Free Republic

Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Saturday threatened to avenge the killing of its top general, saying it would go after everyone responsible for the January U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The guard's website quoted Gen. Hossein Salami as saying, "Mr. Trump! Our revenge for martyrdom of our great general is obvious, serious and real." President Trump warned this week that Washington would harshly respond to any Iranian attempts to take revenge for the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, tweeting that "if they hit us in any way, any form, written instructions already done we're going to hit them 1000 times harder."...

Antifa, the supposedly anti-fascist political movement, is more known for wreaking violent havoc all over the country. They are believed to have lit some of the fires in Portland, OR this weekend, where the violence is so bad President Trump has had to deploy federal agents. And the police chief in Richmond, VA suspects antifa of being behind some of the destruction in the city this weekend. Their reputation is so terrifying that in May, Trump declared that his administration was going to label them as a terrorist group. And yet Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) continues to believe that they...

A rare daytime rocket attack hit Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday, security sources said, as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met top Iraqi officials. At least two rockets hit outside the US embassy in the high-security zone, the sources told AFP. Diplomats based in the neighborhood said they could hear sirens blaring for around an hour after the attack. The embassy's C-RAM rocket defense system was not triggered, possibly because the missiles' trajectory meant they would not strike within the compound. The heavily fortified Green Zone has come under repeated rocket attacks in recent months. In late January, three...

Florissa Fuentes went through an admittedly rocky adolescence growing up in the city’s North End, finding herself in loads of trouble before a high school-based city police officer persuaded her to move to North Carolina for a new perspective. Hailing from a heavily military family, Fuentes returned to the city in 2007, a teen hoping for a fresh start. She aimed to join the U.S. Navy, but her brother, Daniel Newsome, was killed in combat in Baghdad, discounting her from enlisting just as she prepared for basic training. Fuentes eventually set her eyes on a corrections career, graduating from the...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead two protesters in Iraq's southern city of Nassiriya overnight and a Baghdad district became a battlefield on the third day of a drive by security forces to end months of demonstrations against the largely Iran-backed ruling elite. Clashes over the weekend had already killed at least five protesters. Rockets also hit the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone housing government buildings. Ambassadors of 16 countries in Baghdad including the United States, France and Britain condemned the use of live fire by Iraqi security forces and called for a credible investigation into the...

The U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad was hit by multiple rockets on Sunday, two U.S. officials told ABC News. This is the first time the compound has been hit directly in years and comes just weeks after pro-Iranian militia members and their supporters assaulted the compound in Iraq. Rocket attacks on the Green Zone are very common. Last week three rockets were fired into Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified area of the capital that houses the embassy, government buildings and U.S. service members. Iraqi officials said Monday that there were no injuries. Both U.S. officials told ABC News that...

Three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad overnight as security services continued firing live ammunition at anti-government protesters in the city. The rockets were fired from a makeshift launcher in Zafaraniya, on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, and landed inside the fortified Green Zone - but failed to cause significant damage and did not kill anyone. Meanwhile three anti-government protesters were killed overnight protesting in Tahrir Square after security forces opened fire with live ammunition. The clashes prompted authorities to close key streets and thoroughfares leading to the Iraqi capital's centre. The violence was the latest...

Pics at link. American troops are in the process of clearing debris and rubble from an area the size of a football stadium Monday at a military base in western Iraq that was hit by Iranian airstrikes. The attack on the Ain al-Asad base last Wednesday, where about 1,500 American and coalition forces are stationed, was carried out in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Gen. Qassem Soleimani. An Associated Press crew touring the facility Monday saw damaged military trailers as well as forklifts lifting rubble and loading it onto trucks. “There were more than 10 large missiles...

President Trump's approval rating rose sharply days after he commanded strikes on top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Mahdi al Muhandis in Baghdad. The president's rating rebounded considerably since dropping during the several months that House Democrats investigated his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump notched a 45.3% approval mark, matching a local high recorded on Sept. 24, 2019, according to RealClearPolitics.

President Trump calls his military clash with Iran over a besieged U.S. embassy “the opposite of Benghazi,” and people close to him say it’s impossible to overstate how deeply Mr. Trump was influenced by the fatal 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Libya, and by President Obama’s weak response. When Iran-backed forces attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and set fires to the walls of the compound, Mr. Trump quickly ordered a contingent of Marines to defend the complex. Then he ordered a drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a designated terrorist believed...

President Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview that the imminent threat from Iran that provoked the United States to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani involved planned attacks on four US embassies. Asked specifically what was targeted, Trump revealed: “We will tell you that probably it was going to be the embassy in Baghdad.” Pressed on whether large-scale attacks were planned for other embassies, the president said: “I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.” The exclusive interview with the president will air Friday night...

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani arrived at the Damascus airport in a vehicle with dark-tinted glass. Four soldiers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards rode with him. They parked near a staircase leading to a Cham Wings Airbus A320, destined for Baghdad. Neither Soleimani nor the soldiers were registered on the passenger manifesto, according to a Cham Wings airline employee who described the scene of their departure from the Syrian capital to Reuters. Soleimani avoided using his private plane because of rising concerns about his own security, said an Iraqi security source with knowledge of Soleimani’s security arrangements. The passenger flight would be...

There are prominent Christians in politics, law, and culture. For card Sako, it is essential to avoid dispersing strength and skills, dividing the community into parties and factions. Emigration abroad and marginalisation at home are the first challenges to face. Citizenship and the constitution are the bases for living together.Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Chaldean Patriarch Card Louis Raphael Sako said that the time has come for Christians to set up their own party in order to be stronger and have greater representation. “Perhaps it is now necessary, before it is too late, to think and plan a unified Christian strategy,” writes...

The Trump administration is barring Iran’s top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military official in Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif requested a visa a “few weeks ago” to enter the United States to attend a Jan. 9 Security Council meeting on the importance of upholding the U.N. Charter, according to a diplomatic source familiar with...

The top US general said Monday a letter suggesting the US would withdraw troops from Iraq was released by mistake and poorly worded, telling reporters "that's not what's happening." Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley sought to address the confusion that began after the leak of aletter to the Iraqi government from US Command in Baghdad suggesting US troops would be withdrawn from the country. "That letter is a draft. It was a mistake, it was unsigned, it should not have been released ... (it was) poorly worded, implies withdrawal, that is not what's happening," Milley...

The United States-led military coalition against Islamic State said on Monday that it was pulling out of Iraq and would be repositioning forces over the next few days and weeks, a letter seen by Reuters showed. "Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, CJTF-OIR will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement," read a letter from United States Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq. The authenticity...

Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice made the media rounds on Friday to discuss the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. She repeatedly said the Trump administration "misrepresents the facts," something Benghazi annex team member Mark Geist takes issue with. "She pretty much has zero integrity in my book, but it's typical tactics from the Democrats," Geist told Fox News' Pete Hegseth on "Fox and Friends: Weekend." According to Geist, Democrats will have one person who will come out and say what they want people to hear, similar to what happened after the attack in Benghazi back in 2012. "Mark,...

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

Within hours of Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a man most thought invincible and all-powerful, being confirmed dead, the debate began in Washington about the legality of the strike that killed him; of how the attack would play into the political cycle of impeachment and the 2020 presidential campaign; of what the consequences would be for any potential conflict with Iran. Yet in parts of the Middle East, the reaction was different. Soleimani was killed at about 1:00 a.m. just as he was leaving Baghdad airport and by 4:30 a.m.,...

Baghdad: Iran-backed Kataib Hizballah militia besieges US embassy, Trump says Iran “orchestrating” attack DEC 31, 2019 9:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER 20 COMMENTS The Islamic Republic of Iran has actively courted war with the U.S. for a long time, as is shown in The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran. The mullahs may be hoping to provoke that war now in order to distract their people from their own miserable condition and relieve the pressure that they’re under domestically. “US Embassy compound in Baghdad under siege as crowds protesting airstrikes break through gate,” by Greg Norman and Edmund DeMarche, Fox News,...