Iran or its proxy forces may be planning further strikes on American interests in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday.
Without providing details, Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. has “indications” that more Iranian provocations may be in the offing. If that happens, he said, the U.S. will take action — preemptively, if it has sufficient warning.
He spoke two days after dispatching several hundred Army paratroopers to Kuwait as potential reinforcements in the region. Those troops were sent after an Iran-sponsored Iraqi militia attempted to break into the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
An Iraqi police officer instructs a bulldozer while Iraqi security forces remove cement blocks and opened the streets, that were closed for security concerns, around the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020. Iran-backed militiamen have withdrawn from the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad after two days of clashes with U.S. security forces. (AP PhotoNasser Nasser)
Speaking alongside Esper, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that if any group makes another attempt to overrun the embassy it will run into a “buzzsaw.”