US to hit Iran with 'new' equipment if attacked: Trump

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that his country would hit Iran with “brand new beautiful equipment” if Iran targeted US bases or American nationals in the wake of the killing of a senior Iranian general by an American airstrike.

Trump said on Twitter:

The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World! If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way…and without hesitation!

It is not known which new military equipment or ordinance he was referring to.

In separate comments on Twitter, Trump also “strongly advised” Iran not to attack the US as the country would “hit back”.

“They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!”

On Saturday, Trump threatened to strike 52 Iranian targets in the event of any attacks on US citizens or assets.

He said Tehran was “talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge” for the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ elite Quds Force, adding that the general was responsible for the deaths of an American and hundreds of Iranian protesters.

Trump: US will hit 52 Iranian sites if Iran retaliates

Qassem Soleimani was the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the mastermind of its regional security strategy. He was killed early Friday near the Baghdad international airport along with senior Iraqi militants in an airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump. The attack has caused regional tensions to soar and tested the US alliance with Iraq. Fearing escalation, NATO has suspended it’s training activities in Iraq, while the British Navy has committed to escort every UK-flagged ship across the Straits of Hormuz.

Showing no signs of seeking to reduce tensions, the US president has since issued a stern threat to Iran on Twitter, saying that the US has targeted 52 Iranian sites that it would strike if Iran attacks Americans or US assets in response to the US drone strike that killed Soleimani.

The US strike on Soleimani’s convoy at Baghdad airport also killed Iranian-backed Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and it raised the specter of wider conflict in the Middle East.

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