The U.S. military has completed its withdrawal from Air Base 201 in Agadez and Air Base 101 in Niamey, Niger, handing over the last military bases to local authorities as per an agreement with Niger's ruling junta.

Approximately 400 troops were withdrawn from Niamey and 600 from Agadez. A small number will remain at the U.S. embassy for administrative issues.

The withdrawal process was completed ahead of schedule, with effective cooperation and communication between the U.S. and Nigerien armed forces.

The troop withdrawal is seen as a setback for Washington's counterterrorism efforts in the volatile Sahel region, where several countries have fallen to military juntas in recent years.

The Agadez Air Base 201 provided intelligence on Islamic militant groups before the coup. Over the past decade, U.S. troops trained Niger's forces and supported counterterrorism missions against Islamic State and al Qaeda in the region.

Despite U.S. support, terrorist activities and fatalities have increased in Niger. The focus on military operations was seen as taking the place of increased involvement in local economy, political patronage, and human rights concerns.

The withdrawal was initiated in March after Niger's transitional government ended the military agreement with the U.S., granting the U.S. until September 15 to withdraw troops as the regime distances itself from Western powers.

Niger's decision to request the U.S. withdrawal came after a meeting where U.S. officials raised concerns about expected Russian forces and reports of Iran seeking uranium in the country. In April, Russia sent military instructors to Niger.

Apart from the U.S., Niger has also begun terminating military agreements with France, Germany, and the EU civil mission aimed at supporting security forces.

Sources: The Hill, Istoé, Washington Examiner, TASS, The Guardian, The Conversation, Le Figaro, Koaci, CTV News, AllAfrica, L'AntiDiplomatico, KION546, G4Media, MarketScreener  , Niger Delta Connect, WTOP.

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

The post U.S. military completes withdrawal from Niger, ending counterterrorism operations appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Martha Gerdes is on a "leave of absence" from the program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte pending her disenrollment from the ROTC, according to US Army Cadet Command spokesman Maj. Robert Carter. The Army Times was the first to report the discipline against Gerdes.

UNC-Charlotte spokeswoman Buffie Stephens said federal law prevents the university from commenting.

Gerdes was a student at Davidson College in North Carolina when the Army began investigating her last November. Carter said ROTC officials learned of Gerdes' online activities when an anti-racism group called Carolina Workers Collective posted screenshots of tweets it attributed to her.

Carter said Gerdes admitted to investigators that she anonymously posted the statements on her Twitter account, "@femanon," which has been suspended. Gerdes' online activities "are inconsistent with the high moral expectations of a future Army officer," he added.

"Army ROTC remains committed to leadership excellence through diversity," Carter said in a statement.

Gerdes was enrolled at Davidson from August 2015 to November 2018, majoring in physics and working as a teaching assistant in the German studies department, said college spokesman Jay Pfeifer.

The Army Times reported that Gerdes posted messages that appeared to advocate for a race war and defend the Nazi Party. Above old photos of Ku Klux Klan members burning a cross, she tweeted that she was "born in the wrong era." And, a day after a gunman killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, she wrote that she didn't care about "Jews getting shot up except insofar as it's going to make it a lot harder for a lot of white people to just exist."

In March, HuffPost leaked online chat logs that were linked to several members of the U.S. armed forces, including two Army ROTC cadets from Montana and New York, to a white nationalist group called Identity Evropa. Carter said both are "out of the programs now."

The post Cadet to be removed from Army ROTC for 'pro-Nazism' tweets appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Manufactured by Israel's Raytheon and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to 70 kilometers (43 miles).

The US Marine Corps has expressed interest in acquiring the anti-missile defense system, which has a near-90% success rate, according to a report in the Marine Corps Times.

"Iron Dome is a proven defense system that will provide increased protection for our troops in the field," Sherrill said. "Access to this technology addresses critical gaps in our current capabilities. It is an important interim step as we invest in the future of our military, and I'm glad to join with Representative Wilson, my colleague on the Armed Services Committee, to introduce this bill."

AIPAC said it supports the measure.

At an April 2 hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said, "The Iron Dome is a very capable system. It has basically a 100% track record in combat. We clearly need it to protect our formations."

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post US reps introduce bipartisan bill to procure Israel's Iron Dome appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The EU and major European powers – Britain, France and Germany – also said that they "note with great concern the statement made by Iran concerning its commitments" to the nuclear deal, stressing that they "reject any ultimatums" coming from Tehran.

The joint statement came as the bloc struggles to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, a day after a new deadline from Tehran on finding a solution to make up for last year's unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the accord and re-imposed U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"We remain fully committed to the preservation and full implementation" of the deal, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, said the EU statement.

The Trump administration pulled America out of the 2015 deal a year ago, saying it does nothing to stop Iran from developing missiles or destabilizing the Middle East. The Europeans insist that the pact is an important pillar of regional and global security and was never meant to address those other issues.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address Wednesday that signatories to the deal now have 60 days to come up with a plan to shield his country – already laboring under economic hardship – from the sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

As the sanctions bite, domestic pressure is increasing on Rouhani to demonstrate that Iran can still benefit from an agreement based on providing it with economic opportunities in exchange for limiting nuclear development.

"Iran must remain in this agreement and we must do everything we can to ensure that it stays in," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at an EU summit in Romania, where leaders were to discuss the standoff.

Amid the heated rhetoric from Tehran and Washington, Macron urged the agreement's signatories not to "get caught up in any escalation" and to "jointly watch over our collective security."

In their statement, the EU powers said they "regret the re-imposition of sanctions" by the U.S. and remain "determined to continue pursuing efforts to enable the continuation of legitimate trade with Iran."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday the U.S. has bullied Europe and the rest of the world with its Iran policy.

"Instead of demanding that Iran unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord, EU should uphold obligations –[including] normalization of economic ties," he wrote on Twitter.

The Europeans have set up a complicated barter-type system to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran and so evade possible U.S. sanctions. The workaround, dubbed INSTEX, is not yet operational as Iran has not completed its part of the scheme.

The bloc said it plans to push ahead with "the operationalization of the special purpose vehicle 'INSTEX.'"

The EU has also introduced a so-called "blocking statute" protecting European companies from the effects of U.S. sanctions, but many international corporations do more business in the United States than in Iran and have already severed ties there rather than risk running afoul of Washington.

In a message implicitly directed at the U.S. administration, the EU powers said, "We call on countries not party to the [deal] to refrain from taking any actions that impede the remaining parties' ability to fully perform their commitments."

Despite the heated rhetoric, the Europeans insist that only the International Atomic Energy Agency can judge whether Iran remains in compliance with the nuclear agreement. More than a dozen reports have shown that Tehran is respecting it so far. A new report is due at the end of May.

"So far we have seen Iran fully compliant with all its nuclear-related commitments," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at the summit. The deal, she said, "is a matter of security for us and for the entire world."

The crisis with Iran comes at a sensitive moment in the wider Middle East. B-52 bombers ordered by the White House on Sunday to deploy to the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified threats from Iran, began to arrive Thursday at a major American air base in Qatar.

Images released by the U.S. Air Force show B-52H Stratofortress bombers arriving at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Others landed at an undisclosed location Wednesday.

Israel, which has conducted pre-emptive bombings of nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria, has vowed to never allow Iran to obtain an atomic weapon.

The USS Abraham Lincoln on Thursday passed through the Suez Canal on its way to the Persian Gulf, according to Mohab Mameesh, the canal's authority chief. Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said the U.S. defense attache in Cairo, Gen. Ralph Groover, traveled to the Suez Canal area to check on the status of the U.S. warship.

The post EU rejects Iran ultimatum on nuke deal; US bombers land in Qatar appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The U.S. Air Force is deploying massive B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the Gulf in response to an alleged possible plan by Iran to attack American forces in the region, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Israel's Mossad intelligence agency warned the United States about a possible plot by Iran to attack U.S. interests in the Gulf before Washington announced it would send an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in a "clear and unmistakable" message to Iran, Israel's Channel 13 reported on Monday.

Several nuclear-capable B-52s are heading to the region along with an aircraft carrier task force following what the Defense Department called "recent and clear indications that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were making preparations to possibly attack U.S. forces."

"The deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force are considered a prudent step in response to indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against U.S. forces and our interests," said acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers in a statement.

"We emphasize the White House statement that we do not seek war with the Iranian regime, but we will defend U.S. personnel, our allies and our interests in the region."

Earlier on Monday, U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton announced that "in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region."

Details of the threat have not been disclosed, but Navy Captain Bill Urban, the spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command, which spans the Middle East, said the threat could be land-based or maritime.

Channel 13 cited Israeli officials that Bolton was warned about the possible Iranian plot in a meeting with Israel's national security adviser Meir Ben Shabbat in Washington two weeks ago. The official said that Mossad outlined a number of scenarios in which the Iranians would attack.

"It is still unclear to us what the Iranians are trying to do and how they are planning to do it, but it is clear to us that the Iranian temperature is on the rise as a result of the growing U.S. pressure campaign against them, and they are considering retaliating against U.S. interests in the Gulf," the official reportedly said.

The #B_Team is at it again: From announcements of naval movements (that actually occurred last month) to dire warnings about so-called "Iranian threats".
If US and clients don't feel safe, it's because they're despised by the people of the region— blaming Iran won't reverse that. pic.twitter.com/AZmHbJKOch

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 7, 2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said later on Monday that it was "absolutely the case" that the U.S. had seen "escalatory actions" from the Iranians.

"It is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests," Pompeo said.

But Iran said U.S. concerns in the Middle East stems from the fact that it is "despised by the people of the region— blaming Iran won't reverse that."

This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

The post Israel warned US about possible Iranian attack in Gulf: report appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last month the decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops who have deployed to Syria in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia in the fight against Islamic State.

The coalition "has begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria. Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troop movements," Col. Sean Ryan said.

Washington's Kurdish allies in northern Syria fear the withdrawal will open the way for Turkey to mount a long-threatened offensive against their area. Turkey views the dominant Syrian Kurdish groups as a national security threat.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton suggested on Tuesday that protecting the Kurds would be a precondition of the U.S. withdrawal, drawing a rebuke from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who called his comments "a serious mistake."

But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday the withdrawal would not be scuppered despite the Turkish threats.

The post US-led coalition announces start of Syria withdrawal appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Col. Muhanad al Talaa, commander of the Pentagon-backed Maghawir al Thawra group, told Reuters the eight days of drills that ended this week at the U.S. military outpost in Tanf were the first such exercises with live-fire air and ground assault, involving hundreds of U.S. troops and rebel fighters.

"These exercises have a big importance and have beefed up the defenses of the area and raised the combat capabilities and morale and that of civilians in the area," Talaa told Reuters by phone from Tanf, near Syria's borders with Jordan and Iraq.

A U.S. military spokesman said the exercises were a show of force and that the Pentagon had notified Moscow through "deconfliction" channels to prevent "miscommunication or escalate tension."

"The exercise was conducted to reinforce our capabilities and ensure we are ready to respond to any threat to our forces within our area of operations'" Col. Sean Ryan said.

Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly called on Washington to pull out its troops from Tanf base, where it has declared a 55 kilometer (35 mile) radius "deconfliction zone" off-limits to others.

Rebels say hundreds of U.S. marines arrived this month in Tanf to join special operations troops already based in the garrison and participate in the drills, amid heightened U.S.-Russian tensions in Syria and a naval buildup in the Mediterranean.

The "deconfliction zone" has become a safe haven for at least 50,000 civilians who live in the Rukban camp that lies within it. Russia's defense ministry in August repeated an accusation that Washington has been harboring Islamic State terrorists within the zone.

"We are staying whether the Russians or Iranians want or not," the rebel commander added.

The outpost, surrounded by desert, was established during the battles against Islamic State militants who used to control eastern Syria bordering Iraq.

After Islamic State were driven out, U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Iranian-backed militias on several occasions to prevent them advancing, in what Washington has described as self-defence.

Tanf lies on the strategic Damascus-Baghdad highway, once a major supply route for Iranian weapons into Syria.

This makes the base a bulwark against Iran and part of a larger campaign against Iran's military expansion in the Middle East.

Control of the area has long been a goal of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies.

Rebels say the U.S. military's new policy to bolster Tanf's capabilities is a big shift.

"The American position has changed completely towards the Iranians. Before it was just putting a line to the Iranians not to approach the areas," Talaa added.

Tehran's failure to end its military presence in Syria could provoke a U.S. military response, Talaa added.

"If Tehran does not respond to the demands of the Americans there is a big likelihood they will be hit. It's inevitable the Iranians leave Syria. This should happen quickly and in a decisive way," he added.

Turkey warned Thursday that any military operation in Syria's Idlib would bring disaster to the region.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said his country was working with Russia, Iran and allies to stabilize Idlib and to prevent a humanitarian tragedy there, Anadolu said.

Russian media reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will discuss Syria, Ukraine and Iran with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, in Berlin on Friday

The post US marines team with rebels in southern Syria in large exercise appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.