Two More IRGC Servicemen Killed, Possibly By US Attacks In Syria

Vice Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the drone exercises, said Thursday that during the second day of the drills a set of mock targets modeled from “sensitive and vital” facilities were destroyed by actual weapons.

He added that Kaman, Mohajer, Ababil, Karrar, and Bavar drones used homegrown weapons, including Qa’em bombs, Almas missiles and MK-82 bombs, to target positions ranging from command-and-control centers to fuel tanks, ammunition depots, and radar and missile systems.

Mousavi said various types of combat drones operated by the four units of the Army, namely the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force, hit the designated targets in the area of the exercises — which covers almost all the Iranian territory and strategic southern waters.

Iran’s Army started a large-scale drone drill on Wednesday, featuring its reconnaissance and combat drones in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, as well as all over its territory.

Deputy Chief of the Iranian Army for Coordination Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Tuesday that more than 150 new advanced drones will be flown in the drill.

Earlier in the month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed that it held joint drone exercises with Russia at the Kashan Air Base, adding that Belarus and Armenia are also partaking in the drills.

The US Department of Defense, which had imposed a provisional ban since October 2020, has adopted the rule as final, noting that “with some exceptions” new rules “prohibit the purchase of any regulated materials smelted or produced in any of the regulated countries (North Korea, China, Russia and Iran), or any end products manufactured in any of the regulated countries”. After a two-year period during which the department received proposals and comments on the new rules from interested parties, the department approved the final text of the amendments on Thursday.

The corresponding notice was placed in the US Federal Register and the rules came into force as of August 25. 

The Pentagon said that reducing US dependence on tantalum from these four countries is a matter of national security because the rare element is an important part of the supply chain in the production of military and non-military systems used by the Defense Department.

Tantalum is a rare and hard metal that is often used to coat jet engines and other equipment exposed to extreme heat. Its heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant alloys are used in equipment for the chemical industry and heat exchangers for nuclear power systems as well as cryotrons -- a switch that operates using superconductivity and is installed in computer systems. 

Point-to-point inflation compares prices in a particular month to the same period in the previous year. However, annual inflation, which compares pries in the last 12 months to the previous 12 months rose to 41.5 percent according to the report.

Although the inflation rate increase slowed slightly from the previous Iranian month, overall the pace of inflation has accelerated since May.

The report says rents, medicine, and restaurant food, as well as snack cakes and biscuits had the highest jump last month, but prices of chicken and hydrogenated cooking oil dropped slightly.

The crucial problem for Iran is the high rate of inflation in the food sector this year. The overall nationwide point-to-point annual food inflation rate in June 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 was 87 percent but the rate reached 100 percent in parts of Iran.

Most price increases happened since early May when the government scrapped a food import subsidy to save around $15 billion in foreign currency annually. The move, which the government called a ‘great economic surgery’ immediately triggered a massive rise in prices for basic food staples, such as bread, pasta, dairy products, cooking oil and meat.

Until further notice, President Ebrahim Raisi said in a televised interview following the announcement of the new policy, the government would pay monthly around 4 million rials (about $15) to 30 percent of the population at the lowest-income groups, and around 3 million to 60 percent of the population. The 10 percent at the highest income level would receive no cash handouts, he said.

Some experts have argued that if the government continues to pay the cash handouts it would reach $10 billion annually, which would mean printing more money and creating more inflation. The previous food import subsidy was based on disbursing cheaper dollars among importers, with less risk of inflation.

Economists say lower income people experience a higher rate of inflation as they spend more of their income on essential foods and often forsake anything deemed as luxury. With back-to-back high inflation since 2018, many missile class people have dropped to low-income status.

The rate of inflation for food items including staples like bread, pasta, eggs, and cooking oil affect the contents of the shopping basket of the lower income families more than those with higher income.

For instance, the two lowest income percentiles spend more than 40% of their money for food whereas this amounts to less than 17% for the highest income percentile. The discrepancy in the way that higher and lower income classes experience inflation widens the gap between the poor and the rich, economists say.

“The overall purchasing power has dropped because of [the government’s] economic reform in May. There is [an abundance] of goods in the market but people can't buy as much as they did before. Many items in people’s shopping baskets have been eliminated, reduced, or replaced with cheaper similar essential goods,” Alireza Heydari, economist, explained to Tejarat News.

The point-to-point inflation rate affecting the lowest income percentile in comparison with the highest income percentile has increased by 1.2% in the past month from 5.7 to 6.9 in the calendar month ending August 22 due to the higher share of foodstuff in the shopping basket of the lower income percentiles which includes fewer ‘non-essential’ items.

US attack helicopters destroyed three vehicles of Iranian militia Wednesday evening local time that had fired rockets at American forces in Syria, lightly injuring three servicemen. Three militiamen were also reportedly killed in the US retaliation.

This was the second attack on militia targets in two days, after the United States conducted an air strike Tuesday at suspected sites of militia under Iranian command, who had conducted a rocket attack on August 15 at US forces.

The foreign ministry denied any links with militias in Syria on Wednesday but accused the US of violating Syria's sovereignty and demanded the withdrawal of American forces.

CENTCOM’s issued a statement on the events indicating that Iranian-backed forces had fired multiple salvos of rockets at two sites and their vicinity.

“We are closely monitoring the situation,” said Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM. “We have a total spectrum of capability to mitigate threats across the region, and we have every confidence in our ability to protect our troops and Coalition partners from attacks.”

CENTCOM added, “The response was proportional and deliberate. The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect and defend our people.”

One senior defense official told Politico that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is responsible for and directing the attacks against US targets.

It is not clear why forces under Iranian command in Syria began the military confrontation ten days ago when international talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, JCPOA, seemed to be making progress.

It is also not clear why the United States waited eight days to show its first response on August 23. The delay could have been related to the dynamics of the negotiations, or CENTCOM might have seen signs on the ground that more attacks were imminent.

The Iranian behavior, however, signifies a major issue with the current negotiations. The Biden Administration has focused on restoring the JCPOA that its predecessor abandoned, but critics say that Iran’s threat to the region is not just the possibility that it will build nuclear bombs, but its existing conventional and subversive threats that would remain in place even if the JCPOA is restored.

In fact, opponents both in the US, Israel and elsewhere say that a nuclear deal will immediately release tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and frozen assets for Tehran, which would become more empowered to bolster its non-nuclear threats to other countries.

“We’re not going to tolerate attacks by Iran-backed forces on our forces anywhere in the world to include in Syria, and we won’t hesitate to protect ourselves and take additional measures as appropriate,” said Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

While this is a clear warning, Iran has heard many such statements and has continued its periodic attacks against US targets both in Syria and Iraq. Also, the US does not directly respond to attacks by Iranian proxies on its allies in the Middle East, who are mostly left to defend themselves against drone and missile attacks by Houthis from Yemen or Iran-linked groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration's campaign against Islamic State. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria, most of them in the east.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani claimed on Wednesday that "The US attack on Syrian infrastructure and people is a violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The sites targeted had no links to the Islamic Republic."

The US military carried out the airstrikes in Syria's Deir al-Zor against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). According to a US military spokesman, eight US fighter jets, four F-16 and four F-15E, hit nine targets. The spokesman added that there were no reports of civilian casualties.

"The president gave the direction for these strikes," said Army spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino. Central Command called the strikes a "proportionate, deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties."

The strikes in the Deir al-Zor area came even as the United States was about to respond to a draft agreement proposed by the European Union that would bring back the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that former President Donald Trump abandoned, and current President Joe Biden has sought to revive.

US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama's administration's campaign against the Islamic State terror group (ISIS), partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.

Iran-backed militias established a foothold in Syria while fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's civil war.