Washington: US President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Iran, threatening to hit dozens of targets in the Islamic Republic “very fast and very hard” if it retaliates for the targeted killing of the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
The series of tweets came as the White House sent to Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike on General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport. US law requires notification within 48 hours of the introduction of American forces into an armed conflict or a situation that could lead to war.
The notification was classified and it was not known if a public version would be released. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the classified document “suggests Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security.”
In unusually specific language, Trump tweeted that his administration had targeted 52 Iranian sites, “some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.” He linked the number of sites to the number of hostages, also 52, held by Iran for nearly 15 months after protesters overran the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Thousands of Iranians lined Baghdad streets Saturday for the funeral procession for Soleimani. The Islamic Republic has vowed revenge for the Trump-ordered air strike that killed him and several senior Iraqi militants early Friday Baghdad time.
Read the article by Douglass K Daniel and Jonathan Lemire in The Sydney Morning Herald.