old Marine when the concussive wave hit
him from the explosion in 1983. As he recalls digging through the
rubble where some of his friends were buried, he sees modern-day
parallels that make him uneasy.
"We had rocket attacks, mortar attacks, before we got hit with the
big bomb," he said. "Does history repeat itself?"
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington and Ahmed
Rasheed in Baghdad; Additional reporting by Amina Ismail and Parisa
Hafezi; Editing by Michael Georgy and Pravin Char)
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