The U.S. has withdrawn 12 B-1 Air Force bombers from a British military base over concerns that it might be attacked with drones by Iran, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. It’s just the latest example of U.S. forces withdrawing from military bases overseas because it fears Iran will hit back during the war started by President Donald Trump in February.
The potential attack was part of a “multifaceted Iranian plot” to kill some of the several hundred U.S. personnel at RAF Fairford in the UK, according to the Journal. Vice President JD Vance described the plot as “terrorism,” while speaking to reporters on a trip to Alaska on Monday.
“We do feel with some confidence that the Iranians are trying to do what the Iranian state has done for 49 years, which is engage in acts of terrorism against the United States and against a lot of other people as well,” Vance told reporters, emphasizing that the move was just the U.S. being “cautious.”
Strikes against military bases during a time of war are generally not considered “terrorism,” under international law, with that term reserved for attacks against non-military targets like schools and weddings. The U.S. bombed a school in Iran at the start of the war, killing at least 156 people, 120 of them children, according to NPR. The U.S. also struck a wedding party last month, killing at least four people and wounding at least 68, according to Reuters.
There have been claims by western officials that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had recruited at least five British nationals to carry out the plot against RAF Fairford, but they were intercepted and arrested last week before being released after just a day and a half. The men were initially thought to be involved in “terrorism offenses,” but their release has raise many questions. Mystery still surrounds what the men were doing, since they had vans that contained no explosives, according to the New York Times, which quotes one anonymous official in the UK describing them as “unwitting chumps.”
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, has dismissed British claims the men were recruited by or working for Iran. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree,” tweeted Araghchi.
The World Health Organization estimates at least 3,300 killed in Iran and at least 22 U.S. troops have been killed and hundreds more wounded since Feb. 28, according to the Washington Post.
The Associated Press published a new report Tuesday about many of the ways that American troops have received inadequate health care from the Pentagon, speaking with nine active Army troops, something that’s exceedingly rare during a time of war. The stories are harrowing, with some talking about how they go days without pain medication and failing to get properly evaluated by doctors.
The AP spoke with one soldier whose U.S. passport was blown up in the attack that earned him a Purple Heart. He still has shrapnel near his spine that can’t be removed because of the risk that surgery might paralyze him. Back in the U.S., he was recently asked to prove his citizenship because he was born in Texas to Mexican parents and was told his temporary one-year passport was not enough. After the AP inquired with the State Department, the soldier told the news outlet that “he received a call saying the request for more information was a mistake and he would be receiving a passport that would be good for 10 years.”
The U.S. has been forced to abandon many bases where it was previously operating in the Middle East, under the theory that they were sitting ducks for Iranian drones and missiles. At least 20 U.S. military installations in the region have been damaged since the start of the war, according to the Christian Science Monitor. That has created long deployments on aircraft carriers without the usual relief on land. The USS Abraham Lincoln, which is expected back in San Diego on Thursday, was at sea for 286 days, the second-longest deployment since the Vietnam War. The carrier saw at least eight suicide attempts in that time.
It’s unclear what President Trump will ultimately do in an effort to wrap up the Iran War, but reporting suggests he’s going to escalate the conflict after the midterm elections in the U.S. on Nov. 3. Roughly 10,000 more troops recently left for the Middle East. Polling shows Americans are dissatisfied with the war, with just 26% saying they approve of how the president has handled the war. Even approval among Republicans has slipped, with 60% of MAGA supporters approving of the war, down from 73% in March, according to CNN.
Source: Gizmodo