Trump says sanctions on Iran 'already' increased

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. has dramatically increased sanctions imposed on Iran following its missile strikes on Iraqi facilities housing American and coalition personnel, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

"It's already been done," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We've increased them. They were very severe, but now they're increased substantially."

Additional details were not immediately available, but Trump said he already signed off on the matter with the Treasury Department.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at targets in Iraq where U.S. forces are stationed on Wednesday. The attacks were in retaliation for the American assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the corps' former Quds Force commander.

Soleimani was killed by a U.S. airstrike Friday near Baghdad International Airport.

The strike followed a series of tit-for-tat recriminations between the U.S. and Iran-backed forces that began with the killing of an American contractor at a U.S. base in Iraq late last month.

The U.S. retaliated with airstrikes on the Iran-backed militia it says is responsible for conducting the attack, killing dozens. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was then attacked last Tuesday by a group of enraged militiamen and demonstrators.

U.S. officials have placed blame for the attacks on its embassy and base squarely on Soleimani's shoulders, claiming if the airstrike that killed him was not carried out hundreds more American lives would have been lost.