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Anti-Isis coalition suspends operations as Iraqi MPs vote to expel US troops Group to focus on protecting its forces after US killing of Iranian general Qassem SuleimaniThe international coalition fighting Islamic State has suspended operations against the terrorist group so its forces can concentrate on protecting US, UK and other troops at bases in Iraq following the killing of Qassem Suleimani.The announcement came minutes before the Iraqi parliament passed a motion calling for the expulsion of US troops, in the aftermath of the assassination by the US of the Iranian general and the leader of Iraq’s Hezbollah militia outside Baghdad airport on Friday. Continue reading... Go to Source

Trump vows to hit 52 sites 'very hard' if Iran retaliates for Suleimani killing As general’s body is returned to Iran, president says targets represent the 52 US hostages taken by Iran in 1979 Donald Trump has threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites “very hard” if Iran attacks Americans or US assets in retaliation for the drone strike that killed the Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani and an Iraqi militia leader.The US president made the threat in a tweet hours before Suleimani’s body arrived in Iran for burial and ramifications of the killings were reverberating across a nervous region, where many believe the aftermath could spark a new era of bloodletting and instability. Continue reading... Go to Source

Britain 'on same page' as US over Suleimani killing, says Raab Foreign secretary says UK sympathetic to Washington and focused on restoring calmDominic Raab has said Britain is “on the same page” as the US in relation to Friday’s assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani.Amid continuing questions about the legal justification for US actions, Raab said the UK government was “sympathetic” to Washington’s situation. Continue reading... Go to Source

Making of a martyr: how Qassem Suleimani was hunted down The drone strike on Iran’s enforcer could radically transform the Middle EastFor Qassem Suleimani, the 62-year-old head of Iran’s Quds Force, and one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, the short flight from Damascus to Baghdad late on Thursday was routine. Travelling by private charter, the architect of Tehran’s strategic efforts from Lebanon through Syria and Iraq to Yemen would have avoided all formalities at one of the world’s most securely guarded airports.As his plane touched down just after midnight on Friday morning after reportedly disappearing from commercial flight trackers shortly before landing, two cars were waiting to greet the burly general at the aircraft steps. Continue reading....

Labour leadership: Jess Phillips says party could argue to rejoin EU Birmingham Yardley MP opens up divide with fellow contender Keir Starmer, who wants party to move onThe Labour leadership contender Jess Phillips has said she would be prepared to argue for Britain to re-enter the European Union at the next general election, opening a divide with the shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who has insisted Labour must move on.Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle before Christmas, and the prime minister is expected to use his comfortable majority to carry it through parliament in time for Britain to leave the EU at the end of this month. Continue reading... Go to Source

Rebel alliance ready to put a halt to the ‘disneyfication’ of Edinburgh Some residents fear the city’s public spaces are being sacrificed to tourismFor 800 years or so the castle that keeps watch above Scotland’s capital has borne witness to the bloody rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. Now, the war is one of ideas, with Edinburgh’s eternal soul on the line.On one side is Underbelly, the London events company which claims to have taken Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations to another level. It is backed by a city council which has gleefully watched the numbers rise in those indexes that confer tourism superstardom: unique-users, profits and exposure. Continue reading... Go to Source

Doubts grow over US case for Suleimani assassination as Iran urges revenge Rockets crash close to US embassy compound in Baghdad while huge crowds mourn Iranian generalHuge crowds joined funeral processions for Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad and Tehran on Saturday as calls to avenge the Iranian general’s death mounted and the US case for ordering his assassination was increasingly called into question. Related: After Suleimani, Iran will hit back hard – possibly on multiple fronts Continue reading... Go to Source

Boris Johnson’s silence on Suleimani assassination is ‘deafening’ say critics Politicians attack the prime minister for not addressing the Middle East crisis from his holiday on MustiqueBoris Johnson was facing growing criticism on Saturday night for failing to cut short his Caribbean holiday as the Middle East faced one of the gravest crises since the Iraq war in 2003. Related: I have no confidence Boris Johnson will keep us out of a quagmire in Iran Continue reading... Go to Source

Qassem Suleimani: tears mix with vows of vengeance at Iranian general's funeral Mourners weep and beat chests as coffins of those killed in US drone strike pass through BaghdadIn a wide Baghdad street shaded by tall eucalyptus trees, thousands of weeping, chanting mourners thronged pick-up trucks and ambulances bearing the coffins of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and his close Iraqi associates, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and others, killed in a US drone strike that threatens to remake the region.Grief mingled with rage in the crowd, borne along by chants of “Oh Suleimani your blood won’t be shed in vain”, and the rhythms of a slow funeral march struck by a military band. An honour guard in long red tunics and white pith helmets escorted the dead; beyond them thousa...

Pompeo: European response to Suleimani killing 'not helpful enough' US secretary of state unfavourably compares European reaction with ‘partners in the region’Mike Pompeo has expressed disappointment with European reaction to the US killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, suggesting that the UK, France and Germany had not been sufficiently supportive.The US secretary of state compared the European response unfavourably with US “partners in the region”, a likely reference to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which Pompeo had consulted after the Suleimani assassination. Continue reading... Go to Source

Trump campaigns with patriotism after airstrike – but election is still far off Killing of Suleimani will help Trump among his supporters, but it could hurt him at the ballot box after promises of ‘America first’America’s long, grim line of assassination attempts“We have God on our side.” They have long been some of the most chilling words in the English language. Perhaps never more so than when uttered by Donald Trump in a re-election campaign.The president made the claim at an Evangelicals for Trump rally at a megachurch in Miami on Friday night, a day after taking America to the brink of war with the killing in Baghdad of Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s top general and potential future leader. Continue reading... Go to Source

Suleimani killing the latest in a long, grim line of US assassination efforts There has been no shortage of US attempts to remove foreign adversaries through highly dubious legal or ethical means The US government is no stranger to the dark arts of political assassinations. Over the decades it has deployed elaborate techniques against its foes, from dispatching a chemist armed with lethal poison to try to take out Congo’s Patrice Lumumba in the 1960s to planting poison pills (equally unsuccessfully) in the Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s food.But the killing of General Qassem Suleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite military Quds Force, was in in a class all its own. Its uniqueness lay not so much in its method – what difference does it make to the victim if they are ...