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.

.

 

[LetThemEatCake]

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,

It's almost certainly an act of absolute stupidity by a poorly-trained whoever, taking orders from another incompetent. Probably something literally at the level of this act of fictional retardation.

 

[LetThemEatCake]

Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 to Ukraine's capital Kyiv crashed just after taking off from Iran's Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran at 06:12 local time (02:42 GMT).

Ukraine's embassy in Tehran said engine failure caused the crash and there was no link to terrorism.

"According to preliminary information, the plane crashed as a result of an engine failure for technical reasons. Currently, the version of a terrorist attack is ruled out," the embassy said on the Ukraine Foreign Ministry's website.

Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians including all the crew, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Britons and three Germans, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was cutting short a trip to Oman and flying back to Kyiv. He warned against "speculation or unchecked theories regarding the catastrophe" until official reports were ready.

"My sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of all passengers and crew," he said in a statement.

Some 168 passengers and nine crew members were confirmed to have been registered to fly on the aircraft.

Ukraine International Airlines has suspended flights to Tehran indefinitely. The airline said that the aircraft had had its last scheduled maintenance on Monday.

Rescue teams have been sent to the crash site but the head of Iran's Red Crescent told state media that it was "impossible" for anyone to have survived the crash.

Rescue workers had found one of the airliner's black boxes, Iranian media reported.

Ukraine has organised special planes to fly to Iran to take back the bodies of those killed, pending Iran's agreement, Mr Zelensky said.

Aviation safety analyst Todd Curtis told the BBC that the aircraft involved in the crash had been manufactured in 2016 and delivered new to the airline.

"The airplane was heavily fragmented which means either there was an intense impact on the ground or something happened in the sky," he said.

"From all appearances this was an airplane that had been properly cared for and there were no outstanding issues with respect to European authorities or American authorities so at this point there is nothing that points to a particular cause."

Mr Curtis said Iranian, Ukrainian, US and French authorities would all be involved in the investigation, but it was unclear how they would work together. Iran is currently under US sanctions and there are severe tensions between the two countries.

"They will start putting together the story of what happened on that airplane... to see if there is something about the condition of the aircraft or the fuel on board that might have led to this," he said.

"And also one cannot discount the possibility that something outside the aircraft, a mid-air collision or some other issue, may have been involved."

There are several thousand Boeing 737-800s in operation around the world which have completed tens of millions of flights. They have been involved in 10 incidents, including this crash, where at least one passenger was killed, Mr Curtis said.

This is the first time a Ukraine International Airlines plane has been involved in a fatal crash.

Ukrainian plane crashes in Iran killing 176

There were many Iranian and Canadian citizens on board the Ukraine International Airlines' Boeing 737.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Wuornos]

Were they actual Britons and Canadians though or were they "Britons" and "Canadians" of the coffee coloured variety?

There's no way that plane wasn't shot down either.

 

[Overly Serious]

Are Iranians literally exceptional? I get it, they're pissed. It's not worth getting killed over.

More hungry, deprived of medical supplies and economically pushed to breaking points by US sanctions and US using its power to make other countries sanction it as well. Iran has been being backed against the wall for years now. Make someone desperate enough and eventually they'll strike out at you whether the odds are in their favour or not.

 

[TV's Adam West]

Oh, just wonderful. I'm gonna go ahead and put the clock two minutes to midnight.

 

[Coleslaw]

The Iran Iraq War was two drunk guys fighting and the rest of the world throwing them peanuts so they wouldn't stop and fight anybody else.

Due to the Iran-Iraq war most Iranians are too young to remember the revolution, neither do they know anybody who does.

 

[Null]

LEAVE UKRAINE ALONE

it's a fucking developing country with absolutely no investment in fucking anything, how does it keep ending up in the national spotlight for the worst shit

 

[Richardface]

LEAVE UKRAINE ALONE

it's a fucking developing country with absolutely no investment in fucking anything, how does it keep ending up in the national spotlight for the worst shit

Because Perun has cursed them for pretending they are anything other than Russians who forgot to speak Russian properly

 

[Keystone]

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

Iran hasn't been blowing up airliners all the time like they used to. I guess it's one of those "skills" you wholesale forget if you don't practice them frequently enough.

Seriously though, if it was actually shot down, how do you fuck up that bad? I also don't believe any of those people were intelligence agents either. I mean think about it, considering all the excitement of the past week, they'd have no problem just disappearing any suspected spies that might've been on the plane beforehand. Hell they do that to their own people all the time, so they don't even need an excuse to begin with. And if there were any spies, real or suspected, then they could've just turned the plane right around with an armed escort and grabbed them then.

Unless of course that is what happened and some retard in the airforce or SAM site genuinely mistook the "fire rocket" button for the "call the pilots and tell them to turn around" button...

 

[Ledian]

LEAVE UKRAINE ALONE

it's a fucking developing country with absolutely no investment in fucking anything, how does it keep ending up in the national spotlight for the worst shit

Planes and Ukraine, the one thing Ukraine seems to have in for it. Every country has its "thing"

Russians having drinking.
Americans being fat.
Germans being efficient.
Spanish being lazy.
Ukrainians have losing planes in missile strikes.

 

[Ghostse]

LEAVE UKRAINE ALONE

it's a fucking developing country with absolutely no investment in fucking anything, how does it keep ending up in the national spotlight for the worst shit

They have gotten overrun by everyone from the Mongols on. I think the only genocidal dictators that hasn't purged the country in the past 1000 years are Mao, Pol Pot and Timur Lane. In the past, I guess they pissed off some supernatural force.

In the modern era, everyone just wants to see their Prosecutor General waifu again.
(I guess she's an MP now. But still.)

 

[FlightOfTheBumbleBee]

Iran probably intended to shoot it down. This wasn't an accident.

 

[OnMoTi]

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.

^ this

Were they actual Britons and Canadians though or were they "Britons" and "Canadians" of the coffee coloured variety?

Also ^ this

 

[Dom Cruise]

Russia has told Iran to go eat shit already.

Do you have a source for this?

 

[A Logging Company]

Are Iranians literally exceptional? I get it, they're pissed. It's not worth getting killed over.

I am glad that Trump isn't targeting cultural centers. Believe it or not, at one time Iran actually had a culture. They just prefer to act like desert savages now.

They have been struggling economically due to sanctions for years now. I was thinking they were going to use this whole affair as a way to bring the US back the negotation table to work out a deal to lift sanctions, but they just shot down those hopes like a Ukrainian airliner.

 

[WutangLee]

LEAVE UKRAINE ALONE

it's a fucking developing country with absolutely no investment in fucking anything, how does it keep ending up in the national spotlight for the worst shit

The Ayatolah's boyfriend just died fam. They're gonna be throwing a hissy fit for the rest of the year. Watch, some kid is gonna shoot up a school, and the Iranians are gonna consider it the wrath of god.

Do you have a source for this?

It's a lot more complicated than just a single event in that one. It has a lot to do with the Iranians pulling bullshit with the Israeli's, jeopardizing the S300 and S400 along with Russian pilots. Not coordinating correctly with Russian backed Loyalists. There was one horrendous situation in which the Russian's golden baby, the Syrian Tiger Forces, were left behind by their Iranian backed counterparts and suffered a horrific death at the hands of ISIS insurgents. Either way, they're not on bad terms per say, but they're not enthusiastic over them either.

 

[BlueCandle]

You’re welcome

 

[Arctic Fox]

Do you have a source for this?

Earlier in the thread it was posted that Iran sent a complaint to the U.N. security council. It was promptly vetoed by Russia. They stated that Trump's killing of Salami was a proportionate response.

It's late and I'm tired. Search the thread for "Russia" and "U.N. security council. It should pop up.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Earlier in the thread it was posted that Iran sent a complaint to the U.N. security council. It was promptly vetoed by Russia. They stated that Trump's killing of Salami was a proportionate response.

It's late and I'm tired. Search the thread for "Russia" and "U.N. security council. It should pop up.

Oh, right, I'm aware of that one.

 

[Null]

@Cosmos made a post about this in the other thread and got bombed for it, but I completely agree that we should have no military presence in the old world, especially not the middle east. We should not have bases within 50 miles of every border Iran shares with its neighbors.

A primary concern with Clinton to me was that she had previously stated that she intended to go to war with both Russia and Iran. When the Orange-Man-Russian-Callooshun shit started up I made an active decision I'd rather have someone financially involved in making deals with Russia than some crazy lady who obsessively hated Putin.

I don't care what Iran does. I don't care if Iranians are killed by the Iranian government. I don't care if they bomb Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't care. I don't give a fuck about any of these shithole countries. Fuck off.