52 Iranian sites on target if Americans attacked: Trump

President Donald Trump warned Saturday that the US is targeting 52 sites in Iran and will hit them ‘very fast and very hard’ if the Islamic republic attacks American personnel or assets.

In a tweet defending Friday’s drone strike assassination of a top Iranian general in Iraq, Trump said 52 represents the number of Americans held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran for more than a year starting in late 1979.

Trump said some of these sites are ‘at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!’

Trump took to Twitter after pro-Iran factions ramped up pressure on US  installations across Iraq with missiles and warnings to Iraqi troops — part of an outburst of fury over the killing of Soleimani, described as the second most-powerful man in Iran.

The attack has prompted fears of a major conflagration in the Middle East.

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In the first hints of a possible retaliatory response, two mortar rounds hit an area near the US embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, security sources said.

Almost simultaneously, two rockets slammed into the Al-Balad airbase where American troops are deployed, security sources said.

The Iraqi military confirmed the missile attacks in Baghdad and on al-Balad and said there were no casualties. The US military also said no coalition troops were hurt.

With Americans wondering fearfully if, how and where Iran will hit back for the assassination, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin that said ‘at this time there is no specific, credible threat against the homeland.’

Iran’s army chief said Sunday that Washington lacked the ‘courage’ to initiate a conflict after Trump threatened to hit dozens of targets inside the Islamic republic.

‘I doubt they have the courage to initiate’ a conflict in which the Americans threatened to strike 52 targets, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

Trump warned Saturday night that the US would hit Iran harder than ever before if it retaliates over the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force foreign operations arm.

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike Friday near Baghdad international airport ordered by Trump, who accused the general of planning an imminent attack on American diplomats and troops in Iraq.

But Iran’s army chief dismissed the threats as an attempt to distract the global opinion ‘from the heinous and unjustifiable act they have done’.

The military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic republic’s response to a US strike that killed one of the country’s top commanders will be military, CNN reported Sunday.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was not consulted by its ally Washington over a US drone strike that killed Soleimani, an official said Sunday, as the kingdom sought to defuse soaring regional tensions.

Saudi Arabia is vulnerable to possible Iranian reprisals after Tehran vowed ‘revenge’ following the strike on Friday that killed powerful commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

‘The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not consulted regarding the US strike,’ a Saudi official said.

‘In light of the rapid developments, the kingdom stresses the importance of exercising restraint to guard against all acts that may lead to escalation, with severe consequences,’ the official added.

Demonstrators chanting ‘no war on Iran’ rallied Saturday in Washington, New York and across the US to protest the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a US drone strike.

Outside the White House, around 200 people gathered as part of a wave of rallies called by left-leaning organisations. They chanted slogans including ‘No Justice, No Peace, US out of the Middle East.’

Organisers said demonstrations were convened in some 70 US cities to denounce the killing of Soleimani. The attack has prompted fears of a major conflagration in the Middle East.

‘We will not allow our country to be led into another reckless war,’ one speaker outside the White House said.

The protesters later headed toward the Trump International Hotel, which is just down the street from the presidential mansion.

At Times Square in New York, demonstrators marched with signs crying out against the prospect of war with Iran and calling for the withdrawal of the 5,000-odd US troops in Iraq.

‘War is not a re-election strategy,’ read one sign in that procession.

Demonstrators also marched in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles.

Mourners flooded the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad Sunday, weeping and beating their chests in homage to Soleimani.

‘Death to America,’ they chanted as they packed Ahvaz’s streets and a long bridge spanning a river in the southwestern city to receive the casket containing Soleimani’s remains.

Iraqi protesters flooded the streets on Sunday to denounce both Iran and the US as ‘occupiers’, angry that fears of war between the rivals was derailing their anti-government movement.

For three months, youth-dominated rallies in the capital and Shia-majority south have condemned Iraq’s ruling class as corrupt, inept and beholden to Iran.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net