{"id":193754,"date":"2019-08-25T08:20:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T08:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=193754"},"modified":"2019-08-27T06:44:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T06:44:23","slug":"israel-secretly-expanded-its-iran-fight-to-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=193754","title":{"rendered":"Israel secretly expanded its Iran fight to Iraq\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Introduction \u2013 Aug 24, 2019<\/h1>\n<h5>Knowingly or not, Trump and his aides are setting up U.S. forces in Iraq for a \u201cfalse flag\u201d attack.<\/h5>\n<h5>Israel recently launched strikes on warehouses in Iraq storing Iranian made munitions for its proxy, Hezbollah. A few minor adjustments and it could do the same with U.S. installations in Iraq.<\/h5>\n<h5>It would only take a few Mossad agents dressed in Hezbollah uniforms or dressed in those of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and it could be made to look like an Iranian sponsored attack.<\/h5>\n<h5>Iraqi commentators have <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.farsnews.com\/newstext.aspx?nn=13980602001058\">already warned<\/a><\/span> of just such a scenario.<\/h5>\n<h5>While U.S. military commanders are reluctant to face Iran directly, an apparent Iranian attack on a U.S. military facility in Iraq would change that. And just like 9\/11, clear answers about who was responsible might not emerge until months after the event. By which time, like stories about Saddam\u2019s WMD, America and its allies might already be at war and it would be too late.<\/h5>\n<h5>The following Business Insider article doesn\u2019t use the term \u201cfalse flag\u201d or refer to Zionist efforts to lure the U.S. into a wider conflict. However, the underlying assumption that Israel wants to draw the U.S. into a wider Middle East conflict still applies. Ed.<\/h5>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Israel secretly expanded its Iran fight to Iraq\u2026 and it risks igniting a much larger conflict<\/h1>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Rick Peckerall &#8212; Business Insider Aug 23, 2019<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Israel-airstrike-hits-Hezbollah-weapons-depot-in-Iraq.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-193757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Israel-airstrike-hits-Hezbollah-weapons-depot-in-Iraq.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Israel-airstrike-hits-Hezbollah-weapons-depot-in-Iraq.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Israel-airstrike-hits-Hezbollah-weapons-depot-in-Iraq-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Israel appears to have secretly expanded its fight against malign Iranian activities in the Middle East into Iraq, risking an escalation that could potentially ignite a conflict between the US and Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Several weapons and ammunition depots controlled by Iraqi militias with ties to Iran have mysteriously come under attack in recent months. At least one of the attacks was carried out by Israel, a US official <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/israel-strikes-iraq-in-expansion-of-campaign-against-iran-11566574069?mod=hp_lista_pos4\">told<\/a> The Wall Street Journal Friday, with multiple other outlets also confirming Israeli involvement. The attack is said to have killed two Iranian commanders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Israel has launched multiple attacks in Syria and elsewhere against Iranian forces and their proxies to prevent them from setting up weaponry near Israel&#8217;s borders. The latest incident appears to mark the first known Israeli attack in Iraq since 1981, when Israeli forces destroyed the country&#8217;s Osirak nuclear reactor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Iran has no immunity, anywhere,&#8221; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, the AP <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/10911b33c35e475999ed859626b1b90f\">reports<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. &#8220;We will act \u2014 and currently are acting \u2014 against them, wherever it is necessary.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The US and Iran have been in a military confrontation that came to the brink of armed conflict in June, when President Donald Trump called off retaliatory strikes on Iranian missile sites that had downed a sophisticated US drone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of a collection of local Iraqi militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, warned this week that the US will &#8220;ultimately responsible for what happened,&#8221; and that they &#8220;have no choice but to defend ourselves and our bases with the weapons at our disposal.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The fragile Iraqi government walked back the statement and explained that the situation is under investigation, but the parroting of a statement made by the US about Iran and its proxy forces highlights a growing danger in Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8216;Any attacks on Americans in Iraq will be laid at the feet of Iran&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;The concern I have is that it is possible someone will react to these statements, that there will be a price to pay, that there will be a retaliation for this,&#8221; Douglas Silliman, the former US ambassador to Iraq, told Insider Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;If PMF leaders decide that they have to punish the US for something they believe Israel has done, that puts a target on the American diplomatic presence, the easier target in Iraq, or on American and coalition forces on Iraqi bases around the country,&#8221; he explained, noting that this could lead to an increase in tension between the US and Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;You have to look at the statements of the administration that any attacks on Americans in Iraq will be laid at the feet of Iran,&#8221; Silliman, who left his post as ambassador in February, said. &#8220;If it is conducted by a group that Iran has trained and sponsored and armed, this administration is likely to blame Iran.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">White House National Security Advisor John Bolton publicly warned in early May that &#8220;any attack&#8221; by Iranian forces or proxies on US interests would &#8220;be met with unrelenting force&#8221; while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/pompeo-warns-iran-about-trigger-for-us-military-action-as-some-in-administration-question-aggressive-policy\/2019\/06\/18\/48bd3be0-9116-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?utm_term=.c1c7e5a68e1a%20\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>privately warned<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that the death of a single American at the hands of Iran or its regional proxies would be enough to trigger a military response.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">President Donald Trump has threatened to &#8220;end&#8221; Iran and tweeted that &#8220;any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">US lawmakers have previously expressed concerns about the possibility of escalation, despite the fact that both the US and Iran have stressed that war is not the desired outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;Just because you don&#8217;t want war doesn&#8217;t mean you won&#8217;t get war,&#8221; Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/sen-chris-murphy-says-trump-is-blindly-risking-war-with-iran-2019-5\">told<\/a><\/strong><\/span> Insider&#8217;s John Haltiwanger in May, saying that &#8220;all it takes is for one Shia militia to knock up against US forces outside Baghdad and we might be spiraling into conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/israel-secretly-expanded-iran-fight-to-iraq-in-major-escalation-2019-8?r=US&amp;IR=T\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The prospect of wider conflict in the Middle East has never been closer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iraq","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193754"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193779,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193754\/revisions\/193779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}