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.

.

 

[mindlessobserver]

So the vaunted Iranian retaliation involved firing some broke ass scuds at a patch of sand causing no damage or injuries. People need to stop thinking the world is going to end. Its not. Iran has been playing with a losing hand for decades and they've finally run into a President crazy enough to call their bluff. If this ever got to a shooting war it would be an exceedingly short one. The US doesnt even need to invade to render Iran a non-threat.

 

[Ledian]

it sounds like you're saying "we could have won Vietnam, we just didn't feel like it"

We were kicking the shit out of the communists but it was the publics reaction to the war back home that stopped up the war, not the Vietcong. Public support was in the tanks while we had the Vietcong on the back foot.
Not that I agree with the war at all, Ho Chi Minh should have been supported in the first place and the war would've been avoided entirely.

 

[Freddy Freaker]

Difference between starting a war and having one served to you.
Did you expect him to hand them more money like before and fight the Syrians instead?

>Drumpft should be taking lessons from Obama and Chamberlain!

Now that is a hot take.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

He's doing his absolute best to start one. He threatened, on Twitter, to bomb culturally important sites in Iran. He prohibited Iran's top diplomat from entering the US. He is absolutely not interested in deescalation.

Don't be disingenuous.

The only one being disingenuous here is you. Pretending that Iran didn't start this with their use of their puppet militias to attack a US embassy. Acting like Iran is somehow interested in deescalation. Crying about "culturally important sites" (which doesn't mean what you thought it meant in that context).

 

[Pepito The Cat]

Yeah lol. I'm expecting Iranians to bomb Israel in the coming hours

lol whit what? If they dare to spit in Israel's general direction, they're fucking done.

 

[It's HK-47]

Alright, fair's fair. I made fun of Greasy Otis yesterday but she's doing a fucking astounding job of debunking all of the pictures that Iran is trying to use to fluff up the intensity of these attacks. Nearly every single picture that they've released has been fake news, and pictures that are sometimes years old and have nothing whatsoever to do with this attack.

This is why you never buy into hysterics and believe the initial reporting. Just calm down and wait to see where all the cards hit the table, there's no reason to shit your pants on the first second of the first minute of the first report.

 

[BONE_Buddy]

Dan Lamothe on Twitter

“On Iran's attack: 1) We still don't have battle-damage assessments. 2) We still don't have firm casualty assessments. 3) We still don't know how the U.S. will respond. 4) We still don't know how Iraq will respond. 5) We still don't know for sure if Iran has more planned.”

twitter.com

 

[piter_de_vries]

He's doing his absolute best to start one. He threatened, on Twitter, to bomb culturally important sites in Iran. He prohibited Iran's top diplomat from entering the US. He is absolutely not interested in deescalation.

Don't be disingenuous.

Yes, clearly the man that refused to retaliate against Iran when they shot down an American drone in international air space because it might kill Iranians is the one trying to engineer a war.

There are legitimate criticisms of Trump's foreign policy, this isn't one of them.

 

[ulsterscotsman]

All he had to do was get out of the middle east and build a damn wall.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Observation...should something actually happen with Iran, we won't be winging it. Rest assured there are a wide variety of operational plans, coordinated and approved, providing a flexible response to an Iranian attack. It is quite possible that some of these operational plans involve other countries, to varying extents, and such plans have been fully coordinated with and approved by these other countries. Actually, we have a shitload of operational plans to deal with contingencies, world-wide. That's why there are so many people at various headquarters within the US military. LOTS of people preparing, coordinating, or updating operational plans on a daily basis.

Short of “tank war in Europe against the Soviets” I don’t think any other international military scenarios have been given quite as much pre planning and long term thought than “curbstomping Iran”. Heck the Navy has a couple of classes of ships designed built and put in service specifically with Iran in mind. (Granted the Littoral ships are not the best things the Navy has ever cooked up...)

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Yes, only in the Middle East. Thankfully outside of the Middle East the anglosphere are in fact the good guys and everyone else is the bad guys and the US is clearly not doing this out of self-interest, what could they possibly gain after all?

That is a complete misrepresentation of my point, but ok.

 

[who dare wins?]

TL;DR:
>Iran bombs Tel Aviv
>Tehran glows in the dark
>GAME OVER, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

Yeah Iran is fucked if they do attack the scree lands fond Israel. But like I have said Iranian fighter jets have been deployed. Possible areal bombardments in Iraq or other areas seems likely. It looks like the beginning of a invasion

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

Alex Ward on Twitter

“A CENTCOM spokesperson confirmed to me that Iran fired 15 missiles: 10 struck Al Asad airbase west of Baghdad, Iraq; one struck Erbil in northern Iraq; and four failed.”

twitter.com

"Supreme Leader, our glorious spears of Jihad have completed their missions."

"So we have scored 15 hits on the enemy?"

"Yes Ayatollah."

"So 15 targets are destroyed."

"er-Allah-w-works in mysterious ways yes?"

 

[Mr. Manchester]

Everyone keeps going on about a land war that isnt going to happen. No one wants to spend the money on that, least of all Trump. Worst thats going to happen is we'll blow up half their navy and some of their nicer looking buildings like Reagan did in the 80s. And i doubt that'll even happen.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

"Supreme Leader, our glorious spears of Jihad have completed their missions."

"So we have scored 15 hits on the enemy?"

"Yes Ayatollah."

"So 15 targets are destroyed."

"er-Allah-w-works in mysterious ways yes?"

It was a decisive moral victory.

 

[thismanlies]

Hate to break it to the Mullahs, but they're not exactly dealing with a bitch made nigger anymore.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

People voted for Trump because they thought Hillary would start another war and now look where we’re at. He doesn’t give a shit, he’s just trying to stoke the flames in an election year.

If you voted for Trump to prevent another war but still support his actions you’re a fucking idiot.

And? Iran started it. If anything they're the fucking idiots for thinking they can get away with attacking an embassy and think America would sit idly by.

 

[Кот Бегемот]

View attachment 1087668

Alright, fair's fair. I made fun of Greasy Otis yesterday but she's doing a fucking astounding job of debunking all of the pictures that Iran is trying to use to fluff up the intensity of these attacks. Nearly every single picture that they've released has been fake news, and pictures that are sometimes years old and have nothing whatsoever to do with this attack.

This is why you never buy into hysterics and believe the initial reporting. Just calm down and wait to see where all the cards hit the table, there's no reason to shit your pants on the first second of the first minute of the first report.

At least Norks mastered photoshop.

 

[BONE_Buddy]

"Please USA, don't attack us for our limp dicked response"

Baxtiyar Goran on Twitter

“#BREAKING: #Iran says it will stop attacking if there is no retaliation from the US — via @spectatorindex. — What about the sovereignty of #Iraq? https://t.co/TxFsy9XMUY”

twitter.com

Aleph 🕯️ א Locked & Loaded on Twitter

“Finally, Solleimani's burial is at is last stages!”

twitter.com

 

[thx1138]

Yeah Iran is fucked if they do attack the scree lands fond Israel. But like I have said Iranian fighter jets have been deployed. Possible areal bombardments in Iraq or other areas seems likely. It looks like the beginning of a invasion

If that's the case, Iran's military just committed mass suicide. They'll all be dead within days.