Free Republic

BEHIND THE LINES: The US administration appears to fail to notice the broader alliance taking shape behind these forces, and the interconnectedness of the current assault on the West. The statement by US President Donald Trump that Iran would be held responsible for continued attacks by the Yemeni Houthi movement on shipping in the Red Sea sharply raises the temperature in the ongoing escalation between US forces and the Yemeni Shi’ite Islamist movement in that area. “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership...

The illusion of Iranian power was kept alive for decades by American engagement with the would-be lords of the Middle East. Now the spell is broken, and the ‘Axis of Resistance’ is shattered. A billboard with the "doomsday clock," counting down the days until Israel's destruction, is pictured in downtown Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 2024. Israel bombed the clock on Monday. A few months before he was buried under the rubble of his Beirut bunker, the late leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, repeated to his followers, as he had done many times before, his famous line that Israel was...

An Iranian general who promised to “see the dead bodies of Americans all over the Middle East” is missing after an Israeli attack in Lebanon that may have also killed the presumed new Hezbollah chief. The whereabouts of Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, remains a mystery after Friday’s airstrike in Beirut, the New York Times reported. Some Arab and Israeli outlets say he is dead, while others report him as wounded. Lebanese security forces also have lost contact with Hashem Safieddine, a top local Hezbollah official and the presumed successor to the terror group’s...

Columbia University’s radical protest leaders, including Khalil, aren’t just anti-Israel — they want America to fall and are taking steps to make it happen. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats are demanding the release of Columbia University student and pro-Hamas protester Mahmoud Khalil. While House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is accusing the Trump administration of “authoritarianism,” the Democrats are about to be embarrassed. Khalil is a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, one of more than 150 pro-terrorism groups I identified in my comprehensive study for the Capital Research Center, “Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement.”...

The current escalation between Yemen's Houthi militia and the US-led naval coalition in the Red Sea serves the Iran-backed militants in several ways. In fact, it is even welcomed, according to some analysts. "The Houthis have been looking for an opportunity for confrontation with the United States," Hisham al-Omeisy, Yemen conflict analyst and former director of Washington's Information Research Center for Yemen, told DW. "For the past eight years, they've been telling their followers that they are at war with the US and with Israel, so this is a golden opportunity for them that they need to capitalize on," al-Omeisy...

Commanders and advisors from Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are on the ground in Yemen and playing a direct role in Houthi rebel attacks on commercial traffic in the Red Sea. The IRGC has stationed missile and drone trainers and operators in Yemen, as well as personnel providing tactical intelligence support to the Houthis, U.S. and Middle East officials told Semafor. The IRGC, through its overseas Qods Force, has also overseen the transfer to the Houthis of the attack drones, cruise missiles, and medium-range ballistic missiles used in a string of strikes on Red Sea and Israeli targets in...

An Israeli airstrike on the Damascus airport has reportedly killed nearly a dozen senior Iranian military officials, which one expert told Fox News Digital would prove Israel’s ability to maintain a multi-faceted defense of the region. "While there is no independent confirmation of Guard Corps names or ranks, the IRGC has long seen Syria as a critical regional hub to project power into the Eastern Mediterranean and connect its constellation of proxies called the ‘Axis of Resistance,’" Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. "It should come as a shock to no one...