The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political organisation in the United Kingdom.
Hadi al-Ameri is the head and secretary general of the Badr Organization, a Shiite organization, considered terrorist by the United States, sponsored by Iran and based in Iraq. Born in Diyala province in 1954. A member of the United Iraqi Alliance, he heads the Shiite political organization Badr and his armed group, the Badr Brigade.
The Quds Force is a unit in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization roughly analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Yemeni Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death in 2020, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. In his later years, he was considered the second most powerful person in Iran behind Ayatollah Khamenei. and his right-hand man.
Naim Qassem is a Shia Lebanese cleric and politician, who was the second-in-command of Hezbollah with the title of deputy secretary-general.
A drone strike is an attack by one or more unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism that aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp".
Following the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) into northern Iraq in mid-2014, Iran began to provide military aid to counter the militant advance. Iran provided technical advisers to the Iraqi government and weapons to the Kurdish peshmerga. Several sources, among them Reuters, believe that since mid-June 2014, Iranian combat troops are in Iraq, which Iran denies. Two US sources contend that in June or July 2014 Iran started an air war against ISIL.
PragerU, short for Prager University, is an American non-profit organization that creates videos on various political, economic and philosophical topics from an American conservative or right-wing perspective. The organization was co-founded by talk show host and writer Dennis Prager and Allen Estrin. The videos are posted on YouTube and usually feature a speaker who lectures for about five minutes. The organization relies on donations, and much of its early funding came from fracking billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks.
Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim, known by the kunya Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, also spelled Mohandes, was an Iraqi politician and military commander. At the time of his death, he was deputy chief of the Popular Mobilisation Committee. The organisations he oversaw have been reported to have close links to the Quds Force, part of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The 2019–20 Persian Gulf crisis, also known as the Iranian–American confrontation and the Crisis in the Gulf, is an intensification of military tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America in the Persian Gulf region. The U.S. began a buildup of its military presence in the region to deter an alleged planned campaign by Iran and its non-state allies to attack American forces and interests in the Persian Gulf and Iraq. This followed a rise in political tensions between the two countries during the Trump administration, which included the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the imposition of new sanctions against Iran, and the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. In response, Iran designated the United States Central Command as a terrorist organization.
The funeral of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was held from 4 to 7 January 2020 in some cities in Iraq and Iran – including Baghdad, Karbala, Najaf, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tehran, Qom, and his hometown Kerman. The funeral ceremony of Soleimani in Tehran was described as "the largest in Iran since the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini", founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in 1989.
On 3 January 2020, a United States drone strike near Baghdad International Airport targeted and killed Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while he was planned to meet Iraqi PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad. Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force—which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain—and was considered the second most powerful person of Iran, subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Nine others were killed alongside Soleimani, including Iranian and Iraqi nationals such as deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and commander of the Iran-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis—a designated terrorist in the U.S. and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Esmail Qaani is an Iranian Brigadier General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and commander of its Quds Force — a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei appointed Qaani as Commander of the Quds Force on 3 January 2020 after General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a targeted U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.
Events in the year 2020 in Iran.
Events in the year 2020 in Iraq.
The US military's 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, which killed the high-level Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, brought strong reactions from around the world. Some governments welcomed the killing, while some condemned it. Most called for restraint and diplomacy.
Abdulreza Shahlai is an Iranian military officer with the rank of Brigadier General who serves in the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In December 2019, Iraq and the United States began discussing the partial withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq. In January 2020, following an escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, the Iraqi Council of Representatives voted to expel all foreign troops from their country, including American and Iranian troops. Following the vote, U.S. President Donald Trump initially refused to withdraw from Iraq. In March 2020, the American-led coalition began the transfer of bases back to Iraqi security forces. As of April 4, 2020, four bases have been transferred. Certain troops have also been withdrawn due to the coronavirus pandemic in Iraq.
