Middle East
Three Katyusha rockets land near U.S. mission in Baghdad’s Green Zone in the second attack in so many nights • Iraqi government votes to expel all foreign troops from the country.
“The Iraqi government has an obligation to end the presence of all foreign forces on Iraqi soil and prevent it from using Iraqi lands, waters and airspace or any other reason,” said Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halboosi in an address to lawmakers before the vote.
This will be Avi Berkowitz’s first visit to Israel since stepping in for Jason Greenblatt, who resigned as U.S. President Donald Trump’s emissary to the region in November.
Gold Institute senior fellow Matthew Brodsky told JNS that Qassem Soleimani’s death is as significant as the assassination of Osama bin Laden in 2011 by U.S. forces in Pakistan.
The new forces are reportedly being deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and other parts of the region.
Hezbollah Bridages spokesman claims that the U.S. administration is suffering a “mental breakdown,” and says that withdrawal is unrelated to expected arrival of U.S. forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says an infantry battalion from Immediate Response Force (IRF) of the 82nd Airborne Division is being sent immediately • Preparations are underway to deploy more forces.
In the short term, Tehran will likely have some success in changing the course of Iraqi protests that have targeted severe failures among the government in Baghdad, which has been under the influence of Iran and corrupt Iraqi elites.
Ambassador and embassy staff evacuated; no casualties reported • U.S. President Donald Trump accuses Iran of “orchestrating” the attack, calls on Iraq to protect the embassy.
Iran-backed Shi’ite militias such as the one struck by the United States in Iraq over the weekend pose a clear and present danger to the Jewish state, and are already close to Israel’s borders.
The Pentagon said it had hit three locations of the group in Iraq and two in Syria that had been used to store weapons, as well as plan and carry out attacks against coalition forces.
Turkish media has been discussing U.S. bases after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement in a Dec. 15 interview that “if it needs to be shut down, we will shut down Incirlik [Airbase]. If it needs to be shut down, we will shut down Kürecik [Radar Station].”
