Trump Dials Back After Pompeo Blames Iran for Rocket Attack

Trump says 'we shouldn't say yet' after days of Pompeo allegations

When the US is going to blame Iran for something, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is going to be at the front of the line. Multiple times in the past week, Pompeo blamed Iran for rocket attacks in Iraq, sometimes by way of proxies, and sometimes directly.

On Friday, Pompeo was almost in a position to do this again, but this time he and President Trump were together at the press conference. Trump interjected, saying “maybe we shouldn’t say yet.” Pompeo promised to “get back” to reporters on that, which almost certainly means blaming Iran as soon as Trump isn’t in earshot.

The facts of the rocket attacks still aren’t clear. 15 rockets hit Camp Taji, killing two US troops, but who fired the rockets? The US has accused Kataib Hezbollah, or simply Iran, but has offered no evidence that it was actually them.

A group calling itself the “Revolutionary League,” about which little is known, has claimed they were the ones behind the rocket strike, and given how many factions have access to the rockets, it’s difficult to say it was definitely one group over the others without proper evidence.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.