Author: Steven Sahiounie

Within the past several months, US military bases in Iraq have been targeted with rocket attacks. The situation escalated beginning 3 January after a US airstrike killed top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and several senior members of the Iraqi Shia militia near the Baghdad International Airport. Newly-appointed Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, said in a Saturday statement that he would defend the nation from foreign meddling, adding that he would not allow Iraq to be turned into a place for tit-for-tat сlashes and the settling of feuds. “I promise to protect Iraq from any foreign meddling and not allow the country…

By Catherine Shakdam News earlier this January of Ayatollah Sistani’s health issues very much put in focus the matter of his succession, and maybe more pertinently yet, Iraq’s ability to weather such a catastrophic loss to the integrity of its institutions. “His Eminence was subjected to a twisting in the left leg that led to a fracture of the thigh bone, and he will be operated on today,” a statement from a source in his office read (January 16, 2020) While the surgery was successful, fears remain that he may suffer complications. If Ayatollah Sistani’s official scope of influence is…

Starting with the official declaration that there were “no casualties,” the number of people suffering traumatic brain injuries in January 8’s missile attack against Iraq’s Ayn al-Asad base has continued to grow, and the Pentagon now says 50 soldiers were injured. This is an increase from the 34 injured reported just days. The Pentagon says that 15 of the 50 were diagnosed since they made the 34 announcement. They say it is not unusual for concussion symptoms to take awhile to present. Of the 50, the Pentagon says 31 of them were treated within Iraq and have returned to duty…

By: Jonathan Cook Much of Donald Trump’s long-trailed “deal of the century” came as no surprise. Over the past 18 months, Israeli officials had leaked many of its details. The so-called “Vision for Peace” unveiled on Tuesday simply confirmed that the US government has publicly adopted the long-running consensus in Israel: that it is entitled to keep permanently the swaths of territory it seized illegally over the past half-century that deny the Palestinians any hope of a state. The White House has discarded the traditional US pose as an “honest broker” between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinian leaders were not…

the Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesperson Brigadier General Ahmed al-Mesmari gave a press conference. In the beginning al-Mesmari said that the LNA received a lot of questions regarding the “5+5 Committee” proposed at the international conference on Libya that took place on January 19th in Berlin. The UN special representative for Libya Ghassan Salame said that 5 representatives from the UN-assigned Government of National Accord and 5 from Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s LNA would meet in Geneva in the week between January 27th and February 2nd. Regarding the proposed 5+5 Military Commission to ensure the ceasefire, Salame said: “I have the five…

Syrian Arab Army (SAA) reached the outskirt of the city of Saraqib in the southeastern Idlib countryside after imposing control of several towns in the region. The army captured the towns of Kafr Battikh, Tell Mardikh, Jawbas, Qomhane, Hatamiyeh and Tell Dibs to the west and southwest of Saraqib, after a few hours of clashes with al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies. SAA troops are now 3 km away from Saraqib’s city center. The city, which is located on the M5 highway, is the current target of the army. A day earlier, the SAA began advancing towards Saraqib, capturing the…

Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces last week shot down Houthi-launched rockets aimed at oil facilities that belong to Saudi Aramco petroleum company, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday, citing Saudi officials. Saudi Aramco declined to comment on the matter, according to the newspaper. Saudi Arabia and the United States blamed the attack on Iran, which actively supports the Houthi movement in Yemen, the WSJ reported, adding that Tehran denied involvement in the incident. Earlier on Wednesday, the Houthis issued a statement on Telegram, in which they took responsibility for a missile attack on oil facilities, as well as the Saudi military…

Some sections of Russia’s border with China in the Far East will be closed as of January 31 midnight local time, as follows from an instruction signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The instruction was published on the Cabinet of Ministers’ official website. Russia’s Transport Ministry in cooperation with the FSB’s Border Guard Service, Federal Customs Service and consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor are to temporarily restrict traffic through border checkpoints on some sections of Russia’s state border with China in accordance with the addendum. There are 16 checkpoints on the list, including automobile and railway ones, the document says. The…

Syrian army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied popular defense groups, have liberated more areas in the country’s northwestern province of Idlib from the clutches of foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists, further tightening the noose around the extremists in their last major bastion. Syria’s official news agency SANA reported on Thursday that Syrian army troops and their allied forces had established control over the villages of Maar Dibsah, Khan al-Sabil, Joubas and Mardikh. The report added that a number of militant positions were completely destroyed as Syrian army artillery units struck them. SANA noted that government forces, while combing the liberated villages, found underground tunnels and trenches…

Steven Sahiounie, political commentator An American military spy-plane crashed in the Taliban controlled area of Ghazni, Afghanistan on January 27, and within hours the Taliban issued an official statement claiming responsibility; however, the US military has not confirmed the cause of the crash.  The plane was a USAF Northrop Grumman E-11A, with tail markings on the Air Combat Command seal (tail number 11-9358) and the USAF roundel are visible in online footage of charred remains of the aircraft. The plane was flying between the southern city of Kandahar and Kabul when it went down at around 1:10 pm in Deh…