Trump appears to have dangerously escalated tensions with Iran over a slain U.S.-Iraqi translator

President Trump
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Exactly one American is known to have died in the quick escalation of hostilities leading Iran and the U.S. to the brink of war. Until Tuesday, we didn't even know his name.

The Trump administration cited the Dec. 27 death of a U.S. contractor at an Iraqi base in Kirkuk to justify three U.S. airstrikes on the alleged perpetrators, the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah. Iraqi protesters and militiamen angered over the 25 people killed in those strikes converged on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Dec. 31, breaching an outer wall and setting fire to an outbuilding in a bloodless display of anger quelled by U.S. and Iraqi troops. President Trump reacted to the embassy incident by ordering the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 2, prompting Iran's retaliatory ballistic missile strikes Tuesday on Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.