Free Republic

Yesterday, National Security Adviser John Bolton announced the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force. It caught many by surprise as it indicated they were sending a “clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.” Until the release, there were no indications that an Iranian attack was imminent. Except, perhaps there were indications and nobody put the pieces together. On April 23rd, a huge story went mostly unnoticed as former Iranian Brigadier General Ali...

US intelligence agencies have given Israel the green light to assassinate the senior Iranian responsible for coordinating military activity on behalf of the Islamic Republic in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida. For the past 20 years or so, Qassem Soleimani has commanded the Quds Force — the branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards responsible for military and clandestine operations outside of the Islamic Republic. Soleimani is a key figure in efforts to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad and to enable him to retake cities and towns from rebel groups during his country’s ongoing civil...

US intelligence agencies have given Israel the green light to assassinate the senior Iranian responsible for coordinating military activity on behalf of the Islamic Republic in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarid

BEIRUT — Islamic State militants seized several villages from rival insurgents north of Aleppo, Syria, on Friday, in a surprise attack that came despite intensive Russian airstrikes that Moscow insists are targeting the extremist group, activists said. Iranian state media reported that a senior commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed by the Islamic State group on the outskirts of Aleppo city, but it was not immediately clear whether Gen. Hossein Hamedani's death was related to the new ISIS offensive. An Iranian state television report said he was killed while "carrying out an advisory mission." It didn't provide any...

General Qassem Suleimani, commander of Quds Force recently spotted in Iraq, beats out FM Zarif, chosen as top Iranian in Persian New Year poll. An Iranian general who has been a key adviser in Iraq's counter offensive against ISIS was voted Iran's person of the year in an annual poll released Sunday. General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, won 37 percent of the votes cast in the survey to mark the Persian New Year, Nowruz. Once rarely seen, Suleimani is now frequently pictured in social media near the front line...

d Hezbollah figures killed in an airstrike in Syria this weekend were likely planning an 'imminent' attack on Israel, security sources have claimed. Six Iranian army chiefs died alongside five Hezbollah militants after an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at a convoy in the Golan Heights region on Sunday. Among those killed was Iranian General Mohammed Allahdadi, as well as commander Abu Ali Tabatabai, who is known to have worked with both Hezbollah and Iran. Today Major General Eyal Ben Reuven, a former deputy head in the Israeli Defense Forces, accused the senior military figures of meeting to plot an attack...