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Trump says he pulled back Iran strike because of potential death toll

The president said the strike would not have been 'proportionate' to Iran's attack on an unmanned drone.

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed that he called off a strike on Iran at the last minute Thursday night, saying he decided that the potential cost of human lives was “not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”

“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights [sic] when I asked, how many will die 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets, adding that not only would such an attack have been disproportionate, “I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced Thursday it had shot down an American drone, claiming it had entered Iranian airspace, an assertion sharply disputed by the U.S.

The attack, which came amid steadily escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, prompted the president to invite congressional leaders to the White House for a briefing in the Situation Room on Thursday afternoon.

But while Trump called the drone-downing a “very big mistake” and apparently later authorized a retaliatory attack before calling it off, the president had earlier suggested he was not looking to get into a military conflict with Iran.

"I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth. I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it," the president said in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, telling reporters, "it would have made a big, big difference" if Iran’s attack had targeted military personnel.