Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder offered the next readout:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke right now with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The Secretary and Prime Minister mentioned the duty of the Government of Iraq to guard diplomatic personnel and Coalition advisors and amenities. The Secretary condemned the attack in a single day on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in addition to the collection of assaults on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria over recent weeks. He welcomed the Prime Minister’s assertion this morning that rightly condemned the attack as “acts of terrorism” that “endanger Iraq’s inside safety.” The Secretary underscored that the United States reserves the suitable to behave in self-defense towards these launching any attack towards U.S. personnel. He affirmed that the Iranian-backed militant teams Katai’ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, each designated terrorist organizations, are answerable for many of the assaults towards Coalition personnel, and that the United States reserves the suitable to reply decisively towards these teams – to handle threats and assaults towards U.S. and Coalition personnel. Secretary Austin underscored that assaults by Iran-backed militias undermine the sovereignty and stability of Iraq, threat the protection of Iraqi civilians, and set again the marketing campaign to defeat ISIS. They mentioned the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission, which was agreed by the 2 governments in the course of the U.S.-Iraq Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue in August 2023 and is a consultative mechanism for the transition of the Coalition. However, the Secretary made clear that assaults towards U.S. forces should cease.
