China's coronavirus cases likely grossly underestimated, study says - CNN

Authorities in China's Wuhan city have confirmed 45 cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus, which is in the same family as the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), but so far appears to be less lethal. Two people have died, Wuhan authorities say.

But the study, by Imperial College London, suggests that an estimated 1,723 people were likely to have been infected by January 12.

Officials in China have linked the viral infections to a Wuhan seafood and wildlife market, which has been closed since January 1 to prevent further spread of the illness.

Three travelers -- two now in Thailand and one in Japan -- who visited Wuhan but not the market have been infected with the virus, suggesting human-to-human transmission may be possible and raising concerns of the virus's further spread.

The number in the study is only an estimate and is based on several assumptions, including the number of cases that have been exported to Thailand and Japan, the number of people using Wuhan International Airport and the time it has taken for the infection to incubate.

Imperial College London's Neil Ferguson, a disease outbreak scientist, said that many aspects of the Wuhan coronavirus were "highly uncertain."

"However, the detection of three cases outside China is worrying. We calculate, based on flight and population data, that there is only a 1 in 574 chance that a person infected in Wuhan would travel overseas before they sought medical care. This implies there might have been over 1,700 cases in Wuhan so far," Ferguson told CNN.

"There are many unknowns, meaning the uncertainty range around this estimate goes from 190 cases to over 4,000. But the magnitude of these numbers suggests that substantial human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out. Heightened surveillance, prompt information sharing and enhanced preparedness are recommended."

Three US airports will start screening passengers arriving from Wuhan to check for signs of the virus, such as coughing, difficulty breathing and high temperatures with the use of an infrared thermometer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.

The agency is deploying more than 100 people to carry out the screenings at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. Last year, more than 60,000 passengers arrived in the US from Wuhan, the vast majority coming through those three airports.

While the new virus has not shown death rates like MERS and SARS -- which infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774 in a pandemic that ripped through Asia in 2002 and 2003 -- so little is known about it that health authorities are calling for vigilance.

"Much remains to be understood about the new coronavirus, which was first identified in China earlier this month. Not enough is known about 2019-nCoV to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, clinical features of disease, or the extent to which it has spread. The source also remains unknown," the World Health Organization said Friday.

CNN's Vanessa Yung and Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report.

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2020-01-18 10:16:00Z
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The US operation in Iraq could come to an embarrassing end. Iran's power will only grow - CNN

Officials in Iraq's parliament, where powerful blocs have unbreakable ties to Tehran, started a process to end the presence of foreign troops in the country, in a clear riposte to the US after it killed top Iranian commander Qasm Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad two weeks ago.

In the wake of the strike, joint US-Iraqi operations against ISIS were put on hold, and Iraq's caretaker prime minister said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to "protect all those on Iraqi soil," though this week he said that decision would be up to the next government.

But a US withdrawal could bring even more trouble, experts say. ISIS continues its attacks in the country, and without US and other foreign troops, the group would have more room to resurge. At the same time, Iran will be able to expand its already far-reaching powers in Baghdad.

Tehran and Washington have competed for influence in Iraq since the US 2003 invasion, and in that battle, Iran is already winning. Its consistent and coherent strategy, which the US lacks, has allowed Tehran to gradually weave itself into the fabric of everyday life in Iraq.

It has capitalized on years of war and occupation to form militia groups that have become official factions of the Iraqi military, while economically, it provides an enormous amount of exports that Iraqis have come to rely on. It has made surrogates out of senior Iraqi government officials and members of parliament.

Because of those links, the Iraqi parliament's decision to side with Iran after the attack on Soleimani is not surprising. The strike appears to have backfired, to the benefit of Iran's long-term goal: getting the US out of the region.

"Iran is the most influential state in Iraq now," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "That power is only going to grow if the US leaves."

He said that the most important challenge for Iraq now was not ISIS, but rebuilding a working nation -- fighting corruption, changing the sectarian-based government to one based on citizenship and professionalizing the army, for example. Iran isn't interested in those goals, Gerges said, and a US withdrawal would embolden it further its reach across the Middle East.

"If the US leaves, people across the region will think that despite his flowery rhetorical devices, Trump does not really have a strategy for the Middle East and at the end of the day will fold and go home," Gerges said.

Being forced out would be a humiliating end to the US' long mission in Iraq, which has sucked up hundreds of billions of US taxpayers' money and left thousands of US soldiers dead.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has denied the US will leave, but pointed to a possible reduction of numbers. Gerges sees that proposal as a face-saving exercise for the US that could allow the American troops to stay in small numbers for the fight against ISIS but essentially begin the process of withdrawal.

How Iran got a hold on Iraq

Much of Iran's power in Iraq comes through militia groups that have roots in the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. Recruiting fighters from Iraq wasn't that difficult. Iraq was a Shia-majority nation led for more than two decades by brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, born a Sunni.

Iran, which has long pitched itself as the world's leader of Shia Muslims, took in Shia prisoners of war and refugees, and turned them into soldiers who would go back to Iraq to act in Tehran's interests, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Some became part of what is now known as the Badr Organization, the report said, both a militia group and an anti-US political party in Iraq today.

"Because of the institutional organizational capacity of those paramilitary groups, when Saddam fell and the repression that contained them ended, they flourished. They had the capacity to expand and to operate more overtly," said Jack Watling, a specialist in land warfare at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

The fight against ISIS provided another recruitment opportunity for Iran, particular after the terrorist group took Mosul and the Iraqi military collapsed. It was at this time the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), a coalition of mostly Shia militias, formed and became a powerful force in the country, in the absence of a real army. They have since been officially folded into Iraq's military.

According to Watling, there are now around 113,000 salaried personnel in the powerful Tehran-backed Iraqi militia group. Of those, some 60,000 are actively deployable as fighters, and of those, 36,000 are directed by Iran.

In the 2018 Iraqi elections, the political wing of the PMUs, Fatah, won the second-highest number of seats in parliament, giving another powerful voice to Iranian interests in the Iraqi government.

Economically, Iran has ensured Iraq is dependent on it for energy, seeking loopholes and waivers from the US to get around sanctions and sell energy to its neighbor. Iraq is also Iran's second most important destination for its exports, after China, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, so Tehran wants to ensure its market across the border is well secured.

Trump sends mixed messages

As Iran made steady headway in the Iraqi government and military, the US' objective in Iraq has changed so many times that it's become muddy and unfocused. Iraqi officials are growing weary of the changes that have come with each new US president, and the mixed signals being sent by the Trump administration.

Pompeo is struggling to send the message that the US is in Iraq to fight ISIS, while strikes on Iranians there and comments from Trump indicate otherwise.

Last year, Trump admitted in an interview with CBS News that he wanted to keep a base in Iraq "because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem." The comment provoked Tehran, and sowed confusion in Iraq.

Watling said the US appears to have shifted its interests in Iraq from countering ISIS to countering Iran.

"If the US said our objective is a strong and stable Iraq, then in many ways their best course of action would be to collaborate closely with the Iranians. But it's not. Their wish to counter the Iranian government in many ways overrides their wish to support the Iraqi state. There are contradictions in US policy in the region," he said.

Watling questioned what Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran was aiming to achieve. Iran's long-term strategy in Iraq, on the other hand, is paying off.

"We have seen a broadly unified attempt to ensure that Iran underwrites and limits Baghdad's military capability and that they retain Iraq as a market for their exports and as an economic partner," he said.

Winning hearts and minds

Despite achieving the regime change the US was looking for, with the capture and execution of Saddam, the US left Iraq in 2011 with an unsteady government in place. It had no choice but to send troops back to put out fires with the spread of ISIS. Iran also took part in the fight against ISIS, but it continued with its drive to boost influence in Iraq.

But Iran is failing in one key area. It hasn't really won the hearts of the people.

Anti-government protesters galvanized by deep economic grievances that have accumulated over many years have found themselves facing off with Iranian-backed forces.

Demonstrators were rallying against endemic corruption and cronyism, which they blame on "confessionalism," a system of government introduced by the US that divides power based on sectarian affiliation. While Iran didn't create that status quo, it has had a stake in maintaining it.

In video footage of some of the demonstrations, protesters can be heard yelling chants against both Iran and the US. Young Iraqis in particular don't want either the US or Iran in their country, said Joost Hitermann, who leads the International Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa program.

"Iraqis want to get rid of both. Some might like one more than they other, and they don't want just one of the two alone there, to dominate their country," Hitermann said.

"Shia Iraqis may be loosely aligned with Iran, but they don't subscribe to the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian way is not all what Shia Iraqis want."

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.

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2020-01-18 09:23:00Z
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The US operation in Iraq could come to an embarrassing end. Iran's power will only grow - CNN

Officials in Iraq's parliament, where powerful blocs have unbreakable ties to Tehran, started a process to end the presence of foreign troops in the country, in a clear riposte to the US after it killed top Iranian commander Qasm Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad two weeks ago.

In the wake of the strike, joint US-Iraqi operations against ISIS were put on hold, and Iraq's caretaker prime minister said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to "protect all those on Iraqi soil," though this week he said that decision would be up to the next government.

But a US withdrawal could bring even more trouble, experts say. ISIS continues its attacks in the country, and without US and other foreign troops, the group would have more room to resurge. At the same time, Iran will be able to expand its already far-reaching powers in Baghdad.

Tehran and Washington have competed for influence in Iraq since the US 2003 invasion, and in that battle, Iran is already winning. Its consistent and coherent strategy, which the US lacks, has allowed Tehran to gradually weave itself into the fabric of everyday life in Iraq.

It has capitalized on years of war and occupation to form militia groups that have become official factions of the Iraqi military, while economically, it provides an enormous amount of exports that Iraqis have come to rely on. It has made surrogates out of senior Iraqi government officials and members of parliament.

Because of those links, the Iraqi parliament's decision to side with Iran after the attack on Soleimani is not surprising. The strike appears to have backfired, to the benefit of Iran's long-term goal: getting the US out of the region.

"Iran is the most influential state in Iraq now," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "That power is only going to grow if the US leaves."

He said that the most important challenge for Iraq now was not ISIS, but rebuilding a working nation -- fighting corruption, changing the sectarian-based government to one based on citizenship and professionalizing the army, for example. Iran isn't interested in those goals, Gerges said, and a US withdrawal would embolden it further its reach across the Middle East.

"If the US leaves, people across the region will think that despite his flowery rhetorical devices, Trump does not really have a strategy for the Middle East and at the end of the day will fold and go home," Gerges said.

Being forced out would be a humiliating end to the US' long mission in Iraq, which has sucked up hundreds of billions of US taxpayers' money and left thousands of US soldiers dead.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has denied the US will leave, but pointed to a possible reduction of numbers. Gerges sees that proposal as a face-saving exercise for the US that could allow the American troops to stay in small numbers for the fight against ISIS but essentially begin the process of withdrawal.

How Iran got a hold on Iraq

Much of Iran's power in Iraq comes through militia groups that have roots in the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. Recruiting fighters from Iraq wasn't that difficult. Iraq was a Shia-majority nation led for more than two decades by brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, born a Sunni.

Iran, which has long pitched itself as the world's leader of Shia Muslims, took in Shia prisoners of war and refugees, and turned them into soldiers who would go back to Iraq to act in Tehran's interests, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Some became part of what is now known as the Badr Organization, the report said, both a militia group and an anti-US political party in Iraq today.

"Because of the institutional organizational capacity of those paramilitary groups, when Saddam fell and the repression that contained them ended, they flourished. They had the capacity to expand and to operate more overtly," said Jack Watling, a specialist in land warfare at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

The fight against ISIS provided another recruitment opportunity for Iran, particular after the terrorist group took Mosul and the Iraqi military collapsed. It was at this time the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), a coalition of mostly Shia militias, formed and became a powerful force in the country, in the absence of a real army. They have since been officially folded into Iraq's military.

According to Watling, there are now around 113,000 salaried personnel in the powerful Tehran-backed Iraqi militia group. Of those, some 60,000 are actively deployable as fighters, and of those, 36,000 are directed by Iran.

In the 2018 Iraqi elections, the political wing of the PMUs, Fatah, won the second-highest number of seats in parliament, giving another powerful voice to Iranian interests in the Iraqi government.

Economically, Iran has ensured Iraq is dependent on it for energy, seeking loopholes and waivers from the US to get around sanctions and sell energy to its neighbor. Iraq is also Iran's second most important destination for its exports, after China, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, so Tehran wants to ensure its market across the border is well secured.

Trump sends mixed messages

As Iran made steady headway in the Iraqi government and military, the US' objective in Iraq has changed so many times that it's become muddy and unfocused. Iraqi officials are growing weary of the changes that have come with each new US president, and the mixed signals being sent by the Trump administration.

Pompeo is struggling to send the message that the US is in Iraq to fight ISIS, while strikes on Iranians there and comments from Trump indicate otherwise.

Last year, Trump admitted in an interview with CBS News that he wanted to keep a base in Iraq "because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem." The comment provoked Tehran, and sowed confusion in Iraq.

Watling said the US appears to have shifted its interests in Iraq from countering ISIS to countering Iran.

"If the US said our objective is a strong and stable Iraq, then in many ways their best course of action would be to collaborate closely with the Iranians. But it's not. Their wish to counter the Iranian government in many ways overrides their wish to support the Iraqi state. There are contradictions in US policy in the region," he said.

Watling questioned what Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran was aiming to achieve. Iran's long-term strategy in Iraq, on the other hand, is paying off.

"We have seen a broadly unified attempt to ensure that Iran underwrites and limits Baghdad's military capability and that they retain Iraq as a market for their exports and as an economic partner," he said.

Winning hearts and minds

Despite achieving the regime change the US was looking for, with the capture and execution of Saddam, the US left Iraq in 2011 with an unsteady government in place. It had no choice but to send troops back to put out fires with the spread of ISIS. Iran also took part in the fight against ISIS, but it continued with its drive to boost influence in Iraq.

But Iran is failing in one key area. It hasn't really won the hearts of the people.

Anti-government protesters galvanized by deep economic grievances that have accumulated over many years have found themselves facing off with Iranian-backed forces.

Demonstrators were rallying against endemic corruption and cronyism, which they blame on "confessionalism," a system of government introduced by the US that divides power based on sectarian affiliation. While Iran didn't create that status quo, it has had a stake in maintaining it.

In video footage of some of the demonstrations, protesters can be heard yelling chants against both Iran and the US. Young Iraqis in particular don't want either the US or Iran in their country, said Joost Hitermann, who leads the International Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa program.

"Iraqis want to get rid of both. Some might like one more than they other, and they don't want just one of the two alone there, to dominate their country," Hitermann said.

"Shia Iraqis may be loosely aligned with Iran, but they don't subscribe to the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian way is not all what Shia Iraqis want."

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.

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2020-01-18 07:59:00Z
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Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls Trump a 'clown,' defends Iran's military - USA TODAY

Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

Published 8:57 AM EST Jan 17, 2020

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called President Donald Trump a "clown" as he defended Iran's military after it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, in a relatively rare public address that came as he led Friday prayers in Tehran.

The last time Khamenei delivered a sermon to a crowd during Friday prayers was in 2012, on the 33rd anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution. The supreme leader called for "national unity" and described Iran's accidental downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flights 752 as a "bitter" tragedy, but one that should not overshadow the "sacrifice" of one of its top commanders, killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq days earlier. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corp shot down Ukraine's jetliner just hours after Iranian missiles targeted U.S. forces on two bases in Iraq, which was retaliation for the Trump administration's killing of Iran's Gen. Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad on Jan. 3.

All 176 passengers and crew aboard Ukraine's commercial plane were killed. No one died in Iran's strikes on U.S. troops in Iraq. However, the Pentagon said late Thursday at least 11 Americans were injured. Trump said in an address to the nation on Jan. 8 that "no Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime.  We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases."

Fallout: 11 US troops treated for injuries after Iran missile attack

In his address Friday, Khamenei lashed out at Trump and the U.S., calling Soleimani's killing a "cowardly act" while Iran's response had "dealt a blow to America's image" as a great power. He reiterated his vow to force U.S. troops out of the region. About 62,000 American military personnel are spread across the broader Middle East on land and sea from airfields in Turkey to a large naval base in the Gulf state of Bahrain. 

Iranian authorities initially denied shooting down Ukraine's plane, but later did an about-face after mounting international pressure. Earlier in the week, Iran announced it had made arrests in connection with the incident, but provided no further details.

Middle East tensions: Iran claims revenge for Soleimani. U.S. Navy is still a target

A senior Iranian air force commander previously publicly acknowledged that a member of Iran's military under his command fired a missile at the plane thinking the country was under attack from U.S. forces after the strike in Iraq. Amirali Hajizadeh said at a briefing in Tehran on Jan. 11 that the man who fired the missile had just 10 seconds to make a decision. "Unfortunately, he made a bad decision," the aerospace division chief said. 

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have intensified following the Trump administration's exit from a nuclear accord involving Iran and world powers. Since the U.S. exit, Tehran has slowly taken steps to diminish its commitment to the agreement and Washington claims it is responsible for a series of attacks in the Persian Gulf on international oil tankers as well as energy-related infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. 

Khamenei accused Washington of "lying" about its support for Iran's people and said the U.S. government would willingly "stab them with their poison dagger." He also struck a defiant tone over the Revolutionary Guards Corp's decision to shoot down Ukraine's plane, saying the unit had "maintained the security of Iran."

Iran's supreme leader, who has the final say on Iran's domestic and international affairs, added: "Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad. "(They were) happy they found something to question our Guard and armed forces over."

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2020-01-17 13:18:45Z
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US troops were injured in Iran missile attack despite Pentagon initially saying there were no casualties - CNN International

"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria said in a statement Thursday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, service members were transported from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on screening. When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq following screening," the statement added.

Concussions are not always apparent immediately after they've been suffered, but the disclosure indicates that the impact of the attack was more serious than initial assessments indicated. The attack, launched in retaliation for the US airstrikes that had killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, significantly ratcheted up tensions between Iran and the US, though the prospect of further military confrontation appears to have abated for now.

A US military official told CNN that 11 service members had been injured in the attack, which was first reported by Defense One. Following the attack, the Pentagon had initially said that no casualties had resulted from the 16 missiles fired by Iran. The US military defines a casualty as either an injury or fatality involving personnel.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy, a Defense official told CNN, "That was the commander's assessment at the time. Symptoms emerged days after the fact, and they were treated out of an abundance of caution."

After this story published, Capt. Bill Urban -- the spokesperson for US Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East -- said the military had learned after the attack that 11 individuals were injured -- eight were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and three were sent to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait for "follow-on screening."

"As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care," Urban said in a statement. "All soldiers in the immediate blast area were screened and assessed per standard procedure, according to the Defense Department. ... When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq following screening."

A US military spokesman in Baghdad explained to CNN's Arwa Damon that the service members were medevaced to Kuwait and Germany because those facilities had the necessary equipment to diagnose the brain injuries.

Official US reports about the attack have shifted since it occurred.

Last week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had said the initial assessment found only damage to property.

"The current (Battle Damage Assessment) is, if you will, again, we can get you details, things like tentage, taxiways, the parking lot, a damaged helicopter, things like that; nothing that I would describe as major, at least as I note at this point in time. So that's the state of -- of the attack at this point as we know it. Most importantly, no casualties, no friendly casualties, whether they are US, coalition, contractor, etc.," Esper said.

US officials also have offered differing accounts of what they see as the motivations behind Iran's attack. Vice President Mike Pence said last week that the administration believes the strikes "were intended to kill Americans," and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he believed that the attacks "were intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft, and to kill personnel."

But a growing belief emerged among administration officials last week that Iran had deliberately missed areas populated by Americans. Multiple administration officials told CNN that Iran could have directed its missiles to areas populated by Americans, but intentionally did not. And those officials said Iran may have chosen to send a message rather than take action significant enough to provoke a substantial US military response, a possible signal the Trump administration was looking for a rationale to calm the tensions.

Iraq did receive a warning that the strike was coming and was able to take "necessary precautions," according to a statement from Iraq's Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi. A US defense official said that Iraq, in turn, warned the United States.

However, Pentagon officials have said they received no such warnings from the Iraqis but that the US was able to detect the attack in enough time to alert US forces on the ground.

Iran's UN ambassador said last Friday that the Iraqi bases housing US troops had been primarily selected to demonstrate target accuracy, not to kill Americans, disputing public claims made by top Trump administration officials.

"We said before we took our military action that we would choose the timing and the place, and we chose the place where the attack against Soleimani was initiated," Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told CNN's John Berman on "New Day" last Friday when asked about Pence's comments. "And we do not consider a high number of casualties as an instrumental element in our calculations."

Earlier this week, the Trump administration abruptly canceled four classified congressional briefings related to the ongoing Iran crisis, in some cases providing little or no explanation for doing so.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional information on the attack and a statement from US Central Command.

CNN's Caroline Kelly, Kylie Atwood, Pamela Brown, Kaitlan Collins, Jim Sciutto, Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.

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2020-01-17 13:11:00Z
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Top Iran leader: Trump is a 'clown' who will betray Iranians - POLITICO

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. | Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

01/17/2020 06:22 AM EST

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader said President Donald Trump is a “clown” who only pretends to support the Iranian people but will “push a poisonous dagger” into their backs, as he struck a defiant tone in his first Friday sermon in Tehran in eight years.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the mass funerals for Iran’s top general, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this month, show that the Iranian people support the Islamic Republic despite its recent trials. He said the “cowardly” killing of Soleimani had taken out the most effective commander in the battle against the Islamic State group.

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In response, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. troops in Iraq, without causing serious injuries. Khamenei said the strike had dealt a “blow to America’s image” as a superpower. In part of the sermon delivered in Arabic, he said the “real punishment” would be in forcing the U.S. to withdraw from the Middle East.

As Iran’s Revolutionary Guard braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians.

Authorities concealed their role in the tragedy for three days, initially blaming the crash on a technical problem. Their admission of responsibility triggered days of street protests, which security forces dispersed with live ammunition and tear gas.

Khamenei called the shootdown of the plane a “bitter accident” that saddened Iran as much as it made its enemies happy. He said Iran’s enemies had seized on the crash to question the Islamic Republic, the Revolutionary Guard and the armed forces.

He also lashed out at Western countries, saying they are too weak to “bring Iranians to their knees.” He said Britain, France and Germany, which this week triggered a dispute mechanism to try and bring Iran back into compliance with the unraveling 2015 nuclear agreement, were “contemptible” governments and “servants” of the United States.

He said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the United States.

Khamenei has held the country’s top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions. The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the funeral of Soleimani and vowed “harsh retaliation” against the United States.

Thousands of people attended the Friday prayers, occasionally interrupting his speech by chanting “God is greatest!” and “Death to America!”

Tensions between Iran and the United States have steadily escalated since President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which had imposed restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

The U.S. has since imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including its vital oil and gas industry, pushing the country into an economic crisis that has ignited several waves of sporadic, leaderless protests. Trump has openly encouraged the protesters — even tweeting in Farsi — hoping that the protests and the sanctions will bring about fundamental change in a longtime adversary.

After Soleimani was killed, Iran announced it would no longer be bound by the limitations in the nuclear agreement. European countries who have been trying to salvage the deal responded earlier this week by invoking a dispute mechanism that could result in even more sanctions.

Khamenei was always skeptical of the nuclear agreement, arguing that the United States could not be trusted. But he allowed President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, to conclude the agreement with President Barack Obama. Since Trump’s withdrawal, he has repeatedly said there can be no negotiations with the United States.

Khamenei last delivered a Friday sermon in February 2012, when he called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and vowed to support anyone confronting it. He also warned against any U.S. strikes on Iran over its nuclear program, saying the U.S. would be damaged “10 times over.”

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2020-01-17 11:22:00Z
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Iran’s supreme leader calls Trump a clown, praises missile attack in rare appearance - Fox News

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, addressed Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012 and used the platform to praise the country's retaliatory strike against the U.S. over the killing of one of its top generals and called President Trump a clown who cannot be trusted.

His decision to lead the prayers was seen as a "symbolically significant act," one usually reserved for an important message to the people, a Middle East scholar told the Washington Post.

Khamenei's message appeared to show little interest in forging a relationship with the U.S. He blamed Washington for its "cowardly" decision to take out the country's most effective commander in the fight against ISIS.

Trump, who ordered the Jan. 8 airstrike in Baghdad, called Gen. Qassem Soleimani one of the "worst terrorists in history and the father of the roadside bomb," who had the blood of U.S. servicemembers on his hands.

Iran, in response, launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. troops in Iraq, without causing serious injuries. It was just revealed that 11 U.S. service members were flown out of Al Assad Air Base in Iraq-- one of the bases targeted-- and treated for concussion symptoms.

“The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters.

As Iran's Revolutionary Guard braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran's international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians.

Khamenei called the shootdown of the plane a "bitter accident" that saddened Iran as much as it made its enemies happy.

Authorities in Tehran concealed their role in the tragedy for three days, initially blaming the crash on a technical problem. Their admission of responsibility triggered days of street protests, which security forces dispersed with live ammunition and tear gas.

Protesters in the country took to the streets calling for Khamenei to step down. Twitter users posted videos of protesters holding photos of the leader chanting, “Commander-in-chief (Khamenei) resign, resign,” according to Reuters.

Trump praised the protesters and pointed out one video that showed them refusing to step on Israeli and American flags.

Khamenei told the crowd Friday that Trump is not to be trusted and only pretends to support the Iranian people. He said Western countries are too weak to "bring Iranians to their knees." He said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the U.S.

As Tehran grappled with the fallout from protests stemming from a cover-up of its accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner, TV anchor Gelare Jabbari addressed her viewers on an Instagram post that appears to have been deleted.

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“It was very hard for me to believe that our people have been killed," the post read, according to The Guardian. "Forgive me that I got to know this late. And forgive me for the 13 years I told you lies.”

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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2020-01-17 09:46:20Z
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