UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 17, 2024 · 6:31:39 AM +00:00
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Irontortoise
Oh sh*t, now Turkey is joining the party!?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Tuesday to widen military operations against groups linked to Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria, days after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers.
Turkish warplanes and drones have been carrying out airstrikes on targets in Syria and Iraq believed to be affiliated with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, since attackers attempted to infiltrate a military base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Friday. Five soldiers died in the attack while four others died later of critical injuries.
In a televised address following a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan said Turkish jets had struck a total of 114 targets in Syria and Iraq in operations launched in the last five days.
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Erdogan said Turkey was determined to eliminate the threat from Kurdish militants “at its source” in Iraq and Syria. It was not clear if Ankara, which has carried out land offensives in the past, is contemplating a new ground operation.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 17, 2024 · 4:20:15 AM +00:00
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Irontortoise
From CNN tonight:
Pakistan on Tuesday strongly condemned an Iranian airstrike inside its borders that killed two children, calling it an “unprovoked violation of its airspace” and warning of retaliation.
Iran said it used “precision missile and drone strikes,” to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm, in the Kouh-Sabz (green mountain) area of Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province, according to Iran’s state-aligned Tasnim news agency.
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Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the attack on its territory killed “two innocent children while injuring three girls,” and warned Iran of “serious consequences.”
It described the airstrike as an “unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran … inside Pakistani territory.”
“It is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran,” the ministry said.
Following the strike, nuclear-armed Pakistan lodged a “strong protest” with a senior official in Iran’s Foreign Ministry in the Iranian capital Tehran and called on the Iranian charge d’affairs, saying the “responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran.”
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The attacks in Iraq and Syria were condemned by the United States as “reckless” and imprecise, while the United Nations said, “security concerns must be addressed through dialogue, not strikes.”
Iraq said it submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council and the UN on Tuesday. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said there are no Mossad-affiliated centers operating in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
In the last 24 hours, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has launched missiles at not just one or two, but three of its neighbors! The attack against an Islamic State base in Syria does not seem to seem to have attracted any real protests, but yesterday’s attack against a supposed Israeli Mossad house in Irbil (Kurdistan) near the US Consulate has drawn a sharp rebuke from the Iraqi government. According to the AP:
Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.
The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation" of Iraq's sovereignty and "strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling U.S. Consulate compound in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement Tuesday that it launched four missiles at IS positions in Syria's Idlib province and 11 missiles at the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where it said it hit a center of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
Qassim al-Araji, the adviser for national security affairs to Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani who is heading a committee investigating the attack in Irbil, said Iran's "claims of targeting a Mossad headquarters are baseless.”
“There is no reason for these attacks and there is no excuse,” Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish region, said in a news conference in Davos while attending Tuesday the World Economic Forum. “These attacks should not remain without a response.”
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The Iranian strike in Irbil killed at least four people, among them Peshraw Dizayi, a prominent local businessman with a portfolio that included real estate and security services companies, along with members of his family.
And now today, the IRG has also attacked a militant base in nuclear-armed Pakistan. Again from the AP:
Iran launched attacks Tuesday in Pakistan targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl, potentially further raising tensions in a Middle East already roiled by Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Pakistan said the strikes killed two children and wounded three others in an assault it described as an “unprovoked violation” of its airspace.
Confusion followed the announcement from Iran as state media reports on it soon disappeared. However, the attack inside of nuclear-armed Pakistan by Iran threatens the relations between the two countries, which long have eyed each other with suspicion while maintaining diplomatic relations.
The attack also follows Iranian strikes on Iraq and Syria less than a day earlier, as Tehran lashes out following a dual suicide bombing this month claimed by the Sunni militant group Islamic State that killed over 90 people.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency and state television had said that missiles and drones were used in the strikes in Pakistan. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, attributed the attack to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Jaish al-Adl, or the “Army of Justice,” is a Sunni militant group founded in 2012 which largely operates across the border in Pakistan. The militants have claimed bombings and kidnapped Iranian border police in the past.
Iran has fought in border areas against the militants, but a missile-and-drone attack on Pakistan is unprecedented for Iran. Iranian reports described the strikes as happening in the mountains of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded rebuke of the strikes.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in death of two innocent children while injuring three girls,” the statement read. "This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences.”
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The attack came even as Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. What the men discussed was not immediately clear.
Meanwhile, over in the Red Sea it seems the two Navy Seals that went missing last week were involved in enforcing the UN-sanctioned arms embargo against Yemen. Also from the AP today:
U.S. Navy SEALs seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry from a ship bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a raid last week that saw two of its commandos go missing, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
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The raid marks the latest seizure by the U.S. Navy and its allies of weapon shipments bound for the rebels, who have launched a series of attacks now threatening global trade in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The seized missile components included types likely used in those attacks.
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The SEAL raid happened last Thursday, with the commandos launching from the USS Lewis B. Puller backed by drones and helicopters, with the U.S. military’s Central Command saying it took place in the Arabian Sea.
The SEALs traveled in small special operations combat craft driven by naval special warfare crew to get to the boat. As they were boarding it in rough seas, around 8 p.m. local time, one SEAL got knocked off by high waves and a teammate went in after him. Both remain missing.
The SEALs found cruise and ballistic missile components, including propulsion and guidance devices, as well as warheads, Central Command said. It added that air defense parts also were found.
“Initial analysis indicates these same weapons have been employed by the Houthis to threaten and attack innocent mariners on international merchant ships transiting in the Red Sea,” Central Command said in a statement.
Images released by the U.S. military analyzed by The Associated Press showed components resembling rocket motors and others previously seized. It also included what appeared to be an anti-ship cruise missile with a small turbojet engine — a type used by the Houthis and Iran.
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The U.S. Navy ultimately sunk the ship carrying the weapons after deeming it unsafe, Central Command said. The ship’s 14 crew have been detained.
The Houthis have not acknowledged the seizure and Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A United Nations resolution bans arms transfers to Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran has long denied arming the rebels, despite physical evidence, numerous seizures and experts tying the weapons back to Iran.