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Tag: Iran

  • Oil prices soar as Iran hits US Iraqi bases with missiles

    Oil prices soar as Iran hits US Iraqi bases with missiles

    Oil rose sharply, with U.S. crude rising nearly $3, on Wednesday after the U.S. said its forces in Iraq were attacked by Iranian ballistic missiles, raising the prospect of a regional conflagration that could cut oil supplies.

    West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose nearly $3, or almost 5%, to $65.50 a barrel at around 0029 GMT. Brent crude was yet to trade after dropping nearly 1% on Tuesday.

    Iran has launched an attack on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, adding Tehran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian territory against at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S.-led coalition personnel.

    “We are working on initial battle damage assessments,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in statement, adding that the bases targeted were at Al-Asad air base and another in Erbil, Iraq.

    Iranian news agency Mehr said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had targeted the base.

    Tehran has vowed retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. air strike on Jan. 3.

    Sirens were heard and American helicopters were seen flying over Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province early on Wednesday, according to al Mayadeen TV.

  • Iran launches second round of missiles attack against US

    Iran launches second round of missiles attack against US

    Iran launched on Wednesday a “second round” of attacks against bases holding U.S. troops in Iraq, the Tehran-based Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.

    The second round of attacks started an hour after the first phase took place, the agency reported.

    In a statement, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps(IRGC) said the second missile attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Earlier reports had said Erbil was targeted by the first wave of missiles sent to Iraq.

    The Arabic-language Al-Mayadeen TV network reported early on Wednesday that a US military base close to Erbil’s airport came under attack.

    Fars News agency said all flights have been cancelled at Erbil airport.

    Few hours earlier, the IRGC launched what it called heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Asad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria in retaliation for the assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

    Ein Al-Asad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq.

    The IRGC issued a statement saying it has fired tens of ground-to-ground missiles at “the airbase occupied by the terrorist and aggressive army of the United States known as Ein Al-Assad” in reprisal for the martyrdom of IRGC Qods Force Commaner Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

    The IRGC warned the US to avoid retaliating the Wednesday attack or else “it will face a more painful and crushing response”.

    The IRGC Statement also warned “all the US allied states where the terrorist army has a base, any territory that becomes the origin of any hostile and aggressive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran in any way will be targeted”.

    “We believe that the Zionist regime by no means stands aside from the criminal US regime in these crimes.”

  • Plane with 180 passengers aboard crashes in Iran

    Plane with 180 passengers aboard crashes in Iran

    An Ukrainian Boeing 737 with 180 passengers on aboard has crashed in Iran.

    Reports said the plane crashed Wednesday due to technical problems after take-off from Iran’s Imam Khomeini airport, Iranian news agency Far reported.

    The plane is operated by Ukrainian Airlines. There was no immediate word on casualties.

    An investigation team was at the site of the crash in southwestern outskirts of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said.

    The crash came hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting two bases in Iraq housing US forces in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

    More details later…

  • Fatal burial: 50 dead in burial of Soleimani

    Fatal burial: 50 dead in burial of Soleimani

    A stampede at the funeral for slain Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman claimed more than 50 lives on Tuesday, media said.

    “The number of those killed in this accident has topped 50.

    “Most of them are men,” the chief of the regional forensics office was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

    The number of those injured has not been revised but earlier reports on Tuesday indicated a steady rise in the death toll.

    The head of Iran’s medical emergency services said earlier in the day that 40 people died and 213 were hurt in the stampede that happened as thousands packed the streets ahead of the Quds force commander’s burial.

  • Soleimani:U.S. denies Iranian foreign minister visa

    The U.S. has denied Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif a visa to enter the country for a trip to the UN Headquarters in New York City, according to Zarif.

    “The U.S. State Department has allegedly told the UN that it doesn’t have time to issue Zarif a visa,’’ the top Iranian diplomat told news agency Isna on Tuesday.

    Refusing to give the foreign minister of a UN member state a visa is a sign of the “political bankruptcy” of the current U.S. government, he said.

    Zarif had been invited to a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday in New York by his Vietnamese counterpart.

    It is not the first time the U.S. restricted Zarif’s movement.

    In September, Washington refused to allow him to visit a colleague in hospital in New York, while Zarif was already in the city for the UN General Assembly.

    Similarly, China has called on the U.S. to honour its international obligation as the UN host country and issue visas to delegates from all countries to participate in UN meetings, an official said.

    The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said this on Tuesday in Beijing.

    Earlier in the day, Zarif said that the U.S. had declined to issue him a visa to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Jan. 9 amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Tehran.

    “Providing visa services to representatives of all countries so that they can take part in UN sessions is an international obligation of the U.S. as a host country,’’ Shuang said.

    On Friday, the U.S. liquidated the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani, in Iraq, prompting an outraged reaction from Iran’s leadership.

    The outraged reactions also include Zarif, notorious for his criticism of the current U.S. administration.

    Nevertheless, Zarif was allowed to come to the U.S. for UN-related visits in the past, although his presence was closely monitored by the country’s authorities.

  • Iran postpones Soleimani’s funeral, gives reasons

    Iran postpones Soleimani’s funeral, gives reasons

    The burial of a top Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday was postponed on Tuesday due to a stampede in his hometown, the semi-official ISNA news agency reports.

    The report did not say how long the delay to burying Gen. Qassem Soleimani would last.

    A report earlier said 35 people were killed in the stampede in his hometown of Kerman.

    Dozens of people were killed in a stampede as huge crowds of mourners gathered for the funeral of a slain military commander in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman on Tuesday, forcing his burial to be postponed.

    Tens of thousands of people had poured onto the streets of Kerman to pay tribute to Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Friday.

    The Young Journalists Club, which is affiliated to state television, said on its website that a stampede had broken out and 35 people were killed and 48 wounded.

    ISNA news agency said the burial had been postponed as result.

    Soleimani’s body had been taken to Iraqi and other Iranian cities before arriving in his hometown Kerman for burial, prompting mass outpourings of grief nationwide as the coffin was carried through streets.

    In other developments on Tuesday, a senior Iranian official said that Tehran was considering 13 scenarios to avenge his killing.

    In Washington, the U.S. defence secretary denied reports the U.S. military was preparing to withdraw from Iraq, where Tehran has vied with Washington for influence over nearly two decades of war and unrest.

    Soleimani was responsible for building up Tehran’s network of proxy armies across the Middle East and he was a key figure in orchestrating Iran’s long-standing campaign to drive U.S. forces out of its neighbour Iraq.

    U.S. and Iranian warnings of new strikes and retaliation have also stoked concerns about a broader Middle East conflict and led to calls in the U.S. Congress for legislation to stop U.S. President Donald Trump going to war with Iran.

    “We will take revenge, hard and definitive revenge,” the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, told the crowds of mourners in Kerman prior to the stampede.

    Trump has promised strikes on 52 Iranian targets, including cultural sites, if Iran retaliates, although U.S. officials sought to downplay his reference to cultural targets.

    However, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said there had been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq.

    “I don’t know what that letter is,” he said.

    U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the letter was a “poorly worded” draft document meant only to underscore increased movement by U.S. forces.

    About 5,000 U.S. troops are still in Iraq, where there has been a U.S. military presence since Saddam Hussein was toppled in a 2003 invasion.

    On Sunday, Iraq’s parliament passed a resolution calling for all foreign troops to leave the country.

    Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Abdel Abdul Mahdi told the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad on Monday that both sides needed to work together to implement the resolution.

    Friction between Iran and the U.S. has risen since Washington withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear deal between Tehran and other world powers.

    The U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on Iran and Tehran said on Sunday it was dropping all limitations on uranium enrichment, its latest step back from commitments under the deal.

    The U.S. administration denied a visa to allow Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday, a U.S. official said.

    U.S. general Milley said the threat from Soleimani was imminent.

    “We would have been culpably negligent to the American people had we not made the decision we made,” he said.

    Trump administration officials will provide a classified briefing for U.S. senators on Wednesday on events in Iraq after some lawmakers accused the White House of risking a broad conflict without a strategy.

  • Soleimani: US warns citizens against travelling to Nigeria

    Soleimani: US warns citizens against travelling to Nigeria

    The United States has cautioned its citizens to reconsider travelling to Nigeria.

    It spoke in response to Friday’s killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone airstrike.

    In a statement published on its website, the US Embassy in Nigeria admonished American citizens to maintain low profile and take personal security measures across the country.

    Stating that it had no specific security threat information, the embassy advised US nationals in Nigeria to stay alert in public places, including schools, hospitals, government facilities, places of worship, tourist locations, and transportation hubs.

    It reads: “Due to recent world events, U.S. citizens should review their personal security measures. While we have no specific threat information, it is prudent to remind ourselves of the following personal security actions to follow on a regular basis.

    “Actions to take: Be aware of your surroundings; keep a low profile; avoid crowds and demonstrations; exercise caution when walking or driving at night; carry proper identification; review your personal security plans and monitor local media for updates.”

  • Iran places $80m ‘bounty’ on Trump’s head, eyes White House as target

    Iran is mobilising its citizens to donate a dollar each to raise $80million to be used as bounty for Donald Trump’s head.

    An NBC News reporter, quoted an unidentified organizer for the funeral procession for Gen Qassem Soleimani, as calling on all Iranians to donate $1 each ‘in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump’s head’.

    He spoke during a funeral procession for General Qassem Soliemani in Mashad.

    ‘We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,’ the organiser said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

    Earlier on Sunday, Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi threatened to launch an attack on American soil in response to the president’s warning that any strike on American interests in the region will bring massive retaliation.

    ‘When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head,’ he added.

    Abutorabi’s threat was made during an open session of parliament in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, and just days after Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Tehran’s overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, was killed on Friday in a US drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport.

    Following massive funeral marches in Iraq, Soleimani’s body was flown to the city of Ahvaz in southwest Iran on Sunday.

    Video from the scene shows a casket wrapped in an Iranian flag being unloaded from a plane as a military band plays and the crowd angrily chanted ‘Death to America’.–

  • Soleimani: We’ll target 6,236 US sites, Iran fires back at Trump

    Soleimani: We’ll target 6,236 US sites, Iran fires back at Trump

    The sabre-rattling is on between Tehran and Washington as a senior Iranian lawmaker responded to President Donald Trump’s threat to attack 52 Iranian targets.

    Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mojtaba Zonnouri said Iran will attack as many US targets as the number of the verses of the Holy Quran if it comes under assault by the US, Fars News reported.

    “If they want to hit 52 sites of ours, we will hit a number of US targets that will be as many as the number of the verses (6,236) of the Holy Quran, and we will target 124,000 of them that stands equal to the number of 124,000 prophets,” Zonnouri said on Sunday.

    He said that from the closest US base in Bahrain to its farthest base in the Indian Ocean are within the range of Iranian missiles.

    “If they attack our cultural centres, we will hit their bases and warships,” Zonnouri said.

    His remarks came after US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Iran that if it retaliates for the assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, it will face US attacks on 52 targets, a number he said was symbolic.

    “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have………targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” he said. “The USA wants no more threats!”

    In response, Iranian Army Commander Major General Seyed Abdolrahim Mousavi said that Trump does not have the courage to attack Iran.

    “The US will not dare to take any actions against our country,” the Iranian Army commander said.

  • US, Iran war: Buhari urged to place Islamic Movement in Nigeria on watch list

    US, Iran war: Buhari urged to place Islamic Movement in Nigeria on watch list

    The Global Action for Peace has raised alarm on the threat posed by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) to citizens of the United States of America and the United Kingdom in Nigeria and the need for greater action.

    GAP said the alarm became imperative following the ongoing war between America and Iran.

    According to the group, all hands must be on deck to tackle whatever violent uprising that the IMN is planning in Nigeria against US and UK and other foreign citizens in the country.

    President of the group, Agbo Joseph who made this call at a press conference on Sunday, opined that IMN be put on the terror watch list of the United States and the United Kingdom, and measures put in place to protect US and UK citizens in Nigeria.

    His statement added that
    “The Global Action for Peace views with concern the posturing of members of the IMN that was evident in the public demonstration in some parts of northern Nigeria declaring a “jihad” on the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

    “These threats are very typical of the terrorist activities of the IMN as an organization whose ideology is deeply rooted in violence and religious intolerance.

    “This action by the IMN should give all well-meaning Nigerians a cause for concern given the fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria hasn’t made any official statement given the position of the United Nations over the military face-off between the United States of America and Iran.

    “However, you may recall that it was because of its extremist and terrorist tendencies and the attendant dangers it posed to national security that the Kaduna state government and later the Federal Government of Nigeria proscribed the activities of the IMN in Nigeria.

    “The Global Action for Peace wishes to state that the threat issued by the IMN to citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom in Nigeria is an affront to our collective sensibilities as Nigerians, which must be looked into by the security agencies.

    “The action of the IMN is an indication of the zero regards they have for constituted authorities in Nigeria, hence their disregard for the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “The Global Action for Peace wishes to alert the relevant authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom that given the antecedents of the IMN that is rooted in deep hatred for those that do not share in their ideology, there is a high tendency that they would go a step further from the protest to inflict bodily harm on citizens of the United States of America and the United Kingdom in Nigeria through violent means.

    :This is also on the heels that it is an incontrovertible fact that the IMN has Iran as their spiritual base as well as the support base for the entrenchment of their nefarious activities all over the world. This is cognizant of the fact that there are indications that Iran may turn to targets in Africa to exert revenge using proxies such as the IMN.

    “The Global Action for Peace consequently wishes to draw the attention of Nigerians, as well as the security agencies of the apparent threat to life and properties by the adherents of the IMN in Nigeria. This is because of the ongoing mobilization by the leadership of the IMN to carry out massive protests across the country with specific directives from the Iranian authorities to target US and UK citizens.

    “The Global Action for Peace wishes to state that it is on record that the Nigerian authorities have, on numerous occasions, indicated how the IMN as agents of the Iranian government had engaged in terrorist activities in Nigeria that have brought untold hardship and bodily harm on innocent and unarmed Nigerians.

    “Also, the IMN has, on numerous occasions, confronted security operatives in Nigeria, including one that led to the death of a senior police officer and many others.

    “We must, therefore, be concerned that the current situation across the globe demands action that the IMN be put on the terror watch list of the United States and the United Kingdom, and measures put in place to protect US and UK citizens in Nigeria.

    “The Global Action for Peace wishes to reiterate that should the IMN not placed on the terror watch list, their propensity to carry out the whims and caprices of the Iranian authorities on US and UK citizens in Nigeria would be institutionalized.

    “The posturing of the IMN is indeed a red alert, and as such, there is every need for all hands to be on deck to tackle whatever violent uprising that the IMN is planning in Nigeria.

    “The Global Action for Peace wishes to advise the United States and the United Kingdom to see this as a clarion call and activate measures that would support the efforts of the security agencies in Nigeria in curtailing the threats posed by the IMN. This is highly necessary given the fact that the IMN is now a global threat.”