Iran’s missile attack on Wednesday had been intended to kill US personnel at Iraq’s al-Asad airbase, the top US military officer said, in remarks that suggested that Tehran was, and perhaps still is, willing to risk major US retaliation.

Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was not ready to say whether Iran was done after its unprecedented attack on two Iraqi bases that host troops from the United States, Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom and other nations.

Asked if perhaps Iran would see this as an incomplete mission, given the lack of US fatalities, Milley said: “I think it’s perhaps too early to tell.”

Iranian Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei addressing a gathering of Iranians chanting “Death to America,” said the missile attacks were a “slap on the face” of the United States and said US troops should leave the region.

Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to respond militarily to Iran’s attack.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, standing alongside Milley, cautioned that the US military remained “poised and ready.”

Source: Reuters