Iran Prepares Its Submarine Fleet For Blockade Of The Strait Of Hormuz

Business Insider
Robert Johnson

We reported a couple weeks ago that Iran was demanding all U.S. ships entering the Strait of Hormuz stop and check in with the Revolutionary Guard. Now, they're saying that move has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz.

FARS News Agency, Tehran's state run media outlet, announced  Tehran is continuing a full blockade on all ships entering the Strait, with each undergoing inspection.

From FARS:

"The alien vessels which enter the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz always provide the needed answers and information to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) units," Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Naval Force Alireza Tangsiri said on Wednesday.

He further noted the deployment of a US aircraft carrier in the region, and said, "This vessel, similar to the other warships, answered all the questions asked by the IRGC Navy without any problem or making any particular move and then continued the path to its specified destination."

The UPI reports that Iran's fleet of 20 submarines are much on the mind of U.S. military officials as Tehran increases it's bluster and stance in the Strait.

The submarines are seen as a danger to international tanker traffic, which ships one-fifth of the world's oil supplies through the narrow strait every day, and to Western warships if Iran carries out its threat to close Hormuz if its oil exports are blocked.

U.S. military planners must factor in the Iranian submarine threat as the Americans, spearheaded by the U.S. Navy 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, square off for possible conflict with Iran over its contentious nuclear program. "The Iranians would not have acquired so many submarines if they did not think they would come in handy," U.S. defense analyst Scott Charney observed in an April 9 assessment of Iranian submarine capabilities.

Tehran's submarine fleet is led by three Russian Kilo-class diesel electric boats, deep water subs halfway through their 30-year lifespan, and a large number of "midget" subs that can lurk in the shallow waters of the strait.

One 76-foot Nahang, which means whale in Farsi, is supposed to be completely stealth and able to evade detection.

Finally, Iraq President Nuri al-Maliki is in Iran bolstering ties with its neighbor and ironing out trade agreements.

Dina Al-Shibeeb at Al-Aribaya reports Iran’s first vice president Mohammed Ridha Rihaimi said the two countries will "form a great international power," if they succeed in forming an alliance.

From Al-Aribiya:

He pointed out to the two countries’ “special relations,” and how both were facing “international conspiracies due to their beliefs and goals.” He did not elaborate on what these beliefs or goals include.

The two countries’ trade agreements must be speedily fulfilled, he added. The agreements include railway projects connecting the two neighboring countries and cooperation between their oil and airline industries. 

Iraq attacks kill 60, raise sectarian fears

Editor's Note:  Notice the generic label, "Al Qaeda"

Reuters

(Reuters) - Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shi'ite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-December.

The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shi'ites raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007.

The violence breaks weeks of relative calm as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Sunni leaders have sought to resolve a political crisis that threatened to unravel their power-sharing agreement following the U.S. withdrawal.

At least 32 people were killed in blasts in Baghdad where 10 explosions tore through mainly Shi'ite neighbourhoods during rush hour and other attacks targeted police patrols, commuters and crowds gathered in shopping areas.

"We were sitting at a restaurant having soup for breakfast when the bomb exploded. I lost consciousness and then saw smoke and dust when I came to. I saw people and body parts everywhere," police officer Ahmed Kadhim told Reuters.

Kadhim suffered shrapnel wounds to his left leg and back when a car bomb exploded near a restaurant killing six people and wounding 18 in Baghdad's northern Kadhimiya district.
The interior ministry blamed al Qaeda and affiliated armed groups for the attacks it said were an attempt to show that Iraq's security situation remained unstable.

The blasts hit just weeks before Baghdad plans to host an Arab League summit, which has been postponed because of regional turmoil and acrimony between Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and some Sunni Gulf states.

Holding a successful summit at the end of March would help Iraq restore its place in the Arab World since the U.S. withdrawal and help allay Sunni Gulf States worries over Iran's influence over Iraq's Shi'ite government.

"The attacks aimed to spark sectarian strife among the Iraqi people, and to prevent the Arab League meeting from being held," Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi said.

DOZENS OF BLASTS

More than a dozen blasts and attacks hit other cities across Iraq from Mosul in the north to Hilla, south of Baghdad, many of them targeting police.

The violence was aimed at Shi'ite neighbourhoods but also against security forces, a frequent target of Sunni insurgents. Iraqi officials had predicted such groups would try to stir sectarian tensions with attacks after American forces went home.

While violence has ebbed since the height of the war, Sunni insurgents affiliated to al Qaeda are still capable of large-scale assaults. Some rival Shi'ite militias have said they will cease fighting since the U.S. withdrawal.

Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group for al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for recent large attacks on the capital, including a December 22 wave of bombings that killed at least 71 people.

In Thursday's violence, one car bomb in the capital killed at least nine people and wounded 27 in the upmarket Karrada neighbourhood, hurling shrapnel into the next street and blowing out glass from nearby buildings.

Witnesses saw at four wrecked cars full of shrapnel and bloodied seats near an ice-cream shop at the site of another blast.

In at least three Shi'ite neighbourhoods in Baghdad, nine policemen were killed, and in the capital's northwestern Kadhimiya district, a car bomb killed six people when it struck a street lined with restaurants.

In the biggest attack outside the capital, a car bomb killed seven people and wounded 33 in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad.

Iraq's political crisis erupted after Maliki moved against two senior members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc shortly after the U.S. troop withdrawal in December, prompting a walkout by Iraqiya lawmakers that lasted until late January.

Tensions eased as Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs tried to negotiate an end to the crisis. But a week ago a panel of judges detailed 150 attacks they said were carried out by death squads under Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's command. Maliki sought Hashemi's arrest in December.

Hashemi, who has taken refuge in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, has denied accusations made against him, dismissing them as part of a plot to destroy Maliki's opponents.

The crisis was followed by a wave of attacks in December and January on Shi'ite neighbourhoods, including a suicide bombing on a Shi'ite funeral procession that killed 31 in Baghdad and an attack on Shi'ite pilgrims that left 53 dead in Basra.

Violence had ebbed until Sunday when a suicide car bomber killed 19 people in an attack on a Baghdad police academy.

(Writing by Yara Bayoumy and Francois Murphy; Editing by Patrick Markey and Giles Elgood)

US threatens to act unilaterally against Iran

Emirates 24/7

Leon Panetta getting the "lowdown" from
military personnel in Iraq

The United States is concerned about Iran providing weapons to Iraq militants and will take unilateral action when needed to deal with the threat, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday.

US officials have blamed Shi'ite militias armed by Iraq's Shi'ite neighbour Iran for most of the recent attacks on US forces in Iraq. Fourteen US service members were killed in hostile incidents in June, the highest monthly toll in three years.

At least three more have been killed in July, including one on Sunday, the day Panetta arrived in Baghdad on his first trip to Iraq as defence secretary.

Washington still has about 46,000 troops in Iraq more than eight years after the 2003 invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein but is scheduled to withdraw its forces by year-end under a security pact between the two countries.

"We are very concerned about Iran and the weapons they are providing to extremists here in Iraq. And we're seeing the results of that," Panetta said in an address to US troops in Baghdad.

"In June we lost a hell of a lot of Americans as a result of those attacks. And we cannot just simply stand back and allow this to continue to happen ..."

Panetta said Washington's first effort would be to press the Iraqi government and military to go after Shi'ite groups responsible for the attacks. He was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki later on Monday.

"Secondly, to do what we have to do unilaterally, to be able to go after those threats as well, and we're doing that," he said, referring to the right of US forces to defend themselves on Iraqi soil.

"And thirdly, to bring pressure on Iran to not engage in this kind of behaviour. Because, very frankly, they need to know that our first responsibility is to protect those that are defending our country. And that is something we are going to do."

LETHAL INSURGENCY

US forces officially ended combat operations in Iraq last August and now operate largely in the background, training and assisting Iraqi police and soldiers against a weakened but still lethal insurgency that launches hundreds of attacks each month.

Iraqis rally against extending U.S. troops presence

Reuters

Enforcement Style Coming to the USA

(Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) -Thousands of Iraqis rallied in the northern city of Mosul Sunday in one of the biggest protests yet against any extension of the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Protests have swelled in the city since April 9 -- the eighth anniversary of the day U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad -- but remain peaceful.

Sunday, around 5,000 people, including provincial council members and tribal leaders, rallied in the main square against extending the U.S. troops presence beyond the year-end deadline.

"We are trying to put pressure on the government to not even think about extending the presence of Americans (in Iraq), who brought havoc to our country," said Sheikh Barzan al-Badrani, chief of the Badrani tribe in Mosul.

"The second demand is for the release of detainees held in Iraqi prisons ... and the other is to make reforms in the Iraqi government. We do not accept corrupt officials and regret that we voted for them."
In a city seen as al Qaeda's last remaining urban base, protesters have mixed anti-U.S. slogans with calls against corruption and pressed for the release of Iraqi detainees.

Rallies against an extension of U.S. troops in Iraq have also been held in Baghdad in recent days by the followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who have vowed to escalate military resistance if U.S. troops stay beyond December 31.

The United States is due to withdraw remaining troops from Iraq by December 31, more than 8 years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his army and policy are able to provide security in a country where bombings and attacks still occur daily, and foreign troops will no longer be needed after the end of this year.

Iraqis, inspired by rallies elsewhere in the region, have staged protests since February against corruption and a lack of basic services, but most have so far not demanded a complete regime change of their democratically-elected government.

Tribes from other Iraqi cities including Ramadi and Falluja in the west, Najaf in the south and Kirkuk in the north, have all travelled to Mosul to express their support for an exit of U.S. troops by the end of the year.

A two-day curfew in the city which was implemented on Thursday had also not deterred protesters, said Abu Ali, one of the organizers of demonstrations in Mosul.