US General Milley: Iran intended to kill US personnel in missile attack - Reuters
|Iran’s missile attack on Wednesday had been intended to kill US personnel at Iraq’s al-Asad airbase, said US Army General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff late Wednesday.
When asked if Iran would see this as an incomplete mission, given no US causalities and minimal damage, Milley said: “I think it’s perhaps too early to tell.”
He added that he and others in the military “fully expect” Shia militia groups in Iraq, backed by Iran, to carry out attacks against U.S. and US-led forces in Iraq and Syria: “That’s a very real possibility.”
Additional Quotes:
“I believe, based on what I saw and what I know, is that (the strikes) were intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft and to kill personnel. That’s my own personal assessment,”
“But the analytics is in the hands of professional intelligence analysts. So they’re looking at that.”
Iran on Wednesday fired more than dozen of ballistic missiles on the US airbases in Iraq to retaliate against the killing of their Quds Force leader Soleimani.
In response to this, US President Trump said that the US doesn’t have to necessarily hit back at Iran’s retaliation militarily, instead, imposed new economic sanctions on Iran and called for peace, as the Islamic Republic was “standing down”.
Trump’s comments induced risk-on trades extend into Asia, with downbeat regional macro news doing little to perturb the risk sentiment, as USD/JPY holds gains above 109.00 while the Aussie flirts with 0.6880 resistance area.
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