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US: Iran Intended to Kill American Forces in Missile Attacks Targeting Iraqi
Bases

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say they believe Iran intended to kill
   American forces with its ballistic missile attacks on bases in Iraq,
   even as President Donald Trump said Iran "appears to be standing down"
   from new conflict with the U.S.

   The ballistic missiles fired at American bases'Śwe believe were
   intended to kill Americans," Vice President Mike Pence told NBC on
   Thursday. "We have intelligence to support that was the intention of
   the Iranians."

   Pence's assessment echoed comments Wednesday from the top U.S. military
   leader, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who told reporters at
   the Pentagon, "The points of impact were close enough to personnel and
   equipment and so on and so forth, I believe, based on what I saw and
   what I know, is that they were intended to cause structural damage,
   destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft, and to kill personnel."

   No U.S. forces were injured by the 16 short-range ballistic missiles
   fired from three sites inside Iran, targeting two military bases in
   Iraq where U.S. armed forces are stationed. But Milley said, the
   absence of casualties "has more to do with the defensive techniques our
   forces used than it does with intent."

   He said that Iran, in targeting the al-Asad air base in the western
   Iraqi desert, "put 11 large rockets with 1,000-pound, 2,000-pound (more
   than 900-kilogram) warheads in it, but we took sufficient defensive
   measures."

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