Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia hold the picture of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, as they gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia hold the picture of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, as they gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia hold the picture of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, as they gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia hold the picture of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, as they gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed

How Qassem Suleimani provoked the US with covert attacks in Iraq


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A series of attacks on US military targets in Iraq late last year were part of a plan orchestrated by Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian general killed in a US strike on Friday, to provoke an American response.

At a strategy meeting in mid-October, Suleimani, 62, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on US targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.

The meeting was held at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the US embassy complex in Baghdad, and came as mass protests against the government and Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum.

Suleimani’s plan was to provoke a US military response that would redirect people's anger towards the United States, according to the sources, Iraqi Shiite politicians and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The plan appeared to have worked when the US launched air strikes against the Kataib Hezbollah militia at several locations in Iraq and Syria on December 29, killing 25 people, after a rocket attack that killed a US civilian contractor at a base in Kirkuk.

Two days later, crowds attacked the US embassy and vandalised the wall and structures on its perimeter.

Ultimately, Suleimani’s efforts ended up provoking the US attack that killed him and Muhandis, the head of Kataib Hezbollah, as their convoy left Baghdad airport.

Interviews with the Iraqi security sources and Shiite militia commanders offer a rare glimpse of how Suleimani operated in Iraq, which he once told a Reuters reporter he knew like the back of his hand.

Two weeks before the October meeting, Suleimani ordered the Revolutionary Guard to move more sophisticated weapons – such as Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down helicopters – to Iraq through two border crossings.

At the Baghdad villa, the Iraqi general told the assembled Iraqi commanders to form a new militia group of low-profile paramilitaries – unknown to the US – who could carry out rocket attacks on Americans housed at Iraqi military bases.

Suleimani ordered Kataib Hezbollah – a force founded by Muhandis and trained in Iran – to direct the new plan. He told them such a group “would be difficult to detect by the Americans,” one of the militia sources told Reuters.

Even before the attacks, the US intelligence community had reason to believe that Suleimani was involved in “late stage” planning to strike Americans in several countries, including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, US officials told Reuters Friday.

One senior US official said Suleimani had supplied advanced weaponry to Kataib Hezbollah.

White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien told reporters on Friday that Suleimani had just come from Damascus, “where he was planning attacks on American soldiers, airmen, Marines, sailors and against our diplomats”.

A Revolutionary Guard official declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry was not available for comment.

The US has grown increasingly concerned about Iran's influence over the ruling elite in Iraq, which has been beset for months by protesters who accuse the government of enriching itself and serving the interests of foreign powers, especially Iran, as Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs or basic services.

Suleimani was instrumental in expanding Iran's military influence in the Middle East as the operative who handled clandestine operations outside Iran. He was regarded as the second-most powerful figure in Iran after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Muhandis, a former Iraqi MP, oversaw Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella grouping of paramilitary forces mostly consisting of Iran-backed Shiite militias that was formally integrated into Iraq’s armed forces.

Muhandis, like Suleimani, had long been on the radar of the US, which had declared him a terrorist. In 2007, a Kuwaiti court sentenced him to death in absentia for his involvement in the 1983 US and French embassy bombings in Kuwait.

Suleimani picked Kataib Hezbollah to lead the attacks on US forces in the region because it had the capability to use drones to scout targets for Katyusha rocket attacks, one of the militia commanders told Reuters.

Among the weapons that Suleimani's forces supplied to its Iraqi militia allies last fall was a drone Iran had developed that could elude radar systems, the militia commanders said.

Kataib Hezbollah used the drones to gather aerial footage of locations where US troops were deployed, according to two Iraqi security officials who monitor the movements of militias.

On December 11, a senior US military official said attacks by Iranian-backed groups on bases hosting US forces in Iraq were increasing and becoming more sophisticated, pushing all sides closer to an uncontrollable escalation.

His warning came two days after four Katyusha rockets struck a base near Baghdad international airport, wounding five members of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack but a US military official said intelligence and forensic analyses of the rockets and launchers pointed to Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups, notably Kataib Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl Al Haq.

On December 27, more than 30 rockets were fired at an Iraqi military base near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk. The attack killed a US civilian contractor and wounded four American and two Iraq servicemen.

Washington accused Kataib Hezbollah of carrying out the attack, an allegation it denied. The US launched air strikes against the militia two days later, leading to the attack on its embassy.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi

Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe

For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.

Golden Dallah

For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.

Al Mrzab Restaurant

For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.

Al Derwaza

For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup. 

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food

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Where to buy art books in the UAE

There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.

In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show. 

In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.

In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

MATCH INFO

Champions League quarter-final, first leg

Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)

Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports

The Facility’s Versatility

Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
 
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
 
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
 
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
 
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
 
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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2019 ASIA CUP POTS

Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia

Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand

Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam

Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan

FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.

What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets