The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks for use in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, according to four sources familiar with the matter, including a US official and a former US official.
The request is being made even as concerns grow about the use of US weapons in a war that has killed thousands of civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
The potential sale, worth more than $500 million, is not part of President Joe Biden’s $110.5 billion supplemental request that includes funding for Ukraine and Israel. It is under informal review by the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, which allows members the privilege to stall the sale or have informal discussions with the administration about concerns.
Meanwhile, approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the US Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday, a US military official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the largest attack of its kind in recent memory.
US forces in Iraq and Syria were also targeted with rockets and drones at least five more times on Friday; three times at separate bases in Syria, and twice at the Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, a different US defence official said.—Agencies
