Month: March 2021

The White House warned that the U.S. may consider a military response to the rocket attack on Wednesday that hit an airbase in western Iraq where American and coalition troops are house. A U.S. contractor died after at least 10 rockets slammed into the base. It was the first strike since the U.S. bombed Iran-aligned militia targets along the Iraq-Syria border last week; no group has claimed responsibility.

The White House said that heightened tensions with Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq could lead to more attacks. Asked about the attack, President Biden told reporters, “we are following that through right now.” He added, “Thank God, no one was killed by the rocket, but one individual, a contractor, died of a heart attack. But we’re identifying who’s responsible and we’ll make judgments” about a response. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. contractor “suffered a cardiac episode while sheltering” from the attack and died shortly afterward. He said there were no service members injured and all are accounted for. British and Danish troops also are among those stationed at the base.

US warns of military response to rocket attack

Via www.usatoday.com

Wednesday’s death of the contractor heightens worries that the U.S. could be drawn into another…

03/03/2021 5:04 PM

 

Editorial credit: Glynnis Jones / Shutterstock.com

During questioning as part of the Senate’s investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a Washington, a member of the National Guard and a Pentagon official disagreed on the speed of response to the incident.

Appearing before a joint hearing of the Senate homeland security and rules committees, Maj. Gen. William Walker of the District of Columbia National Guard and Pentagon official Robert Salesses presented differing timelines for when Walker received approval to deploy the National Guard in response to radical supporters of former President Donald Trump who forced their way into the Capitol building.  Walker testified that it took more than 3 hours to authorize the deployment of troops in response to the insurrection. Were it not for the additional restrictions, Walker said he would have “immediately pulled all the guardsmen that were supporting the Metropolitan Police Department.”

However Salesses presented a different timeline from Walker, saying that after a call with military officials, McCarthy assessed what the National Guard’s mission would be and visited the headquarters of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department before securing final approval from acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller at 4:32 p.m.

The first part of the committees’ investigation occurred last week when the panel heard testimony from four law enforcement and security officials, including U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.

General: ‘Optics’ led Pentagon to wait hours before sending troops to Capitol on Jan. 6

Via news.yahoo.com

An official in the D.C. National Guard detailed the slow response from the Pentagon to approve…

03/03/2021 5:49 PM

 

Editorial credit: Thomas Hengge / Shutterstock.com