During an appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby arrogantly rejected Iraqi criticisms of U.S. attacks on Iraqi soil. “We’ve got to take seriously the attacks on our troops and our facilities. In this case, in Jordan, three Americans were killed, three troops, three families now are grieving,” Kirby said. “The President’s not going to sit back and idly just take that. We’re going to respond. We’re going to respond as aggressively as we need to,” he threatened.
Kirby would not get into the details about what the exact discussions were between the United States and the Iraqi governments, but said, “There were appropriate notifications and discussions with the Iraqi government. I’ll leave it at that.”
The Shi’ite parties in Iraq have a different solution. Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization (described as “pro-Iran"), told Rudaw that U.S. forces no longer have a place in the country. “The attack on the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and their bases proves they [the U.S.] want to bring terror back to Iraq,” Amiri said at the funeral for those killed by the U.S. strikes.
