The United States has warned that it will do “whatever it takes” to defend itself after the recent attacks in Iraq.

The United States has warned that it will do “whatever it takes” to defend itself, the Pentagon chief said on Sunday, Lloyd Austin, days after several rockets struck a base with US-led international coalition troops in Iraq, further escalating tensions between Washington and Iran on Iraqi soil.

Austin told the network ABC News What US investigates those responsible for launching 10 rockets that hit sprawling Ain Al Asad military base, located in the middle of the desert in western Iraq, on March 3.

No U.S. official was injured, but one U.S. contractor was, who suffered a heart attack while going for refuge and died shortly after, according to the Pentagon.

Austin said Washington was urging Iraqi authorities to act quickly and investigate the perpetrators of the attack, andThe fourth recorded in recent weeks against places where US forces are operating.

“We want to make sure that, once again, we understand who is responsible. The message for those leading such an attack is that they should expect us to do what is necessary to defend ourselves, ”he told ABC News“ This Week ”.

“We will attack if that’s what we think we should do when and where we choose.”added.

Wednesday’s attack came five days after the United States retaliated for previous assaults, bombing of a border depot in Syria which, according to the Pentagon, has been used by Iraqi armed militias, backed by the Iranian regime and previously linked to rocket attacks.

Observers say rockets could be a way for Tehran to put pressure on Washington, who since the coming to power of President Joe Biden has proposed to reactivate the nuclear pact with Iran, abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump in 2018.

Biden also said the United States was working on identify those responsible, and it will “make judgments from this point on.”

Austin was also asked if Tehran had been told that a response does not amount to escalation. “I think Iran is fully capable of assessing … the attack and our activities, and they will draw their own conclusions.”, valued.

“But what they have to get out of this is, once again, that we are going to defend our troops and that our response will be considered, appropriate. We hope they will choose to do the right thing, ”he concluded.

Following the attack on February 15 in the city of Ebril, the UN warned that Iraq could fall back into instability. The UN representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, denounced “atrocious and dangerous acts” which “constitute a serious threat to stability”. He also called for “restraint” and cooperation in the investigation between Erbil, capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan (north), and Baghdad.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), in power in this region, accused groups “in the shadow” of Hashd al Shaabi, a coalition of paramilitaries now integrated into the Iraqi state, of being “at the origin of the attack ”.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al Kazimi, denounced an attack aimed at “sowing chaos” in Iraq and pledged to prevent his country from becoming a “backyard” in which regional conflicts take place.

The attack, meanwhile, was claimed by a little-known group calling themselves Awliyaa al Dam (“Guardians of the Blood”). Security officials said they believed it was a cover name to hide known pro-Iranian factions who want coalition forces to leave the country.

Western military and diplomatic installations have been the target of dozens of rockets in Iraq since the end of 2019, most of them in Baghdad. However, Iranian missiles were fired at Erbil Airport in January 2020, days after Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was killed by an American drone strike in Baghdad, an attack that raised fears of a direct war between Iran and the United States.

With information from AFP

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