Another Middle East Crisis, Syrian Special "WMD"

[6souls]

The Kurds have also negotiated a deal with the Syrian army to fend off the Turks.

[6souls]

https://news.yahoo.com/russia-bombed...221254673.html

New evidence shows that Russia bombed four hospitals within 12 hours in Syria this past May.

[Cail]

Syrian troops enter towns in northeast as Erdogan warns of wider offensive

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deployed Monday to several key towns across northeastern Syria after a dramatic 11th-hour deal with local Kurdish fighters to ward off a Turkish assault, an advance that promised to alter, yet again, the ever-shifting alliances of the years-long civil war.

For the first time in years, Syrian government forces arrived in the towns of Tabqa, on the outskirts of Raqqa, and Ain Issa, which served as the headquarters of the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria, about 20 miles from the Turkish border. Images published by the official Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, showed government troops arriving atop pickup trucks and waving Syrian flags.

The swift Syrian advance was set in motion by President Trump’s sudden decision in recent days to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, leaving the Kurdish forces long allied with the United States vulnerable to attack from the Turkish military.

[6souls]

Kurds are pelting the leaving US military with potatoes.

[mallister]

russians gloat, tell the kurds we betrayed them, GTFO or get rekt:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/1-kremlin...071853704.html

[6souls]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...140353503.html

Potential successors for al-Baghdadi;

The first - a Tunisian national - heads ISIL's Shura Council, a legislative and consultative body, al-Hashemi told AFP news agency.

The second - a Saudi - runs the group's so-called Delegated Committee, an executive body, he said.

Aymenn Jawad Tamimi, an academic and expert on armed fighters, also identified the elusive Hajj Abdullah as a potential successor.

"He turns up in leaked ISIL documents as a deputy of Baghdadi and to my knowledge, he is not dead," Tamimi told AFP.

"Apart from some texts that mention Hajj Abdullah, not much is known about him except that he was the emir of the Delegated Committee which is the general governing body of ISIL."

[Niiro]

I can't believe I didn't even make the running.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50941693

The U.S. performed "precision defensive strikes" against five Hezbollah-linked sites in Iraq & Syria. The strikes were in response to a U.S. contractor being killed and several members of the military injured last Friday. Iraq's PM and Iran have denounced the strike with the Hezbollah-linked militias promising increased attacks against American interests in Iraq.

Weapons caches and command and control centers at five sites associated with Kataib Hezbollah were hit on Sunday, the defense department said.

An Iraqi paramilitary force said 25 fighters were killed and 51 injured.

Kataib Hezbollah leader Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, who is also known as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, warned that "the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain".

"Our response will be very tough on the American forces in Iraq," he said.

Iraq's prime minister denounced the "violation of Iraqi sovereignty", while Iran's foreign ministry said the US strikes were a "clear example of terrorism".

[6souls]

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/30/79239...backed-militia



Protesters in Baghdad, Iraq stormed the U.S. embassy making it as far as the reception area before being pushed back by U.S. marines.

An angry mob protesting American airstrikes in Iraq and Syria tried to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing through the main entrance and setting fire to a reception area as Marines guarding the compound fired tear gas to hold them back.

The protesters reportedly were made up of supporters of a Shia group, the Kataib Hezbollah militia.

The sprawling, heavily fortified U.S. Embassy compound in the Iraqi capital covers 104 acres. It was not immediately clear whether the protesters had managed to breach anything but the outermost ring of security.

Earlier, protesters gathered carrying what they said were coffins of some of the fighters killed in the airstrikes. They marched near government buildings and then to the embassy, where they lit fires to show their anger, chanting, "America, leave, leave!"

[Andalusian girls]

rerun

[Xno Kappa]

Hearts and minds.

[Fiye]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...92f_story.html

An air strike has killed Iranian Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani and another senior Iranian-linked figure in Baghdad, Iraqi state television reported on Thursday.
No one claimed immediately responsibility for the strike, which Iraqi television also said killed Abu Mehdi al-Muhandas, an Iraqi militia commander, near the Iraqi capital’s airport, but the death of Iran’s most revered military leader appeared likely to send tensions soaring between the United States and Iran.

Soleimani, who has long been Iran’s most prominent military figure and is closely linked to the country’s foreign proxy groups, has taken on an enhanced role in Iraq as the country’s Shiite militia groups have gained new clout in recent years.

Pentagon officials declined comment on the strike.

The strike comes amid already increased friction between Washington and Iran over what U.S. officials say is a campaign of sustained aggression against the United States and its allies.

Lotta people on my twitter timeline are freaking out.

[Zalrik21]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...92f_story.html



Lotta people on my twitter timeline are freaking out.

Front page CNN has this on its header

BREAKING NEWS: The Pentagon announces the US killed Iranian military leader in a strike

So yeah I can see why people freaking out, if true its kinda a big deal.

[Fiye]

Its been quite some time and we're still at the stage of 'if true' what in the honest fuck is going on.

[Jaybar]

So is this an assassination or good kill.

[Zealot]

It's good that this guy is dead but this was 100% an assassination of a high-ranking officer on foreign soil without a declaration of war

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[Zealot]

Retaliation of this nature for is either trying to provoke a war or a terrorist attack to justify declaring war ourselves

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[kuronosan]

Good idea, bad move, bad fucking move.

Of course all the idiots will lap this up as another protecting our freedoms because middle east.

Should have really not gone down this road.

[Fiye]

It's good that this guy is dead but this was 100% an assassination of a high-ranking officer on foreign soil without a declaration of war

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There is nothing good about this. There was no reason for it. And the same exact dipshits who brought us into Iraq are celebrating this move and trying to bring us into Iran.

[Zealot]

There is nothing good about this. There was no reason for it.

This dude has killed a LOT of Americans and is a big part of why Assad is still in power.

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