Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization, released a statement late on Tuesday night claiming responsibility for firing multiple missiles at U.S. troops throughout Iraq.
According to Axios, the IRGC said, “The brave soldiers of IRGC’s aerospace unit have launched a successful attack with tens of ballistic missiles on Al Assad military base in the name of martyr Gen. Qasem Soleimani. … We warn all allied countries of the U.S. that if attacks are launched from bases in their countries on Iran, they will be a target of military retaliation.”
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin reported on Fox News late on Tuesday, “I’m talking to a well placed source in the U.S. military, on the ground in Iraq, and that source tells me that these are multiple tactical ballistic, or cruise missiles that are being fired from Iran at multiple U.S. bases and U.S. targets inside Iraq. They are under fire right now, I asked if they had any plans to evacuate, remember there are 5,000 American troops in Iraq and I was told ‘no, we are defending.’ So, expect an American response.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that in recent days IRGC General Hossein Salami threatened action against the U.S. homeland if America responded to Iran’s attack.
“And if they make a subsequent move, we will set fire to the place they love,” Salami said.
Journalist Yashar Ali, whose family is from Iran and who follows developments in the country closely, wrote on Twitter: “Dr Saeed Jalili, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council and an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, tweets out the Iranian flag after Iran launches a missile attack on an air base in Iraq used by the US Armed Forces.”
. @DrSaeedJalili, a member of Iran's Expediency Council and an advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, tweets out the Iranian flag after Iran launches a missile attack on an air base in Iraq used by the US Armed Forces. https://t.co/44GIHNmqob
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 7, 2020
It is worth noting that Iran has a vast network of terrorist proxy groups that they use around the world to carry out terrorist attacks. One of the most prolific terrorist groups that Iran backs is Hezbollah, which is an Islamic terrorist organization.
The U.S. federal government was involved in a massive 8-year investigation mapping out Hezbollah’s terrorist network, which included cells in the U.S., when former President Barack Obama killed the investigation to secure his now-failed Iran nuclear deal. Politico reported:
In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities. …
But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.