US military bracing for Iranian attack as anniversary of Soleimani's death approaches, officials say



The United States military suspects that an Iranian-linked attack on American personnel and interests in Iraq could be immanent as the one-year anniversary of Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani's death approaches.

On Jan. 2, 2020, the U.S. launched a drone strike on an envoy near the Baghdad airport that killed the renowned Iranian military leader along with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

What are the details?

Defense officials reportedly expressed their suspicions of a retaliatory attack on Wednesday as two B-52 bombers finished a round-trip, 30-hour mission from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the Middle East. The mission was part of an effort to demonstrate American military might in the region and deter any action by Iran.

"The United States continues to deploy combat-ready capabilities into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to deter any potential adversary, and make clear that we are ready and able to respond to any aggression directed at Americans or our interests," said Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command, according to the Washington Post.

"We do not seek conflict, but no one should underestimate our ability to defend our forces or to act decisively in response to any attack," he added.

Another defense official speaking anonymously told the Post that "the threat streams are very real" and that a "fair amount of advanced conventional weaponry" has flowed over the border from Iran into Iraq in recent weeks.

Last week, McKenzie similarly indicated to ABC News that U.S. forces remained "in a period of heightened risk," but emphasized that the military is "not looking for war with Iran."

Those comments came as the U.S. Navy acknowledged that it sent a submarine into the Persian Gulf, "a move widely seen as sending a message to Iran," the outlet reported.

What else?

Soleimani's death was a major blow to the terror-sponsoring Iranian regime as he was the leader of the elite Quds Force, a special wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. For years, he had coordinated attacks on U.S. forces and assets in the Middle East.

Given how high profile a leader he was, a retaliatory attack near the anniversary of his death is certainly a possibility, especially as tensions rise in the region.

Last week, unknown attackers launched more than 20 rockets on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, killing at least one Iraqi civilian, though no Americans were hurt. Iran denied any involvement, but the Post reported that U.S. officials believe the attack was carried out by militias coordinating with the regime.

President Trump responded to the attack with a sober warning for Iran:

...Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.
— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1608760033.0

Sen. Cotton tells Levin about his time contending with Soleimani's terror campaign against US troops

Sunday night on Fox News' "Life, Liberty & Levin," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called out his Democratic colleagues for their critical responses to the airstrike that killed Iranian general and terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani earlier this month.

"I was very disappointed at all my Democratic colleagues in the Senate, I've got to say, over the last few weeks," Cotton told LevinTV host Mark Levin. "Because if you've got a chance to take a mastermind like Qassem Soleimani off the battlefield, you take it, and I commend the president for doing so. We should have done it a long time ago."

Cotton told Levin that he has seen intelligence saying that Soleimani was indeed "plotting something large, something very dangerous."

"The question of whether an attack is imminent or not, Mark, I've got to say, looks very different if you're a soldier sitting in Iraq than if you're some comfortable senator sitting behind armed guards in Washington, D.C.," Cotton said.

And Cotton would know. His experience in dealing with Iran's campaign of violence against American troops goes back over a decade to his deployment as an infantry officer in the Iraq war, he explained.

"We saw sectarian warfare almost every single day in Baghdad, fueled in no small part by Iranian meddling," Cotton said, adding that "the most deadly weapon we faced was a particularly sophisticated kind of roadside bomb that was manufactured in Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard QUDS force, led by Qassem Soleimani, who has the blood of hundreds of American soldiers on his hands because of that meddling in the Iraq war."

"So my history with Iran goes very far back," Cotton said.

When asked what the justification is for not simply getting out of the Middle East as a whole, Cotton said that Iran has "been waging war against us for 40 years, and we cannot allow Iran to wage a proxy war against us without fighting back. He said that he would like to see a smaller U.S. presence in Iraq, "but also a stable country in which you don't see a vicious terrorist organization like the Islamic State rise from the ashes and start threatening Americans again."

WATCH:

Disclosure: The author of this story is taking a graduate school course taught by Sen. Cotton this semester; his reporting is his own.

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Levin: No more debate: 'The Democrat Party hates America'

Monday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin returned from his holiday break to weigh in on the reaction to President Trump's decision to kill Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

"I think it is unequivocal now. There's simply no debate that the Democrat Party hates America. That the Democrat Party press hate America. They hate this country to its core," Levin said.

"The commander in chief, the president of the United States, exercises his solemn duty under the Constitution to protect this nation, to protect our armed forces, to protect our embassy, to prevent a regime of almost half a century at war with the United States from conducting itself in a way that harms further American citizens."

"And the commander in chief is under full-scale 24/7 attack by the Democrat Party media."

Listen:

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