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.

.

 

[WonderWino]

General Salami is a different Iranian officer.
View attachment 1088273View attachment 1088274

The second guy looks like an iranian sean connery

 

[the khat quaffer]

Someone should start making shirts of Ayatollah Bomyaholea

Waaay ahead of you.

It works on ANY Ayatollah!

 

[Feline Supremacist]

oh ffs I stand corrected

 

[LetThemEatCake]

Would be very interesting to hear the radio transmissions from the cockpit of the airliner. Pilots would have had time to tell Tehran Control what had happened.

The CVR will tell the story, as will the flight data recorder. Neither of which I hope conveniently go missing or 'can't be found'. I don't trust the Iranian regime not to do their upmost to try to cover their mistakes.

 

[FemalePresident]

Ok, so this list:

Passengers information. They don't mention a source, though.

Aviation Newsroom on Twitter

“The passenger information of #Ukraine airlines flight #PS752 • Ukrainian citizens- 11 • Iranian citizens - 71 • Canadian citizens -73 • German citizens - 4 • British citizens - 3 • Swedish citizens - 8 • Afghanistan citizens - 6”

twitter.com

... was supposedly provided by Obozrevatel (Ukrainian media outlet)

While the Iranians claim that 147 passengers were Iranian

 

[Otterly]

Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 170 people crashes near Tehran

Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 crashed near just three minutes after takeoff from Tehran Wednesday and it was predicted that technical problems caused the accident.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Oh dear. Reports the plane was on fire before it went down. Mainly western passengers. No survivors. Reporting engine failure (the 737s, are they the ones that are plagued with issues?) but if this is someone with an itchy trigger finger bringing down a civilian plane it’s bad. Hadath agency saying it was accidentally shot down by Iranian defence... let me try to find a translated source for that...

archive link to articlehttp://archive.is/RIxGy

 

[WonderWino]

oh ffs I stand corrected

The video is better

 

[LetThemEatCake]

While the Iranians claim that 147 passengers were Iranian

Likely explanation for that is the Canucks and maybe others were diaspora dual passport holders. Iran does not recognise dual passport/nationality holders as anything other than citzens of Iran.

 

[pwnest injun]

Lol @ Some guy all hopped up on Akbar, waiting for a hypersonic cruise missile to crash into his SAM site, flipping out and shooting down a passenger jet.

 

[Buttigieg2020]

Boeing airliner operated by Ukraine flying into the Middle East. I don’t know how anyone expected to survive that trip.

 

[4STA]

Seems too big of a coincidence that it went down right now.
Doesn't help my dislike of flying, but I also wouldn't have flown to Iran right now, for this reason...

 

[tehpope]

More footage of the crash. (I can't seem to download it).

Done.

 

[Coleslaw]

Fuck Israel. Fuck Saudi Arabia. Fuck Iran. Can we just glass it all?

 

[tehpope]

Oh god. So they shot an Ukrainian plane down with Brits and Canadians. Oh lord. Hopefully this is just an accident and not an attack. If the latter is true...

 

[who dare wins?]

Lol @ Some guy all hopped up on Akbar, waiting for a hypersonic cruise missile to crash into his SAM site, flipping out and shooting down a passenger jet.

I think the Iranians are a bit too trigger happy with shooting down jets unless some importantly Americans or Israelis spies were on that plane.

General Salami is a different Iranian officer.
View attachment 1088273View attachment 1088274

Imagine him being at anfucking defenae conference and he is introduced to speak. How can you keep a straight face?

 

[Otterly]

Pprune, which is the best source of gossip for all things flight related, has some photos and chat about possible frag damage to fuselage.

Loading…

archive.is

Ukrainian Aircraft down in Iran - PPRuNe Forums

Rumours & News - Ukrainian Aircraft down in Iran - ISNA are reporting as per title.

www.pprune.org

My guess would be someone fucking up and shooting it down. If it’s some random with a stinger that’s bad but if it’s the Iranian defence force thats very, very bad, The USA should have every satellite it can muster looking at their airspace right now, I imagine they will be able to discern cause. Another MH17 perhaps?
This is the sort of thing that sets off wars.

 

[Ow The Edge]

So, to recap, Iran's "great revenge" has consisted of:
-Killing around 30 of their own people in stampede at Qassem Soleimani's funeral
-Flinging shit-tier missiles at a random patch of desert, failing to hit a single American
-Offering to call it good and go home
-Shooting down a foreign civilian plane leaving their own capital, killing a large number of their own people plus random foreigners

Why are we afraid of these people again?

 

[heathercho]

Canada will hug Iran for committing this act of love and peace. The UK will say it's part and parcel of living in a big city.
So... I don't know if I can muster the will to care.

 

[Ledian]

Why are we afraid of these people again?

Because WW3! And a draft! And evil Orange Man!

That's just the online sphere being hysterical. Most people know the reality that Iran is politically alone and can't do shit about the US if we went all in.

 

[Secret Asshole]

And posters want us to worry about a country that doesn't have a proper IFF system that can't make out a passenger jet or a chain of command so bad some sand nigger shit their pants and launched a missile at a slow moving target. (Its actually really easy to ID a passenger jet vs. military aircraft. Military aircraft break the sound barrier, passenger jets do not).

At least the Russians that shot down a passenger liner had the excuse that they were all drunk, what the fuck do these sub-86 IQ cousin fuckers have?

Be scared of Iran. Get fucked. We should take them out on general principle. Fucking incompetents. Be like the petty dictators and join the UN circle jerk. At least they're smart enough to stay in their lane. Iran is too fucking stupid.