On April 5, a series of large explosions rocked the village of al-Kastan in southwestern Idlib injuring 8 people, including 3 members of the so-called White Helmets. According to local sources, an ammunition depot located in the civilian area inside the city became the source of the explosion.
Al-Kastan is located near the town of Jisr al-Shughur, controlled by the Al-Qaeda-linked Turkistan Islamic Party. The exploded weapon depot likely belonged to the terrorist group or persons affiliated with it.
On the same day, the Turkish military established three new ‘observation posts’ around Jisr al-Shughur. They are located at the villages of Baksariya, al-Z’ainiyah and Furaykah. Idlib militants see Turkish positions as an important defense line that would allow containing possible Russia- and Iran-backed anti-terrorist operations in the area.
The 46th Regiment Base of the Syrian Army in western Aleppo came under Turkish artillery shelling. In response, Syrian forces struck position of Turkish-backed militants near Kafr Amma. The attack on the 46th Regiment Base became a third incident between the Turkish military and Syrian troops in less than a week. On April 3, two Syrian soldiers were killed in a Turkish artillery strike on their positions near Tell Abyad.
On April 4, Iraq’s largest resistance groups released a joint statement calling the US military “occupation forces” that “respect the language of force only”. In the statement, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, Harakat al-Awfiy’a, Saraya Ashura, Harakat Jund al-Imam and Saraya al-Khurasani added that recent attacks on US forces and facilities in Iraq were only a “minor response” to the US aggression and the decision to carry out full-scale attacks was not taken then.
Two days earlier, on April 2, Usbat al-Tha’ireen, the armed group that claimed responsibility for rocket strikes on Camp Taji and other US positions, released a 3-minute long drone footage of the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone. This is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, and is nearly as large as Vatican City.
The US Central Command officially confirmed deployment of Patriot air defense systems in Iraq. However, the US military announced that it will not provide “providing status updates as those systems come online” for security reasons. At least two Patriot batteries are now located in at the US military bases of Ayn al-Assad and Erbil. Two more Patriot batteries will reportedly be deployed soon.
As part of its plan to redeploy forces to larger, more fortified bases, the US evacuated its troops from the al-Taqaddum Air Base in the province of al-Anbar. It became the fourth US military facility abandoned in Iraq within the last few weeks. The previous ones were located in al-Qaim, Kirkuk and al-Qayyarah.
Iraqi sources say that the US actions demonstrate that Washington is preparing for a new round of military confrontation with Iran and its allies in the region. Recently, President Donald Trump stated that the US was expecting attacks by Iranian-led forces on US troops and facilities, claiming that Iran will ‘pay price’ for this. Following the statement, Iran deployed additional anti-ship missiles and multiple rocket launchers on the Qeshm Island in the Strait of Horumz.
I did predict several months go that things will begin happening in April 2020. USA’s so called Capitalism is on life support, the exact same way it was in 1929. They MUST start a war to cover the failure of their so called Capitalism.
WWIII postponed again. Mafia assets Bill Gates, George Soros, the John Hopkins Center, WHO & party launched Covid911 instead, and by doing so, caught everybody on the wrong foot – result: global lockdown.
Two days earlier, on April 2, Usbat al-Tha’ireen, the armed group that claimed responsibility for rocket strikes on Camp Taji and other US positions, released a 3-minute long drone footage of the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone. This is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, and is nearly as large as Vatican City.
Strong hint next ? many i’m sure wondering why this wasn’t hit in that missile strike Jan11/2020.
Looks like mr. t.’s owners still very capably leading him on, like a slightly ornery mule, with a carrot tied to a string hanging from a stick just in front of him.
a little bit of coercion goes a long way.
Like that recent caper, probably stolen from an unused script written for the Loan Gunmen 20 years ago,
where they filmed that facile beer virus scare right at mr. T’s neighborhood Brooklyn hospital, Elmhurst.
If the US was preparing for war, wouldn’t they be spreading their forces not hunkering down in one location?
RATM
Not necessarily. Pulling forces back from less defensible bases to fewer, better fortified bases (which now are being reinforced with patriot batteries) is a strong sign of intent to up the aggression against Iran. It’s not the preparations of a gradual pull out from Iraq, that the trump regime has been falsely claiming is their eventual aim. The reduction of bases reduces targets the militias can attack in response to israeloamerican aggressive moves against Iran, while the addition of air defense elements reduces the effectiveness of Iranian counterattacks (or rather, is intended to reduce it). They are banking on not needing to fully reoccupy Iraq to support their aggression against Iran, and relying upon targeted strikes to neutralize any forces in Iraq that will resist and counterattack.
I don’t believe the israeloamericans intend to attack Iran in the manner of their invasion of Iraq in 2003. They appear to be still using a regime change strategy. Instead I think they will use a variation of the strategy they used against Syria. The “troops on the ground” will be the now bog standard terrorist groups, rebranded and remixed, given support on the sly and/or presented as “freedom fighters”. The israeloamericans themselves will probably limit their direct involvement to air strikes and maritime harassment.
I’ve read Giraldi’s article you linked below. Not much new was said. The US needs to find a way to save their fracking industry. That means taking other oil producers offline. Especially those who don’t sell their oil in US$. But due to the corona shutdowns, this time they will have to attack even those producers who sell in US$, e.g. the Saudis. So the US will take out the Saudis, and if they do it by shutting down Hormuz, they kill Iran too without directly attacking them. So expect blown up tankers.
Dont you think Iran have plans for the eventuality of a closed strait RATM? Iran would not have threatend to close it bfore if it would “kill Iran”, at least that is what logic says for me. No sane person/country would commit suicide like that imho especially not a country in the resistance axis.
Im sorry @Per/Norway & vot tak. I wrote such a long reply but it never got published. And this happens alot. Either the site is f up or some moderator really hates me. (The site is not f up ….. and no moderator hates you)
@vot tak
What you described already happened. The major oil companies already bought up all the smaller fracking companies. Now the oil majors are bleeding red, as well as the banks that undwrote them.
@Per/Norway
Iran’s threat to close Hormuz was a warning to the EU/ROW that if Iran is attacked, everybody will suffer economically. It was a warning for others to restrain the AngloZionist bloodlust. But now, this isn’t the case bcs noone needs the oil due to the corona shutdowns. This is basically the gist of what I wrote in the unpublished comment.
Well mods,
20% of my comments never get published… Usually I have to repost the comment… And I am not the only one with this problem , I saw others complain about it too.
Mods are not robots they are humans and they may make mistakes. Just don’t take it personal. Peace & love.
RATM
I have the same “problem” with disappearing comments, that is one of several reasons I don’t write as many comments here as I used to.
(Mod- dear vot tak there are sudden internal moderation changes that affect comments… but always it is for the good of the bigger picture we are all aspiring to here….)
The fracking in the usa is but a small part of the assets controlled by the energy multinationals. They can afford to sit on them for a while. Just like they did/are doing with Iraq’s energy.
Remember when zionazia had their yokels invade Iraq in 2003 many were saying it was about the oil? Well for 10 years prior the zpc/nwo had blocked sale of Iraqi oil, essentially taking it out of circulation. After 2003, things didn’t really change, Iraq energy continued to be for all practical purposes out of circulation. Only in the last few years has their oil/gas production been restored to approximate pre 1991 levels. For roughly 2 decades, the energy majors managed without Iraqi energy. This is what I mean about sitting on the american fracking sources.
The debt owed in relation to fracking is minor compared to the overall business these conglomerates engage in. Plus I have no doubts that some of the corporate debt relief the u.s. regime will be providing will cover some of this debt. That usually how it works in the usa. Big business engineers a recession/depression and gobble up the smaller businesses that fall prey, then have their government lackeys legislate a bailout and have the tax payers (IE: people like us) cover their debts.
RATM
“I’ve read Giraldi’s article you linked below. Not much new was said.”
Agree. He’s establishment, but not apparently pro-israel. Which is useful as he presents analysis from that wing of the right. He also usually provides some clear nuts and bolts type thinking in much of his analysis and comes across as somebody genuinely concerned about the usa. An old style patriot of the right.
“The US needs to find a way to save their fracking industry. That means taking other oil producers offline.”
Except it isn’t the u.s. any more. These corporations, and oligarchs, are no longer country specific. They use a country’s government and infrastructure as tools, but they consider themselves supra- country.
Likely what we are seeing here with regard to oil prices dropping well below where fracking is profitable, is the usual method used by large corporations to bankrupt small companies and essentially gobble up their assets. The multinationals buy up the smaller companies who lack the assets and clout, to weather the economic “depression”, for a small fraction of their worth and grow more powerful.
In the west the only actual countries left are those who broke with this zpc/nwo slavocracy and are currently under attack by the oligarchs.
If the u.s. arranges for a saudi & co. fall (really if the zpc/nwo arranges it now), it wont be due to oil so much as colonial reliability. The zpc/nwo against the independents/multipolar capitalists war is about control, not getting along as equals. From the zpc/nwo pov it really is “with us or against us”, even a wee bit of independence, as the saudis expressed recently, will not be tolerated.
All for the Zionist Cabal. Washington is going to commit national suicide for the Zionist Cabal. Amidst the Coronavirus outbreak in the US and the sharp market downturn (with millions unemployed because of the crisis) engaging in another Middle Eastern war with a highly capable foe (Iran and it’s allies) for the State of Israel is the height of insanity. We’ve had our natural (or unnatural) disaster with the pandemic, we’ve had our economic upheaval (with more to come) and if we play this dangerous game in the Middle East we might see a catastrophic loss for our military. Then the whole Empire, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down. All for the Zionists.
Giraldi has a decent article covering this, as well:
Targeting Iran While America Locks Down
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/targeting-iran-while-america-locks-down/#comment-3822087
He also discusses the ramping up aggression against Venezuela and the usa arming israel with air tankers so its aircraft can reach Iran more effectively.
This was written a while back but the strategy remains the same :
http://www.michaelparenti.org/iran_and_everything_else.html
ie there is no intention of pulling another “Iraq” on Iran, the aim will be another Yugoslavia or Libya.
There’s also a sense that a war, any war is wanted, needed. War is great for US morale; even if there’s no way to “win”, the jingoism it will be spun with will be palpably terrifying.
Excellent analysis from Parenti, thanks for posting.
I call it all smoke and mirror.
Just like when Trump threatned Assad and targeted empty depots eventually.
Just like when Trump threatned military intervention against Maduro few months back and did nothing eventually.
Just the same as when the ain al assad base in Irak was targeted. Trump declared beforehand that hell would be unleashed. But nothing happened.
Trump is isolationist.
All he does is bragging to manipulate the MSM and prestitute.
Will never involve the US in a new useless war.
Whereas the one with Iran is a lost case.
No European NATO member will follow Trump.
And Iran is too strong an opponent.
China and Russia with the Covid event took the world leadership.
The US unilateral dominance is past history.
That is just bluffing and BS.
The US is in a very weak strategic positon in the ME.
It is a broke country.
It lost ALL strategic war and gambit in ME for decades.
Gathering in few base is just that. Weakness and fear.
Before packing up for good.