Global defense news, analysis and opinion

Iran designates US military ‘terrorists’ over Soleimani killing

Iran has designated the U.S. armed forces a terrorist group over the killing of top commander General Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s lawmakers on Tuesday, January 7 unanimously approved the bill to designate the U.S. Army and Department of Defense as terrorist organizations, Tasnim news reported. The bill designates U.S. forces, Pentagon employees, affiliated organizations, and those who ordered Soleimani’s death, AFP reported. Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force – the IRGC’s external operations arm – was killed last week in a U.S. drone strike outside Baghdad International Airport. Killed with him was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the Kataib Hezbollah group and de facto commander of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi militias. In April the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, the first such designation of a state’s armed forces. The U.S. designated the Quds Force a foreign terrorist organization a decade ago. Also on Tuesday, Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said 13 “revenge” scenarios had been drafted in response to the Soleimani’s killing. Soleimani was to be buried in his hometown of Kerman on Tuesday. The general’s killing has sparked a new crisis in the region, with Iran and its surrogate forces vowing revenge on …

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At least 9 killed in Gamboru bridge bomb blast on Nigeria-Cameroon border

An explosion ripped through a crowded market on a bridge at Gamboru on Nigeria's border with Cameroon, killing at least 9 people and injuring 26

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Libya: Haftar’s LNA captures Sirte as UN envoy expresses anger at foreign meddling

LNA forces loyal to rogue Libyan general Khalifa Haftar seized control the coastal city of Sirte as Turkey said it was deploying troops in the country

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‘Draft’ letter saying US forces to leave Iraq was sent by ‘mistake,’ Milley says

Troops from US-led Coalition against ISIS are preparing to leave Iraq in the wake of an airstrike that killed an Iranian general and Iraqi militia commander

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Five Mali soldiers killed by roadside bomb near Alatona

Five Malian soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Alatona in the central Segou region

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NATO ambassadors to meet in Brussels over Iran concerns

NATO ambassadors will meet at their Brussels headquarters as Middle East tensions mount after US forces killed a top Iranian general

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US-led Coalition pauses training of Iraqi forces, ISIS operations over force protection concerns

The US-led Coalition against ISIS paused training of Iraqi forces and operations against the militants due to a barrage of attacks against American bases

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Al Shabaab attacks Kenya military base in Lamu

Fighters from Somalia's Al-Shabaab group launched an attack on a military base used by US and Kenyan forces in coastal Lamu

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Chad troops leave Nigeria with Boko Haram mission ‘finished’

Chad has ended a months-long mission fighting Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria and withdrawn its 1,200-strong force across the border

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US designates major Iraqi PMU Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq a terror group

The US designated Iraqi Shiite PMU militia Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq as a terrorist organization, one day after killing a senior Iranian general in Baghdad

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