Iraq attack: US deploys troops
CHARGING that Iran was “fully responsible” for an attack on the US embassy in Iraq, President Donald Trump ordered about 750 US soldiers deployed to the Middle East as about 3 000 more prepared for possible deployment in the next several days.
No US casualties or evacuations were reported after the attack on Tuesday by dozens of Iran-supported militiamen. US Marines were sent from Kuwait to reinforce the compound.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that “in response to recent events” in Iraq, and at Trump’s direction, he authorised the immediate deployment of the infantry battalion from the army’s 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He did not specify the soldiers’ destination, but a US official familiar with the decision said they will go to Kuwait.
Additional soldiers from the 82nd Airborne’s quick-deployment brigade, known officially as its Immediate Response Force, were prepared to deploy, Esper said. The breach of the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday was a stark demonstration that Iran can still strike at American interests despite Trump’s economic pressure campaign. It also revealed growing strains between Washington and Baghdad, raising questions about the future of the US military mission there.
“They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!” Trump tweeted, though it was unclear whether his “threat” meant military retaliation. He thanked top Iraqi government leaders for their “rapid response upon request.”
American airstrikes on Sunday killed 25 fighters of an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. While blaming Iran for the embassy breach, Trump also called on Iraq to protect the diplomatic mission.
Robert Ford, a retired US diplomat who served five years in Baghdad and then became ambassador in Syria, said
Iran’s allies in the Iraqi parliament may be able to harness any surge in anger among Iraqis toward the United States to force US troops to leave the country. Ford said Trump miscalculated by approving Sunday’s airstrikes on Kataeb Hezbollah positions in Iraq and Syria – strikes that drew a public rebuke from the Iraqi government and seem to have triggered Tuesday’s embassy attack.
“The Americans fell into the Iranian trap,” Ford said, with airstrikes that turned some Iraqi anger toward the US and away from Iran and the increasingly unpopular Iranian-backed Shiite militias.
The tense situation in Baghdad appeared to upset Trump’s vacation routine in Florida, where he is spending the holidays.
FUGITIVE former Nissan chairperson Carlos Ghosn met Lebanon’s president after his escape from Japan, where he was smuggled out of house arrest by a private security company, two sources close to Ghosn said yesterday.
One of the sources said Ghosn was greeted warmly by President Michel Aoun on Monday after flying into Beirut via Istanbul and was now in a buoyant and combative mood and felt secure.
In his meeting at the presidency, Ghosn thanked Aoun for the support he had given him and his wife Carole while he was in detention, the sources said. He now needs the protection and security of his government after fleeing Japan, they added.
A media adviser to the president’s office denied the two men had met.
Nissan sacked Ghosn as chairperson, saying internal investigations revealed misconduct, including understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5 million (R70m) of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest.
Lebanese officials have said there would be no need to take legal measures against Ghosn because he entered the country legally on a French passport, although Ghosn’s French, Lebanese, | AP
and Brazilian passports are with lawyers in Japan.
The French and Lebanese foreign ministries have said they were unaware of the circumstances of his journey.
Lebanon has no extradition agreement with Japan, where he faced trial on charges of financial misconduct, which he denied.
Under the terms of his bail, he had been confined to his house in Tokyo and had to have cameras installed at the entrance. He was prevented from communicating with his wife, and had his use of the internet and other communications curtailed.
The sources said the Lebanese ambassador to Japan had visited him daily while he was in detention.
While some Lebanese media have floated a Houdini-like account of Ghosn being packed in a wooden container for musical instruments after a private concert in his home, his wife called the account pure fiction.
The accounts of the two sources suggest a carefully planned escape few were aware of. They said a private security firm oversaw the plan.