Free Republic

Brigades loyal to Najaf cleric split from Popular Mobilisation Forces after efforts to wrest control from Iran-backed commanders fail. An attempt by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to wrest control of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces from Iranian-backed factions has ended with the national Shia leader giving a green light instead for the dismantling of the militia alliance, military commanders and officials have told Middle East Eye. That process began last week when four armed factions associated with Sistani, the most senior cleric in the holy city of Najaf, were disengaged from the Popular Mobilisation Authority, which oversees the PMFs, and placed...

Iraq’s revenues plummeted in April amid a historic oil price crash, the Oil Ministry said Friday, raising concerns over how the country will cope with severe financial shortfalls while struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The crude-dependent economy earned just $1.4 billion in oil revenues last month, at an average price of $13.8 per barrel, according to data released by the ministry, a sixth of average figures from before the oil price crash... The figures provide the first tangible indication of the desperate circumstances facing Iraq as officials struggle to determine how to implement austerity measures — expected to be...

The United States has released video that shows coalition forces successfully hammering an Islamic State cave complex in Iraq with airstrikes. The attack happened on Wednesday in Iraq’s Hamrin Mountains, an area that is a known refuge for ISIS fighters who use the cave systems to hide out, plan attacks, and smuggle weapons. The airstrikes hit 10 caves and were done in coordination with Iraqi forces, according to a Thursday press release from Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve. It is estimated that between five to 10 ISIS fighters were killed in the airstrikes, though that figure could...

WASHINGTON/LONDON/DUBAI - As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that...

Berlin (AFP) - Germany on Thursday completely banned Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement from carrying out activities on its soil, as police raided mosques and venues linked to the group. Like the European Union, Germany had until now only outlawed Hezbollah's military wing while tolerating its political wing. But in a shift immediately welcomed by the United States and Israel, the German interior ministry said it now considered the entire movement a "Shiite terrorist organisation". "Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation deemed responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings worldwide," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany's Bild daily. The interior minister "has banned...

Documents released last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham give insight into a bombshell revelation about the “role of John Kerry’s State Department in fueling the FBI’s dubious Russia collusion probe, showing it was the State Department that provided ‘information’ leading to the controversial surveillance of Carter Page” reports Breitbart. Amongst the redactions released are parts of the Obama administration’s FISA warrant applications used to spy on Page. As Breitbart reports, the disclosures of the text claim Page was “an agent of a foreign power” and that “the status of the target was determined in or about October...

An “Islamic medicine specialist” from Iran urged Iranians to drink camel urine, claiming it can cure several diseases including coronavirus, according to a video posted on Instagram which has since gone viral. Drinking camel urine can cure lung diseases, asthma, and coronavirus, “Islamic medicine specialist” Mehdi Sabili said in a video shared on his Instagram page.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, according to a statement Sunday by a top official. The decision comes on the heels of another ordering judges to end the practice of flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service and bringing one of the kingdom’s most controversial forms of public punishment to a close. King Salman's son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seen as the force behind the kingdom’s loosening of restrictions and its pivot away from ultraconservative interpretations of Islamic law known as Wahhabism,...

Nidal Sakr continues to target the President and others with violent rhetoric. Since Muslim Brotherhood operative and Chairman of The March for Justice Nidal Sakr arrived at the US border, in March 2014, after fleeing his home in Egypt, he has been obsessed with President Donald Trump, at one point calling for President Trump’s execution. This past January, he once again spewed his venom at Trump, saying that the President along with certain other world leaders “deserve much worse than death” and telling the President to “kill ‘em all.” At what point do federal authorities consider the unhinged Sakr a...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear accord that President Trump has renounced, part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far more stringent sanctions reimposed on the country. The strategy has been described in recent days by administration officials as they begin to circulate a new resolution in the Security Council that would bar countries from exporting conventional arms to Iran after the current ban expires in October. Any effort to renew...

Turkey claims it is striking “terrorists,” but locals are concerned airstrikes come amid increased instability, ISIS resurgence and target vulnerably minorities Turkish drones and warplanes flew into Iraq airspace and bombed near a refugee camp near Makhmour on Wednesday, killing and wounding several people. Iraq’s top security cell for media reporting that its air defense monitored a Turkish violation of Iraqi airspace and that at least two women “residents of the camp were victims of the bombardment.” Iraqi media reported in the evening of April 15 that the death toll at the refugee camp had risen to three. It is...

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it at sea, a week after 11 vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came dangerously close to U.S. ships in the Gulf. Close interactions with Iranian military vessels were not uncommon in 2016 and 2017. On several occasions, U.S. Navy ships fired warning shots at Iranian vessels when they got too close. While the Navy has the authority to act in self-defense, Trump’s comments appeared to go further and are likely to stoke tensions between Iran and...

China, Iran and Russia are using the coronavirus crisis to launch a propaganda and disinformation onslaught against the United States, the State Department warns in a new report. The three governments are pushing a host of matching messages: that the novel coronavirus is an American bioweapon, that the U.S. is scoring political points off the crisis, that the virus didn’t come from China, that U.S. troops spread it, that America’s sanctions are killing Iranians, that China’s response was great while the U.S.’ was negligent, that all three governments are managing the crisis well, and that the U.S. economy can't bear...

President Trump said Wednesday that he has instructed the U.S. Navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian vessels that harass American ships at sea. “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252932181447630848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1252932181447630848&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fconservativeus.com%2Firgc-reveals-new-video-of-the-american-warships-which-were-surrounded-by-iranian-speed-boats%2F When IRGC speedboats harry U.S. warships, it is tempting to conclude Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against the Islamic Republic is failing. But think of how much more aggressive and reckless Iran would be without sanctions. IRGC released a new video of the American warships which were surrounded by the...

President Trump said Wednesday that he’s instructed the U.S. Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats harassing American ships, in the wake of a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf. “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted. The encounter happened last week. Six U.S. Navy warships were conducting drills with US Army Apache attack helicopters in international waters off Iran last Wednesday when they were repeatedly harassed by 11 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Navy vessels, the U.S. Navy’s 5th...

I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea. 8:08 AM · Apr 22, 2020

ISIS fighters discovered an ancient Assyrian palace under the ruins of Mosul, but unfortunately, they looted and sold off the tantalising treasures they discovered.Professor Peter Miglus, the archaeologist who has led work at the site, said that gold kept by Sennacherib may have been discovered by ISIS. He said: “We can presume many very valuable objects must now be on the black market." The archaeologists found gold objects littered within the tunnels that were discarded by ISIS. Gold from ancient Egypt, such as a gold scarab ring and a small sceptre with the ankh, the pharaonic symbol that represents...

Iran paraded a device this week which it claims can detect coronavirus cases from 100 yards away - but the contraption looks remarkably similar to a fake bomb detection gadget once flogged by a British fraudster. Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami boasted that 'local scientists' had invented the 'state-of-the-art' device to detect virus cases 'remotely' without the need for a blood test. How this would work is unclear, but Iranian media claimed the device had an '80 per cent accuracy' rate and could eventually be adapted to 'detect all kinds of viruses'.

During its recent press conference, the agency said that this particularly applied to Somalis, but also immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Finland, Turkey, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, and Eritrea.

Breaking News: Tornadoes left a path of death and destruction in Mississippi today..At least seven are reported dead.... An agreement among the OPEC+ nations to reduce oil production was reached this afternoon US time. Some 9.7 million barrels a day from OPEC+ countries will be combined with 2.7 million barrels a day in cuts coming from Brazil, Canada and the United States..... President Trump holding a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin..... A Turkish court this weekend accepting the indictment of 20 Saudi nationals in the killing of write Jamal Khashoggi.... The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is denying Blue and...