A U.S. B-52 bomber flies over Osan Air Base in South Korea, Jan. 10, 2016.
The U.S. military said two B-52 bombers flew a 30-hour nonstop round-trip flight from the United States to the Middle East on Tuesday (Dec. 29) to send a new jolt to Iran as it is planning a multi-pronged attack on the United States.
Fox News reported Dec. 30 that U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the two bombers launched Tuesday morning from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the third time in the past 45 days that B-52s have gone on a deterrent mission over the Persian Gulf with fighter escorts.
A senior U.S. military officer said U.S. intelligence monitoring indicates Iran is planning a “sophisticated attack” against Americans on the first anniversary of the U.S. elimination of terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani, Iran’s No. 2 figure, was killed in a targeted airstrike by a U.S. drone on Baghdad’s airport in January.
As of Wednesday morning, Iran had not publicly reacted.
Asked what kind of “complex attack” Iran might be planning, the U.S. military official replied that it could be a short-range ballistic missile, an “unmanned attack system,” a cruise missile or a “quadcopter,” similar to the attack on Saudi Aramco’s oil processing facilities.
“The scale of the plan and the sophistication of the attack envisioned caught our attention.” The military official said.
Iraqi officials have made several arrests following last week’s rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The U.S. military official said “the Iraqis are really stepping up their game” to avoid future attacks on Americans.
In a tweet two days before Christmas, Trump showed photos of the three rockets that failed to fire in the embassy attack, “Our embassy in Baghdad was hit with multiple rocket attacks on the 20th.” Trump said, “Guess where these rockets came from: Iran.”
The president added: “(I) offered some friendly advice to Iran: if an American is killed, I will hold Iran accountable. Please think twice.”
The U.S. military official said all U.S. military plans for Iran are “defensive” in nature and are designed to prevent an Iranian attack on the United States, not offensive in nature. The official added that the U.S. warning to Tehran has also been forwarded to Iran through internal Iraqi agencies.
When the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was attacked by a mob last New Year’s Day, a U.S. Marine Corps quick-reaction force was immediately flown in from Kuwait to help maintain security.
Days later, on Jan. 3, a U.S. drone flew over Baghdad International Airport, killing Suleimani and Iranian-backed militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Suleimani, who led to the killing of hundreds of U.S. troops in the Iraq war, was also responsible for a series of rocket attacks on U.S. bases and embassies in Iraq.
The U.S. military official said the bomber flight and the increasing U.S. firepower in the Persian Gulf in recent days were designed to jolt Iran and “send a clear signal to them that if they decide to take action against U.S. forces, we have the capability to respond.”
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