The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

[silvanelf]

The Turkish Navy has officially joined the battle in Libya by targeting warplanes supporting the Libyan National Army (LNA).

On April 1 morning, a warship of the Turkish Navy parked off the coast of the town of Sabratah to the west of capital, Tripoli, launched a RIM-66E-05 missile, reportedly at an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) supporting the LNA.

Libyan sources shared photos of the missile’s remains as well as of the warship, which appears to be a G-class frigate. Eight frigates of this type, which is an extensively modernized versions of ex-Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigates of the US Navy, are in active service with the Turkish Navy.

https://southfront.org/turkish-navy-...ng-lna-photos/

Does it mean that the LNA is now free to open fire against any Turkish warships near the coast of Libya? As it seems the LNA has full control of Libyan airspace -- in other words the Turkish warships are just sitting ducks. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Soda]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IRxFpIp6w6k

Please note interesting tid bit - we are reminded of the camp Taji attacks in this report ( which took place on March 11, 2020). Taj in Persian means Crown. I bring this up because a lot of people have pointed out the significance of the term Corona.

[shaberon]

[QUOTE=silvanelf;1347676]

Does it mean that the LNA is now free to open fire against any Turkish warships near the coast of Libya? As it seems the LNA has full control of Libyan airspace -- in other words the Turkish warships are just sitting ducks. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The Libyans have been attacking Turkish assets at will and so yes, now there are a few more Navy assets to shoot at. And here it is at least partly Egypt doing the shooting or helping it. I am not sure about air supremacy.

The Turkish conscripts from Syria are ready to defect since they are not being paid.

Both here and Idlib perhaps are cauldrons for the utter destruction of the Al Qaeda and Turkmen outfits. It is possible the stupid-seeming Turkish standoff involves this purpose. These are not national guard type militias, and it may not be feasible for Turkey to "withdraw" the groups, since they are not really a part of society. In that case it makes sense to support them fighting until there is nothing left.

[shaberon]

In the past few days after the virus entered Syria on a twenty-year-old man from "outside of the country", they have taken attacks from Israel, Turkey, and jihadists. Damaging, but doesn't seem to affect their momentum.

Iranian Asbat al Thaireen says they were in position to attack Ain al Assad, and stopped due to the presence of Iraqis. Different group than Kataib Hezbollah with its own drones. They are highly suspicious of false flag attacks, since apparently no one yet has said they used the Katyusha barrages. There are around thirty of these paramilitary units just of Iraqi origin, so, it is really difficult to figure out exactly who is using such relatively small weapons. Iraq is not happy with the addition of Patriots. They do not want to be a battlefield between U. S. and Iran.

Trump is right, there is "information and belief" that Iranian proxies will attack American troops, but he should add Iraqi Parliament and who knows how many Iraqi proxies. Ansarallah as well as the group in the article also suspect Coronavirus will be weaponized against them (such as contaminated supplies). Saudi Arabia actually entered peace talks but these were probably full of one-sided demands; this was shortly after whatever the recent large attack on Riyadh, Jeddah, etc. did.

[Mashika]

Posted by shaberon (here)
In the past few days after the virus entered Syria on a twenty-year-old man from "outside of the country", they have taken attacks from Israel, Turkey, and jihadists. Damaging, but doesn't seem to affect their momentum.

Iranian Asbat al Thaireen says they were in position to attack Ain al Assad, and stopped due to the presence of Iraqis. Different group than Kataib Hezbollah with its own drones. They are highly suspicious of false flag attacks, since apparently no one yet has said they used the Katyusha barrages. There are around thirty of these paramilitary units just of Iraqi origin, so, it is really difficult to figure out exactly who is using such relatively small weapons. Iraq is not happy with the addition of Patriots. They do not want to be a battlefield between U. S. and Iran.

Trump is right, there is "information and belief" that Iranian proxies will attack American troops, but he should add Iraqi Parliament and who knows how many Iraqi proxies. Ansarallah as well as the group in the article also suspect Coronavirus will be weaponized against them (such as contaminated supplies). Saudi Arabia actually entered peace talks but these were probably full of one-sided demands; this was shortly after whatever the recent large attack on Riyadh, Jeddah, etc. did.

It's easy to say "Iranian proxies" and then show Katyusha as proof, but lets not forget that lots of old Soviet states gave a lot of that stuff away to the US along with nuclear bombs and other/plenty of guns/tanks and stuff. You could easily say as well the US has used some of those rockets or other armament as "proxies" for their own narrative, and there's no way to prove one way or the other. Even the US had access to the S-300 several years ago, so they know how it works and can replicate it if needed, there's not real footprint anymore

[shaberon]

Posted by Mashika (here)
It's easy to say "Iranian proxies" and then show Katyusha as proof, but lets not forget that lots of old Soviet states gave a lot of that stuff away to the US along with nuclear bombs and other/plenty of guns/tanks and stuff. You could easily say as well the US has used some of those rockets or other armament as "proxies" for their own narrative, and there's no way to prove one way or the other. Even the US had access to the S-300 several years ago, so they know how it works and can replicate it if needed, there's not real footprint anymore

Yes, using the enemy's weapons is a way to run a false flag, which is what many of the locals believe is being done in most cases. There are no answers unless you catch someone doing it, which only takes a few minutes. This stuff is a bit of a non-flag since the target for retaliation is pre-determined and needs no evidence at all. No one sticks a HZB flag on a truck to try to blame them; everything is unmarked.

But they won't need a silly pretext that no one believes.

What the U. S. ignores is that the eminent threat is from Iraqis:

Several Iraqi factions issued a joint statement on Saturday in which they vowed to target the U.S. forces until they fully withdraw from Iraq.

According to the statement, eight Iraqi factions – including Asaib Ahl al-Haqq, Liwaa Imam ‘Ali, and Harakat Al-Nujaba Movement – vowed to attack the U.S. forces in Iraq, while also condemning the newly appointed Prime Minister, ‘Adnan Al-Zurfi.

Other participants include Kata’ib Jund al-Imam Movement, Sayyed al-Shohada, Imam Ali, Ashura and Al-Khorasani battalions.

Remember the Khorasanis? Bush defeated them.

The unit that the U. S. has attacked so far is Hashd al Shaabi, the Iraqi National Guard who is at war with ISIS who is putting oil in the water. And so they are now also planning to attack the U. S. The American target list looks a little different--"Iraqi groups close to Iran".

"Washington assumes that adopting such an approach can reduce Iran’s influence in Iraq and undermine the economic, political and cultural cooperation between the two countries which play a significant role in reducing the impact of US sanctions on Tehran."

In other words, they don't publicly say, let's just attack Iraq, and they pretend the problem is Iranian. The problem and threats are Iraqi, and there is not enough time left in eternity to "kick out the Iranian bogeyman". The paramilitaries probably do not have anything bigger than Katyushas, which are World War II ordinance. What they use and how they do it, remains to be seen, but I don't think they are joking.


Meanwhile, Netanyahu says Israel is run by a "deep state" in Haaretz. Thanks for the reminder!

[shaberon]

Similarly to the above, the Saudi coalition is proceeding at a rate whereby some UAE factions have turned coat and are operating in coastal Taiz to overthrow the Saudi--Hadi government and its forces, so in other words they are cooperating with the Houthi--Ansarallah resistance. It is possible they are additionally irked by the Saudi occupation of the island of Socotora. The Saudis do not seem to be much good at occupying continental land, having what looks like one of the worst performing professional militaries known to history. But towards the island, Houthis can only send a navy of scuba divers and a few small motorboats.

In terms of another nearby occupation, we are reminded that not only is it a general middle eastern attitude, and the state policy of Iran, but according to the religious tradition itself:

The existence of the State of Israel...is forbidden in Judaism.

If we look back to what happened, no one was really bothered by the pre-Balfour original settlements which took about 2% of the current territory; it was not a country. It is mostly everything since then that most affected parties claim to be illegitimate or forced takeover.

"The Muslim majority in Palestine embraced Jews for centuries, and they were our gracious hosts. According to Judaism we are required to be grateful for those who have been kind to us. Now that they are being deprived of their rights, we have a moral obligation to stand up for them. Religious Jews worldwide constantly come out in solidarity with the people of Palestine. It is truly disturbing when the Zionist movement misuses our religion to justify their criminal actions. The only way to truly bring about peace would be to end Zionism, end the occupation in it is entirety, allow the return of all refugees and restore the rights of the Palestinians in their ancestral land."

I would call that Jewish nationalism, because a nation is a culture, not a country, and he is preaching for the integrity of his culture, instead of the watered-down name label used by atheists and criminals for the sake of a country. He has no Millenialist predictions and would wait around for eternity if the messiah never showed up.

[shaberon]

This theater has quieted down due to the virus.

Militants have been back and forth over the M4 highway, which Turkey has agreed to prevent, and now there are reports of Hayat Tahrir al Sham firing on Turkish forces. That is unusual.

In Turkey, the Turkmen are taking advantage of virus-related unemployment to step up their recruiting. It has never been that large or powerful, but it is connected to similar groups in China.

Unlike the DHS, Russia, which actually has prevented bombings and shut down terrorist cells, is receiving more experienced fighters from Iraq and Syria. The situation can rightly be asserted to affect their national security, to which they have a firm response. Whatever American politicians say is a bunch of silly whining compared to this. Russia is expanding its presence in Hasakah as a direct challenge to Americans. It is only four observation posts, but, they do not need large bases in order to be a significant presence.

The new Iraqi PM is their former spy chief with the support of Shiites and has "national sovereignty", particularly in terms of weapons, as the priority--is not too pleased with a partial American withdrawal followed by the installation of Patriots. Both Iran and the US welcomed al-Khadimi’s nomination, which is perhaps a bit odd, although the State Department's comment makes little sense, more like a nice way of saying "we'll figure out how to tell you what to do".

[Mashika]

I guess this shows a bit more about the true nature of the groups fighting over there, no matter what it's being said "officially"

Syrian militants ‘trained at US base for sabotage & terrorism’ try to surrender & get ambushed by OTHER US-backed extremists

https://www.rt.com/news/485943-syria...nder-damascus/

[norman]

Posted by shaberon (here)

. . . Russia is expanding its presence in Hasakah as a direct challenge to Americans. . . .

It could be that they doing it to assist Americans, if we put what we see into a different frame of view.

[shaberon]

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by shaberon (here)

. . . Russia is expanding its presence in Hasakah as a direct challenge to Americans. . . .

It could be that they doing it to assist Americans, if we put what we see into a different frame of view.

How would we explain this?

U. S. has broken out of most of Iraq and invigorated Hasakah in addition to Al Tanf where the group just surrendered from. Some portion of the SDF is still loyal but many have switched over. At the moment there is a lack of combat readiness due to disease.

Iraq is corrupt enough to where it probably still has 1/3 American loyalists, but it is unclear how this would be a form of assistance.

[norman]

Posted by shaberon (here)

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by shaberon (here)

. . . Russia is expanding its presence in Hasakah as a direct challenge to Americans. . . .

It could be that they doing it to assist Americans, if we put what we see into a different frame of view.

How would we explain this?

U. S. has broken out of most of Iraq and invigorated Hasakah in addition to Al Tanf where the group just surrendered from. Some portion of the SDF is still loyal but many have switched over. At the moment there is a lack of combat readiness due to disease.

Iraq is corrupt enough to where it probably still has 1/3 American loyalists, but it is unclear how this would be a form of assistance.

I'm only adding a kind of 5 miles up view, I have not been following the pieces on the board around there for well over a year.

From miles up, the general feeling I get is that Trump handed over the middle east to Putin a couple of years back, or at least, arranged to undermine the corrupt parts of 'American' operations until some sanity can be returned to the world.

[Mashika]

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by shaberon (here)

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by shaberon (here)

. . . Russia is expanding its presence in Hasakah as a direct challenge to Americans. . . .

It could be that they doing it to assist Americans, if we put what we see into a different frame of view.

How would we explain this?

U. S. has broken out of most of Iraq and invigorated Hasakah in addition to Al Tanf where the group just surrendered from. Some portion of the SDF is still loyal but many have switched over. At the moment there is a lack of combat readiness due to disease.

Iraq is corrupt enough to where it probably still has 1/3 American loyalists, but it is unclear how this would be a form of assistance.

I'm only adding a kind of 5 miles up view, I have not been following the pieces on the board around there for well over a year.

From miles up, the general feeling I get is that Trump handed over the middle east to Putin a couple of years back, or at least, arranged to undermine the corrupt parts of 'American' operations until some sanity can be returned to the world.

A bit hard to believe he is trying to fix the corruption of "America", since he still supports destroying other countries in Latin America for example while supposedly wanting to stop the issue in the middle east. How can that be unless there's another hidden reason? On the one hand he claims he wants to stop invading and destroying other countries and etc, on the other hand he supports and encourages the destruction of countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia among others.

Trump knows people are dying and he doesn't care, sanctions are applied and people die and then he and the other US government people go out there and lie (Pompeo for example) without any shame about the reason those people are dying, and Trump is ok with that so.. ????

I don't believe the US is going out of Syria or the region out of good will or to fix corruption, there's another reason we don't know about, and possibly never will know

[AutumnW]

Thank you Mashika. That was beautifully put! I'm afraid I lose the ability to express myself very well when it comes to his royal Orangeness. Now I don't have to!

[norman]

I haven't heard a non politically angry report about what might be the reasons and targets of the stuff going on in central and south america.

I was shocked, a few days ago to watch that Abby Martin thing. She couldn't have sounded more like an antifa street campagner if she'd tried. There was not one sentence in her report that actually was observational. It was a political rant from start to finish.

[shaberon]

Posted by Mashika (here)


A bit hard to believe he is trying to fix the corruption of "America", since he still supports destroying other countries in Latin America for example while supposedly wanting to stop the issue in the middle east. How can that be unless there's another hidden reason?

I do not believe he would fix much, internally, but the feedback from multiple diplomats and experienced analysts seem to agree that his instincts are not for war. And for instance he said the Department of Defense was too expensive, but couldn't do anything about it. Since American foreign policy does not belong to the president, but to the Council on Foreign Relations, I suspect that would be the main reason.

He may shut down Congress if they do not vote on his nominees, but he will probably never be the top decision maker about the international tentacles.

Turkey is taking shots at Syria and the YPG in Hasakah which is a quite large province where four Russian posts will not take up much space. Turkey is taking a lot more of it.

[Mashika]

Posted by shaberon (here)

Posted by Mashika (here)


A bit hard to believe he is trying to fix the corruption of "America", since he still supports destroying other countries in Latin America for example while supposedly wanting to stop the issue in the middle east. How can that be unless there's another hidden reason?

I do not believe he would fix much, internally, but the feedback from multiple diplomats and experienced analysts seem to agree that his instincts are not for war. And for instance he said the Department of Defense was too expensive, but couldn't do anything about it. Since American foreign policy does not belong to the president, but to the Council on Foreign Relations, I suspect that would be the main reason.

He may shut down Congress if they do not vote on his nominees, but he will probably never be the top decision maker about the international tentacles.

Turkey is taking shots at Syria and the YPG in Hasakah which is a quite large province where four Russian posts will not take up much space. Turkey is taking a lot more of it.

It keeps going, lots of misleading "news" anyways, from all sides. But for certain anything that allows Iran to become a modern country with weapons that can deter advances from other countries is considered "evil" and to cause possible instability, even though we have for a fact that other countries are causing real instability at this time and way back, and no one has complained so far he he

Trump says US will destroy Iranian gunboats harassing US ships

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...124226286.html

Must watch closely where the "harassment" is coming from, and if it's real or provoked in the first place, to have a reason to commit to that statement by the US gov

[shaberon]

Posted by Mashika (here)

Trump says US will destroy Iranian gunboats harassing US ships

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...124226286.html

Must watch closely where the "harassment" is coming from, and if it's real or provoked in the first place, to have a reason to commit to that statement by the US gov

The Foreign Minister says that the "harassments" consisted of the U. S. interfering with a sailing vessel twice and being moved out of the way, and then being close to an announced drill zone and being moved out of the way.

“We have ordered our naval units to target any vessel or combat unit of the terrorist US forces who want to threaten the security of our non-combat ships or combat vessels,” he added.

On the ground, they have been shoo'd away by Syrian villagers at least twice.

It looks like there definitely was a harassment, called a warning, go away. I don't think you can legally shoot someone for doing this. I don't think you can sanely shoot someone who can probably roast your whole fleet.

[shaberon]

Southern Yemen around Aden is now under effective control by UAE in an independent manner. It has shredded power-sharing with the "Hadi government" and is prepared to attack Saudi forces.

Riyadh has not been able to put Hadi back in power in five years.

As much as they would like to contain Tehran and dictate regional influence, nobody is there to grant that wish.

[shaberon]

There are still ongoing missiles from Israel's air force in Lebanon and Golan, and sometimes three or four of them manage to get through and hit something, usually nothing very major.

However--after being stood down by Lebanon and the U. N. at their border wall--they now admit to an incident in south Israel consisting simply of someone breaking into a base and removing equipment.

Their border wall was cut in three places, and another wall was breached to do the heist. Maybe they will get the hint.