Criminal State - Part 1 of 3: A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism
The Haditha Massacre Photos That the US Military Didn’t Want the World to See | On the morning of November 19, 2005, a squad of Marines was travelling in four Humvees down a road in the town of Haditha, Iraq, when their convoy hit an I.E.D. The blast killed one Marine, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, and injured two others. What followed would spark one of the largest war-crime investigations in the history of the United States. ■ During the next several hours, Marines killed twenty-four Iraqi men, women, and children. Near the site of the explosion, they shot five men who had been driving to a college in Baghdad. They entered three nearby homes and killed nearly everyone inside. The youngest victim was a three-year-old girl. The oldest was a seventy-six-year-old man. The Marines would later claim that they were fighting insurgents that day, but the dead were all civilians. [...] Read more: The Haditha Massacre Photos That the Military Didn’t Want the World to See
An official in the Joint Operations Command in Iraq revealed on Tuesday that a second attack targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, which houses US forces, in the western Iraqi governorate of Anbar. | The Iraqi security official told Al-Ain News that five missiles launched by armed groups supported by Iran targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, where the international coalition forces led by the United States are stationed. ● The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is expected to issue a statement denouncing these attacks in light of his government’s efforts to reach an agreement with the United States to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from the country, according to the security source. ● Earlier on Monday, an armed militia affiliated with the Kataeb Hezbollah targeted Ain Al-Asad airbase, the security official added. In a statement to Reuters, two security sources in Iraq said that two Katyusha missiles were fired at Ain Al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, leaving at least five US personnel injured.
■ Five US Troops Injured in Rocket Attack on US Base in Iraq (Antiwar.com)
■ US braces for more attacks on its Middle East forces – Axios (RT.com)
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has confirmed that the attack came in response to the aggression against the PMF, and in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza. | The Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched a drone attack against a strategic Israeli target in the '48 Israeli-occupied territories in response to the Israeli attack against a military base where a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) group was deployed. ● In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Iraqi Resistance adopted the operation against the Eilat port on Saturday morning, noting that it was in response to the violation of Iraqi sovereignty, the aggression against the PMF, and in support of Gaza against the Israeli massacres and genocide against Palestinians in the Strip.
Muslims in Iran and many other countries are celebrating Eid al-Fitr at the conclusion of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, after the new moon of the lunar month of Shawwal was sighted the previous night. | Naqareh drums were played at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam, in Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad on Wednesday morning, and Muslim worshippers who had fasted for a month took part in Eid prayers there and across the country early in the morning of the occasion of the festive event, which marks the end of Ramadan – the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. ● In the capital, Tehran, people gathered at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla (Congregational Prayers Site) to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led the prayers.
■ Palestinians commemorate Eid al-Fitr amid oppression, genocide (Al Mayadeen)
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has struck the “Israeli” entity’s main airport in continued support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are enduring a genocidal US-backed “Israeli” aggression. | The Iraqi umbrella group of anti-terror groups made the announcement in a statement on Monday.
💬 “The fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, this evening, Monday, 11-3-2024, targeted Ben Gurion Airport deep within the usurping entity by drone,” the statement read.
The resistance accompanied the statement with footage of the operation, which saw the aircraft releasing a projectile upon reaching above its designated target. So far during the military onslaught, the entity has martyred more than 31112 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents. Completing the statement, the Iraqi resistance said by targeting the “Israeli” airport, it had...
💬 “...affirmed that we will continue to strike enemy strongholds, in completion of the second phase of operations to confront the occupation and support our people in Gaza, and in response to the Zionist massacres against unarmed Palestinian civilians.”
Earlier this month, the coalition announced targeting the Haifa Airport in the northern part of the occupied territories in yet another pro-Palestinian operation.
What was described by the Pentagon as a "logistics support base" turns out to be a secret drone base for long-range surveillance of fighters in neighboring Syria and Iraq and for conducting airstrikes. | The Pentagon calls the US base in Jordan, Tower 22, a “logistics support base” - however, in reality, the area in which three US troops were killed last month is more than what it seems. ● The Intercept reported that Tower 22 is secretly a drone base for long-range surveillance of whom the US perceives as "insurgents" in neighboring Syria and Iraq and to conduct airstrikes, according to two US military sources, while it also represents a staging facility for special operations forces and is a medevac helicopter home base. ● Talking to The Intercept, an Air Force airman, whose unit was recently stationed at the base, said,
💬 “To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit,” as logistics was only a minor part - or a disguise - to merely deliver food and fuel to the nearby al-Tanf base. “The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes,” the airman added, noting, “The main objective I witnessed was taking out targets.”
■ US approves plan for strike on Iranian targets (02/02/24)
Larry Johnson | The United States and Europe are Hell Bent on Sparking World War III | The U.S. and Europe — the Brits in particular — are out of control and flouting international law as they carry out military strikes in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. The West claims it is an act of self-defense, but instead of killing or arresting specific individuals responsible for attacks, are engaged in collective punishment. I think we are coming to a point where anger against the West is going to boil over and the U.S. and Europe will get a taste of their own medicine. All of this was avoidable, but the U.S. and Britain have convinced their citizens that attacks on foreign countries without the backing of the UN is entirely appropriate. It is not. These actions shred international support for the U.S. proclaimed “rules-based international order.” The latest incident to spark outrage is a hellfire missile strike in Baghdad. [...] The rage against the West is not confined to the Middle East. A video was posted tonight showing a couple of Russian gentlemen confronting British diplomats at a restaurant in Moscow. The anger is real and growing.
This comes after the US initiated a series of strikes overnight, targeting positions in Iraq and Syria. | Russian Deputy Envoy to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy on Saturday announced that Russia has sought an immediate session of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on February 5 in response to the US' aggression on Iraq and Syria. ● "Russia has just called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to discuss threats to international peace and security from the US strikes against Iraq and Syria. The meeting is expected to be held at 4 pm EST [21:00 GMT] on February 5," Polyanskiy said on X. ● This comes after the US initiated a series of strikes overnight, targeting entities that the US Central Command (CENTCOM) alleges to be affiliated with the IRGC and its allies. According to CENTCOM, US forces struck more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria with numerous aircraft, including long-range bombers that were said to have taken off from the US.
■ Warnings of "exploding the situation" in the region after the US strikes in Syria and Iraq (Al Jazeera)
■ US strikes in Middle East a ‘strategic mistake’ – Iran (RT.com)
■ US hits 85 targets in Syria and Iraq (02/03/24)
US Central Command announced on Friday that that it had hit 85 Kata'ib Hezbollah targets in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a recent drone attack on a U.S. military headquarters in Jordan near the border with Syria that killed three US service members. | The attacks were conducted last night. Officials in Iraq have condemned the attacks. Reportedly, the overnight air strikes on Syria killed at least 18 fighters. ● Kataib Hezbollah had said the attacks on the American headquarters in the region, including the recent one in Jordan, were in response to Washington’s full support for Israel’s massacre of the Palestinians in Gaza, which started in October 2023. Kataib Hezbollah, also called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have so far fired missiles at Israel's for its genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip. US military officials have not provided an estimated death toll but have said the strikes resulted in causalities.
■ Lloyd Austin: ‘We Don’t Know’ If Iran Was Involved in Jordan Drone Attack (antiwar.com)
■ Damascus says US occupation of Syrian territory ‘cannot continue’ (Malay Mail)
■ Military statement: A number of civilian and military martyrs in U.S. new aggression near borders with Iraq (SANA)
■ Iraq condemns US airstrikes as ‘breach of sovereignty', warns of 'disasterous consequences' (PressTV)
■ Most targeted sites completely evacuated before aggression (Al Mayadeen)
■ Yemen's Ansarullah vows to stand by Iraqi, Syrian resistance groups 'in battlefield' after US strikes (PressTV)
■ Iraq’s Nujaba: We’ll Keep up Ops against US until Occupation Ends, Gaza Genocide Stops (Alahed News)
In a response to the Zionist aggression on Iranian figures and interests, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards [IRG] announced that first missile strikes targeted gathering places of commanders and main elements of recent terrorist attacks in the Iranian cities of Kerman and Rask. | It added that the strike came after gathering points of the Daesh [Arabic Acronym for the terrorist ISIS/ISIS] terrorist group were identified in the occupied territories of Syria and destroyed with a number of ballistic missiles. ● The Takfiri group claimed responsibility for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores of others at a memorial for Iran's top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman on January 3. ● Later the same month, another terrorist attack hit a police station in the southeastern Iranian city of Rask, killing 11 police officers and injuring at least six others. ● The IRG said in a later statement that another missile strike had been launched at a main espionage center of the “Israeli” entity’s Mossad spy agency in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
■ Iraq Recalls Ambassador to Tehran After Strikes on Kurdistan Region (Sputnik News)
■ Israeli media: Iranian ballistic missile crosses 1,200 km in first (Al Mayadeen)
■ IRGC Strikes at Militants in Syria in Response to Recent Terrorist Attacks (Sputnik News)
■ Overnight blasts in Erbil, businessman’s death: What we know about Iranian missile strikes (TASS)
We all know the story of bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the story that was repeated ad nauseam in the days, weeks and months after the catastrophic, catalyzing events of 9/11. So often was that story repeated that the hypnotized public forgot that it was, at base, just that: a story. . . .
London, which accuses Moscow of violating UN Security Council resolutions, should remember its neocolonial actions, including aggression against the population of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and military aid to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed. | The official made a statement commenting on British Defense Minister Grant Shapps' assertions that "the world has turned its back on Russia." ● The British minister made the remarks in connection to unsubstantiated allegations regarding the use of "DPRK missiles." Shapps also accused Russia of violating multiple UN Security Council resolutions, despite Moscow's stern denial of such innuendos. 💬 "Here is just a short list of London's neocolonial actions of recent times: the participation of British land and air forces together with the Americans in the aggression against Yugoslavia, in the destruction of Iraq and its population, Libya, Afghanistan, the bombing of Syria, and now - supporting the Kiev regime, which in violation of all resolutions on non-delivery of weapons to conflict zones the Anglo-Saxons are supplying with lethal weapons. But Shapps is right about one thing: 'This must end,'" Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
Yet Another War: Iraq Islamic Resistance Tells U.S. "Get out of Iraq" or All American Troops here will face military attack | The United States has been told by Iraqi groups that all American troops must leave Iraq immediately or all US bases in that country will be attacked; all troops, killed. "One American present in Iraq is too much, Abu Ala al-Walai said." Today the Secretary-General of the Iraq Islamic Resistance, Harakat Al-Nujaba, Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi, confirmed that the Iraqi Islamic Resistance has decided to liberate Iraq militarily. "The matter has been resolved, and what is coming is greater."
A massive wave of airstrikes was carried out ahead of a ground incursion | Israeli ground forces will “expand” their activity in Gaza on Friday night, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has told reporters. Warplanes are currently subjecting the enclave to some of the heaviest bombardment to date ahead of the ground operation. [...] Israeli soldiers have conducted several limited raids into the strip over the last two days but no major offensive has been announced. Hagari’s statement is the clearest sign since the beginning of the conflict on October 7 that an invasion – which the IDF has been preparing to launch for almost three weeks – is imminent. ● In a statement on Friday morning, the IDF said that its tanks and infantry had moved into central Gaza the previous day and destroyed “dozens of terrorist targets, including positions for launching anti-tank missiles and operational headquarters,” as well as Hamas fighters. Israeli forces withdrew after the raid with no casualties, the IDF added.
■ ISRAELI TANKS NOW STORMING INTO GAZA. IRAN FOREIGN MINISTER: "THEY PRESSED THE BUTTON" (Hal Turner)
■ Gaza communications blackout as Israel intensifies attack (The Eletronic Intifada)
■ Gaza in complete blackout as IOF launch most brutal attack so far (Al Mayadeen)
■ Unprecedented Israeli strikes on Gaza amid internet blackout (Palestine Info)
■ Israel-Palestine live: Communications blackout as heaviest strikes hit Gaza (MEE)
■ “Please, if you can hear us, tell the world that we are isolated now in Gaza” (If Americans Knew)
■ Israel’s Onslaught On Gaza Escalates, Dozens Of Civilians Killed (IMEMC News)
13 years ago today, Julian Assange published the Collateral Murder video showing US forces massacring Iraqi civilians in cold blood. He exposed the US's war crimes, yet the very war criminals he exposed are free & he is in prison. What a world we live in.pic.twitter.com/AlAqUGMTs5
— Hassan Mafi (@thatdayin1992) April 5, 2023
The Netherlands has decided to declassify data on airstrikes in the Middle East after media exposé | The Dutch government agreed to release previously classified information about its air sorties in Iraq and Syria, after media exposed as false claims that no civilians were killed in a 2016 strike by the European nation on a building in Mosul, Iraq. A US military assessment had identified the target as a terrorist HQ. ● The database, released on Thursday, details Dutch F-16 missions between October 2014 and December 2018, which were part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led military campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). It disclosed over 2,200 weapon deployments relating to over 600 airstrikes. The Dutch Ministry of Defence also pledged to conduct its own investigation into suspected killings of civilians by anti-IS coalition forces. ● The move was in reaction to an exposé published on the same day by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, its current affairs program Nieuwsuur, and the newspaper NRC. It provides evidence that at least seven civilians, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in a Dutch airstrike at a residential building in Mosul on March 22, 2016. The strike hit a residence outside of the campus of Mosul University, where academics and their families were housed.
"Some of the most heinous U.S. war crimes committed during the Iraq War took place in the city of Fallujah," said journalist Jeremy Scahill. | Peace advocates responded with disgust to the Navy's decision to name its new warship after the two battles of Fallujah, during which U.S. troops massacred Iraqi civilians. 💬 "Fallujah was a giant American war crime in Iraq." "The future America-class amphibious ship will be named the USS Fallujah, LHA-9," Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced Tuesday in a speech at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C. "The future USS Fallujah will commemorate the first and second battles of Fallujah, American-led offenses during the Iraq War." Del Toro called it "an honor for me, and for our nation, to memorialize the Marines, the soldiers, and coalition forces that fought valiantly and those that sacrificed their lives during both battles of Fallujah." ● U.S. troops slaughtered approximately 600 Iraqi civilians—including more than 300 women and children—along with 200 insurgents during the First Battle of Fallujah. Code-named Operation Vigilant Resolve, the battle was launched in April 2004 to avenge the deaths of four Blackwater contractors. Twenty-seven U.S. soldiers were killed during the retaliatory siege. ● The Second Battle of Fallujah, known as Operation Phantom Fury, was fought from November to December 2004 to recapture the city from insurgent forces. In the process, U.S.-led occupation forces killed between 581 and 670 civilians across nine neighborhoods, according to Iraq Body Count.
■ The Third Battle of Fallujah (Stephen Lendman)
■ us massacres iraq fallujah (Qwant search)
PressTV - A report says Israeli businessmen are buying properties belonging to the displaced minorities in the ISIL-held regions in northern Iraq to prepare the ground for accommodation of more than 2,000 people there.
Rixon Stewart ■ Why on earth would Israelis buy property in ISIL occupied territory in Iraq, even if it was at bargain prices? There can only be one reason: Israelis are buying property there in anticipation of the expansion and establishment of a “Greater Israel“. This was one of the objectives envisaged by the original Zionists, before Israel had even been established as a modern nation state. According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl: “the area of the Jewish State stretches: “From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” This area would encompass parts of northern and western Iraq. Moreover, we know that Al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL, is reputed to be a Mossad trained operative. Indeed there have been numerous reports linking Al Baghdadi with Mossad and this is more than speculation. Although the corporate media have largely ignored them they have been corroborated by NSA documents. Elsewhere reports have appeared claiming that Al Baghdadi’s real name is Elliot Shimon, a Jew by birth. This would also explain reports that Israel was covertly assisting Islamic State militants. Although largely ignored by the corporate Western media, Alexander Prokhanov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, maintains that Israel has been providing intelligence and training assistance to ISIL militants. From these disparate reports we can conclude that Israel is covertly working toward the establishment of a “Greater Israel”.
Federal Court Gives “Early Christmas Present” to War Criminals Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Others, Immunizing Them From Civil Inquiry Regarding Iraq War. ● Late Friday, a federal judge dismissed a civil claim filed against George W. Bush and other high-ranking officials regarding their conduct in planning and waging the Iraq War, and immunized them from further proceedings.
“This is an early Christmas present to former Bush Administration officials from the federal court,” Inder Comar of Comar Law said. Comar brought the claim on behalf of an Iraqi refugee and single mother, Sundus Shaker Saleh. “This was a serious attempt to hold US leaders accountable under laws set down at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. I am very disappointed at the outcome.”
The tribunal at Nuremberg, established in large part by the United States after World War II, declared international aggression the “supreme international crime” and convicted German leaders of waging illegal wars. The case alleged that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz committed aggression in planning and waging the Iraq War. Specifically, the lawsuit claimed that high-ranking Bush officials used the fear of 9/11 to mislead the American public into supporting a war against Iraq, and that they issued knowingly false statements that Iraq was in league with Al-Qaeda and had weapons of mass destruction, when none of those things were true. “The decision guts Nuremberg
,” Comar said. “Nuremberg said that domestic immunity was no defense to a claim of international aggression. This Court has said the opposite
.”
Patrick Martin & David North ■ The New York Times calls for torture prosecutions || The editorial published Monday in the New York Times, headlined “Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses,” marks a new stage in the political crisis triggered by the publication of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture authorized by the Bush administration. The language of the editorial, beginning with the headline, is remarkably blunt in condemning the torture carried out in CIA secret prisons under the Bush administration. [...] In effect, the most influential newspaper in the United States has declared that the Bush administration was a criminal government.
According to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report. According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed. Sadly, it seems that the evidence released years ago was only scratching the surface. While the video has remained under wraps thus far, Hersh says it is only a matter of time before it comes out.
The US military has reportedly covered up the discovery of huge numbers of chemical weapons in Iraq – stocks which now lie in the occupied lands controlled by Isis. According to an exposé published today by the New York Times, American soldiers reported finding around 5,000 chemical warheads or bombs after the invasion of Iraq and deposition of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Between 2004 and 2011 at least 17 US soldiers and seven Iraqi police officers were exposed to nerve agents or mustard gas chemicals, but were encouraged by the Pentagon to downplay or under-report any injuries, the Times reported.
RIA Novosti: Iraq: Chemical Weapons Created With Western Support "Found" by US Troops
xymphora ■ Weapons of Mass Propaganda || It must have made the Bush Administration mad that they couldn't mention this without disclosing the deep lies behind the American preoccupation with Saddam's WND (i.e., we know he's got them because we gave them to him). The NYT story has now come out as part of Barry's anti-ISIS propaganda, disguised as concern for the injured troops. They really are weapons of mass destruction, but the destruction is caused by tricking Americans into fighting yet another War For The Jews based on phony fears of yet another 'enemy' created by and supported by the American government.
From 2004 to 2011 [the second Iraq war started in March 2003], the US military and Iraqi troops "found" around 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs in Iraq [allegedly] created during the rule of former president Saddam Hussein in collaboration with Western countries, The New York Times reported. At least six times troops were wounded by the chemical weapons during the period, the newspaper reported Tuesday citing American and Iraqi senior officials, as well as US intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. In all except one of the incidents, the munitions were designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled with chemical agents in factories built in Iraq by Western companies, according to the news outlet. ["Ex Post Bellum facts" - draw your own conclusions...Ed.]
New York Times: The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s "Abandoned" Chemical Weapons
On Sept. 26, 2014, This is a special session from parliament either to join U.S. led air strikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq.
Haaretz: Erdogan: Turkish troops could be used to establish secure zone in Syria
The Intercept: The Khorasan Group: Anatomy of a Fake Terror Threat to Justify Bombing Syria
Lawmakers in Britain have approved a motion allowing the country to join the US-led coalition in bombing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Iraq. The motion was approved on Friday by 524 votes to 43 following hours of animated debate in the House of Commons. Prior to the vote, Prime Minister David Cameron made an impassioned plea for Britain to join the United States and a coalition of Western and Arab nations in air strikes meant to thwart the ISIL group in Iraq. Cameron told a tense House of Commons that there was no more serious issue than asking the country to devote armed forces to conflict. He repeatedly stressed that no combat troops were planned, but he could barely get through his statement, as lawmakers peppered him with questions about the move.
“I want people to consider, what if that happened to your family member or daughter?” || The U.S. military used a camera as a torture device at Abu Grahib. To add further humiliation to detainees who were already put in cages, urinated on, stripped naked then stacked in macabre human pyramids, their photos were taken during these degrading acts. “I wanted to use the camera to restore these peoples’ humanity through beautiful portraiture,” says photographer Chris Bartlett, whose exhibition, “Iraqi Detainees: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Ordeals,” opens tonight in New York. When confronted with images of torture, Bartlett says, even the greatest liberal or humanist among us has the tendency to flinch and look away. “It’s such a disturbing and disgusting issue that people want to turn off from it.” Bartlett, who often works in high fashion photography, shooting subjects like candy colored Tory Burch handbags, said he wanted to take “very kind, respectful, beautiful, portraits to draw people into the subject and learn more about their stories.”
The uneasy relationship between the White House and US military is on full display as President Barack Obama and his top generals continue to clash over the new strategy to combat the ISIL terrorist organization. ● Obama has authorized airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria, but has ruled out American boots on the ground in a combat role. US military officials have complained privately for weeks that airstrikes alone would not be sufficient to achieve the announced goal of deafening ISIL.
Antiwar.com: Hagel: Military, Not Obama, Will Make Decisions on Syria Strikes
Washington Post: Rift widens between Obama, U.S. military over strategy to fight Islamic State
The United States launched at least one airstrike against Islamic State militants near Baghdad on Monday, marking the expansion of the US military campaign against the extremist group. The airstrike was reportedly requested by Iraqi forces under attack. ● According to US officials cited by the Associated Press, the airstrike was authorized after Iraqi security forces requested air power support as they engaged Islamic State (IS) fighters south of Baghdad. An unnamed defense official, meanwhile, told NBC News that the most recent air attack near Baghdad was an “offensive” strike, and there was no suggestion that militants were making headway towards the country’s capital. US Central Command confirmed the air strike and affirmed that it was part of a new phase in the battle against IS. Previous airstrikes in Iraq were characterized by the US as “defensive” in nature, as they were used to protect American diplomatic sites as well as crucial Iraqi facilities like the Mosul Dam.
■ New Phase of ISIS War With Strikes Near Baghdad
■ IRAQ: THE REAL STRATEGY IS ABOUT TO SUCCEED [June 19, 2014]
■ “Going After” the Islamic State. Guess Who is Behind the Caliphate Project?
■ The CIA Engaged In Covert Terrorism to Give Government Plausible Deniability
:: Next >>