U.S. Says Summer Heat May Be Cause of Blasts in Iraq
U.S. Says Summer Heat, Not Israel, May Be Cause of Iraq Blasts
(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration suggested the blistering summer heat in Iraq, not alleged Israeli airstrikes, may have been responsible for at least some of the recent explosions that have destroyed Iraqi weapons depots linked to Iran.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, two administration officials said the U.S. had no corroboration that Israel was behind all the explosions. The officials, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations, were referring to a New York Times report earlier Friday that said Israel carried out a strike on a weapons depot in Iraq on July 19.
The Times report also cited two American officials it didn’t identify as saying Israel had conducted several strikes against weapons depots controlled by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq in recent days.
One of the officials speaking Friday said the U.S. disputed the idea that Israel was behind all the attacks, adding that the cause of the explosions could be the “absolutely raging heat in Baghdad over the summer.”
The officials said the real culprit was Iran, which they accused of endangering international security by bringing weapons into Iraq and putting them under the control of militias that can’t control them. The officials accused Iran of trying to turn Iraq into a client state like Syria.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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