Orientul Mijlociu

Whenever Iran’s expansionist project in Iraq encounters obstacles, Tehran immediately starts to open old wounds, such as demanding compensation for the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and using this as a stick to beat Baghdad with. This Iranian policy has one objective: Blackmailing Iraq into submission and compliance.

Over the years, Iran has also employed various other levers to bring Iraq to its knees, such as withholding the supply of water from its sources and reducing or cutting off the supply of electricity. To justify the latter, Iran has argued that Baghdad has failed to pay its bills.

SDF members destroyed a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device “to prevent possible harm to locals in the area and recovered weapons cache and detained maligned actors to eliminate the threat.”

The General Command of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) in northeast Syria announced on Monday the arrest of a suspected ISIS cell that was planning to launch an attack on a terrorist detention facility in the Syrian city of Hasakah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi survived an attack by an armed drone on his residence on November 7 amid escalating tensions over the refusal of Iran-backed militias to accept last month’s parliamentary election results.

The Baghdad residence inside the city’s fortified Green Zone was hit by a rocket attack early on November 7, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Kadhimi was unharmed in the attack, which the statement said was a “failed assassination attempt.”

Besides Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama, few religious leaders today command as much respect among Muslims and non-Muslims alike as Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the 91-year-old “supreme marja” of the world’s Shiite Muslims.

Al-Sistani was a disciple of Ayatollah Abu Al-Qasim Al-Khoei, who was for decades the most renowned religious teacher in Iraq’s shrine city of Najaf, where he was known as the “professor of jurisprudence.”

Pro-government Turkish media outlets last week reported that preparations are underway for a new set of military operations in Syria. A parliamentary motion to authorize the government to continue sending troops abroad was tabled last month and easily approved.

Previous motions approved a one-year mandate for such operations, but this time it was done for a period of two years. This may be because the government is forecasting harder times ahead, when the mandate may not be renewed as a result of declining public support for the ruling party.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi escaped unharmed from an assassination attempt by three armed drones in Baghdad on Sunday, officials said. The assassination attempt came weeks after a general election was disputed by Iran-backed militia groups.

The attempt dramatically raises tension in the country that has already seen threats of violence.

Al-Kadhimi took to social media moments after the attack and called for “calm and restraint from everyone.”

SOHR sources have reported that Turkish-backed factions arrested a cell working for regime forces, as the cell’s agents worked on providing the Syrian regime with coordinates and positions on the factions of the “National Army”.

It is worth noting that regime and ISIS cells are prevalent in areas under the control of Turkish forces and their proxy factions, while these areas have experienced explosions in residential areas and attacks which have left casualties.

The failed assassination attempt against Iraq’s prime minister at his residence on Sunday has ratcheted up tensions following last month’s parliamentary elections, in which the Iran-backed militias were the biggest losers.

Helicopters circled in the Baghdad skies throughout the day, while troops and patrols deployed around Baghdad and near the capital’s fortified Green Zone, where the overnight attack occurred.

Supporters of the Iran-backed militias held their ground in a protest camp outside the Green Zone to demand a vote recount. Leaders of the Iran-backed factions converged for the second day on a funeral tent to mourn a protester killed Friday in clashes with security. Many of the faction leaders blame the prime minister for the violence.