IRAN WAR DRUMS BEATING LOUDER

WAR DRUMS SOUND LOUDLY 

As Iran-backed militias

move rockets in range

of U.S. troops

The current ramping up of U.S. military posturing against Iran was triggered by U.S. intelligence that showed Tehran-backed militias in Iraq were moving rockets to locations that could hit American troops based in Iraq.

Trump administration officials have said the Pentagon’s bumping up of the deployment last week of a U.S. aircraft carrier and bomber group to the region was justified by intelligence on threats of a potentially imminent attack by Iran on U.S. interests in Iraq.

A report on Wednesday said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s surprise trip to Iraq earlier this month came after U.S. intelligence had picked up communications related to the movement of rockets in Iraq by Iran-backed militias there.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told top Iraqi military officials during a sudden visit to Baghdad on May 7 that Iraqi forces needed to keep the Iran-backed militias in check and warned that Washington would respond with force if the militias weren’t contained.

“The message from the Americans was clear. They wanted guarantees that Iraq would stop those groups threatening U.S. interests,” a senior Iraqi military source with knowledge of Pompeo’s trip said, according to the report. “They said if the U.S. were attacked on Iraqi soil, it would take action to defend itself without coordinating with Baghdad.”

Reuters cited a second Iraqi security source as saying communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence had shown that Iran-backed militias had “redeployed to take up suspicious positions, which the Americans considered provocations.” (Washington Times)