US targets Iran-backed militia official in Iraq

The US said Wednesday it killed a senior commander in Iraq with the Iranian-backed militia group Kata’ib Hezbollah who was involved in planning attacks on American troops.

The commander was killed during a strike that took place around 9:30 pm local time, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM).

“The United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our people,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “We will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threaten our forces’ safety.”

CENTCOM said there were no civilian casualties or collateral damage from the strike.

The strike hit a car in a busy section of eastern Baghdad, killing the commander and two other Kataib Hezbollah officials, according to The Associated Press.

Pro-Iranian statements on Telegram and on state-run media channels named the slain commander as Abu Bakr al-Saadi, a high-ranking Kata'ib Hezbollah official.

The strike is the latest US military action against Iranian-backed militia groups, and the first attack in Iraq since Washington hit more than 85 targets last week across Iraq and Syria in response to attacks that killed three American troops in Jordan in late January, which the Biden administration said was carried out by Iranian proxies.

Last week’s strikes, conducted by B-1 bomber planes, targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militia groups. While the US action was meant to deter more aggression, the Iranian proxies have continued attacking American and allied bases in the region. 

The US officially blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq for the deadly attack in Jordan. But the Pentagon also suggested Kata'ib Hezbollah may have been behind the attack, with deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh saying the attack had the footprints of the militia group.

After the Jordan attack, Kata'ib Hezbollah said it was suspending military operations against American forces in Iraq, to avoid embarrassment to the Iraqi government.

The US has continued to carry out strikes in Iraq despite repeated condemnation from the Iraqi government, which is engaged in ongoing talks with Washington on the future of the American military presence in the country.

 

Is sending heavy bombers to Middle East part of pressurizing Iran?

Reportedly, the United States has sent heavy bombers to the Middle East in an apparent threat to Iran, amid swirling speculation that US President Donald Trump plans to take military action against its foe before President-elect Joe Biden enters office. US Central Command said the planes were sent into the region “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.”

In a highly irregular move, the B-52H planes were seen flying toward Israeli airspace on Saturday en route to the base where they will be stationed, likely in Qatar. The aircraft were spotted on civilian tracking software approaching Israel before they apparently turned off their transponders, rendering them invisible on those applications.

It was the third time in the past year and a half that B-52 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and other powerful munitions, have been deployed to the region in tacit threats to Iran.

In previous cases, the bombers were not seen flying through Israeli airspace. It was not immediately clear what accounted for the change in route.

The planes were ordered on short notice to fly to the Middle East nonstop from their home base in North Dakota, refueling along the way in mid-air. The bombers were accompanied on the mission by F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as KC-10 and KC-135 refueling planes, said US Central Command (CENTCOM).

“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theater to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is the key to deterring potential aggression,” Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, commander of the US military’s 9th Air Force, said in a statement.

The general said deploying bombers to the region allows their crews to better acquaint themselves with the area and work better with local units.

“These missions help bomber aircrews gain familiarity with the region’s airspace and command and control functions and allow them to integrate with the theater’s US and partner air assets, increasing the combined force’s overall readiness,” Guillot said.

The US has previously deployed B-52 bombers to the region during periods of heightened tensions. This occurred in early 2020 after the US killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq. The strategic aircraft were also sent to the region in May 2019, when Iran allegedly attacked a number of US allies in the Persian Gulf and shot down an American spy drone that flew near its airspace.

The deployment of the long-range heavy bombers came amid reports that the Trump administration — and Israel — planned to carry out military operations against Iran before Biden enters office. The US president-elect is expected to take a somewhat softer, more diplomatic approach than Trump, who pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal world powers signed with Iran and employed a so-called “maximum pressure” campaign of heavy economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Though, analysts say this effort has created leverage for future negotiations, the tactic has not yet borne fruit in terms of halting Iran’s nuclear efforts — indeed the Islamic Republic has amassed far more nuclear material and at higher levels of enrichment under the campaign — nor has it curbed Tehran’s regional hegemony ambitions.

Biden, who was Vice President to Barrack Obama when the 2015 accord was signed, has said that he plans to return to the agreement as a basis for further negotiations with Iran.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a bevy of wide-ranging sanctions on Iran to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to rejoin the nuclear deal.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the region over the past week, including a stop in Israel, in which he told the Jerusalem Post that the US would consider a military strike against Iran.

“The administration has been clear on that for its entire four years. There is no reason that would change today or tomorrow,” Pompeo said.

Last Friday, Channel 13 reported that Israel and the US were planning to increase pressure on Iran with “covert operations” and economic sanctions during Trump’s final weeks in office. Jerusalem and Washington assess that Tehran will not respond militarily before the end of Trump’s term. The report did not elaborate on the nature of actions that may be taken.

Among other covert operations against Iran’s rogue nuclear program, Israel and the US were reportedly responsible for introducing the Stuxnet computer virus to sabotage parts of Iran’s nuclear enrichment process a decade ago, and for more recent sabotage attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel’s Mossad spy agency spirited out a vast trove of Iranian documentation regarding the regime’s nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in 2018. Israel has also been linked in reports to the killings of several Iranian nuclear scientists, and last week The New York Times reported that Israeli agents killed Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Abu Muhammad al-Masri in Tehran in August at the behest of the US.

Last Monday, it was reported that Trump asked top advisers if he had options to strike Iranian nuclear sites during his last weeks in office, but was dissuaded with warnings it could lead to a wider conflict. Trump convened the officials a day after the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had stockpiled over 12 times more enriched uranium than the 2015 nuclear deal allows, the report said, citing four current and former US officials.

 

United States adamant at imposing war on Iran

According to a Reuters report, Chief of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie has said that the United States would deploy the necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran.

“We’re gonna continue to reach out to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common cause against the threat of Iran,” said McKenzie currently on an official visit to the Gulf region.

“I believe we’ll have the resources necessary to deter Iran from taking actions that will be dangerous. We will be able to respond effectively,” warned McKenzie.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration last year withdrew from an international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions.

Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

Washington has also demanded buyers of Iranian oil to stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened to disrupt oil shipments from Gulf countries if Washington tries to strangle Tehran oil exports.

McKenzie also said he was confident that the U.S. is going to have “a long term presence in Iraq, focused on the counter-terror mission.”

On withdrawal of troops, McKenzie also said a reduction of US troops in Syria would be done cautiously. “On the long term, we’re gonna reduce our forces in Syria, we recognize that, that’s the guidance in which we are operating. That will be something that we will look at very carefully as we go forward,” the general said.

President Donald Trump had ordered withdrawal of the US troops Syria in December after claiming they (US troops) had defeated Islamic State militants in Syria. In February, a senior administration official said the United States will leave about 400 US troops split between two different regions of Syria.

US declares Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran "Terrorist Organization"

On 8^th April 2019, the US declared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The IRGC is Iran’s most powerful military and security organization as well as a key economic player. "This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," said the US President Donald Trump.

The IRGC was created after the 1979 revolution to enforce Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s concept of an Islamic state. The Guards played a crucial role not only in crushing early opposition to Khomeini’s vision, but also in repelling Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran in 1980. Since then, the Guards have functioned as both the primary internal and external security force. 

This declaration represents the latest escalation of the US administration’s "maximum pressure" campaign targeting Iran’s malign activities. The IRGC was already designated under US Treasury counter-proliferation authorities (EO 13382) in 2007, and then again for human rights abuses ‑ along with the Basij Resistance Force and the Law Enforcement Forces ‑ under EO 13553 in 2011.  

Iran responded to this action by saying, “The major effect of this designation is to make it extraordinarily difficult for the US to bring Iran back into the global community of nations and global financial system at any point in the future if political circumstances merit such a climb down.” Iranian officials also do not view this latest development as a precursor to a military conflict between Iran and the US. 

Detaining additional US citizens, testing missiles, or renewing harassment of US vessels in the Gulf are low-risk options that Iran could pursue in response to the IRGC designation.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) responded to the State Department’s designation of the IRGC by designating the US government as a state sponsor of terrorism and US Central Command (CENTCOM) and all its forces as a terrorist organization. President Hassan Rouhani threatened to restart Iran’s nuclear program in a speech marking the National Day of Nuclear Technology. 

Iranian newspapers spanning the country’s political spectrum reacted to the US State Department’s designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization with a mix of outrage, bombast, and expressions of solidarity with the IRGC.  

International reaction to the IRGC designation has been mixed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Donald Trump for the move in a pair of tweets in English and Hebrew. Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said that his country tried to dissuade the US from proceeding with the designation.