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Also targeted were people involved in the assassination of Iranian cybersecurity official turned critic Mas’ud Vardanjani and British-Iranian dissident Saeed Karimian, Washington said.
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Britain imposed sanctions on Iranian officials it said were involved in threats to kill journalists on British soil, and others it said were part of international criminal gangs linked to Iran.
The sanctions targeted seven individuals and one organisation, Britain’s Foreign Office said.
The sanctioned Iranian officials are members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Unit 840, which an ITV investigation in Britain said was involved in plots to assassinate two television presenters from news channel Iran International in Britain.
The sanctions come at a time of increased tensions between Iran and the US.
US troops have been attacked over 150 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, as well as on warships in the Red Sea, where Houthi fighters in Yemen have been firing drones and missiles at them.
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On Monday, US time, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed that the United States would take “all necessary actions” to defend its troops after a drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three US service members and wounded dozens more.
The attack on Sunday was the first deadly strike against US troops since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October, and marks a major escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East.
“Let me start with my outrage and sorrow (for) the deaths of three brave U.S. troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded,” Austin said at the Pentagon.
“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” Austin added at the start of meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Pentagon.
The United States is trying to determine exactly why the nearly 350 troops at the base in Jordan, known as Tower 22, were unable to stop the drone.
Two officials said a US drone was approaching the base around the same time the attack drone was incoming. One of the officials said the attack drone was also flying low, factors that may have contributed to it being missed by base defences.
Reuters
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