Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq on Wednesday in response to the US assassination of the IRGC’s Quds Forces, Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
The Trump Administration has begun drafting sanctions against Iraq after the US President publicly threatened the country with economic penalties if it proceeded to expel U.S. troops, the Washington Post reported citing three people briefed on the planning.
Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander General Khalifa Haftar has warned that his forces will mobilize to repel any foreign soldiers sent to Libya, after Turkey approved a troop deployment to assist the rival government in Tripoli, RT reports.
Thousands rally in Baghdad as a convoy carried the bodies of those killed in the US air strike on Friday in the Iraqi capital, Al Jazeera reported.
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have retracted their claims that their medical convoy was destroyed in a US air raid along Taji road, north of Baghdad, RT reported.
Amid the heightened tensions around Iran following the US airstrike that killed top military commander Qassim Suleimani (pictured above) in Baghdad, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned all parties involved that “the world cannot afford another gulf war”.
Armenia has expressed “serious concern” regarding the latest incidents in Baghdad which have led to human loses, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The killing of Iran’s top security and intelligence commander Qassim Suleimani by the United States is “for all practical purposes a declaration of war”, according to Robert Malley, the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group who served as White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region under President Barack Obama.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin congratulated Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on New Year and Christmas, the PM’s office said.
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court Hrayr Tovmasyan has been charged by the Special Investigations Service (SIS) under Paragraph 2, Article 308 (Abuse of power that has caused serious consequences), SIS spokesperson Marina Ohanjanyan said.
