China Spins Tale That the U.S. Army Started the Coronavirus Epidemic by Steven Lee Meyers – New York Times

BEIJING - China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the United States Army who visited Wuhan in October.

There is not a shred of evidence to support that, but the notion received an official endorsement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean about what they know about the disease.

The intentional spreading of an unfounded conspiracy theory — which recirculated on China’s tightly controlled internet on Friday — punctuated a downward spiral in relations between the two countries that has been fueled by the basest instincts of officials on both sides.

The insinuation came in a series of posts on Twitter by Zhao Lijian, a ministry spokesman who has made good use of the platform, which is blocked in China, to push a newly aggressive, and hawkish, diplomatic strategy. It is most likely intended to deflect attention from China’s own missteps in the early weeks of the epidemic by sowing confusion or, at least, uncertainty at home and abroad…

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Top U.S. Commander: Iran Threat 'Remains High' After U.S. Hits Back Against Iran Proxy in Iraq

Carla Babb and Jeff Seldin – Voice of America

PENTAGON / WASHINGTON - U.S. retaliatory strikes late Thursday and early Friday hit five weapons depots of the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, and the commander who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East warned that the threat from Iran and its proxies “remains high.”

“We are confident that we have effectively destroyed these facilities,” General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said Friday during a Pentagon briefing, adding that the U.S. military assessed “the destruction of these sites will degrade Kataib Hezbollah’s ability to conduct future strikes.”

Images provided to reporters by CENTCOM showed the five U.S. strike locations were within about 150 km of Camp Taji, the Iraqi base that came under a rocket attack on Wednesday that killed two American service members and a British medic and  wounded at least 14 others.

In a statement, the Pentagon described the strikes in Iraq as "defensive” and “proportional,” adding that some of the weapon depots had been used to store the Katyusha rockets used in the attack on Camp Taji.

Patriot Missiles

McKenzie said Iran was “ultimately” behind Kataib Hezbollah and had provided the group with large numbers of advanced conventional weapons. He said that while the United States had achieved “state-to-state” deterrence with Iran, the U.S. was now moving Patriot missile defense systems into Iraq to protect U.S. forces from Iranian missile attacks, although the Patriots were “days away” from being ready.

“I think tensions have actually not gone down," McKenzie said Friday. “They [Iranian leaders] have always respected our capability but they've had doubts about our will, and so our will is now a little more obvious to them.”

The Pentagon has been negotiating with the Iraqi government to send in Patriot missile defense batteries since mid-January.

McKenzie added that he was keeping two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf region to help deter attacks, the first time two carriers have operated in the region since 2012.

In a statement Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, "Instead of dangerous actions and baseless accusations," U.S. President Donald Trump "should reconsider the presence and behavior of his troops in the area." 

The Iraqi military confirmed the strikes, saying some of the targeted locations had also doubled as headquarters for the militia.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command called the U.S. strikes a “blatant attack” in a tweet Friday.

“I don't know whether the Iraqis are happy or unhappy. We've talked to them and expressed our concern after the attack. These locations that we struck are clear locations of terrorist bases,” McKenzie told reporters.

The CENTCOM commander added that it was “probably not a good idea to position” with Kataib Hezbollah “in the wake of a strike that killed Americans and coalition members.”

The U.S. action was swift but not unexpected, as top defense officials had indicated earlier Thursday that it was only a matter of time before the U.S. responded.

"The U.S. will not tolerate attacks against our people our interests or our allies," Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon. "You don't get to shoot at our bases and kill and wound Americans and get away with it."

'Red Line'

Even earlier, McKenzie, told lawmakers the death of U.S. or allied troops was a "red line." He added there was little doubt as to who was responsible.

Kataib Hezbollah is "the only group known to have previously conducted an indirect fire attack of this scale against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq," McKenzie said, referring to a rocket attack against a base in Kirkuk in December.

Following that incident, which killed a U.S. contractor, the U.S. responded with a series of retaliatory strikes, culminating in January with the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the Iran Quds Force commander who oversaw activities of various militias in Iraq, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Kataib Hezbollah's founder.

Despite U.S. assertions that it was behind the attack on Camp Taji, Kataib Hezbollah on Thursday denied it was responsible, urging those who were to come forward.

"Bless those who implemented the precision jihadi operation," the group said, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"We hold their hands," it added, saying, "now is the most appropriate time for the national and popular forces to resume their jihadi operations to drive out the wicked ones and aggressors from the land of the sanctities."

Militias like Kataib Hezbollah sometimes operate under the auspices of the Iraqi government, and the Pentagon said senior Iraqi officials were consulted ahead of the airstrikes.

Earlier Thursday, Iraq's presidency condemned what it called a "terrorist attack" on Camp Taji and stressed the need to find those responsible.

After the last round of U.S. retaliatory strikes this past January, Iran responded by firing more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Iraq's al-Asad air base, causing more than 100 U.S. troops to suffer from traumatic brain injuries.

U.S. Strikes 5 Kata'ib Hezbollah Targets in Iraq

C. Todd Lopez - DoD News

Just days after Wednesday's rocket attack on Camp Taji, Iraq, killed two U.S. service members and a military medic from the U.K., the United States struck back by attacking five weapons sites, the commander of U.S. Central Command said during a Pentagon briefing today.

Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said the U.S. used manned aircraft to attack weapons sites associated with Iranian-backed militia Kata'ib Hezbollah yesterday at 6 p.m. EDT.

McKenzie said those sites — all within a 30-mile radius of Baghdad — were: the Nawar Ahmad rocket storage site; the Kata'ib Hezbollah advanced conventional weapons storage facility in Karbala; the Al Musayyib weapons storage site; and two locations at Jurf as Sakhr, one for storage of improved heavy rockets and another for propellant production and storage of advanced conventional weapons.

"We assessed that each location stored weapons that would enable lethal operations against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq," McKenzie said. "We also assessed that the destruction of these sites will degrade Kata'ib Hezbollah’s ability to conduct future strikes."

Weather issues around Baghdad have prevented U.S. forces from doing a complete battle damage assessment of the sites following the attacks, but McKenzie said he remains confident that the attacks were effective.

"We're confident that we've effectively destroyed these facilities and expect they will no longer be able to house the type of advanced Iranian-supplied weapons that were used in the Kata'ib Hezbollah attacks on the Iraqi base at Camp Taji," McKenzie said.

The general also said he thinks collateral damage from the attacks was low and that there will be fatalities at the sites, but numbers can't be confirmed right now.

McKenzie said that the Kata'ib Hezbollah attack on Camp Taji was meant to include a total of 33 Iranian-supplied 107mm Katyusha rockets, but only 30 had been fired.

"Three were left in the vehicle and failed to ignite," he said. "Of the 30 that were fired, between 8 and 12, or 8 and 15, landed in Taji; that's a large strike ... that's intent to produce a lot of casualties."

Radar information, he said, was able to track the origin of the launches, and Iraqi forces were able to capture the launch vehicle and the remaining unlaunched rockets.

"The Iraqis actually went out and got the vehicle for us, which was very much appreciated," he said. "But, as usual, typically, the vehicles are left with a timer. There is nobody there when the rockets are fired, which is why the remaining three probably couldn't be ignited because they set a timer on them and ran away. It's a particularly cowardly way to fight, but there you go."

The U.S. will process the captured vehicle and the remaining rockets and get intelligence from them. While there are a lot of other weapons sites in Iraq similar to the ones the U.S. struck yesterday — and the U.S. knows where most of those sites are — McKenzie said the United States carefully considers attacking such sites, taking into account the relationship with the Iraqi government and also the potential for collateral damage.

"We work with the government of Iraq to go after these sites all the time, with varying degrees of  success,"  McKenzie said. "If we have information on a site, we share it with our Iraqi partners, and they'll go after those sites, sometimes effectively, sometimes not effectively. I'm not going to say that it always works, but it is their country, we need to give them the opportunity to do it."

The general also said consideration for civilian activities are also a consideration for why additional weapons are not attacked.

"When we look at sites, often they're commingled with civilian activities and there's a very high probability of civilian damage if we strike those sites," he said. "The United States is not going to do that. If we strike a site, we're going to find a site that provides collateral damage consistent with the law of armed conflict and our values."

Following the attack on Camp Taji, McKenzie said he has asked for two carrier strike groups to remain in the Centcom region. Both the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Harry S. Truman were approved to stay on.

"We're going to keep them for a while," McKenzie said. "We can move [them] around to present a completely changing potential threat to an adversary. So, the carriers are very ... important to us and we know that the Iranians watch them very closely, too."

McKenzie also said the U.S. is moving Patriot missile batteries into Iraq, as well, along with other systems, including a counter rocket, artillery, and mortar system, to defend the Patriot once it's in place.

"We are in Iraq to support the people of Iraq in their fight against ISIS," McKenzie said. "We always reserve the right to defend our forces whenever they're attacked or threatened ... I would caution Iran and its proxies from attempting a response that would endanger U.S. and coalition forces or our partners. U.S. Central Command is well postured to defend our forces around the region and respond to any further aggression against our forces."

Iraq Base Attack: US in Retaliatory Strikes on Iran-Backed Fighters – BBC News

The US has launched retaliatory air strikes against a pro-Iranian militia group in Iraq after a rocket attack killed two of its soldiers.

The strikes targeted five weapons storage facilities across the country, the US defense department said.

Two Americans and a British soldier were killed in Wednesday's rocket attack on the Camp Taji military base.

The Iraqi military says three soldiers, two policemen and a civilian were killed in the US counter-strikes.

It said the US had carried out "a blatant attack" on Iraqi military sites in Babil province and an airport under construction in Karbala province. It also said the headquarters of the Popular Mobilisation (PM) forces - an umbrella militia which is officially part of the Iraqi security forces - had been hit.

Earlier, a US commander said Kataib Hezbollah - one of the most powerful groups in the PM - was likely to have fired the rockets…

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