Meanwhile in Syria/Iraq

The United States military on Sunday struck five targets in Iraq and Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed paramilitary group, the Pentagon said, a reprisal for a rocket attack on Friday that killed an American contractor.

The airstrikes, carried out by Air Force F-15E fighter planes, hit three locations in Iraq and two in Syria controlled by the group, Kataib Hezbollah. Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the targets included weapons storage facilities and command posts that were used to attack American and partner forces.

A United States response to an attack that kills or wounds Americans is not unusual. But Sunday’s retaliation involved direct strikes on Iranian proxies, making it particularly dangerous ground.

[...]

ISIS has lost its territory, and tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington over the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

Rocket attacks over the last two months by Iranian proxies threatened the uneasy peace, and Friday’s deadly strike broke it. The key question now is whether the American counterattack tamps down the cycle of violence or escalates it.

  NYT

Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned on Monday U.S. air strikes that hit several bases of an Iran-backed militia and killed at least 25 people, demanding respect for Iraq’s sovereignty.

  Reuters

Powerful political blocs within Iraq are describing Sunday’s U.S. strikes against an Iran-backed militia as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty — once again raising concerns about the viability of long-term plans to keep American troops in the country.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Badr al-Ziyadi, a member of Iraq’s parliament who is also part of a collation close to powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has called for an end to the agreement that keeps American troops in the country.

Sadr, whose militias fought and killed U.S. troops for years following the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, said Monday that he will work with Iran-backed militias to end the U.S. presence in Iraq through legal means, but noted that he will “take other actions” if that strategy fails.

[...]

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Sunday during a press conference held at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida that the strikes were carried out by F-15E Strike Eagles.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Esper phoned Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi about a half an hour before the strikes and said that U.S. forces were about to bomb the Iran-backed militia.

Abdul-Mahdi asked for the U.S. to call off the strikes, according to the Wall Street Journal story.

[...]

The U.S. has deployed an additional 14,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East over the last six months to confront Iran’s malign behavior across the region.

Esper has said he is considering deploying additional forces to counter Iran.

  Military Times

I thought Trump was going to get our military out of the Middle East.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.