IRAN ANNOUNCES WAR GAMES WITH RUSSIA, CHINA AMIDST BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON PUBLIC UPRISING

Iranian ships during a naval drill earlier this year. (Credit: Iranian MoD via Press TV)

A commander in the Iranian Navy has announced a series of naval war games in cooperation with Russia and China, to begin in the Indian Ocean this month. The joint exercises are intended to further expand in the radical regime's military posture in the Middle East, signaling Russia and China's willingness to defend their interests in Iran in the event of a conflict with Israel, the US or the Gulf states. Iran has previously threatened to use its navy in an operation to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which over 30% of the world's oil exports are shipped each day.

The announcement of the Iranian-Russian-Chinese war games came as the Tehran government finds itself embroiled in the worst outbreak of public unrest in the 40 year history of the Islamic Republic, with thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets across the country and a brutal crackdown by regime-aligned militias, resulting in the deaths of at least 180 protesters to date.

Sources:

https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-russia-china-war-games

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-iran-china-joi…/30301201.html

https://www.nytimes.com/…/middlee…/iran-protests-deaths.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-protests-point-to-fu…/

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BREAKING: ISRAELI MISSILES STRIKE MULTIPLE IRANIAN, SYRIAN TARGETS INSIDE SYRIA AFTER GOLAN ATTACK

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Israeli missile fire over Damascus, Syria, 2019 (via BBC).

Israeli jets and surface-to-air batteries struck multiple targets belonging to the Iranian Quds Force near Damascus, Syria on Wednesday morning, as well as Syrian missile batteries that fired in response. The round of strikes came just hours after several missles were fired at Israeli military installations in the Golan Heights. There are no official reports of damage or casualties at the time.


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immeidately discolsed Israel's role in the strikes in a public statement: "I made it clear that whoever harms us - we will harm them. That is what we did tonight in Syria against Iranian Quds Force targets and Syrian military targets, after rockets were fired from its territory towards Israel. We will continue to aggressively guard the security of Israel."


The volley of strikes comes a week after Israel targeted a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad political leader near Damascus in an airstrike last week, which is considered to be the impetus for the rocket attack in the Golan on Tuesday evening. The Iranian Quds Force is a leading patron of the PIJ, providing millions of dollars worth of weapons, training and materiel to the terrorist group in their ongoing war against Isarel from inside the Gaza Strip.

Photo: Israeli missile fire over Damascus, Syria, 2019 (via BBC).

Sources:

https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1196965953076154368/…/1

https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1196973332689833985

https://twitter.com/Syria_Protec…/status/1196935906072170497

https://twitter.com/LTCJonathan/status/1196968651724935168

https://twitter.com/Jtruzmah/status/1196936774297079809

http://live.jpost.com/…/Syrian-air-defenses-intercept-missi…

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HEZBOLLAH FIRES AT ISRAELI DRONE AMIDST LEBANESE UPHEAVAL

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Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters overrun an anti-government protest site in Beirut on Tuesday, October 29th, 2019. (Credit: AP)

Lebanese Hezbollah fired an anti-aircraft missile at an Israeli drone yesterday, but missed their target. Both the Israeli military and Hezbollah confirmed the incident, which came just two days after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation.

Lebanon has been embroiled in political and social turmoil since wide-scale street protests broke out on October 17th. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah initially voiced public support for the protests. However, the populist movement has largely eschewed any established power structure in Lebanon, and when it became clear that Hezbollah could not co-opt the movement, they began to criticize and suppress it instead. Supporters of the Iran-sponsored terrorist organization attacked protesters and ransacked their protest site on Tuesday afternoon. Then Iranian Supreme leader accused Israel and the United States of provoking the protests in both Lebanon and Iraq last month, claiming that they are intended to destabilize the pro-Tehran governments in Baghdad and Beirut. The Iranian regime has taken a direct role in the suppression of grassroots protests in Iraq, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directing Iraqi security forces and Iranian-sponsored militias there. It remains to be seen if the protests inside Lebanon and the subsequent resignation of the Hezbollah-aligned prime minister will result in positive change in that country, or a spiral of violence that mirrors Iraq’s descent into the grip of Iran.

Some analysts have suggested that Hezbollah may attack Israeli forces at the Lebanese or Syrian borders in order to rally the Lebanese public around them, similar to the border provocation near Avivim on September 2nd. In any event, one thing remains clear: Hezbollah has consolidated their hold over southern Lebanon and southeastern Syria, and have been stockpiling rockets and other armaments in preparation for an eventual war with Israel.

Sources:

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-in-Lebanon-Israeli-drone-shot-down-606431

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-accuses-israel-us-of-causing-protests-in-lebanon-iraq/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04P7xWUEerA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1KaZM6n8yc

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ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS ESCALATE IN SOUTHERN IRAQ—AT LEAST FIVE KILLED

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Iraqi Defense Minister declares state of emergency, and calls on Iraqi security forces to be "on high alert."

Thousands protest in Baghdad due to governmental failure to provide basic services.

Demonstrations began on Tuesday October 1, loosely organized on social media and began with a peaceful gathering of some 1,000 people, mainly university students, who marched into Baghdad's central Tahrir Square. However, things took a turn for the worse when police used water cannons, stun grenades, and tear gas to disperse the small crowds. Reports emerged of live ammunition being used by police in the cities of Baghdad and Najaf, rather than deterring protesters, caused larger turnout as numbers swelled to several thousand and the protests spread to other cities in southern Iraq.

Iraq’s government blames “groups of riot inciters” as being responsible for the violence on the streets of Baghdad, while saying that they uphold the right of Iraqis to peacefully protest.

At the time of publication, Iraqi authorities have imposed a curfew in the cities of Nasiriyah, Amara and Hilla in the south of the country, as well as cutting internet access across the entire southern region. While reports of civilian casualties vary, many are reporting between 5 and 10 deaths and over 200 injuries. This is the worst civil violence seen in years in Iraq’s capital.

It is possible this round of protests had their origins in an incident where Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, a popular army commander and head of the Counter Terrorism Service, was dismissed last Friday September 27, 2019. He is regarded by many Iraqis to be a military giant after defeating the Islamic State in the nine-month siege of Mosul that ended in 2017. The general public’s displeasure at this decision and subsequent protests put Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi under considerable pressure and conceivably led to him making the rash decision to use undue force with protesters of the last few days. Perhaps the Prime Minister was also thinking of his predecessor Haider al-Abadi, whose inability to cope with the protests in Basra last year lost him his office.

In addition to the dismissal of this popular general by the nationalist Prime Minister, the same grievances from protests past—rampant corruption in the government, unemployment, inability to provide basic services, and Iranian interventionism, to name a few—have become the rallying point for the protesters. According to the World Bank, the country has a high youth unemployment of around 25%. Iraq ranks as the 12th most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International. The state of Iran also has had considerable influence in Iraq since sending in the IRGC and Shia Militias to fight the Islamic State, but now is intent on keeping a Shia-led government in power in Iraq, and is sending in reinforcements to aid police and security forces in controlling the protests.

Tweet below shows protesters burning the provincial building in the province of Maysan.

Photo: Protesters in Baghdad are repelled by water cannons, stun grenades, and tear gas. (Xinhua and K. Dawood, Picture Alliance).

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49909774

https://www.dw.com/en/iraq-anti-government-protests-leave-two-dead-hundreds-wounded/a-50668567

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/f59a5b69-94e4-42e9-aa72-c7fe3d3d71a0

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/baghdad-protests-today-iraq-tahrir-shooting-death-toll-corruption-unemployment-a9128506.html