On December 2, US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo revealed that he has sent a letter to General Qassem Soleimani, a commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force to warn him that the US will hold Iran responsible for any attacks on its troops in Iraq, according to Reuters. “What we were communicating to him in that letter was that we will hold he and Iran accountable for any attacks on American interests in Iraq by forces that are under their control… We wanted to make sure he and the leadership in Iran understood that in a way that was crystal clear,” Pompeo said during a Reagan National Defense Forum in Southern California. However, according to Pompeo, Gen. Soleimani refused to receive or open his letter, in a move that shows high tensions between the US and Iran in Iraq and Syria. On November 30, Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, head of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that Soleimani refus

Illustrative image Members of ISIS have downed a Syrian warplane (apparently L-39)  in the outskirts of al-Bukamal , the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq reported. Furthermore, ISIS have allegedly captured two pilots of the downed warplane near the village of Al-Buq’an. No photos or videos have been released by Amaq to confirm its claims. The situation remains unclear. Recently, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have  intensified their operations  against ISIS northwest of al-Bukamal in order to drive ISIS terrorists out from the remaining ISIS-held area of the Euphrates’s eastern bank.

On Monday, the Yemeni Interior Ministry released an official statement confirming  the death of the country’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.  Earlier, photos and videos were released online showing what appear to be the corpse of the former president. The ministry accused Saleh of creating “chaos” in the country, cooperating with “militias of aggression” and providing help to “extremist militias.” According to the statement, the Houthis  are now in control over the entire Yemeni capital, Sana’a. “The Interior Ministry announces the end of the crisis of the treason militia and the killing of its leader and a number on his criminal partisans,” the statement reads adding that the tensions in Sana’a are over with the death of Saleh. According to the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television, Saleh was killed by sniper bullets. Another version suggests that he was killed in a RPG and gun attack. The previous version said that he died as a result of explosion of his house.