A rocket attack on a U.S. base in Iraq Sunday killed one person and wounded five others. The White House expressed outrage over the attack. The incident is seen by analysts as the first test of the Biden administration’s handling of the Middle East.
On Feb. 15 local Time, several rockets struck a U.S.-led coalition base in northern Iraq, killing a civilian contractor and wounding five others, including a U.S. soldier.
The U.S. Secretary of State John Blinken said on the evening of February 15 that the U.S. was “deeply outraged” by the attack. In a statement, Blinken said he had contacted Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Barzani to discuss the incident and promised to hold the perpetrators accountable.
At a 16-day press conference, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was asked by reporters whether the U.S. would retaliate for the attack.
White House spokeswoman Psaki: “The president of the United States and the administration reserve the right to respond, at a time and in a manner of our choosing. But before we take any action, we’re going to wait until the responsible parties are identified.”
After the attack, a pro-Iranian militia, the Guardians of Blood (Awlya al Dam), claimed responsibility, but provided no evidence. The Wall Street Journal reports that the incident poses an initial test of how President Joe Biden will handle the Middle East.
Patrick Basham, director of the Institute for Democracy in America: “This is really a test, and we’re very concerned that Biden won’t pass this test. Because so far he’s been reversing some of President Trump‘s more successful Middle East policies. For example, he (Biden) has been indifferent to the U.S.-Saudi relationship while being happy to do what the Iranian regime likes.”
After similar attacks in 2019 and 2020, then-President Trump shocked the world by ordering retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias and annihilating Iran’s number two, Soleimani, in January 2020.
Experts believe that the Trump Administration‘s Middle East policy is to strengthen its alliance with Israel and to help Israel reconcile with other Arab countries to jointly maximize pressure on Iran. The Biden Administration‘s policy, on the other hand, is the opposite of this.
Patrick Basham, director of the American Institute for Democracy: “The Biden administration is continuing the Obama-Biden administration’s policy of believing that appeasing, appeasing Iran, is the way to minimize conflict in the Middle East.”
The U.S. currently has about 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq, providing guidance to Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish forces. The former Obama administration withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq for a time in 2011, which was criticized for causing a power vacuum and inducing the rise of the terrorist group Islamic State.
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