Free Republic

We could call this A Tale of Two Facilities. Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in retaliation for the targeted strike on IRGC and Hamas commanders. That attack did little damage despite a volley of well over 300 missiles and drones, thanks to the regional defenses and the several hours of lead time necessitated by Iran's launch from its own territory.That demonstrated the facility Iran has for offensive operations in the region. Israel responded by demonstrating its facility, and as the New York Times hears from officials in Iran and the West, the result shocked the Iranians:An Israeli...

At least two air strikes hit an area near the coastal Lebanese town of Ghaziyeh on Monday, witnesses said, after the Israeli military said it had struck weapons depots near the port city of Sidon. The witnesses heard several loud booms and saw two thick black columns of smoke rising from around Ghaziyeh, which lies just south of Sidon and about 60 km (37 miles) north of the border with Israel. Lebanese state media said the strikes were Israeli and that a car had been hit. Lebanese security sources said the air strikes hit factories and warehouses in an industrial...

I'm not sure I've ever seen such an incompetent group in my lifetime as the Biden administration. We were given fair warning about Joe Biden from Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In his 2014 memoir, Gates said the then-vice president had "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Now make that five decades, and add he's been wrong about virtually every major foreign policy issue so far that he's faced during his presidency. Gates doubled down on those claims during a 2021 interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," saying, "I...

The Houthis don’t seem to have been dissuaded from attacks on US targets thus far. In the last couple days they have launched attacks on a US commercial vessel and at a US Navy destroyer. Fortunately, the missile aimed at the destroyer was shot down. Today, the US hit another target inside Yemen as the Houthis were preparing another strike. The strikes on Tuesday were aimed at four missiles that were being prepared to be fired from their launchers and posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships, the command said in a statement…Residents in the area said...

Several Democrats on Capitol Hill scolded President Biden Thursday for launching airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen without congressional approval, arguing that the action was unconstitutional. “The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east (sic) conflict,” Rep. Ro Khanna tweeted. “That is Article I of the Constitution. I will stand up for that regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House.” “Section 2C of the War Powers Act is clear: POTUS may only introduce the US into hostilities after Congressional authorization...

The US and Britain have hit Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting drone and missile launch and storage sites using submarine, sea and air-launched platforms. RAF typhoons launched from Cyprus to hit an airfield with Paveway bombs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr-8GyegI4Q&ab_channel=Suchomimus More videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yo9I1EgJ_8&ab_channel=SkyNews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXcygnDGXkk&ab_channel=9NewsAustralia

US military carried out airstrikes on Iranian proxy forces in Syria moments ago in response to recent attacks on U.S. bases since Oct 17: sources tell Fox News

A founding member of Hamas — the terrorist group behind the weekend slaughter of more than 1,200 people, including babies — was among those killed Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, according to local reports. Abd al-Fattah Dukhan, a senior Hamas official known as “Abu Osama,” was killed in an attack by Israeli Defense Forces in the central Gaza Strip, Israel’s KAN public broadcaster reported, citing local Palestinian reports. The prominent member was taken down in the Nuseirat neighborhood in the center of Gaza, according to the report. Two other senior Hamas leaders, Zachariah Abu Ma’amar and Jawad Abu...

Two separate airstrikes were carried out in "collective self-defense," the U.S. military in Africa announced Sunday, with the first occurring on Dec. 14 and the second on Dec. 17, according to a report from Voice of America. The strikes were made at the request of the Federal Government of Somalia in support of Somali National Army forces, with the first strike killing seven militants and the second killing eight al-Shabab fighters. Somali government forces have been supported by air support from the U.S. and other governments, with the U.S. ramping up pressure on the group in recent months. In October,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday told his country to prepare for another wave of Russian missile strikes as citizens struggle with widespread power outages and a lack of heat in the aftermath of last week’s attacks. Zelensky said the “terrorists are preparing new strikes” and would continue to shell their country so long as Russia has missiles. He urged Ukrainians to pay attention to air alerts and respond to the attacks with unity, adding that “our mutual assistance is one of the elements of protection against terror and our strength.” “The upcoming week can be as hard as the...

Facing reverses on the frontline, Russian forces are intensifying strategic strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, with a renewed bombardment of Kyiv (Kiev) cutting off power and water in the capital. Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion who serves as the capital city’s mayor, said an energy facility powering “about 350,000 apartments in Kyiv” had been rocked by five explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.

The U.S. military conducted precision airstrikes in Syria against Iran-backed groups at President Biden’s direction on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command announced. Col. Joe Buccino, U.S. Central Command’s communications director, said in a statement that the strikes targeted “infrastructure facilities” in the city of Deir ez-Zor, located in eastern Syria, used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iranian militias warned of a "harsh response" after a number of Syrian and Iranian-backed forces were killed and wounded in an alleged Israeli airstrike near Palmyra in central Syria on Wednesday night, the second such airstrike in the past week. The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted a communications tower and a number of nearby sites, killing one Syrian soldier and wounding three others. The strike was carried out from the direction of the al-Tanf area near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders with Syria, a Syrian military source told SANA. Around the time of the...

Last week, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced the launch of an investigation into the recent string of ransomware attacks against U.S. firms and infrastructure. That followed a formal, multi-ally announcement the day before accusing Chinese intelligence of directing an attack against Microsoft Exchange servers used by American businesses, non-profits, and academic institutions. These announcements came on the heels of a series of inward-facing steps outlined by the Biden administration between early June and mid-July, representing the early turning of gears as Washington reluctantly pivots towards ransomware and other major cyberattacks. We saw the...

The mayor of Miami, Florida, has called on the US to consider military action to overthrow the Communist regime in Cuba — even if that means launching airstrikes. Francis Suarez — whose father was Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor — told Fox News on Tuesday that “what should be being contemplated right now is a coalition of potential military action in Cuba.” He highlighted previous US military action in Panama, Kosovo and Pakistan, the latter of which “probably saved thousands” of lives by killing Osama bin Laden when President Biden was vice president.

President Joe Biden again ordered airstrikes in Syria on Sunday, the second time he has done so in his young presidency. The Pentagon announced Sunday in a statement Biden had ordered airstrikes against two targets in Syria and one site in Iraq after militias used the facilities to launch drone strikes against United States forces in the region.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday he is "dismayed" by civilian casualties in Gaza and "deeply disturbed" by Israel's strike on a building containing international media outlets, AFP reports. The comments came after 10 members of a family were reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, and another air strike demolished the 13-floor Gaza building housing Al Jazeera and The Associated Press news agency. .....

Airstrikes on several locations in northwest Syria near the border with Turkey have killed at least one person and set afire several trucks used to distribute aid, opposition activists and a paramedic group said Monday. The late Sunday attacks angered Turkey, which had asked Russia to secure an immediate end to the strikes, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, adding that Turkish troops had been placed on alert. Turkey and Russia support rival parties in Syria’s 10-year conflict. The countries reached a deal last March that stopped a Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in...

Thursday, in its first military action, the Biden Pentagon sent two U.S. F-15Es to strike targets of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia just inside the eastern border of Syria. The U.S. strikes were in retaliation for a missile attack on a U.S. base in Irbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which killed a contractor and wounded a U.S. soldier. "We're confident that the target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. But Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Chris Murphy want to know where President Joe Biden got his authority to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States waged a series of precision air strikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that it blamed for a major rocket attack a day earlier that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier. The U.S. strikes appeared limited in scope and narrowly tailored, targeting five weapons storage facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah militants, including stores of weaponry for past attacks on U.S.-led coalition troops, the Pentagon said. In a statement, Iraq’s military said the U.S. air strikes hit four locations in Iraq that housed formal Iraqi police and military units, in...