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BREAKING NEWS: Egypt Seizes Control of Bab-El-Mandab ahead of Iran under Saudi Royal AirForce Cover

Thursday, March 26, 2015 7:44
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(Before It's News)

As of the writing of these lines it seems like the Iranian takeover of the Bab el Mandeb global oil choke point was averted at the last-minute by the Egyptian marines who landed there under the cover of the Saudi air-force. Iran also suffered a humiliating defeat in Tikrit, Iraq by ISIS forces, which prompted the Americans to provide air support to the Iranian forces on the ground in Iraq. The Iranian offensive in Southern Syria is also going nowhere at this point. The entire Middle-East is revolting against the Obama-Khamenei axis of evil and its attempt to elevate Iran to regional hegemony.

Developing…

***

Debka File

In a surprise step, Egyptian marine naval and marine forces Thursday morning, March 26, seized control of the strategic Bab El-Mandeb Straits to foil Tehran’s plans to grab this important energy shipping gateway between the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal, DEBKAfile’s military sources report from the Gulf.

Egypt disguised the raid as a counter-piracy operation. It rounded off the Saudi-led air strikes launched the same morning against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. These operations signaled the start of a major Sunni Arab revolt against Iran’s approaching takeover of Yemen, through its Houthi proxy, and advances in other strategic positions in the Middle East, with Washington’s support.
Thursday morning too, the US launched the US launched its first air strikes against Islamic State positions in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, rallying to the aid of the Iranian-commanded Iraqi operation, which had failed to dislodge the jihadis in two weeks of fighting.

The separate operations in Yemen and Iraq attested to the widening breach between the Sunni Arab camp and the Obama administration and the former’s resolve to thwart US strategy for buying a nuclear deal with Tehran by empowering Iran to attain the rank of leading Middle East power.
DEBKAfile reported earlier Thursday morning:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are now leading war action in four Mid East arenas: Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon,while building Shiite “popular” armies deferring to Tehran in three: Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The formal announcements coming from Riyadh and Washington attempted to gloss over the open breach. The Saudis Wednesday indicated that their military buildup on the Yemeni was “purely defensive,” while Washington subsequently declared support for the Saudi-Gulf-Egyptian air strikes after they began.

According to our Washington sources, President Obama decided Wednesday to accede to the Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi’s request for air support to de-stall the Tikrit operation against ISIS. Iran’s Al Qods Brigades chief, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who commanded the operation from the start has departed the scene.

Nothing has been said to indicate whether the Iranian forces, including Revolutionary Guards officers, remain in the area. It appears that the Obama administration prefers as little as possible to be mentioned about US-Iranian battlefield coordination in Iraq versus the Islamists, especially since it was not exactly a big success. At the same time, US air strikes launched to support ground forces are bound to be coordinated with their commanders, who in this case happen to be mostly Iranian. In the last two weeks of the Tikrit operation, liaison between the US and Iranian military in Iraq was routed through the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister in Baghdad.

Early Thursday, Riyadh reported that the Saudi Royal Air Force had taken out Houthi air defenses, destroyed numerous Houthi fighter planes and were imposing a wide no-fly zone over Yemen.

Egypt is providing political and military support for Saudi-GCC operation against Houthi fighters in Yemen, the Egyptian state news agency said Thursday. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying this support could involve Egyptian air, naval and ground forces, if necessary.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add: The Saudis declared Yemeni air space a no-fly zone to achieve to goals: (1) To deny the Yemeni forces advancing on the key port city of Aden access to air cover which would undoubtedly have been forthcoming from mutinous elements of the Yemeni air force. Without it, the rebel advance would be severely hobbled, and, (2) to prevent Iranian warplanes from landing at Yemeni air bases with deliveries of military equipment and ammunition  their Houthi proxies.

Gulf sources disclose that Saudi Arabia has placed 100 warplanes and 150,000 troops with heavy weapons at the disposal of the operation against Iran’s Yemeni proxy, the Zaydi Houthis, as well as pressing into service Pakistani, Moroccan and Jordanian military units. This force is a sign that Riyadh intends of following up its air action with a ground invasion across the border into Yemen to crush the revolt in its backyard.

 

 

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  • DEBKA FILE IS ZIONIST TRASH.
    BEWARE.

    • Zionist or not, Debka file has proven over and over again that they’re a much more reliable source of information compared to MSM like Fox or CNN or even Aljazeera. Peace

      • Not true, Debkafile is notoriously unreliable. Unless you have amnesia and can’t remember what they “reported” in the past.

        They told you Vladimir Putin was dead, didn’t they.

        Oh, you said “more reliable than fox, cnn, and the qatar channel” — i wouldn’t know, i don’t watch that crap.

        But at least one doesn’t have to pay to be lied to by fox, or cnn, or the qatar channel.

  • @lifels

    First of all, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.

    I went back to the Debkafile news letter I received on march13,2015, here’s a quote:

    The Kremlin reports Putin in good health
    The Kremlin Thursday dismissed rumors that President Vladimir Putin was ill after he canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. The rumors flying through the Russian Internet claimed in fact that the 62-year old Russian leader had suddenly died. PPU

    As you see there’s a big difference between reporting that he was dead and reporting rumours on the Russian vine. I’d also like to state that I have no affiliation whatsoever with Debkafile and that it’s nothing more than one source of “semi reliable” information source. After all, we all know that propaganda has been and will always be an important weapon in the Israeli arsenal.

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