The carefully planned raids were the largest yet against Iran’s proxies and are likely to continue until threats to US personnel are neutralised
US retaliation, when it came, was broad and deep, and telegraphed five days in advance.
The White House, the Pentagon and state department had spent the best part of a week talking about the response to Sunday’s drone attack on a US base in northern Jordan, which killed three Americans and wounded more than 30.
Continue reading...President says ‘If you harm an American, we will respond’ as US forces strike in what is expected to be first of multiple attacks
Joe Biden has warned “if you harm an American, we will respond” as US forces attacked more than 80 targets in Iraq and Syria in a wide-ranging air assault on sites belonging to Iran-linked militias and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The US president said the strikes had been launched in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan, adding: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”
Continue reading...Defence minister Yoav Gallant’s announcement comes despite presence of more than 1 million civilians in city
Saudi Arabia would be willing to accept a political commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state, rather than anything more binding, in a bid to get a defence pact with Washington approved before the US presidential election, three sources have told Reuters. The news agency reports:
Months of US-led diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to normalise relations with Israel and recognise the country for the first time were shelved by Riyadh in October in the face of mounting Arab anger over the war in Gaza.
But Saudi Arabia is increasingly keen to shore up its security and ward off threats from rival Iran so the kingdom can forge ahead with its ambitious plan to transform its economy and attract huge foreign investment, two regional sources said.
Continue reading...Strikes expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan
The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said.
Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were of Iranian origin. The retaliatory strikes are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location.
Continue reading...Tehran warns Washington but regime unsure of degree of support for interventionist foreign policy
Iran has told the US via intermediaries that if it strikes Iranian soil directly, Tehran will itself hit back at American assets in the Middle East, drawing the two sides into a direct conflict.
The warning comes as Iran waits on high alert to see how Joe Biden responds to the death of three US servicemen deemed by Washington to have been killed by a Tehran-backed militia based in Syria.
Continue reading...The group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a US military base in Jordan is a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias
Three US service personnel were killed and 34 wounded on Sunday after a drone hit a residential quarters at a military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22, which lies on the border between Iraq and Syria.
It is the first time US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after an estimated 150 attacks by Iranian-based militias on American bases in Iraq and Syria since 7 October.
Continue reading...Pentagon calls overnight attacks ‘necessary and proportionate’, after US personnel were injured in a weekend attack in Iraq
US strikes against militias in Iraq have prompted the most scathing criticism yet from Baghdad, with the prime minister’s office accusing Washington of contributing to a “reckless escalation” of regional violence.
The Pentagon announced earlier on Wednesday that it had carried out overnight retaliatory strikes against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militias in response to its own forces coming under attack at an Iraqi airbase at the weekend.
Continue reading...Exclusive: whistleblowers allege large sums are being lost to corruption in Iraq as donors fail to track spending on postwar reconstruction
Staff working for the UN in Iraq are allegedly demanding bribes in return for helping businessmen win contracts on postwar reconstruction projects in the country, a Guardian investigation has found.
The alleged kickbacks are one of a number of claims of corruption and mismanagement the Guardian has uncovered in the Funding Facility for Stabilization, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scheme launched in 2015 and backed by $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in support so far from 30 donors, including the UK.
Continue reading...As pockets of war multiply across region so does the risk that conflict becomes more contagious and intractable
On Thursday morning the Iranian news website Entekhab ran, without irony, the headline: “Taliban call on Pakistan and Iran to show restraint and urge both sides to settle differences through diplomatic means”.
If proof were needed that a new, more dangerous world order may be upon us, the Taliban cast in the role of advocates for restraint seems conclusive.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. See all our coverage of the Middle East crisis here
While Iran has taken low-level action against Balochistan in the past, Tuesday’s strikes were unusually heavy-handed and Thursday’s retaliatory bombings were the first time that Pakistan has responded with comprehensive military action against its neighbour.
Sources in Islamabad said the decision was taken after heavy political and military pressure on the top army leadership to show strength against Tehran.
Continue reading...Two killed and five wounded, militia officials say, amid fears war in Gaza could spill into surrounding countries
The US military has carried out an airstrike in Baghdad against a high-ranking Iraqi militia commander who it blames for attacks against US forces in the country, killing him and another person, a US official told Reuters.
The US official said the strike hit a vehicle in the capital on Thursday. It targeted a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, the official said, without naming the person.
Continue reading...Cabinet papers from 2003 show there was no formal submission before decision was taken to join US-led ‘coalition of the willing’
Australia joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, one of the most contentious decisions of John Howard’s prime ministership, without a formal cabinet submission setting out a full analysis of the risks.
Cabinet papers published by the National Archives on Monday show the full cabinet signed off on the decision on 18 March 2003 based on “oral reports by the prime minister”.
Continue reading...Three US soldiers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq, which Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group claimed credit for
Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.
A national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said one of the troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier on Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.
Continue reading...Attacks on US troops in Iraq have led to US airstrikes, highlighting the risk of spillover from the situation in Gaza
A salvo of machine gun fire, customary during funerals, illuminated the night sky as dozens of men converged in a dimly lit, unpaved alley on the edges of the sprawling slums of Sadr city to pay their respects. A giant picture of Ali Hassan al-Daraaji had been erected outside the family home in northeast Baghdad to announce his “martyrdom” in this week’s US airstrikes on Iraqi armed groups.
The series of strikes left a total of nine fighters dead, including Daraaji, the first Iraqi fatalities linked to the Israel-Hamas war. Even as a tenuous truce takes hold in Gaza, the pace and intensity of clashes in Iraq has picked up, highlighting the risk of spillover in a country that has long been mired in conflict.
Continue reading...The academic was abducted in Baghdad nearly nine months ago and had not been heard from since
An Iraqi network has broadcast a video showing a kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic, in the first sign of life from Elizabeth Tsurkov since her abduction in Baghdad nearly nine months ago.
Israeli authorities revealed in July that Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.
Continue reading...Armed drones attack two airbases and explosive device targets patrol in most widespread strikes in a single day
US forces were targeted in three attacks in Iraq on Thursday but suffered no casualties, security sources have said, in the most geographically widespread series of strikes on US assets in a single day since the Israel-Hamas conflict started.
Spokespeople for the US embassy in Baghdad and US-led international forces stationed in Iraq did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Continue reading...Declassified spy images point to 396 undiscovered forts in Syria and Iraq, shifting understanding of Roman frontier
Declassified cold-war spy satellite images have thrown new light on the workings of the Roman empire by revealing hundreds of previously undiscovered forts, with dramatic implications for our understanding, experts have said.
Archeologists examining aerial photographs taken in the 1960s and 70s said they reveal 396 sites of unknown Roman forts in Syria and Iraq across the Syrian steppe.
Continue reading...Blaze started after fireworks lit during celebration in Nineveh province, according to local media
More than 100 people have been killed and 150 others injured in a fire at a wedding reception in the district of Hamdaniya in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, attracting global messages of sympathy.
Survivors said the fire, which swept through the hall in a matter of seconds, was triggered by fireworks that had been set off inside the hall before the bride and groom’s slow dance.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Survivors and witnesses bring case to human rights council over 2021 attack killing eight people
Turkish airstrikes that allegedly targeted a civilian hospital and killed eight people in Iraq have been made the subject of a formal complaint to the UN human rights council.
It is the first case to be brought on the issue of Turkish airstrikes against the Yazidi people. The attack on 17 August 2021 destroyed the Sikeniye medical clinic in Sinjar and left more than 20 people injured.
Continue reading...Stockholm apologetic amid fears Turkey may delay lifting Nato veto following desecration of holy book
Thousands of people took part in protests across Muslim majority nations on Friday after a second incident in Sweden involving the desecration of the Qur’an.
The episode left the Swedish government apologetic and fearing that the outrage in the Middle East may delay Turkey lifting its veto on Sweden’s membership of Nato.
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