On April 5, a series of large explosions rocked the village of al-Kastan in southwestern Idlib injuring 8 people, including 3 members of the so-called White Helmets. According to local sources, an ammunition depot located in the civilian area inside the city became the source of the explosion.
Al-Kastan is located near the town of Jisr al-Shughur, controlled by the Al-Qaeda-linked Turkistan Islamic Party. The exploded weapon depot likely belonged to the terrorist group or persons affiliated with it.
On the same day, the Turkish military established three new ‘observation posts’ around Jisr al-Shughur. They are located at the villages of Baksariya, al-Z’ainiyah and Furaykah. Idlib militants see Turkish positions as an important defense line that would allow containing possible Russia- and Iran-backed anti-terrorist operations in the area.
The 46th Regiment Base of the Syrian Army in western Aleppo came under Turkish artillery shelling. In response, Syrian forces struck position of Turkish-backed militants near Kafr Amma. The attack on the 46th Regiment Base became a third incident between the Turkish military and Syrian troops in less than a week. On April 3, two Syrian soldiers were killed in a Turkish artillery strike on their positions near Tell Abyad.
On April 4, Iraq’s largest resistance groups released a joint statement calling the US military “occupation forces” that “respect the language of force only”. In the statement, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, Harakat al-Awfiy’a, Saraya Ashura, Harakat Jund al-Imam and Saraya al-Khurasani added that recent attacks on US forces and facilities in Iraq were only a “minor response” to the US aggression and the decision to carry out full-scale attacks was not taken then.
Two days earlier, on April 2, Usbat al-Tha’ireen, the armed group that claimed responsibility for rocket strikes on Camp Taji and other US positions, released a 3-minute long drone footage of the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone. This is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, and is nearly as large as Vatican City.
The US Central Command officially confirmed deployment of Patriot air defense systems in Iraq. However, the US military announced that it will not provide “providing status updates as those systems come online” for security reasons. At least two Patriot batteries are now located in at the US military bases of Ayn al-Assad and Erbil. Two more Patriot batteries will reportedly be deployed soon.
As part of its plan to redeploy forces to larger, more fortified bases, the US evacuated its troops from the al-Taqaddum Air Base in the province of al-Anbar. It became the fourth US military facility abandoned in Iraq within the last few weeks. The previous ones were located in al-Qaim, Kirkuk and al-Qayyarah.
Iraqi sources say that the US actions demonstrate that Washington is preparing for a new round of military confrontation with Iran and its allies in the region. Recently, President Donald Trump stated that the US was expecting attacks by Iranian-led forces on US troops and facilities, claiming that Iran will ‘pay price’ for this. Following the statement, Iran deployed additional anti-ship missiles and multiple rocket launchers on the Qeshm Island in the Strait of Horumz.
Now I get it why we in our city have fortified US embassy. Not as big as this one, but as big as soccer Olympic stadium.
Safest city to be in if they ever do kick off Icarus? lol
This is a terrorist act against the sovereignty of Iraq. Iran musntn’t allow Iraq to stand alone against the invading Ziocorporate terrorists. The Zioterrorists are taking advantage of the covid19 backdrop to position themselves to attack China or Iran or Venezuela. The liberation of Iraq from terrorists must continue, it’s the best way to have peace.
True, in principle. But what is Iraq’s stance on this? I suspect the government isn’t too pro-Iran either, and if it has to choose between Iran and the OUTLAW, psychopath-run, blackmailing, sanctioning, belligerent, rogue empire-in-decline, it will (or already has done so) choose the latter.
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Slaughter cheney at home and destroy haliburton once and for all. Killing terrorists, thiefs and warmongers is a good deed by any standard. Indians, Palestinians and iraquis you deserve justice.
In my opinion, these moves are intended to intimidate Iran into standing down. Trump knows Iran will come after his re-election for assassinating Soleimani. He knows that Iran will try to get him into a fight that will hurt his election. He promised to bring American troops home. If he gets snarled up in a fight, a lot of Americans will be angered when body bags start piling up. Just of recent, the supreme leader of Iran made a number of statements on his official website. He reiterated that Soleimani is not avenged, and that his assassination has permanently changed the rules of engagement in the Middle East region between Iran and its adversaries. Iran is showing no sign of backing down. From their actions deploying these coastal defense weapons, I think they are signaling that Trump must either pull the U.S out of Iraq, or prepare for a bloody fight before the elections. Trump is a warmonger, no doubt. If not for the election, he would have started this war with the Iraqis long ago. Should Trump come back, war with both Iran and Iraq is almost certainly a done deal. He just wants Iran to give him the chance to win this election. His administration even floated the idea of lifting some sanctions on Iran to help it fight corona virus. This is all aimed at goading Iran to spare Trump a bloody fight in Iraq before November 22, 2020. That doesn’t seem likely. The Militias in Iraq will step up their provocations until the U.S is forced to leave the country in humiliation or fight. Trump isn’t the type to accept humiliation. And it seems there is no face-saving way out of Iraq for him. People, I think missiles will soon start flying in Iraq, the likes of which the U.S has not witnessed even during the war with Saddam Hussein. Should Iran intend to significantly increase America’s death toll in Iraq (and I suspect that to be their real goal), they will by now have armed the militias with missiles far more deadly than anything the U.S has had to deal with in all their wars with Iraq. It will include missiles that target U.S installations beyond Iraq’s borders. The U.S will rely mainly on air force. that explains their redeployment of forces to more secure locations. American ground forces will cower in bunkers while the air force does the fighting. This is how the U.S will try to limit casualties. The Iraqi militias just had a drill some days ago. It appears they are preparing to evade U.S air strikes as much as possible when fighting breaks out. If they succeed in doing this while launching barrages of missiles on U.S bases in Iraq, it will be very very difficult for America to limit casualties. The militias will likely over-run the green zone thereby forcing U.S troops out in the open from their bunkers. That is when the missile strikes will be most devastating.
The United States needs the price per barrel of oil to rise. To do this, production must be decreased or transport stopped. Solution? Making war on Iran. Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, oil no longer passes, the world blames Iran and the price of oil rises. Will the Iranians smell the rat? I do not believe.
They already have. And moreover have dozens of solutions for that matter.
Just let the war begin, Israel will teach those mullahs a lesson they won’t forget for many more years. They will shoot over here ofcourse, but it will be the last thing they will do in this world.
As shown, time and time again, Patriots don’t work. US using Corona Virus hysteria to Bury bad news or dastardly actions.
Would they be so stupid? Together with having so many of their serving military personnel, riddled with the virus? Not forgetting, will it be timed for Easter and the Victory Day parades, over in Russia on 9 May?
How much of the ‘first strike attack’ exercise, or commonly known Defender 2020 NATO exercise is going ahead?
Would US and NATO be so stupid, or are there any sane military leaders, who will refuse to carry out orders? Remembering the loyalty the US Government showed to their Forces on the USS Liberty?
Think, Anne. It’s long past time for you to discard your regular programming do some actual research. End your nonsense.
Good grief!
The Iraqi government chose the US over the mullahs regime. As expected.
the fake amerikan cowards will never attack Iran—their lying politicians r aware that Iran has plans in place to prevent transit of oil via the straight….the Iraq parliament voted unanimously that the imperialist US military must remove all troops and has beseeched Russia to assist, already granting Russian military aircraft full access to their airspace….but then the Americans have always been racist fundamentalists…fully described by Sacvan Bercovitch in 2012—“only in the USA has nationalism carried with it the Christian meaning of the sacred. the revelation of America serves to blight and ultimately preclude the possibility of fundamental social change”—obvious for anyone familiar with Sennett, Arendt, Kojeve, etc. Also a literature scholar, he reinterpreted Huck Finn—which was only taught as a novel about class by racist amerikan teachers before Bercovitch, who wrote, “Huck was morbid and haunted…he was a racist precisely because he did follow his conscience”. obvious for anyone who is not a racist!
PressTV.com = Iranian News channel