President Trump has told his aides that he may restart the full-scale bombing campaign against Iran if US troops are killed, The Wall Street Journal has reported, as the US and Iran have traded multiple rounds of attacks despite a nominal ceasefire.
The report came after the president downplayed Iranian attacks targeting US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, which were Iran’s most significant response yet to US strikes. The president acknowledged that the US hit Iran “hard” before the Iranian attacks and that Tehran was “a little bit provoked.”
A US soldier did die in Iraq on May 31, but according to the US military, it was due to a training accident, and several US troops and American contractors were injured by an Iranian attack on Kuwait last week. At least 13 US troops were killed during the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, according to the Pentagon’s numbers.
Like President Trump, US Central Command has also been downplaying Iran’s attacks, claiming they’ve all been defeated, though that was contradicted by satellite images that show damage at the US Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait following Iran’s strikes on Wednesday.
Iran made clear in its latest attacks that it will be striking harder in response to any further US attacks on Iranian ships or Iranian ports as it seeks to end the “tit-for-tat” strikes that have been taking place throughout the so-called ceasefire, meaning that the risk of US troops being killed will rise going forward.
Trump has suggested that the current status quo of a US blockade on Iranian ports and flare-ups involving drone and missile strikes could continue for a long time. When asked this week if the blockade could last until Labor Day, which is more than three months away, he didn’t rule it out. “I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be, but I think it’s unlikely. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” he said.
