The Cause Of Helicopter Mishap Injuring 22 US Troops In Syria Unclear
Twenty-two US servicemen were injured in a helicopter "mishap" in Syria on Sunday, the US military said late Monday, without disclosing the cause of the incident.
Twenty-two US servicemen were injured in a helicopter "mishap" in Syria on Sunday, the US military said late Monday, without disclosing the cause of the incident.
The US military's Central Command said 10 service members were evacuated to higher-level care facilities outside the region, without detailing the severity of the injuries.
Central Command, which oversees US troops in the Middle East, said no enemy fire was reported but added that the cause of the incident was under investigation.
There are about 900 US personnel deployed to Syria, most of them in the east, as part of a mission fighting the remnants of Islamic State. American troops there have come under repeated attacks in recent years by Iran-backed militia.
In March, 25 troops were wounded in strikes and counter-strikes in Syria, which also killed one US contractor and injured another.
While Islamic State is now a shadow of the group that ruled over a third of Syria and Iraq in a caliphate declared in 2014, hundreds of fighters are still camped in desolate areas where neither the US-led coalition nor the Syrian army, with support from Russia and Iranian-backed militias, exert full control.
Thousands of other Islamic State fighters are in detention facilities guarded by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America's key ally in the country.
US officials say that Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat.
The threats from Iran-backed militia to US forces are a reminder of the complex geopolitics of Syria, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad counts on support from Iran and Russia and sees American troops as occupiers.
Reporting by Reuters
The 84-year-old authoritarian ruler told his top officials this week that a deal with the West on the nuclear issue can be accepted only if it does not adversely affect the country's nuclear infrastructure.
Mehdi Zakerian, an outspoken academic and a critic of Iran's policies on nuclear negotiations, reiterated in an interview with Rouydad24 that "the behavior of successive governments in Iran have no impact on foreign policy" as those policies are determined elsewhere, meaning by Khamenei. He had said the same the night before in a debate with hardliner academic Foad Izadi on live state TV.
Meanwhile, he added in the interview that people should not pay any attention to allusions about "beggars’ diplomacy." The only person who had used that expression in reference to the Rouhani administration's more pragmatic approach to nuclear negotiations was no one other than Khamenei.
Zakerian argued that key decisions in Iran are made on case-by-case basis, despite lofty statements, and sometimes it seems the government undermines its own previous decisions.
He said the government should acknowledge that the pressure of sanctions was the main reason why the Islamic Republic succumbed to a nuclear deal in the first place. He had said on TV that it was Iran's behavior that led former US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the JCPOA.
Zakerian made it clear that in the Iranian political structure major decisions are always made by Khamenei, and no Iranian official is entitled to make any decision or statement on his own on important issues.
He added that public opinion in Iran has a limited impact which was most clearly observed during the presidential elections in 2013 and 2017. Having elected the more pragmatic Hassan Rouhani, the outcome in the end was the same.
At the same time, referring to the country's difficult situation under President Ebrahim Raisi, conservative newspaper Jomhouri Eslami warned that Iran's political and economic situation is becoming increasingly similar to the last days of the Soviet Union where rich leaders had no idea what was happening to the poor nation.
The daily wrote in its editorial on Sunday that Iranian leaders should take a lesson from the fate of the Soviet Union, a system that had denied the people political freedom. The editorial pointed out the similarities between the Soviet Union that was founded based on the idea of equality but ended up being plagued by discriminations, and the Islamic Republic which was based on the idea of religion and social justice but created a social class of ‘nouveau riches’ managerial cadres. This new class, wrote the paper, undermines the constitution and benefits the insiders.
The daily warned that unlike North Korea, the people of Iran will not tolerate a closed system and a new social class of exceptionally and unjustifiably privileged minority who rule the nation.
Also speaking on the nuclear issue, lawmaker Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi told Khabar Online that the hard-line lawmakers who set fire to copies of the 2015 nuclear deal in the previous parliament should be put on trial for what they did. Jahanabadi described them as "a loud minority that create all sorts of trouble for the nation." He further asked Iran's moderates: "Why don't you stand up against this minority?"
However, Jahanabadi failed to observe that although the opponents of the JCPOA comprise a minority in Iran, they hold most seats in parliament. However, he warned that "The nation has lost its patience while moderate politicians are silently hoping for a miracle…They left no future for us or for our children.”