.NBCNews review of events surrounding the Soleimani strike and the Iranian response, based on interviews with more than a dozen participants, shows that the US and Iran were closer to war than was generally understood. More tonight on NBCNightlyNews.
Trump believed he had to act to reestablish deterrence, the White House official said, because the Iranians had come to believe he would not use force. In December, rockets fired by an Iranian-backed militia killed an American contractor in northern Iraq. When the U.S. responded with airstrikes, Iranian-backed protesters swarmed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, forcing diplomats into panic rooms.
Military officials say they knew the Soleimani strike was a gamble that could lead to war, and so the Pentagon made preparations. As a result, Bowman said, the U.S. was forced to send the troops to bunkers. “The Department of Defense made the decision that these Patriots were better utilized elsewhere," Bowman said, referring to the air defense missiles. He added that wasn’t necessarily a bad idea because the U.S. military was conducting a counter-ISIS mission and the threat from ISIS was not missiles.
The U.S. also observed that Iran was scattering its navy ships, a move designed to make them harder to hit, several officials said. Iran frequently disperses its ships when it is preparing to attack or to defend against an attack. The U.S. military assesses it could cripple the Iranian navy in minutes and take it out completely in less than two days, according to three current and former military officials.
After the Soleimani strike, which also killed other members of his convoy including the deputy head of an Iraqi anti-American militia, the U.S. sent a message to Iran through Swiss diplomats, threatening an overwhelming response if Iran went through with the retaliatory missile attacks, two U.S. officials said.
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