Iran likely behind attack that killed Americans in Iraq: US general - Fox News

Two Americans killed by rocket strike in Iraq

A senior U.S. military source tells Fox News the American service members were killed when 15 rockets struck Camp Taji Military Base, 30 miles north of Baghdad; national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports from the Pentagon.

The head of U.S. forces in the Middle East says an Iranian-backed militia likely launched the attack killing the two Americans and a British soldier in Iraq Wednesday night.

"The Iranian proxy group Kata'eb 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," Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Senate lawmakers Thursday morning.

Despite adding over 10,000 U.S. troops to the region since May, McKenzie says Iran continues its attacks against U.S. forces.

“What has not changed is their continuing desire to operate through their proxies indirectly against us,” McKenzie added.

ROCKET FIRE HITS BASE IN IRAQ HOUSING US TROOPS, KILLING 2 AMERICANS, 1 BRITON, MILITARY SAYS

Iranian-backed Shia militia launched 18 Katyusha rockets at Camp Taji, located 17 miles north of Baghdad -- the largest attack on U.S. troops since Iran fired ballistic missiles in early January, days after a U.S. drone strike that killed Iran's most powerful general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad's airport. Wednesday would have reportedly been Soleimani's 63rd birthday, the same day as the attack.

This photo released by the government-affiliated Media Security Cell on Thursday, March 12, 2020, shows a rocket-rigged truck launcher after a rocket attack on Camp Taji, a few miles north of Baghdad, in Rashidiya, Iraq. Iraq's military on Thursday said it opened an investigation into the rocket attack that hours earlier killed three servicemen, including two Americans, at an Iraqi base housing coalition forces that has been used as a training base for a number of years.  (Media Security Cell via AP)

U.S. Central Command says 12 additional coalition troops were wounded in the rocket attack. Iraqi forces found a truck rigged with rocket-launching tubes a few miles from the base.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to his British counterpart after the attack.

2 US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN IRAQ DURING MISSION AGAINST ISIS

"Today’s deadly attack on Iraq’s Camp Taji military base will not be tolerated. @DominicRaab  and I agree – those responsible must be held accountable," Pompeo said in a tweet.

Ben Wallace, Britain's defense secretary, said Thursday: “Last night’s attack on UK and coalition personnel was a cowardly and retrograde act. The men and women of the UK armed forces are in Iraq to help that country establish stability and prosperity. The people that did this are not friends of Iraq."

Wednesday night, the remains of two U.S. Marine special operators who were killed Sunday in Iraq battling ISIS, returned to Dover Air Force base. Capt. Moises A. Navas, of Germantown, Md., and Gunnery Sgt. Diego D. Pongo, of Simi Valley, Calif. were both 34 years old.

McKenzie did not drop any hints about a potential military response to the latest attack in Iraq , but told lawmakers he now has two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the USS Harry Truman and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In late December, the U.S. military blamed Kata'eb Hezbollah--whom the State Department designates a terrorist group--for launching a rocket attack that killed an American contractor.

Days later the U.S. military launched an airstrike targeting Kata’eb Hezbollah’s camps in western Iraq and eastern Syria killing dozens of militants.

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The terrorist group responded by sending an angry mob to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on New Year’s Eve. 

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2020-03-12 14:21:28Z
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Ireland closes schools and colleges to halt coronavirus spread - CNN

The closures will also apply to cultural institutions and will remain in place until March 29.

Indoor gatherings of more than 100 people and outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people will also be canceled, he said at a press conference in Washington.

We have not witnessed a pandemic of this nature in living memory," Varadkar said. "And this is unchartered territory for us."

"We said we would take the right actions at the right time and we have to move now to have the greatest impact.

"Arrangements are being made to ensure that everyone entering Ireland through its ports and airports are fully informed and self-isolates if they develop symptoms," he said.

Public transport will continue to operate and shops will remain open, he said, and where possible people should work from home.

Public and businesses need to take a "sensible, levelheaded and responsible approach," he added.

He said that as a "general rule" people outside of work should reduce social interactions "as much as possible."

Varadka warned the virus would continue to spread, despite the measures -- which are intended to slow its progress.

"There will be many more cases, more people will get sick and unfortunately we must face the tragic reality that some people will die," he said.

The first death linked to coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland was recorded on Wednesday.

There have been a total of 43 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland, with a further 18 in Northern Ireland.

"The virus is all over the world. It will continue to spread but it can be slowed. Its impact can be reduced, making it easier for our health service to cope and give our scientists more time to develop better testing, treatments and a vaccine."

He said that governments in neighboring Northern Ireland and Britain will be briefed on its strategy later today.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to hold a meeting of the government's emergency committee, called "Cobra," later Thursday afternoon. The name refers to the location where they take place: Cabinet Office Briefing Room A.

On Monday, the Irish government announced a number of St Patrick's Day parades would be canceled to slow the spread of the virus.

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2020-03-12 14:16:03Z
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Ireland closes schools and colleges to halt coronavirus spread - CNN

The closures will also apply to cultural institutions and will remain in place until March 29.

Indoor gatherings of more than 100 people and outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people will also be canceled, he said at a press conference in Washington.

We have not witnessed a pandemic of this nature in living memory," Varadkar said. "And this is unchartered territory for us."

"We said we would take the right actions at the right time and we have to move now to have the greatest impact.

"Arrangements are being made to ensure that everyone entering Ireland through its ports and airports are fully informed and self-isolates if they develop symptoms," he said.

Public transport will continue to operate and shops will remain open, he said, and where possible people should work from home.

Public and businesses need to take a "sensible, levelheaded and responsible approach," he added.

He said that as a "general rule" people outside of work should reduce social interactions "as much as possible."

Varadka warned the virus would continue to spread, despite the measures -- which are intended to slow its progress.

"There will be many more cases, more people will get sick and unfortunately we must face the tragic reality that some people will die," he said.

The first death linked to coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland was recorded on Wednesday.

There have been a total of 43 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland, with a further 18 in Northern Ireland.

"The virus is all over the world. It will continue to spread but it can be slowed. Its impact can be reduced, making it easier for our health service to cope and give our scientists more time to develop better testing, treatments and a vaccine."

He said that governments in neighboring Northern Ireland and Britain will be briefed on its strategy later today.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to hold a meeting of the government's emergency committee, called "Cobra," later Thursday afternoon. The name refers to the location where they take place: Cabinet Office Briefing Room A.

On Monday, the Irish government announced a number of St Patrick's Day parades would be canceled to slow the spread of the virus.

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2020-03-12 13:42:59Z
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Inside China's high-stakes campaign to smear the United States over coronavirus - Fox News

Can we trust China about the coronavirus?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it has been 'incredibly frustrating' to get coronavirus data from the Chinese communist party; reaction from Dr. Daliah Wachs, family physician and host of the 'Doctor Daliah' and Dr. Ramin Oskoui, cardiologist and CEO of Foxhall Cardiology.

If you listened to Chinese state-run media, you'd think President Trump went to China and released vials of COVID-19 on groups of unsuspecting men, women and children.

Beijing has been bending over backward trying to convince the world that the United States is the real culprit behind the quickly spreading virus that's already claimed more than 4,600 lives across the globe.

It's a high-stakes strategy for the Asian nation fighting to keep its superpower status amid a national lockdown and palpable anger over claims that Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus, at first covered it up, triggering a worldwide health and economic crisis.

WHO DECLARES CORONAVIRUS GLOBAL 'PANDEMIC'

The Chinese government has already published a book in English -- with translations in the works in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic -- touting its handling of the deadly disease.

"A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020" is a mishmash of glowing state media reports on the accomplishments of President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party and the dominance of the Chinese system in fighting the crisis.

At best, China's aggressive new campaign can be chalked up to ambitious propaganda.  At its worst, it's a reckless display from a country that has actively misled the world while working overtime to save its own skin, foreign affairs expert Gordon G. Chang told Fox News.

Chang believes Beijing has been laying the groundwork for a PR attack against the United States for more than a month, first by throwing doubt on the origin of COVID-19 and second, by slamming America's handling of previous diseases like the swine flu, which decimated China's pork industry.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

On Sunday, Lin Songtian, China's ambassador to South Africa, said: "Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone 'made in China.'"

Vague and misleading statements like the one from Lin are ripped right out of China's propaganda playbook and attempt to sow doubt about the global crisis.

Chinese officials have also pushed back on the expression "Wuhan coronavirus" -- saying the name used frequently by U.S. conservative commentators unfairly stigmatizes the world's most populous country.

CORONAVIRUS FEARS HIT FEVER PITCH AMID NEW TRAVEL BAN; PANDEMIC SENDS WALL STREET, NBA, HOLLYWOOD REELING

Chang said it's just another tactic in China's playbook, carefully choreographed to make Americans look petty and racist.

"This an all-out assault on the United States," Chang said.

In December, when the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, many media around the world began referring to it as the "Wuhan virus." But last month, the World Health Organization renamed the illness COVID-19 so as not to link it to a specific location or group of people.

The name change didn't stop some, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who blew past warnings and deliberately referred to it as the "Wuhan virus" after China's foreign ministry called it "highly irresponsible" to do so.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, went even further Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up," O'Brien said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington. "There's lots of open-source reporting from China, from Chinese nationals, that the doctors involved were either silenced or put in isolation, or that sort of thing, so that the word of this virus could not get out. It probably cost the world community two months."

O'Brien said if experts would have had those two months to get ahead of the spread of the virus, "I think we could have dramatically curtailed what happened both in China and what's now happening across the world."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the Communist Party is pointing the finger at the U.S. so it can dampen discontent back home.

“The Chinese military portal Xilu.com recently published an article baselessly claiming that the virus is ‘a biochemical weapon produced by the U.S. to target China,’" Rubio said.

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, has frequently used the term "Wuhan virus" on the Senate floor.

Earlier this week, several social media users took House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to task when he referred to it as "the Chinese coronavirus."

MCCARTHY KNOCKS DEMS AFTER THEY CLAIM SAYING 'CHINESE CORONAVIRUS' IS RACIST 

Instead of backing down, Chang believes officials should keep calling COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus" and push back on accusations of racism.

"This isn't a Republican thing. We all need to unite and for people to say, 'this is racist' is irresponsible," Chang said. "There is no race known as Wuhanese."

Chang also said calling COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus" keeps pressure on the Chinese government and forces it to be held accountable by the rest of the world for its initial response to the global crisis, which was widely regarded as abysmal.

China, though, is using everything in its arsenal to paint itself as a global hero, rewriting history and going so far as to demand a thank you for containing the virus as long as it did.

"We should say righteously that the U.S. owes China an apology, the world owes China a thank you," an editorial on state news agency Xinhua read.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Also peculiar is that Beijing -- which is normally quick to censor news -- has refused to step in as a wave of anti-American conspiracy theories flood the internet. Among the rumors is that the U.S. created the coronavirus to make China look bad as well as one that accuses the government of covering up thousands of deaths by classifying them as the regular flu.

"It's more than just some disinformation or an official narrative," Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley's Schools of Information, told The Washington Post. "It's an orchestrated, all-out campaign by the Chinese government through every channel at a level you rarely see. It's a counteroffensive."

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2020-03-12 12:39:02Z
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Coronavirus: Trump suspends travel from Europe to US - BBC News - BBC News

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1. Coronavirus: Trump suspends travel from Europe to US - BBC News  BBC News
2. Trump announces travel ban from Europe amid growing fears of coronavirus  Fox News
3. Trump outlines U.S. response to coronavirus outbreak, restricts travel from Europe | ABC News  ABC News
4. Payroll tax holiday is the wrong economic response to coronavirus  Los Angeles Times
5. U.S. to Suspend Most Travel From Europe as World Scrambles to Fight Pandemic  The New York Times
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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2020-03-12 12:25:46Z
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Coronavirus: EU condemns Trump's 'unilateral' European travel ban - Business Insider - Business Insider

• The European Commission on Thursday condemned US President Donald Trump for imposing a „unilateral“ travel ban on arrivals of foreign nationals to the US from nearly the entire European Union.
• The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council’s president, Charles Michel, released a joint statement criticizing the move.
• „The European Union disapproves of the fact that the US decision to improve a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation,“ the statement said.
• Trump has temporarily barred people from 26 European countries from traveling to the US in a bid to combat the novel coronavirus.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The European Union has condemned US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a ban on most European citizens from traveling to the US.

In a joint statement, the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council’s president, Charles Michel, criticized Trump for failing to consult with European countries before making the decision.

„The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,“ the statement said.

„The European Union disapproves of the fact that the US decision to improve a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.“

It added: „The European Union is taking strong action to limit the spread of the virus.“

European countries were reportedly caught off guard by Trump’s announcement Wednesday night in a nationally televised Oval Office address.

The president told the US public he would ban travel to the US by foreign nationals from 26 European countries for 30 days starting Friday, with the exception of the UK, Ireland, and other countries not in the passport-free Schengen Area.

He initially said the prohibitions would apply to both „trade and cargo“ as well, but this was subsequently retracted.

The exclusions of the UK and Ireland raised eyebrows after it was pointed out that these countries hosted golf courses owned by Trump.

Both countries are in the midst of coronavirus outbreaks, with the UK recording 460 cases and eight deaths to date.

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2020-03-12 11:30:54Z
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Coronavirus updates: Markets drop as Trump imposes broad new travel restrictions - CBS News

The White House says non-U.S. citizens won't be allowed to travel from most of Europe to the U.S. for a month starting this weekend. It's an unprecedented attempt to stop the new coronavirus spreading further in the United States, but President Trump's initial announcement of the measure caused confusion, and required multiple clarifications. 

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days," Mr. Trump said in a brief, rare address to the nation. "The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings." 

The White House later clarified in a tweet that the suspension only applied to foreign nationals who have traveled to one of 26 European nations in the past 14 days. The United Kingdom, which is not part of a virtually border-less free travel zone within the European Union, is exempt from the new restriction.

The tweet said American citizens would be exempt from the restrictions, too, and would be directed to "limited airports" for screening if arriving from Europe. The White House also said the restrictions would take effect at midnight Saturday, not Friday.

Mr. Trump also initially said the suspension would include "trade and cargo" flights, but within an hour of his remarks he corrected himself with a tweet, saying: "The restriction stops people not goods."

The announcement came after the World Health Organization said the coronavirus outbreak could now be characterized as a pandemic. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was "deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity" of the COVID-19 disease. 

Washington state braces for thousands of potential coronavirus cases

As of Thursday morning, more than 1,300 cases had been confirmed in the U.S. and at least 39 deaths were blamed on the virus. Delays at the federal level have left state and local health workers racing to clear backlogs of people seeking tests. In spite of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar's assertion Wednesday that the U.S. had a "surplus" of test kits, doctors on the front line continued to say they couldn't access the tests they needed.

Already-battered global stock markets continued sliding Thursday on fears the virus could severely impact economic growth this year.  

There have been more than 126,000 cases worldwide, and more than 4,600 people have died. The vast majority of cases are mild, and almost half of those infected have already recovered.

For detailed information on coronavirus prevention and treatment, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website here. 

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2020-03-12 11:00:24Z
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