Trump’s U-turn over US troops in Middle East

DONALD Trump is sending 750 American soldiers to the Middle East – months after saying he was pulling US troops out of the region.

Another 3,000 are prepared for possible deployment in the coming days.

The move follows Tuesday’s attack on the US embassy in Iraq, which left parts of the building scorched. Mr Trump said Iran was ‘fully responsible’.

His secretary of defence, Mark Esper, yesterday said he had authorised the immediate deployment of the infantry battalion from the army’s 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He added that it was ‘in response to recent events’ in Iraq and at Mr Trump’s direction. Mr Esper did not specify the soldiers’ destination, but a US official said they will go to Kuwait.

‘This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities,’ Mr Esper said.

The breach of the embassy compound in Baghdad revealed growing strains between the US and Iraq, and raised questions about the future of Washington’s military presence there.

President Trump tweeted on Tuesday afternoon: ‘They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!’

American airstrikes on Sunday killed 25 fighters of an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah.

The US said those strikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor and the wounding of American and Iraqi troops in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that the US blamed on the militia.

Mr Trump’s decision to send troops to Kuwait comes just two months after he said that he was withdrawing American soliders from the region following the fall of Islamic State.