U.S. officials knew Iranian attacks on Iraqi-based U.S. forces in advance: Sources

美, 이란공격 알았나 "백악관 3시간전 회의…이라크도 사전경고"

There were no reported casualties from the Iranian attack on the U.S. military base in Iraq on Tuesday.
In fact, there are some sources that are saying that the U.S. knew about the the attack plan in advance.
Yoon Jung-min has the details.
Following Tuesday's attacks by Iran on two Iraqi air bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani,... sources say the U.S. military had advance warning of the attack.
The Iraqi Prime Ministers' office has said its Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was briefly told by Iran's Revolutionary Guards about the attack plan.
CNN said the U.S. seemed to have got the information ahead of the attack from their sources in Iraq,... while others said the White House was preparing for the attacks several hours before they happened.
U.S. President Trump, in his briefing, said no deaths or injuries resulted from the missile attacks.
Rather than a strong military response, he only pledged powerful economic sanctions on Tehran until Iran changes its ways.
An expert says that has now opened the door for the conflict to be resolved through dialogue.
"The fact that the Iranian attack did not result in human casualties, that means that Mr. Trump was not going to escalate and he chose to send a message of firmness, of confidence,... banking the win that he has achieved by killing Mr. Soleimani but at the same time, extending the hand to Iran for restarting negotiations about the nuclear and other issues."
The expert emphasized what's more important is that Trump has left much room for the nuclear deal with Iran.
"More importantly, restarting the negotiation within the P5+1 framework which Mr. Trump has been opposed to until now. He has always favored bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. But now, he seems to have changed his tune."
She went on to say that Iraq was stuck in the middle, something that Baghdad definitely did not want,... while the Iranian attacks would have made it more difficult for Iraq to kick out U.S. troops, which its parliament had voted to do.
Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.

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