Latest news with #USCENTCOM
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
12 House Democratic veterans announce support for war powers resolution
A dozen House Democrats who are veterans announced support for a war powers resolution in the wake of recent U.S. strikes against Iran. 'We write firstmost as Patriots who love our country. Each and every one of us wore the uniform with pride. Each and every one of us was ready and willing to lay down our lives to protect our fellow Americans, and to support and defend our Constitution,' a Monday letter from the group of Democrats reads. 'With that in mind, we want to thank our troops for their bravery, from the B-2 pilots to those stationed across the USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility. We also write as Veterans.' The letter, addressed to President Trump, features the signatures of Democratic Reps. Pat Ryan (N.Y.), Gil Cisneros (Calif.), Eugene Vindman (Va.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Bobby Scott (Va.), Jimmy Panetta (Calif.), Derek Tran (Calif.), Herb Conaway (N.J.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), Salud Carbajal (Calif.) and Ted Lieu (Calif.). President Trump announced Saturday that the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, stepping into the conflict between Iran and Israel that began earlier this month. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a war powers resolution last week that would require Trump to end 'the use' of U.S. armed forces in Iran without congressional approval. 'We must continue to stand strongly with our Israeli allies — including active and robust support for the defense of the state of Israel and its people, as we have for decades. But we must be very clear; American-led, offensive military operations against Iran — including Saturday night's preventive air strikes — are different,' the lawmakers said in their letter. 'We all swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Article 1 Section 8 explicitly requires a vote by Congress to declare war. In recognition of that clear and sacred Constitutional duty, we will all be supporting a War Powers Resolution,' the group added. When reached for comment, the White House noted a post from Trump on his Truth Social account. 'It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,' Trump said in the post. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Print
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Trump says Iran & Israel agree to ceasefire, hours after Tehran targeted US base in Qatar
The American President added: 'Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL.' 'CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!),' Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. New Delhi: US President Donald J. Trump late Monday evening claimed that Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire to end their roughly 12 days of conflict. However, it remains unclear whether hostilities have actually ceased—Tel Aviv has yet to issue a statement, while Iranian state media has announced a ceasefire. It had said earlier that Iran would halt its strikes if Israel stopped its military operations. A few hours before Trump's post on social media, Iran launched missiles at the Al-Udeid base in Qatar, which is home to US CENTCOM as a part of a measured retaliation to the American strikes on its three nuclear facilities—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—late Saturday evening. Trump in a separate post on Truth Social said that Tehran had given the US early notice of its intention to strike the Al-Udeid base. At both Fordow and Natanz, the US used ground penetrating missiles, also called bunker busters, in an attempt to destroy the underground facilities. Fordow is considered to be Iran's most fortified enrichment facility, which was beyond the capabilities of the Israeli military to hit. Earlier, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, had rejected Trump's statement of a ceasefire between Tel Aviv and Tehran. However, in a separate post he indicated that until 4 am Tehran time, the Iranian armed forces continued to carry out operations against Israel. 'As of now, there is NO 'agreement' on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations. However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards,' said Araghchi in his first statement. The Iranian Foreign Minister later added: 'The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute, at 4 am. Together with all Iranians, I thank our brave Armed Forces who remain ready to defend our dear country until their last drop of blood, and who responded to any attack by the enemy until the very last minute.' According to reports, sirens continued blaring across some parts of Israel, indicating that its defence forces were still intercepting Iran's missiles. However, Tel Aviv, has made no public comment yet on the halting of its military operations against Iran. Iranian state media has announced the ceasefire. On 13 June, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting Iran's nuclear facilities, while also killing a large number of Tehran's military leadership. Later that day, Iran launched its own Operation True Promise 3, targeting Israel with ballistic missiles. For over 12 days, the two West Asian nations continued military action against one another. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had throughout the conflict urged the Iranian people to remove Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei from power. The Iranian strike at the US base in Qatar, is not the first time that Tehran gave notice to Washington before launching its missiles. In 2020, after Qassem Soleimani, the chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was assassinated by the US in Baghdad, Tehran had launched a calibrated strike against the Americans in Iraq. (Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri) Also read: What the US Constitution says about president's powers over the military & declaration of war
The Hill
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
12 House Democrat veterans announce support for war powers resolution
A dozen House Democrats, who are veterans, announced support for a war powers resolution in the wake of recent U.S. strikes against Iran. 'We write firstmost as Patriots who love our country. Each and every one of us wore the uniform with pride. Each and every one of us was ready and willing to lay down our lives to protect our fellow Americans, and to support and defend our Constitution,' a Monday letter from the group of Democrats reads. 'With that in mind, we want to thank our troops for their bravery, from the B-2 pilots to those stationed across the USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility. We also write as Veterans.' The letter, addressed to President Trump, features the signatures of Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Derek Tran (D-Calif.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). President Trump announced Saturday that the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, stepping into a conflict between Iran and Israel that began earlier this month. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a war powers resolution last week that would tell Trump to end 'the use' of U.S armed forces from Iran except if Congress allows for that involvement. 'We must continue to stand strongly with our Israeli allies — including active and robust support for the defense of the state of Israel and its people, as we have for decades. But we must be very clear; American-led, offensive military operations against Iran — including Saturday night's preventive air strikes — are different,' the lawmakers said in their letter. 'We all swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Article 1 Section 8 explicitly requires a vote by Congress to declare war. In recognition of that clear and sacred Constitutional duty, we will all be supporting a War Powers Resolution,' the group added. When reached for comment, the White House noted a post from Trump on his Truth Social account. 'It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE,' Trump said in the post.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
One number could define the Iran-Israel conflict's outcome
The outcome of the defining conflict between Iran and Israel may depend on one simple number, which is at very best a rough estimate. Israeli military data and expert analysis say Iran has fired about 700 of its medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM) at Israel over the past 14 months, leaving it with anything between 300 to 1,300 left in its stockpile. This remaining arsenal is subject to Israel's fierce air assault of the past five days, with the IDF saying it has targeted at least a third of the surface-to-surface launchers that fire MRBMs, possibly further reducing Iran's ability to strike back at Israel. The depletion of its arsenal may compound Iran's desire to negotiate its way out of the conflict and also intensify the ferocity of the Israeli campaign in the coming days, analysts have said, as Israeli airpower finds itself almost unchallenged and Iran's nightly assaults on Israeli cities seem recently to have ebbed. Few reliable estimates for Iran's stockpile exist, although US CENTCOM's commander General Kenneth McKenzie said in 2023 that they had more than 3,000 missiles of different ranges. Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said likely 1,000 to 2,000 of these were medium-range, capable of spanning the 1,400 kilometers between Iran and Israel. He called the estimate 'at best a back-of-the-envelope calculation.' According to the IDF, Iran used 120 MRBMs in its April 13 attack last year on Israel, another 200 on October 1, and a total of 380 in the past five days. This tally would deplete its overall known arsenal by a total of 700. But whether it leaves Tehran with an existential crisis over its missile deterrence depends on both the size of its initial stockpile, and what damage Israel has done to Iran's military infrastructure, since it began striking across the country on Friday. Ben Taleblu suggested this might leave Iran with 1,300 MRBMs. Other estimates were more pessimistic. Dr. Eyal Pinko, a retired Israeli naval intelligence officer, now a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said: 'Taking into consideration that they fired around 400 to 500 in the last four days and Israel destroyed some of the arsenal of what they had, I believe they have now 800 to 700.' The few glimpses of the damage done to Iran's air defenses and missile production from Israeli strikes on October 26 have revealed a significant toll. Admiral Tony Radakin, the UK's Chief of the Defence Staff, said in a December speech that 100 Israeli aircraft had fired as many missiles from as many miles away and 'took down nearly the entirety of Iran's air defense system. It has destroyed Iran's ability to produce ballistic missiles for a year.' But recently Israel has amplified the threat that Iran's missile production poses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, as Israel launched its air campaign, that Iran had sped up its manufacture of ballistic missiles to 300 a month, which could leave them with 20,000 in six years. He did not provide evidence for the claim. Pinko said the 2024 strikes had 'destroyed the main facilities for manufacturing ballistic missiles motors' in Iran, creating severe limitations to the country's supply chain. Still, he notes that potential assistance from China in the coming months could boost production again. Iran would not want its arsenal of MRBMs to sink 'below four digits,' said Ben Taleblu. 'For the Islamic Republic, quantity has a quality of its own,' he said, adding that Iran excels 'in crisis management but is actually a poor conventional warfighter. And having to expend these ballistic missiles during a time of war, rather than a time of crisis precisely puts it in this bind.'
Hindustan Times
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
US military announces detention of Islamic State leader
US military officials announced Wednesday the detention of an Islamic State group leader during international coalition operations in Iraq and Syria which also killed two other operatives. US Central Command wrote on X that the operations, conducted from May 21 to 27, "served to disrupt and degrade" IS's ability to "reconstitute, plan, organize and conduct attacks against civilians and US and partner forces in the region." In the course of supporting six operations in the ongoing campaign, five in Iraq and one in Syria, the US military reported two IS operatives were killed, two were detained including an IS leader and multiple weapons were recovered. "Operations like these underscore the commitment of USCENTCOM, along with our allies and partners, to the enduring defeat of ISIS in the region," USCENTCOM Commander Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement. The operations in Iraq were carried out by Iraqi forces in the north, where IS cells have remained active and carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq's army and police. IS in 2014 declared a "caliphate" after capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria, beginning a rule marked by atrocities. Iraqi forces backed by the international coalition defeated IS in late 2017. The group lost its last territory in Syria two years later. The group has, however, maintained a presence in Syria's northeast where it notably targets Kurdish-led forces, and in Iraq it largely carries out attacks in rural areas. About 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq, which now considers its security forces capable of confronting the jihadists. The US and Iraq announced in late September that the international coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq within a year, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region. During his recent Gulf tour, US President Donald Trump met with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia and announced lifting sanctions on Syria. sla/jgc
