■ Outrage over ‘What Gaza could be like’ propaganda video [Puke Video]

SOHR activists have reported hearing loud explosions in the US base in Al-Omar oil field in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, the US largest base in Syria. However, it is not known if the explosions were caused by an attack on the base. The explosions coincided with flights by drones over the region.

■ US base in eastern Syria attacked by drones (TASS)
■ US military base in eastern Syria targeted with drones (Mehr News)

The US blamed an Iranian-backed militia group for recent attacks. | The strikes will take place over a number of days, officials said, and weather conditions will likely dictate when they are launched. Iran, meanwhile, has denied any role in the attack which injured 41 other US troops at the military base, known as Tower 22. It comes after a drone attack killed three US soldiers in Jordan, close to the Syrian border, on Sunday.

■ Iran vows strong response to aggression, Raisi says (Amu TV)
■ Iraq’s pro-Iran Al-Nujaba movement vows to keep up attacks on US troops (Malay Mail)
■ US "believes" Iranian-made drone behind deadly attack – Reuters
■ US approves strikes on Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq, Syria (Al Mayadeen) (RT.com)

The Yemeni army has carried out yet another attack in the Red Sea, this time targeting a British vessel amid tensions over the UK-US joint aggression against the Arab country to protect Israeli maritime interests in the region. | A Yemeni military source has been quoted by Al Jazeera that the British vessel was en route to an Israeli port in the occupied Palestinian territories when it was hit by Yemeni missiles on Thursday night. ● The spokesman for Yemen’s Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree has confirmed the attack, noting that the strike on the vessel was part of the country’s support for the Palestinian people in Gaza who have been under unprecedented bloody aggression by the Zionist regime nearly the four months. ● Yemen says it will keep targeting any Zionist or Zionist-linked vessels in the Red Sea as long as the war in Gaza continues and the besieged territory remains under the blockade. ● The Yemeni army has conducted over two dozen attacks on Israeli-linked commercial vessels in the Ted and Arab Seas since mid-November.

■ Yemen strikes British merchant ship in solidarity with Gazans (Tehran Times)

Kiev used two foreign-made missiles to destroy the Il-76 last week, authorities have said | A Russian cargo plane carrying dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) for exchange was downed last week by a US-made Patriot air defense system, the country’s Investigative Committee has confirmed. ● In a statement on Thursday, the agency said that it had identified the type of weapon used to shoot down the Il-76 last Wednesday over Belgorod Region. There were 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members on board, all of whom died in the crash. ● The Investigative Committee said that Ukraine fired two missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. Officials said that during the investigation they found 116 missile fragments bearing inscriptions in English, with one of them reading: “CONFIDENTIAL classified by PATRIOT SECURITY CLASSIFICATION GUIDE DATED: 9/22/83 ADDENDA DATED 11/28/83 8/8/84 CONTRACT NO/DAAH01-86C-A018.”

Tarik Cyril Amar | Steadfast Defender 2024, the bloc’s largest exercise in decades, is not only about military cohesion – it’s about selling war to the people | NATO has launched its largest exercise since the Cold War ended. Steadfast Defender 2024 will last several months and involve about 90,000 troops, over 50 naval vessels, 1,100 ground vehicles (including at least 133 tanks and 533 armored troop carriers), and 80 aircraft of various kinds (planes, helicopters, and drones). ● All 31 alliance members will participate, as will Sweden, which is in the process of joining. However, it’s not only a matter of numbers and duration. The massive event is also special for two more reasons, one fairly straightforward, the other more complicated and worthy of serious scrutiny. ● The more complicated issue is that the exercise was preceded by a veritable onslaught of propaganda - or in up-to-date NATO-speak, cognitive warfare. One dead give-away that this has been deliberate is that the Western think tank/information-war platform the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is already accusing Russia of engaging in “an information operation to misrepresent” the purely “defensive” Steadfast Defender.