MESOPOTAMIA NEWS BREAKING IRAQ  –  PENTAGON : DONALD TRUMP HITS BACK CONTRA IRAN MULLAHS (PART II)

More via www.mesop.de   29 Dec 2019

Jonathan Spyer h/t Seth J. Frantzman PENTAGON: In response to repeated Kata’ib Hizbollah (KH) attacks on Iraqi bases that host Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) coalition forces, U.S. forces have conducted precision defensive strikes against five KH facilities in Iraq and Syria that will degrade KH’s ability to conduct future attacks against OIR coalition forces.
The five targets include three KH locations in Iraq and two in Syria. These locations included weapon storage facilities and command and control locations that KH uses to plan and execute attacks on OIR coalition forces.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : HOW TO REACT  IN TIME ? IRANIAN BASED DRONE KILLS US CONTRACTOR (IRAQ)·

CasualtiesOfTheDay@Ayei_Eloheichem –  28 Dec 2019  3m

It’s already been about 24 hours, hasn’t it? Too late for swift.

 

Lucas Tomlinson@LucasFoxNews · 6m

“If American blood was shed by an Iran-backed group, Tehran ought to face swift and severe consequences.” -Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., statement about rocket attack that killed American defense contractor and wounded 4 U.S. troops in Iraq Friday.

 

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : HOW TO REACT ? IRANIAN BASED DRONE KILLS US CONTRACTOR (IRAQ)·

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS MID EAST SPECIAL

2h 28 Dec 2019

For months @SecPompeo

has warned of a response; other countries have watched the attacks in the Gulf, Abqaiq, and the downing of the drone; now

@realDonaldTrump

has to decide who is to blame for the attack and if the US will act in response

Trump in a corner after rockets kill US contractor, wound forces

The rocket attack comes amid a political crises in Iraq where the prime minister has resigned and president has threatened to resign

 

jpost.com

 

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAY „BREAKING“ : US SERVICEMAN KILLED IN IRAQ

Seth Frantzman@sfrantzman  –  10h  28 Dec 2019

One U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several U.S. service members and Iraqi personnel were wounded in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk hosting Coalition troops, on Dec. 27 at 7:20 p.m. (Iraq time). Iraqi Security Forces are leading response investigation

BREAKING: One U.S. civilian contractor was killed and several U.S. service members and Iraqi personnel were wounded in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk hosting Coalition troops, on Dec. 27 at 7:20 p.m. (Iraqi time). Iraqi Security Forces are leading the response and investigation. Further information will be released as it becomes available.

 

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS RESEARCH : Polling Insights on Iraq’s Shia Revolt

MESOPOTAMIANEWS RESEARCH : Polling Insights on Iraq’s Shia Revolt

 

Munqith Dagher – Munqith Dagher is the CEO of the Baghdad-based Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).

Karl Kaltenthaler

Karl Kaltenthaler is a Professor of Political Science and Director of Security Studies at the University of Akron. He specializes in international security issues, violent extremism, and the politics of the Middle East and South Asia.

 

Also available in العربيةNovember 8, 2019

Iraq is witnessing protests that are shaking its political system to its core. The nationwide protests, which started on October 1, 2019, have been startling in their scope, their size, and the violent response with which the largely non-violent protestors have been met. But perhaps the most surprising aspect is the makeup of most of these protests, as it is Iraq’s Shia majority that is protesting its Shia-dominated government. These ongoing protests have raised an important question: why have so many of Iraq’s Shia turned on a government that seems to represent them?

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MESOPOTAMIA TOP OF THE AGENDA IRAQ / KURDISTAN

December 27, 2019
President Barham Salih said he would resign (AP) rather than approve an Iran-backed candidate for prime minister who has been rejected by protesters in monthslong anti-government demonstrations.

Iraq’s protest movement, which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi earlier this month, calls for new political leaders (AFP) without ties to the current establishment. Following the nomination by the parliamentary bloc of mostly Iran-backed lawmakers, a rival bloc said it would not put forth (FT) its own candidate. More than 450 people have been killed and around twenty thousand others injured in unrest related to the protests, and government offices and schools are closed across much of the country’s south.

Analysis
“Mr Salih’s departure would be a blow to the US, whose influence in Iraq is already diminishing, as he has strong ties to Washington,” Chloe Cornish writes for the Financial Times.

“In its inscrutability, its lack of clear political affiliation, and its uncompromising demands, the uprising represents a broad denunciation of the post-Saddam political order,” Renad Mansour writes for Foreign Affairs.

In this CFR In Brief, Max Boot lays out what to know about Iraq’s deadly protests.

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS :  Militias abduct Iraqi activists in attempt to stifle protests

READ IN:    العربية Mustafa Saadoun December 25, 2019  – AL MONITOR  – Article Summary Hundreds of Iraqi activists have been abducted by unidentified forces trying to put an end to the ongoing protests. Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Dec. 13 condemned the kidnappings of Iraqi activists and demonstrators in protest squares and stressed the need for weapons to be under the control of the Iraqi state. A day earlier, the US Embassy in Baghdad had issued a statement condemning the kidnappings, and Amnesty International called on the Iraqi government to assume its responsibilities and take immediate and effective steps to stop the intimidation of activists.

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For Iraq’s Christians, this year might be their last / BORIS JOHNSON SENDS A MESSAGE

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS TODAYS EDITORIAL : A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE WHOLE MANKIND !

Sixteen years after the disastrous invasion, and two years after ISIS were defeated, the community faces its end

BY Reine Hanna Reine Hanna is the director of the Assyrian Policy Institute. She has visited conflict areas in the Middle East to conduct fact-finding missions and has authored human rights reports highlighting issues affecting Assyrians. December 25, 2019

The British Government’s Christmas message of solidarity with persecuted Christians is a welcome gesture, but for many communities around the world time is quickly running out.There is no country where this is more acute or tragic than Iraq, home to one of the oldest Christian communities on earth but which has, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, undergone its own Calvary.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INSIDER : ISIS forces now patrolling nearly all of northern Iraq, says intelligence official

SOUTH KURDISTAN (IRAQ)

DECEMBER 24, 2019 BY JOSEPH FITSANAKIS  INTEL ORG. The Islamic State has regrouped, rearmed and refinanced itself, and its forces are now actively patrolling nearly all of northern Iraq, according to a senior intelligence official in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The Islamic State, which is also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), used to control territory in the Levant that equaled the size of Germany. But its forces were pushed back by an international coalition of state armies and militias, a development that prompted several heads of governments, including United States President Donald Trump, to announce that ISIS had been defeated.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS :  Iraq Situation Report: December 10 – 18, 2019

By Brandon Wallace and Katherine Lawlor   

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is assessing the ongoing unrest in Iraq and its effects on political-security dynamics. The Iraq Situation Report (SITREP) series summarizes key events and likely developments to come. This Iraq SITREP map covers the period December 10 – 18, 2019.

20 Dec 2019 – Key Takeaway: Iraq’s political elite has oriented around three initiatives to placate protesters before holding new parliamentary elections: 1) to create a new electoral commission to oversee future elections; 2) to pass an electoral law reforming how seats are won in the parliament, and 3) to choose a prime minister to replace the resigned, but still caretaker, PM Adel Abdul Mehdi until elections occur. Iraq’s parliament, the Council of Representatives (CoR), approved a new electoral commission on December 5. The CoR twice failed to reach consensus on a new election law before the scheduled votes on December 11 and 18. President Barham Salih extended the deadline to select a replacement prime minister but attempted to pass his constitutional responsibility to identify the largest parliamentary bloc to the CoR speaker.

 

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