Author: M Barbu

After Yahya Sinwar, the man responsible for launching the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, took full control of Hamas over the summer, Arab intelligence officials say he sent a directive to a senior operative: Now is the time to revive suicide bombings.

A few days later, a bespectacled Palestinian entered Tel Aviv with a blue backpack loaded with explosives. Although the bomb exploded before the man reached his target, killing only him, the attack sent an unmistakable message.

• As Israel continues to prepare its response to Iran’s missile barrage, one of the target sets could include Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, including striking weaponization facilities, fuel enrichment plants, and/or research and development laboratories.
• In the event of a significant strike on Iran, the Supreme Leader may opt to pursue nuclear deterrence by developing a bomb.
• CIA Director William Burns recently reaffirmed that, while Iran has so far adhered to the Supreme Leader’s policy against pursuing a nuclear bomb, they are only about a week away from reaching the breakout time required to produce weapons-grade material for a single nuclear weapon.
• If Iran pursues a nuclear weapon, it could trigger an arms race in the Middle East, prompting other nations to follow suit in a bid to maintain regional balance.

After leaving his war-torn homeland of Yemen, “Hamza” was working for subsistence wages in neighboring Oman when he heard about an attractive opportunity: sign up for a non-combat role with the Russian military for about $3,000 a month.

A system set up to channel dollars from Iraqi oil sales to importers has been exploited by money launderers and militant groups for years. An OCCRP investigation shows how the fraud works in practice.

Key Findings

• Al-Huda, an Iraqi bank whose owner was sanctioned after a drone attack on U.S. forces, allegedly exploited the dollar auction to obtain billions of dollars.
• Files from an Iraqi parliamentary investigation show how Al-Huda and two other banks used apparently fake documents to manipulate the process.
• Over 99 percent of the money obtained by one bank in a single month in 2012 was cleared based on documents that appeared fraudulent.
• The dollar auction has been used to fund U.S. adversaries including Iran-backed militias, the Islamic State, and Syria’s Assad regime, experts say.
• At least $28 million was sent to a company the U.S. says handled funds for a Revolutionary Guard member later sanctioned for financing Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah spoke for the second time in seven days on August 6, commemorating one week since the assassination of the group’s military commander Fuad Shukr by Israel on July 30. Uncharacteristically calm, Nasrallah devoted much of his speech to covering the Lebanese group’s weaknesses exposed by the assassination and promising to avenge the fallen commander. Like his speech on August 1, this address by Nasrallah also contained hints regarding the form of Hezbollah’s anticipated revenge attack.

On October 1, 2024, the IRGC fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hassan Nasrallah and a senior IRGC officer in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force and air defense forces, in collaboration with the United States and other countries. After the attack, senior Iranian officials stressed that the attack was carried out as part of their legitimate rights and that Iran did not want further escalation. However, they threatened a powerful response to an Israeli attack against them.