US warns threat from Iran still high

WASHINGTON - The threat from Iran is still high, even after the United States carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militia in Iraq blamed for killing US and British forces in a rocket attack this week, a top US general said on Friday.

Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US military's Central Command, said he believed the US retaliatory strikes against five weapons storage facilities in Iraq would deter "future strikes of this nature."

But he did not suggest any easing of the risk from Iran and Iran-backed groups in the days following January's state-on-state exchanges, which saw the United States kill a top Iranian general and Iran's missile strikes in Iraq cause brain injuries in more than 100 US troops.

"I think the threat remains very high. I think the tensions have actually not gone down," McKenzie told a Pentagon news briefing. 

Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned on Friday the US air strikes as a violation of national sovereignty and warned that the country could slip into chaos and become a failed state.

"The repeated violations the state is being subjected to are a dangerous and deliberate weakening of its abilities and reputation, especially at a time when Iraq faces unprecedented challenges on political, economic, financial, security, and health fronts," Salih said in a statement.

"These dangers could lead to chaos and Iraq becoming a failed state, especially if the security escalation continues while Islamic State militants attempt to regain their ability to threaten national security and the safety of citizens."