Middle East War Briefing
- Thread starter GURPS
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was the most direct in stating what he believes the U.S. should do in response.
“I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression,” he said, later adding: “Hit Iran now. Hit them hard.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Biden’s weakness was “again measured in American lives.”
“We cannot afford to keep responding to this violent aggression with hesitation and half-measures,” he said. “The entire world now watches for signs that the President is finally prepared to exercise American strength to compel Iran to change its behavior. Our enemies are emboldened. And they will remain so until the United States imposes serious, crippling costs – not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.”
“Target Tehran,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), adding that he specifically wanted to see the U.S. target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC’s Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
“Joe Biden emboldened Iran for years by tolerating attacks on our troops, bribing the ayatollahs with billions of dollars, and appeasing them to no end,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). “He left our troops as sitting ducks and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months. The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East.”
“Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief,” Cotton added.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) posted on X that “Iran must be held accountable.”
www.dailywire.com
On and On ... calls for reprisals Biden's actions or lack of actions have put the US in this position
but is a direct confrontation the best course of actions .....
“I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran, not only as reprisal for the killing of our forces, but as deterrence against future aggression,” he said, later adding: “Hit Iran now. Hit them hard.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Biden’s weakness was “again measured in American lives.”
“We cannot afford to keep responding to this violent aggression with hesitation and half-measures,” he said. “The entire world now watches for signs that the President is finally prepared to exercise American strength to compel Iran to change its behavior. Our enemies are emboldened. And they will remain so until the United States imposes serious, crippling costs – not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.”
“Target Tehran,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), adding that he specifically wanted to see the U.S. target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRGC’s Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
“Joe Biden emboldened Iran for years by tolerating attacks on our troops, bribing the ayatollahs with billions of dollars, and appeasing them to no end,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). “He left our troops as sitting ducks and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months. The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East.”
“Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief,” Cotton added.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) posted on X that “Iran must be held accountable.”
U.S. Senators Push For Direct Military Response Against Iran After U.S. Soldiers Killed In Terror Attack
U.S. Senators pushed for direct military action against Iran on Sunday after news broke that at least three U.S. soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack carried out by an Iranian-backed terrorist group. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that “three U.S. service members were killed and...
On and On ... calls for reprisals Biden's actions or lack of actions have put the US in this position
but is a direct confrontation the best course of actions .....
Hijinx
Well-Known Member
Find out where that old Ayatollah is and get rid of him.
Iran is a cancer that has to be removed. It has already metastasized all over the Middle East and will continue until it is removed as a concern.
We are on the cusp of a World war because of the democrats cheating in the last election.
We did not have the fear of a world war when Trump was President.
Trump was accused falsely of a collusion with Russia. It was a false accusation, but even if it were true weren't we better off than we are now?
Iran is a cancer that has to be removed. It has already metastasized all over the Middle East and will continue until it is removed as a concern.
We are on the cusp of a World war because of the democrats cheating in the last election.
We did not have the fear of a world war when Trump was President.
Trump was accused falsely of a collusion with Russia. It was a false accusation, but even if it were true weren't we better off than we are now?
Lindsey Graham had a big weekend. Axios ran the widely-covered story this morning under the headline, “GOP hawks press Biden to target Iran directly over U.S. soldiers' deaths in Jordan.” Everything about the warmongering story is weird, many folks detect a distinct odor of rattus norvegicus, and it is a giant, Godzilla-sized pile of narrative manure, as I will show you right now.
Our Top-Secret, Classified, Black Ops ‘Tower 22’ Military Base that Might or Might Not Exist, You Never Know
The Pentagon suddenly and unexpectedly announced this weekend that a multiple-drone attack at a secretive American outpost somewhere in Jordan generically labeled “Tower 22” had killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded thirty more. The drone attack occurred not in a vacuum, but in the context of widespread and common drone attacks against U.S. military installations all over the Middle East, especially in Iraq, not to mention what can fairly be described as open war in Yemen.
Don’t worry. They — whoever they are — are going to pay for this unchecked aggression. Yesterday, during a campaign event in Columbia, South Carolina, Candidate Biden vowed revenge. “We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,” he admitted yesterday afternoon. “We shall respond.”
The Sunday sneak attack marked the first time any U.S. troops have been reported killed by enemy fire in the Mideast since the Gaza war started. But the region has seen over 150 drone attacks against U.S. troops since the October 7th war began. Before this weekend, the Pentagon has simply chosen for reasons of operational security not to release any casualty figures, raising the question: why now?
Do not be fooled. The media is suggesting that these casualties are a new development, some kind of escalation, hoping you won’t think about it very hard and will buy their narrative. But, if you read carefully, you’ll see that none of the stories actually claims that as a fact.
But that’s not even the beginning. Many more mysteries lurk around the shadowy base and the ambiguous attack. Nobody knows how many U.S. troops are stationed at the mysterious, star-fort-shaped Tower 22, what they might be doing there, what types of weapons are held there, what kind of air defenses the base had, if any, in light of the well-known fact that our bases there are constantly under drone attack, or even what exactly went sideways in the attack and how it went down.
Neither did the Pentagon say what types of drones were used in the attack: Russian ones? Ukrainian ones? Iranian ones? Ones from Wal-mart? The Pentagon also refrained from identifying which service members were killed or injured, how the base responded to the attack, or even where exactly Tower 22 is located, except to say it’s in northeast Jordan, somewhere near the border.
While the Pentagon generically labeled the attack “Iranian-backed,” if you read carefully, the military stopped short of accusing any specific Iranian-backed groups or militias.
The released details of the attack are so sparse and unhelpful that, by the available description, the casualties could even have been caused by a friendly-fire incident or an accident, perhaps caused by troops trying to shoot drones down and, say, blowing up the ammo dump by mistake.
We just don’t know, and the Pentagon isn’t saying.
Even though the media is broadly accusing Iran, Iran denies any involvement in the attack. “Iran has nothing to do with the attacks in question. We believe the region does not need more tension or a new war,” its spokesperson explained to the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Even weirder and more mysterious, corporate media’s reports widely claimed that the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” has claimed responsibility for the attacks, supposedly in order to “force the U.S. out of the region,” but there were even fewer details about that claim than they gave us about Tower 22.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) is an umbrella term for a loose group of Iran-backed militias. It’s not clear there’s any formal structure or leadership at all, as much as the term is just a convenient label. Here’s the thing: None of the corporate media reports about the IRI’s claim of responsibility identify how the group allegedly claimed responsibility.
Which of the groups inside the IRI’s umbrella pulled off the job? Is there a joint spokesman somewhere who announced it? Or did they just make a Tik Tok? Did media see the announcement on Instagram?
In other words, how does media know the IRI “claimed responsibility?” Did the Pentagon tell them? How can the media report that claim as a “fact” without at least citing even one single anonymous official? This sketchy, unattributed claim broke all their style guides. It’s total journalistic malpractice at best, and weak war propaganda at worst. And they’re all doing it, at the same time, which is another sign it is all bull puckey.
See? There are more holes in this Tower 22 attack story than in Biden’s brain. There is zero evidence of Iranian involvement. It’s a guess, at best. But notwithstanding all those unknowns, all those unanswered questions, and all that ambiguity, some of our “top Republicans” are ready to attack. Let’s get ‘em! I’ll give you one guess which Republicans. Oh, never mind. That’s too easy.
Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) demanded "serious, crippling costs" to Iran, "not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor." So there.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was never stopped by any lack of evidence before, issued a statement saying attacks on Iranian proxies outside of Iran "will not deter Iranian aggression," so we need to "strike targets of significance inside Iran." That will teach them. Graham’s tweet was even sharper:
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said, “The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran's terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East.” Cotton practically dared Biden to invade Iran: “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief." Although he later walked it back, a little, Senator John Cornyn concisely called for crushing Iran’s capital city:
Not everyone was as amused as the Republican Senators. Tucker Carlson called Senators Graham and Cornyn crazy, or words to that effect:
To be clear, I’m not saying it wasn’t Iran. But absent some secret intelligence they haven’t disclosed, there’s no evidence that Iran was involved, and Iran said it wasn’t involved. And remember, this is the “no evidence” crowd, remember? You aren’t allowed to believe in something if there’s no evidence.
The bottom line is the media is pushing a binary narrative: either we do nothing and look weak, or … attack Iran! That’s it! Those are the only two options! But that is a logical fallacy, a false dichotomy. There are an infinite number of other options. How about we just close Tower 22 and get the heck out of there? How about that? Except bring our weapons, ammo, vehicles and equipment with us this time.
I don’t know where else to put this bit, but in a weird confluence of headlines, Trending Politics ran this story last week about Senator Graham’s November 2022 testimony that helped indict President Trump:
So. I’m just saying.
☕️ GODZILLA POO ☙ Monday, January 29, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
The media's dumbest narrative yet about the weekend's drone attack; pro- trans bill craters in Maine; another SADS vaccine pol; anti-trans bill success in Utah; video to kick your day off right; more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Israel PM Netanyahu’s urgent warning to Americans: Iran is targeting the US — and the rest of the West
“I’ve told President Biden, I’ve told all the leaders who came here, this is your war as well because this is not merely a minor skirmish. This is part of a major confrontation between the moderate axis of Israel and the moderate Arab states against Iran. Its proxies are killing Americans as we speak.”
I asked the prime minister if he meant the dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq since Oct. 7. “Not just Iraq,” he said.
Hours later, news emerged of the drone strike on American soldiers in Jordan.
The Biden administration has already blamed Iran for the attack that left three US servicemen dead and at least 34 injured.
Report: Biden May Take Action As Early As Tonight Re: Iran - Officials Even List Possible Options
But in typical Biden fashion, not only is the Biden team telegraphing to the Iranians that something may be coming in advance, but now they've even leaked some of the possible options that the Pentagon is considering.
Um, why are you even saying this much about what you might hit? Unless you're trying to mislead the Iranians, you shouldn't be saying anything. You don't say anything until after; you don't give them any chance to adjust based on what you say. And what's with this considering kind of thing? Former Presidents Donald Trump or Ronald Reagan would have acted already.
Terror Groups Evacuate Their Positions After Biden Admin Tips Them Off To Their Plans
The officials went as far as to say that the U.S. would target “Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations,” the report added.
CBS News reported late on Wednesday that the the terror groups that make up Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, have “evacuated their bases in Iraq and Syria, fearing U.S. retaliatory strikes after Sunday’s attack.”
A U.S. official further telegraphed America’s forthcoming punches by telling ABC News that “these are going to be very deliberate targets — deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks.”
Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director & Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Nonproliferation & Biodefense program, criticized the Biden administration for tipping off the enemy about what its plans were.
“Having let these attacks go on for so long—resulting in the deaths of three service members—the administration must now ‘shock the system’ of the regime to deter further attacks,” Stricker told The Daily Wire on Tuesday. “The blow must be so devastating that Tehran orders its proxies to stand down.”
IDF Forces in Disguise Raid Hospital and Kill Hamas Leader, Pro-Hamas Libs Freak Out
Jenin has been a terrorist stronghold for decades. Often labeled a "refugee camp" by the international community, it's an area of mostly solid structures where militants hide among permanent residents, including women and children. Mohammad Walid Jalamna, the Hamas leader who was killed, was allegedly planning another attack in the mold of October 7th, likely to be launched from the West Bank.
The head of the hospital cried foul, claiming the terrorists were killed in "cold blood."
What did Dr. Naji Nazzal think was going to happen when he decided to harbor terrorists without alerting the authorities? War isn't pretty, and members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not get special immunity the moment they step into a hospital. Israel said they were going to hunt down and eliminate those involved in the October 7th attacks, and they meant it.
Of course, even the targeted killing of terrorists with no collateral damage got the pro-Hamas fanatics riled up.
This morning we need to check with the Proxy War, given the highly-anticipated Tucker-Putin interview, as well as yesterday’s happy news about the failed Senate border bill, originally intended to facilitate a massive $60 billion Ukraine aid package, an amount neatly ‘compromised’ down from the $100 billion that Joe Biden insisted just last month was necessary, and not a penny less! Anyway.
In the understated words of one war watcher, Ukraine’s precarious position is “becoming increasingly untenable.” Frankly, it is a disaster. It is a disaster we all knew was coming from the first moment U.S. State Department maven Viktoria Nuland waddled into the fray. It would not even be unreasonable to call the situation ‘apocalyptic,’ since there are (at least) four horsemen of disaster facing Ukraine, all fatal, none resolvable, and every one galloping at full speed towards some kind of grim final conclusion.
The Red Horse—Ukraine is Losing. In what looks like a coalescing global offensive, Russia is attacking all along the contested line, and none of the news anywhere is good news for Ukraine. I don’t monitor the day-to-day village-level news like the warbloggers, but there is a solid consensus that Ukraine is losing everywhere. From a New York Times article published yesterday (linked below):
As the story suggests, Ukraine’s losses are being blamed not on its incompetent leadership or the lack of a comprehensive war plan, but on Ukraine’s lack of resources, namely too few fighters and too few artillery shells.
That’s not wrong. One warblogger estimated Ukraine is only firing one artillery shell to every ten Russian shells. Another estimated there are more dead Ukrainian soldiers in the trenches at this point than live fighters. The point is, Ukraine is not winning, anywhere on the battlefield. Which brings us to the next horse.
The Silver Horse—War Manufacturing. Unlike Ukraine, Russia has successfully transformed its economy into a growing war economy with strong military manufacturing capability. Russia is now building more artillery shells than the rest of the world combined. But, because it lazily relies on foreign aid for military materiel, Ukraine has not built out much of any military manufacturing infrastructure.
Ukraine took the easy way, and in doing so made itself vulnerable to the vicissitudes of unreliable foreign partners, all of whom have different reasons and politics than Ukraine for being involved.
The White Horse—Internal Division. The Times’ non-paywalled article cited above described Zelensky’s latest political trial balloon, which looks like nothing less than a threat of a good-old Soviet-era purge. In other words, Zelensky is facing a large, well-equipped internal enemy, an enemy the media has nominated to be represented by the leader of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhny.
Now, for Zelensky to survive, like the Trotsky-ites of old, the Zaluzhny-ites must go.
But Zelensky isn’t Stalin, and things aren’t shaping up well for the little proto-dictator. Two weeks ago, Zelensky publicly asked Zaluzhny to resign, and Zaluzhny refused. Zelensky then offered the General money and prestige in the form of his pick of plum assignments, such as the country’s Ambassadorship to Great Britain, if he would step down, and again, Zaluzhny refused.
After back-and-forth headlines for two weeks, on Friday compliant corporate media dutifully reported that President Zelensky had “officially informed” the Biden Administration of Zelensky’s “decision” to give Zaluzhny his walking papers, fired, pink slipped, terminated effective immediately without severance, buh bye.
Well, it’s now Wednesday, and General Zaluzhny remains at the helm of Ukraine’s military, tweeting up a storm from his official offices. Apparently he’s now also refused to be fired, which is nothing less than a soft coup. It may be Zelensky hasn’t yet followed through with termination all the way, or some other politics may be in play, or he simply has no viable replacement for Zaluzhny and didn’t think about that before, but no matter how thinly you slice the situation, it looks terrible for the former comedian.
It has become painfully obvious to the meanest intelligence that General Zaluzhny must be well-protected, enjoying support from a large and politically-powerful cohort within Ukraine’s government, and that Zelensky’s power and ability to form a government has waned to an embarrassingly low point and is more or less in a ditch. Which is probably why Zelensky has now retreated to babbling about a broad “reorganization,” which provides a smokescreen and coward’s cover for why General Zaluzhny is still taking up space in his office.
“A reset, a new beginning is necessary,” Mr. Zelensky ironically told Italian media outlet Rai News on Sunday night. “I have something serious in mind, which is not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership.”
The direction of the country’s leadership. Zelensky seemed oblivious to the fact his quote could be directed right back at him. After all, who represents the country’s leadership more than he does? Maybe Ukraine’s reset and its new beginning need to start where the buck stops — at the penis pianist.
It need hardly be said that the middle of a war — especially a war that’s not going well — is the worst possible time to replace your top general and purge your government of all his supporters. Even mentioning the move smacks of desperation and futility and sinking ships.
Paraphrasing Lincoln, who famously paraphrased the Bible, a Ukraine divided against itself cannot stand.
The Yellow Horse—Wavering Foreign Support. The days when it was treason to question the Proxy War have long passed. The United States is also now distracted by its own problems, problems that are right on its own borders, not to mention a newer, younger, more attractive proxy war shaping up in the Middle East. To the neocons, the Middle East is a 22-year-old hot yoga instructor, and Ukraine is a middle-aged divorcee with a psychotic ex-husband, thirteen cats, and three drug-addled grown children who all live at home.
You could even argue the Biden Administration would secretly be happy to dump the Ukraine problem on Republicans, to avoid being tarred with a shameful, inevitable defeat on the battlefield during an election year. In that sense, Team Biden cares not that the S.S. Ukraine is already sinking into the abyss, so long as a late-fired, ‘Republican obstruction’-torpedo catches the blame.
The bottom line is Ukraine is on the ventilator. Russia isn’t waiting around to see whether the Americans will get back to propping the luckless Eastern European country up like a real-life Weekend at Zelensky’s.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/weekend-at-zelenskys-wednesday-february
For his part, Putin was attacked for his participation in the Tucker interview. What I mean is, he was literally attacked. Or at least, Moscow was. Newsweek ran the story early this morning bluntly headlined, “Fire rips through Moscow.”
Fires broke out all across the Russian capital last night following the Tucker interview, at manufacturing plants, refineries, and apartment buildings. (In other words, the attackers deliberately targeted civilians.) It was obviously the coordinated work of Ukrainian special forces, and given the civilian targets, is legally considered terrorism and war crimes, and not legitimate warfare.
Some speculated the attack was designed to provoke Russia into retaliating by hitting back at civilian targets in Ukraine, thereby giving the United Nations evidence of ‘war crimes’ against Russia. I doubt Putin will take the bait. But it’s remarkable that the Ukrainians would sacrifice their own citizens just to grab a propaganda point.
Remind me sometime to tell you about my theory that all our food plant fires and refinery explosions are tit-for-tat sabotage.
☕️ SKEPTICISM ☙ Friday, February 9, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Carlson-Putin interview dents the Proxy War; Special Counsel torpedoes Biden; attacks on Moscow after interview; Zelensky's replacement general butchers morale; Supreme Court favors Trump; and more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Top-Secret Hamas Intelligence Center Discovered Beneath U.N. Aid Group’s Gaza Headquarters, Israeli Military Says
Hamas terrorists hid a top-secret intelligence center underneath the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in Gaza that was uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
The Hamas intelligence center included an electrical room, industrial battery power banks, and a living space for the terrorists, The Times of Israel reported. The IDF’s discovery comes after revelations that at least a dozen of the agency’s workers were connected to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, according to an Israeli intelligence dossier.
The controversial U.N. aid group — which says it is “committed to advancing the human development of Palestine refugees” — denied having any knowledge that Hamas was housing terrorists and a data center right underneath its feet, according to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
“UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza,” Lazzarini said. “UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area. We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.”
The UNRWA commissioner-general added that the agency cannot confirm or comment on the reports that the “Israeli Army has deployed troops within the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City.”
The Times of Israel reported that interrogations of captured terrorists helped Israeli forces pinpoint Hamas’ subterranean intelligence center, which was finally located under the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighborhood.
“The IDF was here previously, the first time was to destroy the enemy, but when we were here the last time we collected a lot of intelligence documents and findings, a lot of prisoners, and thanks to this we reached here. Now we carried out a targeted operation to take this capability away,” said Col. Benny Aharon, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, while giving a media tour of the newly discovered tunnel.
“We had a basis of information, but not enough to be able to dig down 20 meters and find it, we needed a bit more. There’s information we get from prisoners we capture, from computers we find, from documents, maps,” he said.
Biden Failing On World Stage: Cargo Ship Could Sink After Houthi Attack; U.S. Drone Downed; U.S. Cargo Ship Hit
British maritime authorities said that the attack on the Belize-flagged commercial shipping vessel M/V Rubymar happened 35 nautical miles south of Al Mukha, Yemen, in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The front of the vessel and its engine room were hit by anti-ship ballistic missiles, an official at the ship’s company told Bloomberg. The crew was forced to abandon the ship due to the damage.
The Houthis claimed in a statement that the ship had “suffered catastrophic damage” and that it was “now at risk of potential[ly] sinking.”
The ship’s security firm, LSS-SAPU, told the BBC: “We know she was taking in water. There is nobody on board now. The owners and managers are considering options for towage.”
The successful missile strikes represent a new escalation in the region by the Houthis, as this marks the first time that a crew has been forced to abandon ship because of the level of damage sustained from one of the group’s terrorist attacks.
“Between 9:30 and 10:45 p.m., Feb. 18, two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen toward MV Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “One of the missiles struck the vessel, causing damage. The ship issued a distress call, and a coalition warship, along with another merchant vessel, responded to the call to assist the crew of the MV Rubymar. The crew was transported to a nearby port by the merchant vessel.”
The Financial Times reported that two additional cargo ships were also attacked, including the U.S.-owned M/V Sea Champion and the Denmark-owned M/V Navis Fortuna.
British maritime authorities said that the attack on the Belize-flagged commercial shipping vessel M/V Rubymar happened 35 nautical miles south of Al Mukha, Yemen, in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The front of the vessel and its engine room were hit by anti-ship ballistic missiles, an official at the ship’s company told Bloomberg. The crew was forced to abandon the ship due to the damage.
The Houthis claimed in a statement that the ship had “suffered catastrophic damage” and that it was “now at risk of potential[ly] sinking.”
The ship’s security firm, LSS-SAPU, told the BBC: “We know she was taking in water. There is nobody on board now. The owners and managers are considering options for towage.”
The successful missile strikes represent a new escalation in the region by the Houthis, as this marks the first time that a crew has been forced to abandon ship because of the level of damage sustained from one of the group’s terrorist attacks.
“Between 9:30 and 10:45 p.m., Feb. 18, two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen toward MV Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “One of the missiles struck the vessel, causing damage. The ship issued a distress call, and a coalition warship, along with another merchant vessel, responded to the call to assist the crew of the MV Rubymar. The crew was transported to a nearby port by the merchant vessel.”
The Financial Times reported that two additional cargo ships were also attacked, including the U.S.-owned M/V Sea Champion and the Denmark-owned M/V Navis Fortuna.
Houthis Sink British Ship in Red Sea, Shoot Down US Reaper Drone, Attack Two US Ships in Gulf of Aden: Report
*World War 3 Watch*
Iran-backed Houthis sunk a British ship in the Red Sea on Monday and attacked two US ships in the Gulf of Aden.
The US is also investigating a US Reaper drone that crashed in Yemen on Monday.
A spokesman for the Houthis claimed the $30 million unmanned US Reaper drone was shot down “with a suitable missile.”
According to reports: “The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations Agency (UKMTO) reported Monday that the Houthis sunk a ship traveling in the Red Sea , south of the port city of Mukha in Yemen. It is the the first time since the start of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza that a crew had to abandon their ship because of the Houthis.”
“Yemen’s Houthi militants said on Monday they attacked two US ships, Sea Champion and Navis Fortuna, in the Gulf of Aden.” The Jerusalem Post reported.
“The targeting operation was carried out with a number of appropriate naval missiles, and the casualties were accurate and direct, thanks to God,” the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement.
This is what it looks like with a weak, mentally incapacitated and corrupt US president like Joe Biden in power.
Iran’s militants have launched over 200 attacks on US facilities in the Middle East while Joe Biden issues empty threats and bombs empty fields.
Biden gave key Iranian military officials a warning before the US conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria so they were able to safely flee the region just in time.
Iran previously warned Joe Biden it would retaliate if he responded to the deadly drone attack on American service members.
Joe Biden was careful to avoid a direct conflict with the state of Iran after they warned him.
Meanwhile in Lebanon…
Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Southern Lebanon on Monday amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
*World War 3 Watch*
Iran-backed Houthis sunk a British ship in the Red Sea on Monday and attacked two US ships in the Gulf of Aden.
The US is also investigating a US Reaper drone that crashed in Yemen on Monday.
A spokesman for the Houthis claimed the $30 million unmanned US Reaper drone was shot down “with a suitable missile.”
According to reports: “The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations Agency (UKMTO) reported Monday that the Houthis sunk a ship traveling in the Red Sea , south of the port city of Mukha in Yemen. It is the the first time since the start of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza that a crew had to abandon their ship because of the Houthis.”
“Yemen’s Houthi militants said on Monday they attacked two US ships, Sea Champion and Navis Fortuna, in the Gulf of Aden.” The Jerusalem Post reported.
“The targeting operation was carried out with a number of appropriate naval missiles, and the casualties were accurate and direct, thanks to God,” the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement.
This is what it looks like with a weak, mentally incapacitated and corrupt US president like Joe Biden in power.
Iran’s militants have launched over 200 attacks on US facilities in the Middle East while Joe Biden issues empty threats and bombs empty fields.
Biden gave key Iranian military officials a warning before the US conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria so they were able to safely flee the region just in time.
Iran previously warned Joe Biden it would retaliate if he responded to the deadly drone attack on American service members.
Joe Biden was careful to avoid a direct conflict with the state of Iran after they warned him.
Meanwhile in Lebanon…
Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Southern Lebanon on Monday amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Houthi Terrorists, Undeterred By Weak Biden Response, Destroy Underwater Sea Cables: Report
Israel’s Globes publication said that the Houthis destroyed four underwater cables in the Red Sea between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti in East Africa.
The cables belong to AAE-1, Seacom, EIG and TGN, the report said. The countries that have been the most negatively impacted are the Gulf states and India.
The damaged cables, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, will take months to repair, and it will likely be difficult for the four companies to find repair firms that would be willing to work in the area because they could be attacked by the Islamic terrorists.
The Houthis have launched at least 48 attacks against merchant vessels in the region over the last four months, impacting approximately 55 countries around the world that depend on commerce passing through the Red Sea.
The attacks on the underwater cables come as the Houthis remain undeterred by President Joe Biden’s weak response to their terror attacks on shipping vessels, including ships owned by U.S. entities.
Under pressure from the Biden administration, the Israeli government has opened a land crossing into the Gaza Strip—but Israeli nationalist protesters have physically blocked the crossing several times. Meanwhile, goods entering Gaza from Egypt must still go through the arduous Israeli border inspection process.
Sen. Chris van Hollen (D–Md.), who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in January, told The New Yorker that some shipments were being held at the border for 20 days, and that he saw entire shipments turned back because they contained just one banned item, such as a tent with a metal pole.
The U.S. government itself has admitted that the starvation is a political problem, although it blames Hamas rather than Israel.
"It is not a question of aid going in," U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters on Thursday. "There is a distribution problem inside Gaza right now because there are police officers—some of whom are members of Hamas—who have been providing the security for that distribution inside Gaza. And what Israel says is that they have a legitimate right to go after Hamas. We would obviously prefer to see members of a security force inside Gaza who are not Hamas members."
reason.com
Sen. Chris van Hollen (D–Md.), who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in January, told The New Yorker that some shipments were being held at the border for 20 days, and that he saw entire shipments turned back because they contained just one banned item, such as a tent with a metal pole.
The U.S. government itself has admitted that the starvation is a political problem, although it blames Hamas rather than Israel.
"It is not a question of aid going in," U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters on Thursday. "There is a distribution problem inside Gaza right now because there are police officers—some of whom are members of Hamas—who have been providing the security for that distribution inside Gaza. And what Israel says is that they have a legitimate right to go after Hamas. We would obviously prefer to see members of a security force inside Gaza who are not Hamas members."
Airdropping aid to Gaza is an expensive gimmick
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. military will work with Jordan to begin airdropping aid to starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
reason.com
glhs837
Power with Control
The U.S. government itself has admitted that the starvation is a political problem, although it blames Hamas rather than Israel.
"It is not a question of aid going in," U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters on Thursday. "There is a distribution problem inside Gaza right now because there are police officers—some of whom are members of Hamas—who have been providing the security for that distribution inside Gaza. And what Israel says is that they have a legitimate right to go after Hamas. We would obviously prefer to see members of a security force inside Gaza who are not Hamas members."
Airdropping aid to Gaza is an expensive gimmick
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the U.S. military will work with Jordan to begin airdropping aid to starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Code for "Hamas is stealing all of the aid" This is written to promote the idea that Israel is attacking the aid convoys to get the few Hamas police officers, which is the BS part.