Free Republic

The US Central Command announcing on the first day of the impeachment trial opened in Washington that more US troops serving at the Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq when Iranian missile struck the base earlier this month have been taken to Germany for treatment of concussion related injuries.... A former inspector with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told the UN Security Council that the group's report about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 ran contrary to the findings of its own fact finding mission....... Speaking to the UN Conference on Disarmament...

Despite its cool Green parties and ambitious wind and solar agendas, Europe remains by far the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas. Oil output in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway is declining, and the European Union is quietly looking for fossil fuel energy anywhere it can find it. Europe itself is naturally rich in fossil fuels. It likely has more reserves of shale gas than the United States, currently the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas. Yet in most European countries, horizontal drilling and fracking to extract gas and oil are...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — France’s defense minister criticized the U.S. on Saturday over what she described as “unanswered” attacks in recent months threatening the Persian Gulf, warning that the decades-long American deterrence in the oil-rich region appeared to be losing its power. Florence Parly separately said France “deplored” both U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that led to the re-imposition of crushing sanctions, as well as Tehran recently breaking the deal’s enrichment, stockpile and centrifuge limits. While saying France would continue to talk to Iran, her speech before...

WASHINGTON — U.S. warships and aircraft sank or heavily damaged six Iranian navy ships Monday as a major confrontation erupted in the Persian Gulf in the wake of the United States’ early morning strike against two Iranian oil platforms, the Reagan Administration said. U.S. and Iranian forces fired on each other in the broadest and most direct conflict yet, suddenly escalating what for months had been a war of nerves in the volatile waterway.

Ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf have reported unusual GPS interference, among other problems, and the US believes Iran is to blame. The Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration issued a warning on Wednesday highlighting threats to commercial vessels posed by Iran. The warning revealed that ships have had a variety of issues when operating in the region, including "spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be US or coalition warships." (excerpt) US defense official told CNN that Iran has GPS jammers operating on Abu Musa Island, an island in the Persian Gulf located...

The ship was seized on Wednesday near Farsi Island, where an Iranian Guard Navy base is located, the news outlet reported. The island sits in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, north of the Strait of Hormuz. Further information on the vessel, and the nationality of crew members, was not immediately clear. The seizure marked the third such incident involving a commercial vessel in recent weeks — and the second accused of smuggling fuel. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, told The Associated Press it did not have information to confirm the reports. Maritime tracking experts also...

LONDON — Iranian-linked terrorist cells are reportedly thought to be ready to strike the UK if the crisis between London and Tehran escalates further, as supporters of Prime Minister Theresa May's government increased their criticism over Iran's seizing of a British-flagged tanker in the Persian Gulf.

USS Boxer Downs Iranian Drone in ‘Defensive Action’ By: Sam LaGrone July 18, 2019 4:00 PM • Updated: July 19, 2019 6:29 AM This post has been updated with additional details on the downing of the Iranian drone. Amphibious warship USS Boxer (LHD-4) took down an Iranian drone that U.S. officials say threatened the ship as it entered the Persian Gulf on Thursday. At about 10 a.m. local time, Boxer was transiting Strait of Hormuz when an Iranian fixed-wing drone approached the ship, a defense official told USNI News. “A fixed-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within...

Commercial Ships Urged Not to Use Private Armed Guards in Persian Gulf July 12, 2019 by Reuters By Jonathan Saul LONDON, (Reuters) – Shipping companies sailing through the Middle East Gulf are being urged to avoid having private armed security guards onboard as the risk of escalation in the region rises, industry associations say.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - (AP) -- Mysterious attacks on oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz this week show how one of the world's crucial chokepoints for global energy supplies can be easily targeted, 30 years after the U.S. Navy and Iran were entangled in a similarly shadowy conflict called the "Tanker War." While the current tensions are nowhere near the damage done then, it underscores how dangerous the situation is and how explosive it can become. (...)

Dubai: Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said on Tuesday that two oil pumping stations for the East-West pipeline had been hit by explosive-laden drones, calling the attack "an act of terrorism" that targeted global oil supplies. Falih condemned the attacks in a statment saying: "The latest acts of terrorism and sabotage in the Arabian Gulf... not only target the Kingdom but also the security of oil supplies to the world and the global economy." "These attacks prove again that it is important for us to face terrorist entities, including the Houthi militias in Yemen that are backed by Iran,"...

As tensions rose over the weekend between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf, several vessels were “sabotaged” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Both Iranian media and the UAE reported the incident, but 24 hours after it happened, much of what occurred was still shrouded in mystery, with allegations of “explosions” and questions about how severe the “sabotage” actually was. The Saudi energy minister confirmed that two of its oil tankers were targeted in a “sabotage attack.” It took place as the tankers were “on their way to the Arabian Gulf” via the Emirate of Fujairah,...

Iran's Revolutionary Guard successfully carried out a surveillance flight over a US aircraft carrier, Tasnim reported. The drone flew over a US warship in the Persian Gulf, as well as over the USS Dwight...

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGG) faked an entire video claiming to show American warships transiting disputed waters in the Persian Gulf by piecing together old scraps of unrelated footage, French analysis confirms. The original video, published by the IRGC on April 28, allegedly showed the flight deck of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and was used to advance the claim that Iran was spying on the American military. It went public just weeks after Washington placed the IRGC on its list of terrorist organisations. As Breitbart News reported, Iran’s Tasnim news agency claimed a camera-equipped Iran Revolutionary Guards’ spy drone...

Iran's state TV has broadcast footage purporting to show a close encounter between the Revolutionary Guard's navy and the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The incident purportedly happened in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. Saturday's footage is likely meant as a show of strength amid new U.S. sanctions on Iran and the Trump administration plans to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero. In the video, Guard speedboats are seen closing in on the U.S. carrier. Iranian sailors then warn the Americans over radio communication to...

Iran says they have video shot by an unmanned drone showing a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. (Hat tip: LGF readers.) Iran’s Arabic language television station broadcast footage it claimed showed a US aircraft carrier cruising in Gulf waters it said was taken by an unmanned Iranian drone. The brief minute-long film, which was shown on Al-Alam television’s evening news bulletin, showed wobbly aerial footage of an aircraft carrier stacked with war planes as it sailed. The television’s anchor said the film, the property of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, showed a vessel from “the US fleet in the...

Intelligence showing that Iran is likely moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf was one of the critical reasons the US decided to move an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the region, several US officials with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN on Tuesday. The concerns over the movement of the missiles was one of multiple threads of intelligence from various sources that led the US to believe Iran had a capability and intention to launch strikes against US targets, the report said. US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Bill Urban said they had...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran said Wednesday it will look into the disappearance of an American man in Iran, a State Department spokesman said. The missing man has been identified as a former FBI agent. Iran replied to a U.S. request for information or help, and asked for additional details about the missing man's travel itinerary, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. The response came through Swiss intermediaries in Iran. ``We'll see if they come up with anything, but they certainly didn't have any specific information,'' about the man, Casey said. The United States and Iran have no diplomatic relations, but...

The Iranian navy launched a three-day naval exercise on Friday in the Persian Gulf that encompasses a wide expanse of ocean including the Strait of Hormuz and stretches to the Sea of Oman and northern portions of the Indian Ocean, according to state media reports. Some news reports claim that the drills may go on for a week or more, but all of them are emphasizing the “large-scale” nature of the exercises which includes showcasing the Iranian navy’s newest and alleged domestically-produced cruise missile submarine Fatah and its newest Sahand destroyer. The Fatah, or “Conqueror,” was celebrated during an event...

The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. It comes just days before the U.S. reimposes sanctions on Tehran after its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with U.S. ships in the area, the official added, according to AFP. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said...