War Iran-United States Military Crisis of 2020 - US Baghdad embassy under siege, rocket fire in US Baghdad green zone, Ukrainian Airlines flight 752 crash, and more!

January 10th:
Exclusive: Informants in Iraq, Syria helped U.S. kill Iran's Soleimani - sources (archive)(post)
Iraqi Shia cleric whose militia killed American troops says crisis is over following Iran strike and Trump speech (archive)(post)
Iraqi PM tells US to decide mechanism for troop withdrawal (archive)(post)
Mike Pence says Congress might 'compromise sources and methods' if fully briefed on the Soleimani strike (archive)(post)
Unidentified planes hit Iraqi militiamen in Syria, killing 8 (archive)(post)
Iraq: The Master Of Mayhem Meets A Missile (archive)(post)
Eliminating Qasem Soleimani was Donald Trump’s Middle East farewell letter (archive)(post)
Iran uses BULLDOZERS to clear debris from plane crash site while accusing US of ‘big lie’ that they shot it down (archive)(post)
Swiss Back Channel Helped Defuse U.S.-Iran Crisis (post)

January 11th:
UKRAINIAN AIRCRAFT WAS BROUGHT DOWN IN IRAN DUE TO 'HUMAN ERROR' (archive)(post)
Iran minister says 'human error' caused by 'US adventurism' led to deadly crash of Ukrainian jetliner (archive)(post)
Ukrainian aircraft was brought down in Iran due to 'human error' (archive)(post)
Trump, at Ohio rally, says Democrats would have leaked Soleimani attack plans (archive)(post)
The Atlantic's David Frum blames Trump for downing of plane in Iran, deaths of 176 (archive)(post)
Associated Press changes ‘shockingly bad’ headline about Soleimani, Ukrainian plane crash after backlash (archive)(post)
GOP Rep. Doug Collins apologizes for saying Democrats are 'in love with terrorists' (archive)(post)
Iran demands West 'show findings' as new video reveals aircraft was struck before fiery crash (archive)(post)
Warren town hall interrupted by angry protester accusing her of ‘siding with terrorists’ (archive)(post)
Trump administration announces new sanctions on Iran (archive)(post)
Prepare For the Worst From Iran Cyber Attacks, As DHS Issues Warning: Experts (archive)(post)
Trump tells Fox News' Laura Ingraham 'four embassies' were targeted in imminent threat from Iran (archive)(post)
Trump tweets support for Iranian protesters as they demand Khamenei quit (archive)(post)
Trump warns Iran against ‘another massacre’ as protests flare over downed jet (archive)(post)

January 12th:
Trump tweet in Farsi 'the most liked Persian tweet' in history of Twitter (archive)(post)
Iraq warned to keep US troops or risk financial blow-WSJ (archive)(post)
Iran arrests UK ambassador in what Britain calls ‘flagrant violation of international law’ (archive)(post)

January 13th:
Trump authorized Soleimani's killing 7 months ago, with conditions (archive)(post)

edit: This is a WIP. All links are posted in the order they appear in the thread, not in chronological order of their publication.


---Original OP before the merge---
Iraqi supporters of Iran-backed militia attack US Embassy
https://apnews.com/75228a8a607a44863b57021ac33264dc (http://archive.vn/ljm9Y)

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA12 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday after smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main building inside embassy. It was not clear what caused the fire at the reception area near the parking lot of the compound. A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying: “The message was delivered.”

The embassy attack followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military said it was in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it had blamed on the militia.

Dozens of protesters marched inside the compound after smashing the gate used by cars to enter the embassy. The protesters, many in militia uniform, stopped in a corridor after about 5 meters (16 feet), and were only about 200 meters away from the main building. Half a dozen U.S. soldiers were seen on the roof of the main building, their guns were pointed at the protesters.

Smoke from the tear gas rose in the area, and at least three of the protesters appeared to have difficulties breathing. It wasn’t immediately known whether the embassy staff had remained inside the main building.

The protesters hanged a poster on the wall: “America is an aggressor.”

Shouting “Down, Down USA,” the crowd tried to push inside the embassy grounds, hurling water and stones over its walls. They raised yellow militia flags and taunted the embassy’s security staff who remained behind the glass windows in the gates’ reception area. They sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows in red in support of the Kataeb Hezbollah militia: “Closed in the name of the resistance.”

Hundreds of angry protesters, some in militia uniforms, set up tents outside the embassy. As tempers rose, the mob set fire to three trailers used by security guards along the embassy wall.

No one was immediately reported hurt in the rampage and security staff had withdrawn to inside the embassy earlier, soon after protesters gathered outside.

The U.S. attack — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the subsequent calls by the militia for retaliation, represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East.

Tuesday’s attempted embassy storming took place after mourners and supporters held funerals for the militia fighters killed in a Baghdad neighborhood, after which they marched on to the heavily fortified Green Zone and kept walking till they reached the sprawling U.S. Embassy there.

AP journalists then saw the crowd as they tried to scale the walls of the embassy, in what appeared to be an attempt to storm it, shouting “Down, down USA!” and “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday’s strikes send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.

The Iranian-backed Iraqi militia had vowed Monday to retaliate for the U.S. military strikes. The attack and vows for revenge raised concerns of new attacks that could threaten American interests in the region.

The U.S. attack also outraged both the militias and the Iraqi government, which said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.-led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country. It called the attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.

In a partly televised meeting Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi told Cabinet members that he had tried to stop the U.S. operation “but there was insistence” from American officials.

The U.S. military said “precision defensive strikes” were conducted against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq and Syria. The group, which is a separate force from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, operates under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.
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MrTickles said:
Never happened. North korea's nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile programs (directed at US) continue to grow. North Korea's existential threat towards the Us continues to grow.
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NoKo isn't, and in all likelihood never be an "existential threat towards the US." All ICBMs in existence are currently defeated with 1950's tech. The big game changer was Russia's new hypersonic missile tech (which there already may be an counter to.) This is not to say that the US has not improved intercept capabilities since the 1950's. Year over year more R&D has been dumped into missile shields than any other field of defense. We have a radar sitting in Alaska that can see into Chinese waters (80's tech), exo-atmospheric kill vehicles (90's tech), intercept missiles that learn from other members in their cohort midflight during an intercept (10's tech), and this only scratches the surface of the absurdity of the gap in capabilities (It is unknown if NoKo has a working guidance system yet).
 
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Huitzilopochtli said:
NoKo isn't, and in all likelihood never be an "existential threat towards the US." All ICBMs in existence are currently defeated with 1950's tech. The big game changer was Russia's new hypersonic missile tech (which there already may be an counter to.) This is not to say that the US has not improved intercept capabilities since the 1950's. Year over year more R&D has been dumped into missile shields than any other field of defense. We have a radar sitting in Alaska that can see into Chinese waters (80's tech), exo-atmospheric kill vehicles (90's tech), intercept missiles that learn from other members in their cohort midflight during an intercept (10's tech), and this only scratches the surface of the absurdity of the gap in capabilities (It is unknown is NoKo has a working guidance system yet).
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But, ah, you see, North Korea will annihilate the United States through the sheer power of anti-Americanism/anti-Western sentiment, allowing China to create a New, Anti-Zionist, Sinocentric World Order (anti-American sentiment being one of the two real bases of the argument that we shouldn't have retaliated against Iran's attempt at a Second Hostage Crisis, the other being "we going to war now REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE").
 
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ballslols said:
honestly tho, americans should just stay out of international affairs till we can improve ourselves. parts of this country are literal third world tiers yet we have the gall to send missile strikes and airborne troops across the world, the fucking irony is real
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Nah, that sounds pretty dumb. The rest of the world sure as shit isn't, and us handicapping ourselves to take care of this problem of "improving ourselves" which is never going to actually happen because countries are made of people and people have this weird way of not agreeing on shit and fucking things up, would just fuck us over.
 
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Coldgrip said:
Nah, that sounds pretty dumb. The rest of the world sure as shit isn't, and us handicapping ourselves to take care of this problem of "improving ourselves" which is never going to actually happen because countries are made of people and people have this weird way of not agreeing on shit and fucking things up, would just fuck us over.
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This is a perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy. And people overdosing on Opioids and dying of dispair is not merely 'not agreeing on shit'.
 
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The Federal Depository Library Program website just got defaced by pro-Iranian hackers.
https://www.fdlp.gov/
https://web.archive.org/web/20200105012250/https://www.fdlp.gov/
web.archive.jpg
 
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Huitzilopochtli said:
NoKo isn't, and in all likelihood never be an "existential threat towards the US." All ICBMs in existence are currently defeated with 1950's tech. The big game changer was Russia's new hypersonic missile tech (which there already may be an counter to.) This is not to say that the US has not improved intercept capabilities since the 1950's. Year over year more R&D has been dumped into missile shields than any other field of defense. We have a radar sitting in Alaska that can see into Chinese waters (80's tech), exo-atmospheric kill vehicles (90's tech), intercept missiles that learn from other members in their cohort midflight during an intercept (10's tech), and this only scratches the surface of the absurdity of the gap in capabilities (It is unknown if NoKo has a working guidance system yet).
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Probably the one biggest deterrent that the Norks have, and which the Iranians lack, is also the dumbest; plain artillery.

They have enough of it within range of Seoul to turn it into a Stalingradesque hellscape, and can probably do it before counterbattery fire lands. They have entire mountain ranges in depth behind the DMZ, that are essentially lines of buried battleships. Most people don't realize how close most of S. Korea's important infrastructure & population centers are to plain Nork artillery.

Their only purpose is to keep those batteries hidden and protected long enough to accomplish what a flashier missile would fail at.
 
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Pocket Dragoon said:
Probably the one biggest deterrent that the Norks have, and which the Iranians lack, is also the dumbest; plain artillery.

They have enough of it within range of Seoul to turn it into a Stalingradesque hellscape, and can probably do it before counterbattery fire lands. They have entire mountain ranges in depth behind the DMZ, that are essentially lines of buried battleships. Most people don't realize how close most of S. Korea's important infrastructure & population centers are to plain Nork artillery.

Their only purpose is to keep those batteries hidden and protected long enough to accomplish what a flashier missile would fail at.
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That is actually the probably biggest threat Noko poses in the region (standard artillery), since SoKo fields quite a few missile defense platforms. If they had drone capabilities, or were able to purchase a large quantity of them (think Mavics with T4 and ball bearings) that would probably be a big deal as well.
 
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