Free Republic

The United States carried out an airstrike in January that killed a leader of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen after months of tracking him, according to current and former government officials. Qassim al-Rimi, 41, was killed in the January strike but officials had been waiting to confirm the information before making public statement, the New York Times reports. The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has been keen to attack the U.S. and Europe. Confirmation of al-Rimi's death would mean a significant blow for the group.

The impoverished Yazidi community survived ISIS genocidal attacks but has been targeted repeatedly by Turkey since 2017. Turkey again carried out a targeted assassination of Yazidi members of a far-left group in Sinjar in northern Iraq on Wednesday, according to local reports. It is one of several airstrikes Turkey has carried out in the area where members of the Yazidi minority live.  The impoverished Yazidi community survived ISIS genocidal attacks but have now been targeted repeatedly by Turkey since 2017, including a Turkish invasion of Afrin in 2018 that led to ethnic-cleansing of Yazidi villages and a Turkish attack with...

The New York Times published a mysteriously prescient op-ed Thursday that cited an attack on Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as a possible scenario hours before the US took him out in a similar way. The op-ed, “Hypersonic Missiles Are a Game Changer,” by Quincy Institute analyst and former National Security Council big Steve Simon, speculated about the use of the powerful weapons. “Is there an individual in an unfriendly country who cannot be apprehended? What if the former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, visits Baghdad for a meeting and you know the address? The temptations to use hypersonic...

One night in January of 2007, American Special Operations commandos tracked a notorious adversary driving in a convoy from Iran into northern Iraq: Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander. But the Americans held their fire, and Soleimani slipped away into the darkness.

On Thursday the United States killed General Qassim Soleimani, a top commander of Iran’s al-Quds Force, in an airstrike at Baghdad’s International Airport. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Seven people were reportedly killed in the airstrike. Soleimani was responsible for hundreds of American deaths in the region. And as Jack Posobiec pointed out on Friday, General Qassim Soleimani planned and financed the attacks on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

BREAKING: "Unconfirmed report that Qais Khazali, one of the people the US named as responsible for storming of US Embassy in Baghdad, has been killed in new Baghdad airstrike"

The exact moment that Quds commander Qassem Soleimani and his associates were killed in the US airstrike at Baghdad airport was captured on closed circuit video that showed a blinding flash and blazing debris hurtling skyward. The CCTV video taken close to the airport was obtained by the Daily Mail from Iraqi TV station AhadTV and shows a large explosion as one of the two vehicles was destroyed by precision airstrike. Iran has vowed a “crushing revenge” and “jihad” on the US following the attack.

This is the moment two Islamic Revolutionary Guard generals were killed in the US airstrike on Baghdad airport which also killed Quds commander Qassem Soleimani. CCTV footage filmed close to the airport and shared by Iraqi TV station AhadTV shows a large explosion as one of the two cars was destroyed by precision missiles early on Friday morning. Brigadier General Hussein Jafari Nia and Major-General Hadi Taremi were named among the dead by the semi-official Fars agency, along with Colonel of the Guards Shahroud Mozaffari Nia and Captain Waheed Zamanian. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy-commander of the Iraqi-based pro-Iran People's Mobilization...

The US drone strike on Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force unit, may have been a "target of opportunity" but it clearly had presidential authorization for longer than just last night. The US wants to send the signal that this is deliberate. But it is escalatory and brings the region to a new brink of chaos.

BAGHDAD — Qasem Soleimani, Iranian Major general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and his Deputy General, have been killed in an airstrike at the Baghdad International airport, Iraqi media says. An engineer was also among those killed. An unknown number of rockets struck at least two vehicles belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces that were transporting the high ranking officials. Initial reports say seven people were confirmed killed but the number could rise as the vehicles and bodies were badly charred.

An airstrike on a migrant detention center in the Tajoura suburb of Libya's capital killed at least 44 people early Wednesday morning, according to the United Nations. More than 100 people were injured. The strike hit a hangar within the Tajoura Detention Center, obliterating what had been a shelter that was housing roughly 120 people. The death toll has grown as local health authorities report casualties. The U.N.-recognized government in the capital, Tripoli, has accused strongman Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army of carrying out the attack. As NPR's Jane Arraf reports, the migrants' hangar is next to a...

At least 17 civilians have been killed in an air strike on a basement shelter in south-western Syria, activists say, as warplanes pound rebel-held areas. A monitoring group reported that five children were among those who died when aircraft identified as Russian bombed Musayfira, east of the city of Deraa. Russia is backing an army offensive in the region, which borders Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. More than 90 civilians are said to have been killed since it began 11 days ago. The provinces of Deraa and Quneitra had been relatively calm for almost a year because of a...

KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah has been killed in a U.S.-Afghan air strike in Afghanistan, a senior Afghan Defence Ministry official said on Friday, a killing likely to ease tension between the United States and Pakistan. Mullah Fazlullah in an undated photo. U.S. Department of State/via REUTERS An official at the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan confirmed Fazlullah was killed on Thursday. The U.S. military said earlier in Washington it had carried out a strike aimed at a senior militant figure in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, which is on the Pakistani border, and...

The Department of Defense released details — and video — of an April 5 airstrike that killed top Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) commander Qari Hikmatullah and his bodyguard in northern Afghanistan.

OHANNESBURG — The U.S. military’s Africa command says its forces conducted an airstrike against Islamic extremists in Somalia last week, approximately 30 miles northwest of Kismayo, killing eight militants and destroying one vehicle. In its statement released Monday, the U.S. Africa Command said that it assess no civilians were killed in the strike. The statement said U.S. forces will continue to use “all authorized and appropriate measures” to protect U.S. citizens and to disable extremist threats. This includes partnering with the multinational African force in Somalia and the Somali National Security Forces to attack the extremist rebels of al-Shabab, their...

June 20, 2017 Release # 20170620-03 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   SOUTHWEST ASIA — Coalition forces killed Turki al-Bin’ali, the self-proclaimed “Grand Mufti,” or chief cleric, of ISIS, in an airstrike May 31 in Mayadin, Syria. Al-Bin’ali had a central role in recruiting foreign terrorist fighters and provoking terrorist attacks around the world. As chief cleric to ISIS since 2014, he provided propaganda to incite murder and other atrocities, attempted to legitimize the creation of the “caliphate,” and was a close confidant of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Leveraging his self-proclaimed religious role, his propaganda writings included the call for terrorists to pledge allegiance to...

1735 HRs Local, Sunday, June 7, 1981. Al-Tuwaythah Nuclear Research Facility, outside Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber is in shock. His jaw drops, mouth gaping open as a strained moan leaves his throat. Despite the hot desert temperature his limbs feel cold. He cannot believe what he is seeing. Eight F-16s painted sand-colored desert camouflage flying in a single-file attack formation at rooftop level hurtles over the outskirts of Baghdad from the southwest. They bank hard left, slicing white tendrils of vapor from their missile-clad wingtips in the evening air. One at a time they light their afterburners...

A Russian government spokesperson praised the Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS. Meanwhile, the co-Chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Salih Muslim, and PYD Europe representative Abdulselam Mustafa met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gennady Gatilov in Geneva on Thursday.The two sides discussed the recent developments in northern Syria, including the Turkish air strikes against the People’s Protection Forces (YPG). Russian officials have condemned the Turkish air strikes against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq that took place last week.“On April 25, it was reported that Turkish jets carried out a series of strikes on the positions...

Turkey's airstrikes on Kurdish regions in Syria and Iraq recently raised many an eyebrow around the globe. They left world leaders wondering if there will be more strikes and, if so, how the escalation will unfold. This article is a sequel to Amberin Zaman’s piece on April 25 that reflected the viewpoints of the United States, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Baghdad. This will focus on the perspectives of Ankara and Moscow, Ankara's strategic calculations behind the attacks and Moscow’s position on the events. Early April 25, the Turkish air force carried out simultaneous air attacks on Iraq’s Sinjar region and on Mount Qarachok near the...

YPG Press Office has announced the IDs of 20 YPG-YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) fighters that fell martyr as result of the Turkish aerial attack on Qereçox on April 25. YPG Press Office has announced the IDs of 20 YPG-YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) fighters that fell martyr as result of the Turkish aerial attack on Qereçox on April 25. The statement by YPG Press Office said the following: “The YPG General Command Headquarters in Qereçox region was bombed by Turkish warplanes at 02:00 on April 25. The aerial attack targeted the YPG Press Centre office, Dengê Rojava (Voice of Rojava) Radio...