29 aug 2019
Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed
Iraq has lashed out at Bahrain for backing recent Israeli attacks on Arab countries, defending sacrifices made by a pro-government military force to counter terrorists.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it “rejects and condemns” Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifah’s Tweet about the Zionist enemy’s targeting of Arab territories and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi, an effective force in the Baghdad government’s anti-Daesh fight.
It also stressed that the PMU has stood by Iraqi armed forces “to defend our holy land and made great sacrifices to liberate the cities of Iraq, and to defeat Daesh terrorist gangs.”
The Israeli regime is widely known to be behind a wave of air raids on positions of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi in recent weeks. Reports say those air raids had the support of the Saudi regime and were launched from the areas controlled by US-backed Kurdish militants in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.
In the latest such attack on the weekend, Israeli drones struck a PMU convoy near the Iraqi town of al-Qa’im close to the Syrian border, killing a commander and severely wounding a fighter.
This came a day after Israel carried out strikes near the Syrian capital, Damascus, claiming that the air raids were “able to thwart an Iranian attempt ... to conduct an attack on Israeli targets ... using killer drones.”
Syria, however, said that its air defenses had managed to detect hostile targets approaching from the occupied Golan Heights towards Damascus and destroyed most of the Israeli rockets before they could reach their destinations.
Just hours later in early Sunday, two explosives-laden Israeli drones violated Lebanese airspace on a bombing mission and crashed in the stronghold the Hezbollah resistance movement in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. One of the drones blew up near the ground, causing some damage to Hezbollah’s media office.
The top Bahraini diplomat took to Twitter on Monday to express his support for the Israeli attacks, labeling them an act of “self-defense.”
“Iran is the one who has declared a war on us, with its [Islamic] Revolution Guards Corps, its Lebanese party, its Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, its Houthi arm in Yemen and others,” Khalifah claimed. “So one who strikes and destroys the piles of their ammunition is not to blame. That is self-defense.”
The controversial comments were the latest public show of support for Tel Aviv from Manama, which has been trying to normalize ties with the oppressive regime, in what has been viewed by Palestine and its supporters as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause against Israel’s occupation.
Back in June, Khalifah took the lid off Bahrain’s longtime secret dealings with Israel by openly saying that Manama wants “peace” and “better” relations with the occupying entity.
Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to Syria, strengthening the hand of its national army on the battlefield against the terrorists, who have the support of the US, Israel and their allies, including Persian Gulf Arab regimes.
The Syrian military has also the support of Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement in its counter-terrorism operations.
Tehran offered similar assistance to Iraq and set the stage for the neighboring nation to win its three-year-long campaign against Daesh, the world’s most notorious terror outfit, in late 2017.
Bahrain — a vassal state of Saudi Arabia — is party to a Riyadh-led coalition waging a bloody military campaign against Yemen with the aim of reinstalling a Saudi-friendly puppet regime.
Manama and its allies claim Iran provides arms to the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which both runs Yemen and defends its nation, a claim Tehran has repeatedly rejected.
Iraq has lashed out at Bahrain for backing recent Israeli attacks on Arab countries, defending sacrifices made by a pro-government military force to counter terrorists.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it “rejects and condemns” Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifah’s Tweet about the Zionist enemy’s targeting of Arab territories and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi, an effective force in the Baghdad government’s anti-Daesh fight.
It also stressed that the PMU has stood by Iraqi armed forces “to defend our holy land and made great sacrifices to liberate the cities of Iraq, and to defeat Daesh terrorist gangs.”
The Israeli regime is widely known to be behind a wave of air raids on positions of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi in recent weeks. Reports say those air raids had the support of the Saudi regime and were launched from the areas controlled by US-backed Kurdish militants in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.
In the latest such attack on the weekend, Israeli drones struck a PMU convoy near the Iraqi town of al-Qa’im close to the Syrian border, killing a commander and severely wounding a fighter.
This came a day after Israel carried out strikes near the Syrian capital, Damascus, claiming that the air raids were “able to thwart an Iranian attempt ... to conduct an attack on Israeli targets ... using killer drones.”
Syria, however, said that its air defenses had managed to detect hostile targets approaching from the occupied Golan Heights towards Damascus and destroyed most of the Israeli rockets before they could reach their destinations.
Just hours later in early Sunday, two explosives-laden Israeli drones violated Lebanese airspace on a bombing mission and crashed in the stronghold the Hezbollah resistance movement in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. One of the drones blew up near the ground, causing some damage to Hezbollah’s media office.
The top Bahraini diplomat took to Twitter on Monday to express his support for the Israeli attacks, labeling them an act of “self-defense.”
“Iran is the one who has declared a war on us, with its [Islamic] Revolution Guards Corps, its Lebanese party, its Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, its Houthi arm in Yemen and others,” Khalifah claimed. “So one who strikes and destroys the piles of their ammunition is not to blame. That is self-defense.”
The controversial comments were the latest public show of support for Tel Aviv from Manama, which has been trying to normalize ties with the oppressive regime, in what has been viewed by Palestine and its supporters as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause against Israel’s occupation.
Back in June, Khalifah took the lid off Bahrain’s longtime secret dealings with Israel by openly saying that Manama wants “peace” and “better” relations with the occupying entity.
Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to Syria, strengthening the hand of its national army on the battlefield against the terrorists, who have the support of the US, Israel and their allies, including Persian Gulf Arab regimes.
The Syrian military has also the support of Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement in its counter-terrorism operations.
Tehran offered similar assistance to Iraq and set the stage for the neighboring nation to win its three-year-long campaign against Daesh, the world’s most notorious terror outfit, in late 2017.
Bahrain — a vassal state of Saudi Arabia — is party to a Riyadh-led coalition waging a bloody military campaign against Yemen with the aim of reinstalling a Saudi-friendly puppet regime.
Manama and its allies claim Iran provides arms to the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which both runs Yemen and defends its nation, a claim Tehran has repeatedly rejected.
25 aug 2019
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A commentator and journalist tells Press TV that Israeli attacks against regional countries are part of the Tel Aviv regime’s attempts to rupture the Middle East.
Syed Mohsin Abbas was speaking on The Debate program from Tehran on Saturday following the Israeli regime’s bombing of positions apparently belonging to Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The PMU said it held the United States and Israel responsible for the bombing. The Israeli regime has also attacked positions belonging to the Syrian military and its allies, which have been fighting against foreign-sponsored militancy and terrorism. |
In attacking Iraq, Tel Aviv claimed it had stricken a “weapons depot” in an attempt to “stop Iran influence.”
The Islamic Republic has been assisting both Iraq and Syria’s counter-terrorism activities by providing them with advisory military support but has rejected allegations maintaining any forces in either of the Arab countries.
Abbas called Tel Aviv effectively a “licensed rogue” regime, “which actually goes out and does any kind of indiscriminate bombing that it wants.”
He identified the attacks on Iraq as Tel Aviv’s attempt “to continue the destabilization… the balkanization of the Middle East.”
“It (Israel) has a complete sanction from the US primarily, which would veto any vote against Israel’s actions in the United Nations,” he added.
Maxine Dovere, an analyst and journalist from New York, who was also being hosted on the program, however, said Israel was obliged to carry out such strikes “when these dumps (the targets) are storage houses for weapons” that she said “will be intended to hurt the citizens of Israel.”
Abbas said, though, that there was no evidence that the targets were necessarily ammo warehouses or that they were to be used against the regime.
The Islamic Republic has been assisting both Iraq and Syria’s counter-terrorism activities by providing them with advisory military support but has rejected allegations maintaining any forces in either of the Arab countries.
Abbas called Tel Aviv effectively a “licensed rogue” regime, “which actually goes out and does any kind of indiscriminate bombing that it wants.”
He identified the attacks on Iraq as Tel Aviv’s attempt “to continue the destabilization… the balkanization of the Middle East.”
“It (Israel) has a complete sanction from the US primarily, which would veto any vote against Israel’s actions in the United Nations,” he added.
Maxine Dovere, an analyst and journalist from New York, who was also being hosted on the program, however, said Israel was obliged to carry out such strikes “when these dumps (the targets) are storage houses for weapons” that she said “will be intended to hurt the citizens of Israel.”
Abbas said, though, that there was no evidence that the targets were necessarily ammo warehouses or that they were to be used against the regime.
23 aug 2019
An Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter takes part in a military exercise at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert on June 27, 2019
The Israeli military is planning to attack Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, a new report says, a move that is claimed to be part of the Tel Aviv regime's attempts to ensure the group never comes in contact with Iran.
The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jaridah said Thursday that Israel was gearing up to pound targets of the Ansarullah and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement in Yemen, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.
The report claimed that the Israeli spy agency Mossad as well as the regime's Military Intelligence were specifically looking for alleged attempts to deliver weapons from Iran.
It further claimed that some of the Houthis' drones and missiles had been transferred to Iraq instead in an alleged attempt to mislead the Israeli military, which is said to be behind a series of bombings that have targeted Iraqi popular mobilization forces, Hashd al-Sha'abi, over the past weeks.
According to al-Jarida and some Iraqi experts, the attacks on the group's ammunition depots across Iraq have been carried out by Israel.
This falls in line with remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not reject a reporter's questions about whether Tel Aviv was operating in Iraq .
"We are working against Iranian consolidation - in Iraq as well," he said in an interview with Israel's Channel 9 News broadcast on Thursday.
On Tuesday, several powerful explosions rocked an ammunition warehouse next to Balad air base, which hosts US forces and contractors north of the capital Baghdad.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, second-in-command of the Hashd al-Sha'abi, said after the attacks that the United States and Israel were responsible for the attacks.
“We have accurate and credible information that Americans brought in four Israeli drones this year via Azerbaijan to operate within the US fleet to carry out sorties aimed at Iraqi military headquarters" he said.
Karim Alaiwi, a member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, also accused Israel of carrying out the attacks in an attempt to "weaken the force."
The al-Jaridah's sources confirmed to the paper that Israel was sharing military intelligence and target with Arab states that have ports in the region.
The US had also been informed on the operations and was closely following latest developments about the alleged weapons shipments.
Iran, earlier this month, hosted a Houthi delegation who met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and delivered a letter from the group's movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Tehran and the Houthis, however, have rejected claims of Iran transferring weapons to Yemem, arguing that such shipments are virtually impossible due to a years-long aerial and maritime blockade on Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have been leading a deadly war against the impoverished country since March 2015.
The Israeli military is planning to attack Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, a new report says, a move that is claimed to be part of the Tel Aviv regime's attempts to ensure the group never comes in contact with Iran.
The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jaridah said Thursday that Israel was gearing up to pound targets of the Ansarullah and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement in Yemen, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.
The report claimed that the Israeli spy agency Mossad as well as the regime's Military Intelligence were specifically looking for alleged attempts to deliver weapons from Iran.
It further claimed that some of the Houthis' drones and missiles had been transferred to Iraq instead in an alleged attempt to mislead the Israeli military, which is said to be behind a series of bombings that have targeted Iraqi popular mobilization forces, Hashd al-Sha'abi, over the past weeks.
According to al-Jarida and some Iraqi experts, the attacks on the group's ammunition depots across Iraq have been carried out by Israel.
This falls in line with remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not reject a reporter's questions about whether Tel Aviv was operating in Iraq .
"We are working against Iranian consolidation - in Iraq as well," he said in an interview with Israel's Channel 9 News broadcast on Thursday.
On Tuesday, several powerful explosions rocked an ammunition warehouse next to Balad air base, which hosts US forces and contractors north of the capital Baghdad.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, second-in-command of the Hashd al-Sha'abi, said after the attacks that the United States and Israel were responsible for the attacks.
“We have accurate and credible information that Americans brought in four Israeli drones this year via Azerbaijan to operate within the US fleet to carry out sorties aimed at Iraqi military headquarters" he said.
Karim Alaiwi, a member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, also accused Israel of carrying out the attacks in an attempt to "weaken the force."
The al-Jaridah's sources confirmed to the paper that Israel was sharing military intelligence and target with Arab states that have ports in the region.
The US had also been informed on the operations and was closely following latest developments about the alleged weapons shipments.
Iran, earlier this month, hosted a Houthi delegation who met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and delivered a letter from the group's movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Tehran and the Houthis, however, have rejected claims of Iran transferring weapons to Yemem, arguing that such shipments are virtually impossible due to a years-long aerial and maritime blockade on Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have been leading a deadly war against the impoverished country since March 2015.
21 aug 2019
The scene of the alleged Israeli strike in Iraq
Several powerful explosions have rocked a position held by Iraqi pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, near a strategic air base north of the capital Baghdad.
The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate announced in a statement that an ammunition warehouse belonging to the volunteer fighters exploded next to Balad air base, which hosts US forces and contractors and is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday evening.
The statement added that “our teams are trying to bring the situation under control.”
An unnamed security source said thick plumes of black smoke are seen billowing from the site, adding that the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unknown.
However, Fadhil Abu Ragheef, a security expert close to Iraqi intelligence services, said the arms depot of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces had been specifically targeted.
He added that the blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse that sent a large amount of shrapnel nearby.
Hashd al-Sha’abi commanders also confirmed that the intended target of the blasts was the group’s position near Balad base.
Mohammad al-Baldawi, a representative of al-Bina party at the Iraqi parliament, stated that the incident is in line with repeated attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi positions.
On August 13, Abu Ragheef had told Russia's RT Arabic television news network that there is information that the Israeli military was planning to launch airstrikes against the arms depots of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces.
“Available information suggests that Israel is preparing to bomb the weapons caches of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, and not the command centers or fortifications of the fighters. This is quite likely to happen,” he said.
He added that a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on August 12, could be part of the Israeli scenario. Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in the blast.
In January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted during a visit to Iraq that the Israeli regime could launch attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, who played a key role in the Iraqi army’s counter-terrorism battles against the Daesh terror group and helped the government to rid the country of the Takfiri outfit in late 2017.
Pompeo was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials at a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.
Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, Russia’s RT Arabic television news network reported back then.
Reacting to the reports, Moein al-Kazemi, a Hashd al-Sha’abi commander, said the force was ready to deliver a “strong” response to any aggression, advising the regime in Tel Aviv not to “play with fire.”
The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria.
In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.
Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.
Report: Israel attacked in Iraq with U.S., Russia approval
The Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat says Israel attacked positions of Iran-backed militias north of Baghdad including missile warehouses of the Revolutionary Guards after Israel reached 'understandings' with Washington and Moscow
Israel has attacked Iranian targets in Iraq at least three times in the past few weeks as part of “understandings” reached with the United States and Russia, the London-based, Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Wednesday.
According to the report, which cites Western diplomatic sources, the strikes targeted missile warehouses of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It was one of a series of explosions in recent weeks at weapons depots, bases or positions belonging to Iran-backed military groups in the country.
The sources said that Russia and the U.S. have agreed that Israel’s actions in Iraq and Syria are vital “in ensuring Israel’s security,” and - according to the understandings - the officials in Jerusalem are not obliged to claim the attacks in order not to escalate the already volatile situation in the region.
On Tuesday, several explosions rocked the military positions held by the Popular Mobilization Forces - a state-sponsored umbrella military organization which includes Iran-backed militias - near Balad air base north of Baghdad.
Balad base hosts U.S. forces and contractors and is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. A PMF group backed by Iran is stationed nearby.
Several powerful explosions have rocked a position held by Iraqi pro-government Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, near a strategic air base north of the capital Baghdad.
The Iraqi Civil Defense Directorate announced in a statement that an ammunition warehouse belonging to the volunteer fighters exploded next to Balad air base, which hosts US forces and contractors and is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday evening.
The statement added that “our teams are trying to bring the situation under control.”
An unnamed security source said thick plumes of black smoke are seen billowing from the site, adding that the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unknown.
However, Fadhil Abu Ragheef, a security expert close to Iraqi intelligence services, said the arms depot of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces had been specifically targeted.
He added that the blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse that sent a large amount of shrapnel nearby.
Hashd al-Sha’abi commanders also confirmed that the intended target of the blasts was the group’s position near Balad base.
Mohammad al-Baldawi, a representative of al-Bina party at the Iraqi parliament, stated that the incident is in line with repeated attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi positions.
On August 13, Abu Ragheef had told Russia's RT Arabic television news network that there is information that the Israeli military was planning to launch airstrikes against the arms depots of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces.
“Available information suggests that Israel is preparing to bomb the weapons caches of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, and not the command centers or fortifications of the fighters. This is quite likely to happen,” he said.
He added that a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on August 12, could be part of the Israeli scenario. Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in the blast.
In January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted during a visit to Iraq that the Israeli regime could launch attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, who played a key role in the Iraqi army’s counter-terrorism battles against the Daesh terror group and helped the government to rid the country of the Takfiri outfit in late 2017.
Pompeo was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials at a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.
Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, Russia’s RT Arabic television news network reported back then.
Reacting to the reports, Moein al-Kazemi, a Hashd al-Sha’abi commander, said the force was ready to deliver a “strong” response to any aggression, advising the regime in Tel Aviv not to “play with fire.”
The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria.
In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.
Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha’abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.
Report: Israel attacked in Iraq with U.S., Russia approval
The Arabic-language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat says Israel attacked positions of Iran-backed militias north of Baghdad including missile warehouses of the Revolutionary Guards after Israel reached 'understandings' with Washington and Moscow
Israel has attacked Iranian targets in Iraq at least three times in the past few weeks as part of “understandings” reached with the United States and Russia, the London-based, Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Wednesday.
According to the report, which cites Western diplomatic sources, the strikes targeted missile warehouses of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It was one of a series of explosions in recent weeks at weapons depots, bases or positions belonging to Iran-backed military groups in the country.
The sources said that Russia and the U.S. have agreed that Israel’s actions in Iraq and Syria are vital “in ensuring Israel’s security,” and - according to the understandings - the officials in Jerusalem are not obliged to claim the attacks in order not to escalate the already volatile situation in the region.
On Tuesday, several explosions rocked the military positions held by the Popular Mobilization Forces - a state-sponsored umbrella military organization which includes Iran-backed militias - near Balad air base north of Baghdad.
Balad base hosts U.S. forces and contractors and is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. A PMF group backed by Iran is stationed nearby.
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