Israel said to be making strikes Iranian sites in Iraq

TIMES OF ISRAEL :

Israel has expanded its operations against Iranian targets to Iraq, where Air Force jets have struck twice in ten days, a report said Tuesday morning.

Israel commonly conducts strikes in Syrian territory, targeting Iranian missile shipments meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to use against the Jewish state, but strikes in Iraq by Israel have not been reported since the 1981 bombing of a nuclear reactor.

Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London, cited Western diplomatic sources as saying an Israeli F-35 plane was behind a July 19 strike on a rocket depot in a Shiite militia base north of Baghdad.

The Saudi-based al-Arabiya network reported at the time that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hezbollah had been killed in the strike. It said the base had shortly before the strike received Iranian ballistic missiles, which had been hidden inside trucks.

Iraq’s military said at the time that one fighter was killed and two Iranians wounded, saying the strike was carried out by an unmanned drone. The United States denied involvement.

That strike targeted Iranian advisers and a ballistic missile shipment, the report cited sources as saying.

The report also mentioned a strike in Syria last week blamed on Israel, in which nine were killed including six Iranians fighting for the Syrian regime, claiming it was meant to prevent Iran from taking over a strategic hill in the Daraa province in the country’s south.

Israeli missiles targeted “military positions and intelligence facilities belonging to Iran and [pro-Iranian] militias” in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra early on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at the time.

The other three killed in the strike were pro-regime Syrian fighters, it added.




Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in the country, as well as those loyal to the Assad regime, as part of a stated policy to prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of Iranian military forces across from Israel’s northern border.

Israel does not usually comment on specific reports of strikes, but does insist it has the right to defend itself by targeting positions held by Iran and Hezbollah.

Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi boasted last week that Israel is the only country in the world that has been “killing Iranians.”

In a speech to the UN General Assembly last September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that “Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran’s aggression. We will continue to act against you in Syria. We will act against you in Lebanon. We will act against you in Iraq. We will act against you whenever and wherever we must act to defend our state and defend our people.” An excerpt from that speech was utilized in a recent Likud election campaign clip.

Marines arrested for human smuggling

WASHINGTON, July 25 

Sixteen U.S. Marines were arrested on Thursday for their alleged involvement in illegal activities including human smuggling and drug-related offenses, the U.S. military said.

In a press release, the Marine Corps said that the Marines were arrested at Camp Pendleton in California based on information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation.

The statement added that in addition to the Marines arrested, eight others were questioned for unrelated alleged drug offenses.

The Marine Corps said none of those arrested or detained were serving in support of the military's mission along the border with Mexico.

The arrests took place in a dramatic fashion on Thursday morning at Camp Pendleton, California, during a battalion formation.

"Information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation precipitated the arrests," the statement said. Eight other Marines were also questioned on their involvement in alleged drug offenses unrelated to today's arrests, the Marine Corps said.

Byron Law II and David Salazar-Quintero, both lance corporals, were arrested after their vehicle was pulled over by Border Patrol agents about 20 miles east of the Tecate port of entry.
Law was driving, and Salazar-Quintero was in the passenger seat. There were three passengers in the back of the car, and they told the agent they were Mexican citizens, had no immigration papers and were not permitted to enter the United States, according to the complaint.

The three immigrants apprehended from the back of Law's car told Border Patrol agents that they'd made arrangements to be smuggled into the United States and had been told via cellphone to get into Law's car.

Two of the migrants said they were planning to pay $8,000 to be smuggled into the country, the complaint says. One planned on traveling to Los Angeles, the other to New Jersey.
The driver and passenger, under questioning, began pointing fingers at one another, the complaint says, detailing their involvement in a smuggling operation.

According to their service records supplied by the US Marine Corps, both of the men charged earlier in the month are riflemen with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They have been awarded the National Defense and Global War on Terrorism service medals.

Capt. Christopher Harrison, Marine Corps spokesman, previously told CNN that the corps is "aware of the charges facing Lance Cpl. Law and Lance Cpl. Salazar-Quintero."
"We continue to cooperate fully with the investigative efforts into this matter," he said earlier this month.

BREAKING: NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES TWO MISSILES

North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles believed to be missiles into the sea, South Korea has said.

The projectiles were launched from an area near the eastern city of Wonsan, according to the South’s joint chiefs of staff.


Last week, Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, inspected a newly built submarine, potentially signalling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) prograM.

The reclusive nation’s leader inspected the operational and tactical data and combat weapons systems of the submarine, which state news agency KCNA said was built under “his special attention” and will be operational in the waters off the east coast.

“The operational capacity of a submarine is an important component in national defense of our country bounded on its east and west by sea,” Mr Kim said.

It comes amid another delay in the resumption of talks between the reclusive nation and the United States, in which Washington has been pushing the hermit kingdom to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

U.S. military has begun reestablishing air base inside Saudi Arabia

NBC NEWS 

July 19, 2019, 5:42 PM CDT / Updated July 20, 2019, 8:45 AM CDT
By Courtney Kube

ASPEN, Colo. — In June the U.S. military began moving equipment and hundreds of troops back to a military base in Saudi Arabia that the U.S. deserted more than 15 years ago, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the deployment.

Over the coming weeks the deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, intended to counter the threat from Iran, will grow to include fighter jets and Patriot long-range missile defense systems, the officials said. The Patriots have already arrived at the base and should be operational in mid-July, while the aircraft are expected to arrive in August.

Several hundred U.S. service members are already on site preparing the facility south of Riyadh, which is controlled by the Royal Saudi Air Force, a number that will grown to more than 500 after the arrival of an air squadron.

The officials said the deployment focuses on defensive capabilities, with Patriot batteries for missile defense and the fighter jets intended to defend U.S. forces on the ground. But they acknowledged the aircraft could be used offensively as well.

The U.S. announced this increase of forces in the region in June, but did not say where the troops and equipment would be based.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the deployment to Prince Sultan air base. "U.S. Central Command continually works to manage our force posture in the region and will continue to do this in cooperation with our partners and allies in the region," said Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Earl Brown on Thursday.

Central Command said in a statement Friday, “In coordination with and at the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Secretary of Defense has authorized the movement of U.S. personnel and resources to deploy to Saudi Arabia.”

“This movement of forces provides an additional deterrent, and ensures our ability to defend our forces and interests in the region from emergent, credible threats,” the Central Command statement said.

The U.S. military deployed troops and equipment to Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War, and U.S. aircraft based in the Kingdom were later used to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing killed 19 U.S. airmen and injured 400 others, the U.S. military moved most aircraft and service members in Saudi Arabia to Prince Sultan Air Base, where they remained until the U.S. began Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In April 2003, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Saudi defense minister decided to withdraw all U.S. troops from the base and turn it back over to the Saudi government.

While Prince Sultan Air Base is an active facility, portions of the base will need an upgrade to accommodate the U.S. military, including reinforcing and expanding roads and runways, one U.S. official said. Base housing will also need updating, the official said, and the U.S. will build a medical facility. Many of the U.S. service members deployed there over the past few weeks are engineers preparing the base for the new mission.

This new deployment provides the U.S. military with another location in the region to counter a possible threat from Iran. The U.S. official said the base provides the U.S. with "strategic standoff" and "defensive depth" with Iran, meaning the ability to counter Iran from a distance while not being in range of Iranian missiles.

The officials described this deployment as expeditionary rather than permanent basing, with the new presence remaining there as long as tensions remain high with Iran.

The officials said Saudi Arabia has already agreed to pay some of the costs associated with having U.S. personnel and assets there.
Courtney Kube

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Iran seized two UK tankers

BBC: 

The Stena Impero is British-flagged and the Mesdar is Liberian-flagged but British owned.

The Mesdar's operator said the vessel was now free to continue its journey after it was boarded by armed guards at around 17:30 BST on Friday.

The Stena Impero's owners say they have been unable to contact their vessel, which was "heading north towards Iran".

They say there are 23 personnel on board the British-flagged oil tanker and it was approached by "unidentified small crafts and a helicopter".

The Mesdar's Glasgow-based Norbulk Shipping UK said communication had been re-established with the vessel and its crew was "safe and well".

The government's emergency committee, Cobra, is meeting in Whitehall for the second time on Friday to discuss the incident.

Mr Hunt said the seizures were "unacceptable" and the emergency meeting would review what the UK could do to "swiftly secure the release of the two vessels".

"It is essential that freedom of navigation is maintained and that all ships can move safely and freely in the region," he added.

He said the tankers' crews were made up of a range of nationalities but no British citizens were understood to be on board either vessel.

"Our ambassador in Tehran is in contact with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve the situation and we are working closely with international partners," he said.

These latest developments come amid heightened tensions between the UK, the US, and Iran.

Iranian media reported Stena Impero had been seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The Tasnim news agency quoted the Ports and Maritime Organisation of Iran as saying: "We received some reports on the British oil tanker, Stena Impero, causing problems.

"We asked the military forces to guide this tanker towards Bandar Abbas port to have the required investigations carried out."

Stena Bulk, the vessel owner, and Clydebank-based ship manager Northern Marine Management confirmed the UK-registered Stena Impero was approached at around 16:00 BST on Friday while it was in international waters.

A statement said there were no reported injuries and the safety of the crew was the priority of the tanker's owners and managers.

Tensions between the UK and Iran flared up earlier this month when Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker which was suspected of breaking EU sanctions.

The UK suspected Grace 1, detained on 4 July near Gibraltar, was carrying oil bound for Syria.

In response to the seizure, Iran threatened to seize a British oil tanker.

On 9 July, the UK raised the threat to British shipping in Iranian waters in the Gulf to "critical" - the highest level.

A day later, Iranian boats attempted to impede a British oil tanker in the region, before being warned off by a Royal Navy ship, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Iran denied any attempted seizure.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson tweeted that the latest reports were of "real concern", adding that "any move to seize a British tanker would be a significant and harmful escalation of a situation where de-escalation is needed".

Sir Richard Dalton, former UK ambassador to Iran, told the BBC that Iran was "trying to put a scare into the owners and operators of tankers" in the region.