On Friday night (Saturday in Beijing), The Wall Street Journal ran an article claiming that the Iranians used satellite imagery from China for its missile strikes on a US base in Jordan. The strike in August killed three U.S. troops.

China’s Global Times has now responded to those accusations. “A Chinese military expert called the attempt to link Chinese entities to the attack flimsy, saying US officials are seeking excuses for setbacks in the conflict with Iran,” reported Global Times. Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the paper on Sunday that the US accusations do not hold up. High-resolution satellite images of specific locations are readily available commercially, including from companies in the U.S. and some European countries, he said. The availability of such images does not mean that the companies supplying them support Iranian attacks on U.S. forces, Song said.