Free Republic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.. Across the Middle East,...

Iran's Regime Faces international pressure and Domestic tension. By: Hassan. Mahmoudi In The 73rd session of the UN General Assembly Trump, said the oil-related sanctions will be followed by other punitive measures to thwart what he characterized as a “corrupt dictatorship” that still harbors nuclear weapons ambitions and foments turmoil in the Middle East through its support of militant groups. “We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues,” he said. he added, “we ask all nations to support Iran’s people as they struggle to reclaim their religious and righteous destiny.” Meanwhile, Iranian regime claim...

The World Court, the highest United Nations tribunal, on Wednesday ordered the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran do not impact humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.

A new attempt by Hamas to entice Israeli children to play with incendiary balloons includes choosing colorful balloons and attaching lights and toys to them, Yediot Ahronot reported. According to the report, a cluster of balloons recently found in the Eshkol Region was attached to an explosive toy. The balloons, found late at night, were colorful and included colorful flashing lights. Kibbutz Be'eri's secretary, Yaniv Hagi, told Yediot Aharonot: "Incendiary balloons land in our kibbutz at all hours of day and night. They arrive with flashing and sparkling lights, and some of the balloons have smiley faces on them, so...

Iran feels it can target Israel, the US or Saudi Arabia when the time comes. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired six ballistic missiles “east of the Euphrates” in Syria to retaliate for an attack on the IRGC in Ahvaz on September 22. The attack shows Iran’s reach throughout the region and that Iran is willing to strike wherever it pleases and knows that air defense systems in Iraq and those by the Coalition in eastern Syria will not interdict it. The targeting of ISIS in Syria by Iran is a major escalation, primarily because the missiles overflew Iraq...

This is the reality: A career diplomat crossing European borders in a rented car while carrying a professionally-made bomb, which bears a design favored by jihadists. In Luxembourg, he hands over the bomb to two would-be terrorists, long-standing residents of Europe who just look like any ordinary young married couple. They accept it with a clear mission in mind: to bomb a political rally in the largest convention center in France, located in the suburbs of Paris. If the plot is successful, it will kill many among the tens of thousands of people in attendance, among who were hundreds of...

"US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Myanmar's government to take concrete steps to investigate human right's abuses against Rohingya Muslims...." "Reuters" Report Friday 9/28/2018 "The Syrian regime's butcher is enabled by Russia and Iran" President Donald J. Trump at United Nations 9/26/2018 The pattern of Western nations taking the side of jihadist opposition forces seen in Syria and Libya on "humanitarian" grounds is again being revealed in the controversy over the nation of Myanmar (commonly called "Burma") The majority Buddhist country has a minority of Muslims called Rohingyas who were engaged in a revolt that included acts of terrorism....

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) Hey, remember when all the “experts” were telling you that President Donald Trump could not possibly successfully renegotiate the 25 year-old NAFTA deal? – Yeah, they were wrong about that, too. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many...... 5:30 AM - Oct 1, 2018 32.5K...

Democratic Senator Chris Coons from Delaware betrayed his backers and his voters when at the end of the summer, as the Senate returned from recess, he announced that he was supporting President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Coons announced his decision in an address at the University of Delaware. There Coons acknowledged that the deal was terrible for America. He detailed all the ways the deal harms US national security and places US allies, including Israel at grave risk. “Frankly, this is not the agreement I hoped for,” Coons began. “I am troubled,” he explained, “that the parties to...

The State Department is temporarily closing the U.S. Consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and evacuating all diplomats stationed there, following a rocket attack early Friday morning. Although there were no casualties, concerns back in Washington grew. The decision comes out of concern for the safety of U.S. personnel stationed in that Iraqi city near the border with Iran. In a statement released Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited "repeated incidents of fire" from Iranian-backed militias. "I have made clear that Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks,"...

Amnesty International director alleged to have links to Muslim Brotherhood & radical Islamists Amnesty’s director of faith and human rights, Yasmin Hussein. A senior Amnesty International official has been found to have private links with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and revolutionary Islamists accused of plotting a coup in an Arab state. Amnesty’s director of faith and human rights, Yasmin Hussein, stayed overnight at the residence of a Muslim Brotherhood advisor during an official visit to Egypt in direct contravention of Amnesty guidelines. Her husband was also named as an alleged Islamist in documents relating to a 2013 sedition trial...

Beirut (AFP) - A formerly US-backed Syrian rebel group on Saturday rejected a deal between Russia and Turkey to avert a large-scale military assault on rebel-held Idlib province. The deal makes way for a demilitarised zone between rebel and regime-held areas in and around the northwestern governorate, Syria's last insurgent bastion. Under the accord reached on September 17 amid mounting fears of a devastating regime offensive, jihadist factions would withdraw their heavy weaponry from the buffer zone. Pro-Turkey rebels have cautiously accepted the deal, but the Jaysh al-Izza faction on Saturday rejected it, saying the zone to be set up...

Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday evening accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of “victimizing the criminal” following the Prime Minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly. “Netanyahu’s speech is a combination of old and well-known talking points that conclude on victimizing the criminal and blaming the victim. His speech further exposes Israel’s systematic denial of our right to exist, to live in freedom and to celebrate our national identity,” said Erekat in a statement. “The reality on the ground in occupied Palestine is a manifestation of what Israel is: a colonial- apartheid state. Despite the oppression, racism...

The deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned U.S. and Israeli leaders on Monday to expect a "devastating" response from Tehran, accusing them of involvement in an attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz. "You have seen our revenge before ... You will see that our response will be crushing and devastating and you will regret what you have done," Hossein Salami said in a speech before the funeral of the victims broadcast live on the state television. Thousands of people packed the streets of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz to mourn the victims of Saturday's...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the U.S. to reconsider its abandonment of the JCPOA nuclear deal while accusing the nation of waging “economic war” with sanctions. While speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday Rouhani warned of rulers who have “xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition”, and claimed that “those seeking dominance and hegemony are enemies of peace and perpetrators of war.” “We invite you to come back to the negotiating table you left. If you dislike the JCPOA because it is the legacy of your domestic political rivals then we invite you to come back to the Security...

President Trump on Tuesday took aim at Iran in a defiant address to the United Nations, calling on world leaders to join the U.S. in isolating Tehran over its "aggression." Trump used a large portion of his address to tout his administration's plans to launch a "campaign of economic pressure" aimed at starving Iran of money it would use "to advance its bloody agenda" in the Middle East and beyond. The president noted his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Obama-era nuclear agreement between Iran and other world powers and stressed that many sanctions would be reimposed on Iran...

The Israel Defense Forces are so much more than the picture of raw power perceived in news stories and war-centered history books. The IDF functions on a daily basis employing stealth and deception in the battle against Israel's unremitting enemies. Pre-1967, the state and military were perceived as underdogs fighting the good fight against all odds. The devastating effectiveness and efficiency with which the IDF knocked out and embarrassed Arab armies changed the perception of the IDF and the Jewish people into a conquering military machine. The success was so decisive that it altered the mindset of the Jewish people...

Russian officials said Syria's outdated S-200 systems weren't sophisticated enough to identify the Russian plane as a friendly one. Monday's statement from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia will send the newer S-300 missile defense systems to Syria within the next two weeks. Earlier in the war, Russia suspended a supply of S-300, which Israel feared Syria could use against it. Shoigu said Russia is now going to go ahead with the shipment because "the situation has changed, and it's not our fault." The supply of S-300s to Syria will "calm down some hotheads" whose actions "pose a threat...

GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — At least 14 civilians were killed on Saturday in a six-hour attack by rebels on the town of Beni in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials told Reuters, warning the unrest may hamper efforts to quash an Ebola epidemic in the area. The latest outbreak of the deadly disease has been focused in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which have been a tinder box of armed rebellion and ethnic killing since two civil wars in the late 1990s. Militants believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group active in...

"We have made it very clear, we are not going to pay for reconstruction of Syria as long as there is Iranian influence there," Haley said. "We're not going to pay as long as ISIS has not been defeated, which we're almost there. We're not going to pay for reconstruction to help Russia out when this is their problem." Haley added how Russia took responsibility for what is happening in Syria and are now have their hands out asking for money. "What we're saying is there are a lot of things that have to happen before reconstruction is even talked...