The United States waged a series of precision air strikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that it blamed for a major rocket attack a day earlier that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier.

The U.S. strikes appeared limited in scope and narrowly tailored, targeting five weapons storage facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah militants – including facilities used to store weaponry for past attacks on U.S.-led coalition troops, the Pentagon said.

Iraq’s military said in a statement that the U.S. air strikes hit four locations in Iraq.

The U.S. military did not estimate how many people in Iraq may have been killed in the strikes, which officials said were carried out by piloted aircraft.

But there no was no indication of the kind of high-profile killings that President Donald Trump authorized in January, when the United States targeted a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in a Pentagon statement detailing the strikes, cautioned that the United States was prepared to respond again, if needed.

“We will take any action necessary to protect our forces in Iraq and the region,” Esper said.

Trump had been quick to authorize the U.S. military to respond following Wednesday’s attack in Iraq, in which militants fired dozens of 107 mm Katyusha rockets from a truck, striking Iraq’s Taji military camp north of Baghdad.

Out of the roughly 30 rockets fired, some 18 hit the base. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

It was the third time in recent months the U.S. military lashed out against Kataib Hezbollah. It killed more than two dozen militants in December in response to an attack on an Iraqi base that killed a U.S. contractor. The U.S. military drone strike in January that targeted Soleimani also killed Kataib Hezbollah founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

It was unclear whether the latest strikes would deter the militants from further action. The rocket attack on Taji took place on what would have been Soleimani’s 63rd birthday, suggesting the militants were still looking for revenge.

Further attacks?

Dennis Ross, a former U.S. ambassador now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, cast doubt on the Pentagon’s ability to deter Kataib Hezbollah.

“Regrettably, these attacks on our forces will continue as Iran has no problem fighting to the last of the Shia militias and believe they can force us out of Iraq,” he said on Twitter.

Iran retaliated for the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani by launching missiles from its territory at an Iraq base hosting U.S. troops – leaving more than 100 U.S. forces with brain injuries.

In the latest attack, 14 U.S.-led coalition personnel were wounded, including American, British, Polish and other nationals. Private-industry contractors were among the wounded.

U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that five of the wounded were categorized as “urgent,” suggesting serious injuries that could require rapid medical evacuation.

The UK named its fallen service member as Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon. The United States has not yet identified the U.S. service members killed.

In a sign of concern that tensions between the United States and Iran could be headed toward open conflict, the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday to limit Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran.

The Republican president has been engaged in a maximum-pressure campaign of renewed sanctions and near-constant rhetoric against Iran, after pulling the United States out of the international nuclear deal reached during the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months.

Iran-backed paramilitary groups have regularly been rocketing and shelling bases in Iraq that host U.S. forces and the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Source: REUTERS

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in isolation for two weeks after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, and the outbreak prompted the province of Ontario to shutter schools to limit the spread.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau recently returned from London and experienced flu-like symptoms, so she was tested for the coronavirus, the prime minister’s office said earlier on Thursday. The test came back positive, it said in the evening.

“The Prime Minister is in good health with no symptoms. As a precautionary measure and following the advice of doctors, he will be in isolation for a planned period of 14 days,” an official statement said. Sophie will be in quarantine for 14 days.

“The Prime Minister will continue to fully assume his duties and will address Canadians tomorrow.”

In a personal note, Sophie said she was “experiencing uncomfortable symptoms of the virus,” adding that she “will be back on my feet soon”.

Canada reported 145 new case of the virus, a three-fold gain from a week ago. There has been one death. Seven of Canada’s 10 provinces have recorded infections.

Ontario, the most populous province, reported 17 new cases overnight, a 40% jump. To contain the virus, authorities ordered all schools to close from Saturday to April 5.

Globally, more than 127,000 people have been infected by the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19.

In a blow to hockey-obsessed Canadians, the National Hockey League suspended its season because of the outbreak, although it said its goal was to resume play “as soon as it is appropriate and prudent,” so teams can compete for the Stanley Cup championship.

With the Canadian dollar at a four-year low against its U.S. counterpart and stocks plunging, the Bank of Canada announced measures to inject liquidity into the market.

Working from home on Thursday, Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and joined a special cabinet meeting on the coronavirus by phone, his spokesman said on Twitter.

The Pacific province of British Columbia, north of Washington state, advised against all non-essential foreign travel, including to the United States. Washington is one of the worst-affected states.

Any warning that involves the United States is politically sensitive, given the two countries’ 5,525-mile (8,890-km) shared border and Canada’s overwhelming reliance on bilateral trade.

“This is really important … the evolving situation both in the United States and globally is a risk for all of us,” British Columbia’s provincial chief medical officer, Bonnie Henry, told reporters.

Alberta’s chief medical officer, Deena Hinshaw, banned gatherings of more than 250 people and canceled all international events. Hinshaw also discouraged foreign travel.

Quebec, which has recorded 13 cases, has banned all indoor events with more than 250 people and said people returning from any foreign country should self-isolate for 14 days. Health and education public-sector workers who travel abroad will be required to self-isolate.

Separately, Canadian authorities canceled the JUNO music awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys, and Toronto’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade was suspended.

Ottawa committed C$1 billion ($723 million) on Wednesday toward bolstering the healthcare system and limiting the impact of the virus, while Ontario said on Thursday it had set aside C$100 million in “contingency funding.”

On Thursday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the public health crisis alone would cost the country “well north of C$10 billion.”

Source: REUTERS

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications chief, who met Donald Trump last weekend at his Florida resort, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the government said Thursday.

Fabio Wajngarten, chief spokesman for the Brazilian government, traveled with Bolsonaro last Saturday to Tuesday to the United States, where the far-right leader — who has been dubbed a “Tropical Trump” — met with his US counterpart.

Wajngarten, who posted a picture to his Instagram account that shows him side-by-side with Trump, developed flu-like symptoms and tested positive for the virus that has become a global pandemic, the Brazilian presidency said in a statement.

Trump said he was unconcerned and downplayed his contact with “the press aide,” apparently referring to Wajngarten.

“I did hear something about that. We had dinner together in Florida, in Mar-a-Lago, with the entire delegation. I don’t know if the press aide was there. If he was there, he was there. But we did nothing very unusual,” he said.

“Let me put it this way, I’m not concerned,” he said, speaking a day after announcing a shock 30-day ban on travel from mainland Europe because of the pandemic.

Brazilian media reports said Bolsonaro had also been tested for the virus.

Newspaper O Globo reported that the US embassy in Brasilia had contacted the Brazilian government for information on Wajngarten’s test.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

The Brazilian president’s office “has taken and is taking all necessary preventive measures to protect the health of the president and all staff that traveled with him to the United States,” it said in a statement.

“This is because one of the officials in the group, Presidential Communications Secretary Fabio Wajngarten, is infected with the new coronavirus, COVID-19, as confirmed by a second test that was recently carried out.”

Bolsonaro, an admirer of Trump, met the US president at a lunch on Saturday.

After the meeting, Wajngarten posted a picture of himself standing next to Trump and wearing a hat reading “Make Brazil Great Again.”

In the picture, Trump, who is holding a similar hat, is standing next to Vice President Mike Pence.

Source:  AFP

President Donald Trump and Ireland’s visiting prime minister, Leo Varadkhar, had a “strange” moment Thursday when it came to the traditional handshake.

“We looked at each other. We said ‘What are we going to do?'” Trump said to laughter in the Oval Office at the White House.

No one shakes hands more than politicians, but the age of coronavirus is forcing them to rethink.

“It’s a very strange feeling,” Trump said, describing the moment he greeted Varadkhar for the traditional annual visit of Ireland’s leader ahead of Saint Patrick’s Day.

Trump openly admits he is a germaphobe and never liked shaking hands anyway, but said “once you become a politician, shaking hands is very normal.”

He joked that on his recent visit to India he’d avoided exposure because of the country’s tradition of clasping hands as a greeting.

India and Japan, which has a tradition of bowing, are “ahead of the curve,” Trump said.

However, during the two-day trip to India Trump was frequently seen shaking hands and even hugging Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Varadkhar said touchy feely politicians are just going to have to get used to it as long as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

“It feels impersonal, it feels like you’re being rude, but we just can’t afford to think like that for the next few weeks,” he said.

Source:  AFP

In Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, restaurants normally thronged with tourists hoping to sample some of its renowned sushi stand empty, victim of the coronavirus that is battering Japan’s tourism sector.

Cook Hiroshi Ota, 61, said nearly three-quarters of his customers in normal times are Chinese tourists, but they are kept away by new Japanese measures requesting everyone from China and South Korea self-quarantine for two weeks.

“It was normal until around December but after that, people stopped coming from China during the Lunar New Year. The streets and shops here are nearly empty,” he told AFP.

The tuna shop next to his restaurant has closed down temporarily as customers have dried up and operating costs remain high, he said. All around, shops normally packed for lunchtime service have lowered their corrugated iron shutters.

Noriko Suzuki, a 63-year-old selling sea urchins and oysters at the market, said: “I haven’t seen a single person on the street this morning,” complaining of a “sharp drop” in customers, especially from China, since the outbreak of the virus.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a target of 40 million tourists to visit Japan in 2020, as the country gears up to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

But the coronavirus that has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide, including more than 500 in Japan, has dampened tourism around the world and even cast a question mark over the Games themselves.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, visitors from South Korea and China made up about half of all inbound tourists in 2018, the latest available figures.

Tourism had already dropped significantly from South Korea — down 64 percent in November 2019 compared to the same period the year before — as Tokyo and Seoul became embroiled in a spat over trade and Japan’s war-time history.

– ‘Huge impact’ –

Chinese and Korean tourists “have disappeared” from the street, said one woman selling food at Senso-ji, a temple in Tokyo that is one of the capital’s biggest tourism draws.

The usually packed streets are much quieter than usual with “less than half” the usual number of tourists, said a vendor at a travel bag shop on the street leading up to the temple.

“We have to live with this for the time being but the media should not get too excited about the virus. It generates a negative feeling and also affects businesses that are doing fine,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.

On the northern island of Hokkaido, tourism has “dropped significantly” because of the coronavirus outbreak, said Masahi Isobe, from the local tourism office.

“Chinese tourists account for more than one quarter of foreign travellers to Hokkaido. With the government measures, there will be no Chinese or Korean visitors here and this will make a huge impact,” she told AFP.

Source:  AFP

Empty public squares, a ghostly train station and deserted holy sites — a series of striking satellite images have revealed the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on some of the world’s busiest spaces.

The aerial photographs, released by Colorado-based space technology firm Maxar, show normally bustling spots from Mecca to Beijing thinned of people.

One image shows a handful of pilgrims circling the granite Kaaba at Mecca’s Grand Mosque — a sacred site usually thronged with worshippers from every corner of the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabian authorities have suspended the year-round “umrah” pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest place, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus which has killed more than 3,000 people worldwide.

An image above the Hazrat Masumeh Shrine in Qom shows one of Iran’s most hallowed places virtually empty as its famed golden dome shimmers in the sunlight.

Streets and courtyards around the shrine are similarly vacant.

Photos above Wuhan, China — the epicentre of the global outbreak — show dozens of trains parked up at the city’s deserted Dongdamen Station.

With the city under lockdown and virtually cut off from the outside world since January 23, the usually bustling station has been transformed into a make-shift depot.

Elsewhere, Tiananmen square lives up to its name as the Gate of Heavenly Peace, with only a couple of dozen cars passing by and no pedestrians to be seen.

Source:  AFP

Taliban militants killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, government officials told AFP Wednesday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” chat with their political chief.

The militants have ramped up violence against Afghan security forces in recent days, ending a partial truce put in place during the run-up to a landmark US-Taliban withdrawal deal signed in Doha on Saturday.

“Taliban fighters attacked at least three army outposts in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz last night, killing at least 10 soldiers and four police,” said Safiullah Amiri, a member of the provincial council.

A defence ministry official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the army toll, while the provincial police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari confirmed the police fatalities.

The insurgents also attacked police in central Uruzgan province Tuesday night, with the governor’s spokesman Zergai Ebadi telling AFP: “Unfortunately, six police were killed and seven wounded.”

The violence has cast a pall on the nascent Afghan peace process, with the insurgents clashing with Kabul over a prisoner exchange ahead of talks that are due to begin on March 10.

On Tuesday Trump told reporters in Washington that he had a “very good” relationship with Taliban political chief Mullah Baradar, with the pair speaking on the phone for 35 minutes, according to the insurgents.

“The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah. We had a good long conversation today and you know, they want to cease the violence, they’d like to cease violence also,” he said.

Trump has touted the Doha deal as a way to end the bloody, 18-year US military presence in Afghanistan — right in time for his November re-election bid.

Under the terms of the deal, US and other foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with the national government in Kabul.

The agreement also includes a commitment to exchange 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government in return for 1,000 captives — something the militants have cited as a prerequisite for talks but which President Ashraf Ghani has refused to do before negotiations start.

– ‘Common interest’ –

Trump said the Taliban and Washington both “have a very common interest” in ending the war.

He had sharper words for Ghani’s government, however, suggesting they might be “reluctant” to pursue a deal.

“They’ve done very well with the United States for many years — far beyond military if you look at all the money that we spent in Afghanistan,” he said.

Since Saturday’s deal signing, the Taliban have been publicly claiming “victory” over the US and on Monday they announced they would resume attacks on Afghan national forces.

The halt to the limited truce, which began on February 22, ended what was a welcome reprieve for ordinary Afghans who have born the brunt of the deadly violence.

Ghani’s government last week sent a delegation to Qatar to open “initial contacts” with the insurgents, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on Tuesday said the militants would not meet Kabul’s representatives except to discuss the release of their captives.

Apparent differences between the Doha agreement and a separate joint US-Afghan declaration made in Afghanistan underline the obstacles facing negotiators.

The US-Taliban deal committed to the release of prisoners, while the Kabul document only required both sides to determine “the feasibility of releasing” captives.

Source: AFP

American documentary filmmaker and author Michael Moore suggests President Donald Trump is worse than the coronavirus, arguing science could cure the illness, while Trump has created a “false ignorance” by spreading misinformation.

On Friday, Trump lashed out at the American news media and Democrats, saying they are unfairly criticizing his response to the coronavirus. “This is their new hoax,” the president said.

“If you have the president telling people it’s a hoax — that there’s nothing to worry about, that it will disappear as he said yesterday, and it’ll be a miracle … which is more dangerous? The virus or a president who says that,” Moore told MSNBC anchor Brian Williams Friday.

On Saturday, health officials said a man in the Washington State in his 50s became the United States’ first fatality from the coronavirus. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said there were at least 71 confirmed or presumptive positive coronavirus cases in the United States.

Nevertheless, Trump later on the same day told Americans that there was “no need to panic,” defending calling the crisis a “hoax.”

Asked at a news conference whether the language he had used was wrong, he said, “No no no. ‘Hoax’ referring to the action they take to try and pin this on somebody, because we’ve done such a good job.”

Moore told Williams that the president’s statement was “the most dangerous thing” he had ever heard, asking what kind of “apparatus do we have to arrest — not arrest as in handcuffs — but to arrest the enforced ignorance that he is propagating here.”

Trump has been accused of downplaying the threat of the virus by Democrats and some health experts.

Concerns have grown over the past week as the virus started to spread deeper into the country.

Trump has tapped Vice President Mike Pence to lead the administration’s response to the coronavirus. Pence has announced a series of new travel restrictions in order to help limit the spread.

The current travel ban on Iran will be extended and now includes foreign nationals who have traveled there over the previous 14 days, while Washington’s warning against travel to areas of Italy and South Korea will be strengthened.

Source: Presstv

Melania Trump isn’t exactly the most public US First Lady we’ve seen in recent administrations, and we know almost no details about her life other than that she was a model and then married Donald Trump. To many Americans, she seems like the loneliest person in the White House right now, but she does have one person she can always count on—her sister, Ines Knauss.

Knauss is a few years older than Melania and lived near the Trumps on Park Avenue. She’s an artist and fashion designer.

Shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated, the New York Post referred to Knauss as “the older sister nobody knows” and Town & Country called her the “secret sister.”

But for a member of the Trump family, the first lady chooses to be a lot more private online than, say, Donald Trump himself or his children. Despite her relative secrecy, Melania Trump still mentioned her sister in her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016. The now-first lady said Knauss was “an incredible woman and a friend.”

According to the Express, Ines Knauss obtained her citizenship last year, around the same time Melania’s parents obtained their citizenship.

Of course there are many questions about how Melania received her visa when she originally moved to the US, as the first lady obtained the “Einstein” visa for “extraordinary ability.”

While we can’t expect everyone in Donald Trump’s orbit to be an enthusiastic Twitter user, it’s hard to stress just how little is known for sure about Knauss. In fact, the same half dozen or so facts about her are written into almost relevant every article.

Ines does have an open Instagram account, but it appears she only posts photos of Melania and Barron from gossip magazines.

First, the New York Post confirmed via property records in 2017 that Knauss lived in a Trump Organization-owned Penthouse near Melania Trump. Town & Country reported that it’s the same building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that daughter and special adviser Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner lived in prior to their move to Washington, D.C. It’s unclear if Knauss still lives there now that Melania Trump has moved to Washington, D.C.

Next, she frequently shares vintage (the ’90s are now retro!) photos of Melania Trump on Facebook. After the New York Post published a get-to-know-her report on the first lady’s sister, she appeared to remove a few public posts, but some are still visible. Knauss’ Twitter account also seems to be private.

What is really impressive is that for all the professional photos of Melania Trump in photo services like Getty or the Associated Press, there seems to only be one of Knauss from 2005, seen here in Town & Country. In it, she’s pictured with her sister as well as Palm Beach philanthropist Audrey Gruss. “They are very close,” Gruss told the New York Post when they met at a fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago resort. “She struck me as a lovely person, and extremely creative.”

Speaking of Mar-a-Lago, CNN reports that Knauss served as Melania Trump’s maid of honor when she wed Donald Trump at the resort in 2005.

As Town & Country reported, the sisters were born with the last name Knavs and grew up together in Slovenia. They moved to Milan, Italy together in the early 1990s, where Ines wanted to break into fashion design while Melania was beginning to model – the career path that would lead her to meet her future husband.

“She really wanted to be in fashion but didn’t know how to break in,” Paris-based photographer Ale de Basseville told the New York Post. “Ines wasn’t like the other girls you would meet there, who behave like queens. She was really polite and very mellow.”

It’s reported that Ines Knauss is now an artist. Melania Trump has previously shared her sister’s pencil-based sketches on Twitter.

It’s a rare accomplishment to be in the Trump orbit and have so little publicity surrounding you, but Knauss has managed to retain a relatively large amount of privacy.

(Source: Political Flare)