America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
JOE BIDEN'S FOREIGN POLICY - DEFEND THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS AND SABOTAGE AMERICA'S BORDERS FOR MORE DEM VOTING 'CHEAP' LABOR ILLEGALS
Iraq Condemns Joe Biden Bombings as ‘Flagrant Violation of Iraqi Sovereignty’
The government of Iraq condemned President Joe Biden on Monday for bombing sites within the country, and within Syria, to allegedly combat the threat of Iran-backed militias in the area.
Iraqi officials called the move a “flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty” and a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense asserted that the country is “studying resorting to all available legal options to prevent the recurrence of such attacks” on its territory.
The condemnation follows a similar statement from the regime of Iran-backed dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which used almost identical language to condemn the “blatant violation of the sanctity of the Syrian and Iraqi territories.”
The U.S. Department of Defense announced late Sunday Biden had ordered airstrikes on the border between Iraq and Syria, hitting both countries.
“The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq,” the Pentagon explained in a statement, claiming that the targets aided two Iran-backed terrorist organizations, the Hezbollah Brigades and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), that had targeted American forces.
The two groups form part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of militias created in Iraq to fight the Islamic State (ISIS). The PMF is a legal wing of the Iraqi military and the Pentagon has previously praised it for its prowess in fighting the terrorist group. The Department of Defense also insisted under former President Donald Trump that fighting the PMF is not part of its mission in the Middle East.
Under Trump, the Hezbollah Brigades lost its founder, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in an airstrike in Baghdad that also eliminated senior Iranian military leader Major General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. At the time, Biden accused Trump of tossing “a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox” and stated that he would not have approved the airstrike.
The Pentagon insisted in its statement on Sunday that American forces are “in Iraq at the invitation of the Government of Iraq for the sole purpose of assisting the Iraqi Security Forces in their efforts to defeat ISIS.” The Islamic State is not an Iran-backed terrorist organization and the targets of the airstrike are members of the Iraqi Security Forces.
Iraqi Ministry of Defense spokesman Yehia Rasool published an extensive statement on Twitter on Monday announcing that Baghdad had convened an emergency meeting to address Biden’s “flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty, which is rejected by all international laws and covenants.”
“The Ministerial Council for National Security is studying resorting to all available legal options to prevent the recurrence of such attacks that violate Iraq’s airspace and territory,” Rasool narrated, “in addition to conducting a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of the accident and its causes, and working to prevent it from recurring in the future.”
Rasool added that Baghdad was engaging the Biden administration in “continuous dialogue” to achieve the full withdrawal of American forces from the country, “the details of which will be announced later.”
Contrary to the Pentagon’s statement that it is present in Iraq at the government’s request, the Iraqi Parliament passed a resolution in January 2020, shortly after the Soleimani airstrike, calling for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops in the country. The negotiations mentioned this week appear to be a continuation of attempts to execute the demands of that resolution.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also issued a brief statement on Monday against the Biden airstrike, calling it a “blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security.”
“Iraq reiterates its refusal to be an arena for settling scores,” he asserted.
The Syrian Assad regime, one of Iran’s most loyal proxies and a staunch American enemy, also condemned the airstrike on Monday, though its statement was more predictable than the more U.S.-friendly Iraqi government.
“The Syrian Arab Republic condemns the US blatant aggression on the Syrian-Iraqi borders and considers it a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Syrian and Iraqi lands,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) relayed on Monday. SANA attributed the statement to a “source” who blamed Israel for the strikes, citing no evidence that the Israeli government was in any way involved with the incident. “[The source] went on to say that those attacks escalate the tense crucial situation in the region,” SANA claimed, “and prove ‘what we have repeatedly said in Syria that the US military presence in our region is basically meant to serve the Israeli goals and the separatist forces contrary to the interests of its people.'”
SANA reported on Tuesday that U.S. forces in Syria, which regularly cooperates with pro-Iran forces, came under attack that day in Deir Ezzor, where American troops are stationed at the al-Omar oil field. Al Jazeera cited a spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition, spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto, confirming a rocket attack on the military base there and U.S. “counter-battery artillery fire” in response. The independent Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it had no evidence of any casualties in the incident.
Multiple rockets targeted a U.S. base near an oil field in Syria on Monday evening, a day after U.S. airstrikes hit facilities used by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.
The U.S. military said there were “no injuries and damage is being assessed.”
Col. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State known as Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), said the attack against U.S. forces in Syria began at roughly 7:44 PM local time.
Marotto said U.S. forces “acted in self-defense and conducted counter-battery artillery fire at rocket-launching positions.”
Kurdish news service Rudaw quoted sources in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who said “several artillery shells” landed on a key oil field in the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria, close to where the American troops were positioned. The SDF is working with the U.S. military against the Islamic State and other extremist forces in Syria.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Iran-backed militias” launched the rockets against the American base at al-Mayadeen in Deir ez-Zor. An oil field called al-Omar is close to the base.
The Observatory reported explosions in the city of al-Mayadeen, under the control of Iranian forces and their militia proxies. These detonations presumably came from the U.S. counter-battery artillery fire Marotto described.
Syrian state media reported Monday that “missiles” launched by an unspecified force “targeted a military base of the U.S. occupation forces in the al-Omar oil field.
The current clash with Iran’s militia proxies in Syria began when the militias used drones and rockets to attack American personnel in Iraq. After three months of such attacks, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against three militia positions in Iraq and Syria.
“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq,” the Pentagon said Sunday.
The Military Timesquoted a defense official who said the Sunday strikes involved F-15 and F-16 jets, which “targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq.”
The defense official said these three sites, all close to the Iraq-Syria border, were used for drone command, control, and logistics by “several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).”
KH is the Iraqi Shiite militia held responsible for attacks on Americans in Iraq in late 2019, which led to an airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump in January 2020 that eliminated KH founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian terrorist mastermind Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officer credited with bringing numerous Shiite militias across the Middle East under Tehran’s control.
KSS is an offshoot from Kataib Hezbollah known for serving as Iran’s military proxies in the Syrian civil war. KSS leaders have publicly expressed willingness to fight for Iran’s interests in Yemen and to attack Saudi Arabia if Tehran gives the order.
Both KH and KSS are nominally part of the “Popular Mobilization Forces” (PMF), militia groups deputized by the Iraq central government to fight the Islamic State. Many of these militias are far more loyal to the government of Iran than Iraq.
The PMF has become a major element of Iran’s influence over Iraqi politics, a dismal state of affairs showcased on Sunday as thousands of PMF fighters held a march to show off their weapons — an event the ostensibly U.S.-friendly prime minister of Iraq, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, felt obliged to attend.
Kadhimi’s government condemned Sunday’s U.S. airstrikes as a “blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and national security.” An Iraqi military spokesman said his country should not become an “arena for settling accounts” between the U.S. and Iran.
The Syrian regime likewise denounced the U.S. strikes as a “flagrant violation of the sanctity of Syrian and Iraqi lands.”
KSS issued a statement after the Sunday airstrikes threatening to attack U.S. military aircraft and retaliate against American troops.
“From now on, a face-to-face battle with the American occupiers will begin, the first part of which is to target enemy aircraft in the Iraqi airspace. We will avenge the blood of our martyrs,” KSS vowed. KH co-signed on the belligerent statement.
The statement said at least four KSS militants were “martyred” by the U.S. airstrikes. U.S. officials said the Iraqi militia was trying to conceal the fact that its four operatives were killed on the Syrian side of the border.
The Iraqi Resistance Coordination, an umbrella organization for Iran’s militia proxies in Iraq, swore that it would “avenge the blood of our righteous martyrs against the perpetrators of this heinous crime and with God’s help, we will make the enemy taste the bitterness of revenge.”
U.S. lawmakers, including members of Biden’s Democrat Party, expressed concerns about escalating hostilities in Iraq and urged Biden to consult with Congress before taking further action.
“There is no doubt that President Biden possesses the ability to defend our forces abroad, and I continue to trust inherently the national security instincts of this White House,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday.
“My concern is that the pace of activity directed at U.S. forces and the repeated retaliatory strikes against Iranian proxy forces are starting to look like what would qualify as a pattern of hostilities under the War Powers Act,” Murphy continued, suggesting Biden seek a “war declaration” but declining to specify what parties Biden should declare war against.
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