Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Iraqi officials in Al Kut are seeking four suspected Iranian Qods Force operatives behind attacks on security forces. Members of the Iraqi security forces put up wanted posters with photos of the Iranian operates on the streets in an effort to detain the men. The Qods Force agents are wanted for "armed operations against Iraqi security personnel and civilians," an Iraqi security official told Voices of Iraq. "The security authorities in Kut appealed to local residents to report these dangerous persons who are wanted on charges of involvement in terrorist operations in Iraq." The campaign was announced the same...

A Toronto police officer has been shot to death during a raid tied to a March shooting outside the US consulate. The officer was shot during a gunfire exchange at a high-rise building in the early hours of Thursday, the Toronto Police Service said. He was later pronounced dead in hospital. Police had been investigating suspects who allegedly fired shots at the US consulate building in Toronto earlier this year, in what US and Canadian authorities described at the time as a "national security incident". (excerpt) US officials have linked the March shooting to a dual Iranian-Iraqi national accused of...

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory bodes well for US-Morocco relations. As King Mohamed VI recalled in his statement congratulating Trump on his election win, during his first term, Trump recognized Rabat’s full sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Trump made this recognition with a presidential proclamation on December 10, 2020, in exchange for Morocco reestablishing diplomatic relations with Israel. In his statement, Mohammed VI went on to say that “the Moroccan people will forever be grateful” for this recognition, calling Washington “our longstanding friend and ally.” While Morocco hopes to pick up where it left off in negotiations with...

The Biden administration suppressed information about Iran’s efforts to assassinate U.S. officials to ensure Congress and the American public were kept in the dark, according to a lawmaker on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "What Americans don’t know is that the Biden administration has gone to great lengths to hide the extent and persistence of those threats" from Iran, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said during a Senate hearing Wednesday on Tehran’s network of terror proxies. Those threats include active plots to assassinate former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other top U.S. officials. The administration has been "abusing the...

The Justice Department on Friday charged three Azerbaijani gangsters with plotting to murder a Brooklyn-based Iranian-American author and activist last year. The case stems from the July arrest of Khalid Mehdiyev, who was collared near Masih Alinejad’s home with an assault rifle after the beefy and bearded 24-year-old was filmed ringing Alinejad’s doorbell and lingering on her porch in a leafy part of the New York City borough. The other two men facing charges are 43-year-old Rafat “Rome” Amirov, a resident of Iran who was arrested on Jan. 26 in New York, and 38-year-old Polad “Haci Qaqa” Omarov, who was...

The U.S. military conducted wide-ranging air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, President Trump said. Why it matters: It was the biggest wave of U.S. strikes in Yemen since Trump assumed office. A U.S. official said Saturday's strikes were not a one-off but the start of a series of "relentless" U.S. strikes against the Houthis that are expected to last for days or maybe even weeks. Driving the news: According to local reports in Yemen, numerous explosions took place in Sana'a around 1:30pm ET. Trump said the strikes were aimed at "terrorists' bases, leaders, and missile defenses." Behind...

-snip- Trump had ordered the Pentagon to start preparing military plans against the Houthis after his decision to re-designate them as a terrorist organization several weeks after he assumed office, the U.S. official said. After the Houthis downed a U.S. military drone two weeks ago, the preparations for the strikes accelerated, and in recent days, the main question became about best operational timing for the strikes, according to the U.S. official. Trump approved the attack plan on Friday and on Saturday he gave the final order to carry it out, the U.S. official said. The Trump administration had informed a...