US relocates missile defense systems to Iraq to defend against Iran
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Roshan Amiri
- . March 11, 2020
- . Update: March 11, 2020 12:11 pm
Washington is deploying air defense and missile defense systems to Iraq to repel possible attacks by Iran. This was announced on Tuesday by the head of the Central Command (CENTCOM) of the US Armed Forces, General Kenneth Mackenzie.
“In Iraq, we have about 5,000 US troops,” he said, speaking at a hearing on the committee of the US House of Representatives on Armed Forces. “We believe that in general we are taking sufficient measures there to protect them,” Mackenzie is convinced.
“We are also in the process of delivering air defense systems, ballistic missile defense systems, including to Iraq, to protect against a new potential attack from Iran,” the head of CENTCOM, whose Middle East operational area is responsible, added.
The situation in the Middle East sharply worsened after a US missile attack on the Baghdad airport on the night of January 3, which killed the commander of the special forces Al-Quds of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces), General Kassem Suleimani. In response, on the night of January 8, Tehran launched a missile attack on two objects in Iraq that the US military used: Ain al-Assad base and Erbil airport.
The actions of Americans have criticized the Iraqi authorities. On January 5, the Arab parliament adopted a resolution demanding the complete withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. US President Donald Trump refused to do so, threatening Baghdad with “unprecedented sanctions.”
