Iranian Forces Clash With Taliban On Border - Local Reports
Clashes between Taliban and Iranian forces. December 1, 2021
According to eyewitnesses, Iranian forces clashed with the Taliban on the border in Nimruz region of Afghanistan, Afghan International reported on Wednesday.
The report quoting local residents in southwestern Afghanistan said that Iranian forces crossed into Afghan territory.
Amaj News based in Kabul also quoted local sources as saying that Iranian forces used heavy weapons and the Taliban dispatched armored American Humvees to confront Iran’s border troops.
The Taliban seized a large quantity of light and heavy American weaponry when they overran the country in August.
Later, Tasnim News affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard reported that a "misunderstanding" led Taliban forces to open fire at some Iranian civilians who very close to the border line, and Iranian troops replied. The website stressed that the clashes have ended.
The Islamic Republic first welcomed the Taliban victory, presenting it as a defeat for the United States, but later terror attacks against Shiite Afghans led to protests in Iran and warnings from Tehran that the Taliban must protect minorities. Iran has also been demanding an inclusive government in Afghanistan, while the Taliban have kept their tight control.
A group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives presented a bill Tuesday to restrict proliferation of Iran's military drone.
The draft legislation was presented to the House of Representatives by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ted Deutch (D-FL), and Joe Wilson (R-SC) Tuesday.
Iran’s military drone program has expanded in recent years and UAV’s have been more frequently used in attacks in recent months both on land and at sea.
The legislation also states that it is US policy to "prevent Iran and Iranian-aligned groups from acquiring unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones)" that can be used in attacks against the United States or its partners and stipulates that those who cooperate with Iran in the field of drone activities should be punished.
“Deadly drones in the hands of the world’s greatest exporter of terrorism, Iran, jeopardizes the security of the United States and regional peace. Recent Iranian drone attacks on U.S. troops, commercial shipping vessels, and against regional partners, along with the export of drone technology to conflict zones, pose a dire threat,” Meeks said, adding that the legislation will send "a strong signal to the international community" that supporting the Iranian drone program will not be tolerated by the US.
"Whether the [drone] attack is launched by Iran, the Houthis, Iran-backed militia groups or any other Iran-sponsored entities, these attacks are intolerable,” McCaul, one of the two Republican lawmakers behind the proposed legislation said.
"In fact, there is nothing such as iron domes to deter our drones. These drones can easily escape these [air defense systems] and hit their targets," Mousavi told Sobh-e No daily apparently in reference to Israel's Iron Dome air defense system.
US and allied officials say that Iran's proxies and allies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon use Iranian-made drones against the US and its allied targets and argue that Iranian drones pose a threat to commercial navigation. Israel has also repeatedly warned about Iran's drone activities. Last week Israel’s defense minister, Benny Gantz, accused Iran of carrying out drone attacks on maritime targets from bases in Chabahar port and Qeshm island.
Iran has widely been accused of attacking tankers in the Persian Gulf region since 2019 when several vessels were hit by what was described as limpet mines. Iranian naval forces have also seized tankers, most recently in late October, when they forced a Vietnamese-flagged tanker into Iranian waters. In January the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) seized a South Korean Tanker in the Persian Gulf.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Tuesday it launched air raids on "legitimate" Houthi military targets including a "secret" site belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The coalition asked civilians not to gather around or approach potential targets, Saudi state TV reported.
The Iran-aligned Houthis' main broadcaster, Al Masirah TV, said three air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition had hit Sanaa airport, while a fourth raid targeted a park.
The raid is one of several the coalition has carried out this month over the densely populated capital city of Sanaa.
Houthis have repeatedly launched cross-border attacks on the kingdom using drones and missiles since the coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the movement ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital.
The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran has been supplying th Houthis with weapons and military technology. The Houthis are pressing an offensive in Marib, the internationally recognized government's last northern stronghold, as well as in other areas in Yemen.
An Iranian prosecutor says 124 people have been indicted in absentia for the killing of Iran’s general Qasem Soleimani by US drones in Baghdad, in January 2020.
Saeed Farhadinia, special prosecutor in the international crimes division of Iran’s judiciary told local media on Monday that Soleimani’s case file remains open and is based on several legal principles, including international conventions against terrorism.
He also cited a friendship treaty between Iran and the United States from the 1950s, when Tehran was Washington’s ally. The Trump administration abrogated the agreement in 2018.
Former president Donald Trump ordered Soleimani’s killing citing threat of terror attacks against US forces and interests in the Middle East. Soleimani was Iran’s top military and intelligence operator in the region.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials have repeatedly called for revenge for the assassination and Trump has been mentioned as target number one.
Farhadinia said that Iran has no way of bringing the suspects it has identified to trial. Although he did not mention any names, the indicted individuals are assumed to be mostly US and Israeli officials.
Injured veterans of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war gathered in Tehran on Saturday to protest financial hardship and demand regular pension payments from the government.
The Islamic Republic upholds the eight-year war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as a symbol of its success and the religious devotion of Iranians, while many veterans live in poverty and complain of being ignored by a large government bureaucracy formed to serve them.
A video published on social media and some websites in Iran show hundreds of injured veterans protesting outside the Foundation for Martyrs and Veterans protesting for the late payment of their pensions. A speaker is heard asking the head of the Foundation, a government department, to resign if he cannot do his job.
The speaker also referred to powerful groups who present themselves as veterans and receive all sorts of government privileges, including business opportunities. Protesters were holding a banner that said, “It is enough to build power for yourselves on the bones of the martyrs”.
Many of the current leaders of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) have reached high ranks and status because they served in the Iran-Iraq war.
State-controlled media in Iran have tried to explain why IRGC General Seyyed Javad Ghaffari, top commander in Syria had to leave that country in early November.
Etemad Online quoted the IRGC-linked news agency Tasnim as having reported that Ghaffari was seen off in Damascus after leading those forces for six years "following some developments in Syria," but did not elaborate on those developments. However, Tasnim acknowledged that according to "foreign news sources," Ghaffari was forced by the Syrian government to leave Syria after a visit to Damascus by the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan's on November 9.
While Tehran has been portraying the development as an ordinary event, The Times of Israel on November 11 quoted Saudi sources as saying that Ghaffari was expelled from Syria as he was "accused of ‘major breach of Syrian sovereignty’ after attacking US forces, and deploying Iranian weapons to unapproved places."
According to the Times, It was reportedly Syria that shunned Iran's Qods Force Commander Javad Ghaffari for "nearly starting a war with Israel," and "almost causing an unwanted regional war."
The report published by the Times of Israel said that acting “contrary to instructions,” Ghafari led “a number of activities against the United States and Israel that almost led to the entry of Syria into an unwanted regional war, including the attack on American targets in Syria on October 20 by Iranian-backed militias.” The report said the move against Ghafari was taken by high-ranking officials in the Assad regime, after “months of disputes.”
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was behind the ousting of the top commander of the Iranian forces in Syria. The Post named Al-Arabiya news agency as its source for the report. The Jerusalem Post added that sources at the Syrian Presidential Palace had said that the palace deemed Ghaffari's behavior as a "violation of Syrian sovereignty."
Ghaffari was the third commander of the Iranian forces in Syria since 2011 when Iran began to intervene in Syria's civil war. He started his career in Syria as one of the commanders at the Iranian forces' headquarters in Damascus and later became the commander of the forces in Aleppo where he recently led Iranian forces as well as their Lebanese Hezbollah and Afghan mercenaries, the Fatemiyoun, Etemad Online reported in Tehran.
In an apparent attempt to undermine the news about Ghaffari’s expulsion, political commentator Massoud Assadollahi claimed in an interview with Etemad Online that Iran's presence in Syria has been more political than military in recent months. He also claimed that Ghaffari's mission to Syria had ended in 2020 but the killing of Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani delayed his return to Iran.
Meanwhile, Assadollahi characterized Ghaffari as a military adviser. This comes while during his mission to Aleppo, Ghaffari was nicknamed "the butcher of Aleppo," a title utterly far from being advisory. The commentator claimed that Ghaffari's role in Syria was one of "solving the Syrian people's problems," and that he was "a popular figure" in Aleppo.
Assadollahi further denied that Ghaffari was expelled from Syria, adding that according to diplomatic protocols he would have been given 48 hours to leave Syria if he was expelled, but he stayed in Syria for a month after the end of his mission. Some reports said that Ghaffari had his own private business in Syria.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Saudi news channel Al-Hadath reported that the Syrians blamed the Iranians for taking advantage of Syria's natural and economic resources for their own gain and for evading tax payments to the Syrian regime.
Furthermore, Al-Hadath also revealed that Ghaffari admitted that he had stationed Iranian forces in places that were not approved by Syria.
