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Overnight the US central command reported that Yemen’s Houthis fired one anti-ship cruise missile towards the Red Sea, which was shot down by USS Gravely.
The attack was at 11.30pm local time.
Continue reading...Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guards defiant as US prepares ‘very consequential response’ to drone attack on Jordan base
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has vowed the country is not afraid of war with the US, as the Pentagon weighs how directly to respond to the killing of three US servicemen in a drone attack in Jordan.
The IRGC commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said: “We hear some threats from American officials about targeting Iran. We tell them that you tested us and we know each other. We do not leave any threat unanswered, and we do not look for war, but we are not afraid of it. This is the well-known truth.”
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...Iran-backed militia Washington blamed for attack announces it has suspended anti-US operations
Joe Biden has said he has decided how to respond to a drone strike in northern Jordan which killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens more, as the Iran-backed militia that Washington blamed for the attack said it had suspended anti-US operations.
As Washington pondered its response, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region, claiming the decision was intended to prevent “embarrassment” to the Iraqi government.
Continue reading...Denial comes after Palestinian Red Crescent Society says hospital in Khan Younis is under attack; White House declines to give further details of response
The Wafa Palestinian news agency reports that “dozens of Palestinian civilians” have been killed today by Israeli airstrikes, including “intense and fierce airstrikes at the city of Rafah”, which is in the south of the Gaza Strip and is one of the areas Israel’s military has repeatedly told Palestinians to flee to for safety.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, said the strike in Rafah caused “a great deal of panic and concern as people believe the military operation is expanding step by step”. He said a house was destroyed and a number of people were reported dead, as “the Israeli military continues bombing, killing and maiming Palestinians across Gaza”.
Continue reading...White House spokesman says Biden mulling options as media reports suggest the drone that killed three US service people was confused with a US drone
Medical sources in the West Bank have said that the man killed by Israeli military fire in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, was 21-year-old Tair Hamo, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.
As we reported earlier, the Israeli military carried out raids on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight, as well as a nearby town and village.
If we don’t want another October 7, we need to go back home and control [Gaza]. We need to find a legal way to voluntarily emigrate [Palestinians] and impose death sentences on terrorists … I turn to you, prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: this is time for brave decisions.
Continue reading...President is facing pressure from Republicans after numerous attacks on US bases by Iran’s proxies
The killing of three American soldiers in Jordan and the wounding of dozens more, allegedly by an Iranian-backed group, is a red line that was always likely to be crossed in what is becoming an increasingly dangerous region.
The US had up to this weekend avoided fatalities in more than 150 attacks on its military bases by Iranian proxies since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war after the 7 October attacks, but that luck could not last for ever. The question now is what lies on the far side of that red line.
Continue reading...Strikes reportedly hit farm housing members of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed factions
Israel has struck an Iran-linked site south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing several people, two days after regional tensions rose again when three US troops were killed in a drone attack on a military outpost in Jordan.
The Israeli strikes, which also left an unspecified number injured, were not regarded as a direct response to the attack on the Tower 22 base on Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria.
Continue reading...Lloyd Austin says president ‘will not tolerate attacks on US forces’, but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talks
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US troops and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.
“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” Austin said at the Pentagon on Monday.
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...Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers in battle since start of the Gaza conflict
The spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen have been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the “despicable” attack and vowed revenge.
Responsibility for Saturday’s attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible.
Continue reading...Former president’s exclusion from group likely to choose next supreme leader angers reformists
The Iranian regime has taken its crackdown on any internal opposition into a new phase by disqualifying the reformist former president Hassan Rouhani from seeking re-election to the assembly of experts, the body that chooses the country’s supreme leader.
Reformists reacted angrily on Thursday to the regime-controlled guardian council’s announcement. The 88 assembly members serve an eight-year term, and since the incumbent supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is 84, it is highly likely that the next assembly will choose his successor.
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...Seals from USS Lewis Puller went overboard during mission off coast of Somalia to seize Iranian weapons, according to US military
Two US Navy Seals who went missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them, the US military has said.
US Central Command (Centcom) had previously said that two Seals who were reported as lost at sea were involved in the 11 January operation, in which the elite special operations personnel boarded a dhow off the coast of Somalia and seized missile components made in Iran.
Continue reading...Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has lost four members in strike on Syrian capital
A suspected Israeli strike killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ espionage chief for Syria and three other guard members on Saturday, Iran has said, in an attack that destroyed much of a multistorey residential building in Damascus.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people were killed in the Israeli strike on the upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood in the Syrian capital.
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
There can be “no security and stability in the region” without a Palestinian state, said the spokesperson for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, reports Associated Press.
The remarks come in response to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection on Thursday of calls by the US to take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war.
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...Drone and missile attacks in Sistan and Balochistan province come after Iran struck sites inside Pakistan
Pakistan has launched retaliatory strikes against militants in Iran in response to attacks by Tehran that targeted sites within Pakistan’s borders, heightening fears of further instability across the Middle East and surrounding region.
A statement by Pakistan’s foreign office early on Thursday said it had undertaken “a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran, adding that “a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation”.
Continue reading...Decision means Yemeni group’s funds will be frozen in US and members are banned from the country
US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.
US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.
Continue reading...