The missile attacks on at least two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq could have originated by Iranian militia, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax TV on Tuesday just minutes after the first reports came in.
"Remember, we set aside our differences with Iran for purposes of even training some of these Iranian militia," Shaffer told "Newmax Now" host John Bachman. "The focus was ISIS."
Shaffer is national security adviser for President Donald Trrump's re-election campaign and president of the London Center for Policy Research.
ISIS has now been diminished to the point it is not a military force and is unlikely to reconstitute, Shaffer said, but adding that one of the Iranian militia groups could have decided on their own to act, or it could have been at Iran's direction.
In fact, he noted, the reason Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was in Iraq was to set up such attacks.
"So there may be elements which were already in place ready to go, and they be acting on their own," Shaffer said.
Tuesday's strikes on the U.S. bases are seen as retaliation of a drone attack by the United States that killed Soleimani on Thursday near Baghdad's airport.
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