Portland Mayor Calls For 'Immediate Meeting' With DHS Chiefs to Discuss 'Cease-Fire', Fed Removal

As civil unrest in Portland continues amid massive anti-racism protests spanning the United States, President Donald Trump has reportedly deployed 100 additional federal officers to the region as a means of quelling the protests.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, along with City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, called for "an immediate meeting" with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership currently in Portland and acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf to "discuss cease-fire" and the "removal of heightened federal forces" from the region deployed by President Donald Trump to quell civil unrest.

The Sunday night protests in Portland were declared a riot by local police, who also claimed that participants demonstrated aggressive behavior, throwing explosives, rocks and bottles at the police officers.

Commissioner @JoAnnPDX and I are calling for an immediate meeting with Department of Homeland Security leadership on the ground in Portland and with Acting Secretary @DHS_Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and the removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 28, 2020

​Wolf described the protests in Portland as different from "normal criminal activity" and street crime, like those in Chicago or Kansas City, recently tweeting that federal officers suffered 20 injuries over the past weekend.

Peaceful crowds don’t commit federal crimes. 20 injuries to federal officers in Portland this past weekend. pic.twitter.com/X4z0mQvuJd

— Acting Secretary Chad Wolf (@DHS_Wolf) July 28, 2020

​Earlier, Wolf urged city authorities to "join other responsible cities" and cooperate with federal agents, while Wheeler slammed Trump for sending the federal troops to Portland, pointing out that "militarised agents are terrorising the American people".

"Targeting and occupation of progressive cities is unacceptable, un-American and unconstitutional. Moreover, these federal agents are not trained in modern community policing, crowd control, or de-escalation strategies…[] We call on Congress to swiftly pass legislation to block the administration from sending unwanted and unidentified federal agents to our cities", Wheeler tweeted.

Portland saw some of the anti-racism and anti-police-brutality protests turn violent, as rioters damaged federal property, looted shops, and attacked police, causing federal agents to use force and tear gas.

At least 14 federal officers were injured during the weekend, according to a DHS statement, while 15 people were arrested for assaulting a federal officer and 3 others were detained for failure to comply with lawful orders and violating a no-fly zone with a drone.

In mid-July, Trump sent federal officers to Portland to "protect the federal property", particularly a courthouse that was earlier attacked by protesters and to quell the unrest, despite objections from the local authorities and residents of the city.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202007281079998161-portland-mayor-calls-for-immediate-meeting-with-dhs-chiefs-to-discuss-cease-fire-fed-removal/

Israel Reinforces Troops Near Golan Heights Fearing Hezbollah Retaliation To Strikes On Syria

The Middle East is rapidly moving towards a new round of confrontation between the US-Israeli bloc and Iranian-led Shiite forces.

On July 26, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deployed M109 Doher howitzers near the separation line with Lebanon. The deployment of howitzers became the latest in a series of broad measures employed by the IDF near Lebanon recently. Earlier, the 13th “Gideon” Infantry Battalion of the IDF’s elite 1st “Golani” Brigade reinforced troops near the border. The number Israeli Hermes 450 drone reconnaissance flights also significantly increased over southern Lebanon. Additional IDF units were also deployed in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. On top of this, the IDF announced that it will hold the Lebanese government responsible “for all actions emanating from Lebanon”.

These measures followed the July 20 Israeli strike on Syria, which resulted in the death of a member of Lebanese Hezbollah. Over the past years, Hezbollah has been one of the main supporters of Syrian Army operations against ISIS and al-Qaeda. Tel Aviv increases its strikes on what it calls Hezbollah and Iranian-affiliated targets in Syria every time when the Syrian Army launches active actions against terrorists and seems to be very concerned by the possibility of a Hezbollah response to the July 20 attack.

If Israel is really set to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to the retaliatory action by Hezbollah, this scenario could easily evolve into a wider border confrontation between Hezbollah and the IDF.

At the same time, tensions between local resistance groups and the US-led coalition grew in Iraq. On July 24, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Ashab al-Kahf, announced that its forces had shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle of the US military over the province of Saladin. The group claimed that the UAV was downed by some ‘new weapon’ and released a photo showing the launch of what appears to be an anti-aircraft missile, likely a man-portable air-defense system.

On the same day, four unguided rockets struck the Pasmaya military camp, which is located 60km south of Baghdad. One of the rockets hit a garage for armoured vehicles, while another one targeted the barracks of the security unit. Two other rockets landed in an empty area. Despite causing some material damage, the rocket attack did not result in any casualties. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pasmaya military camp is known to be hosting troops of the U.S.-led coalition and is used for training of Iraqi troops. On July 25, the coalition withdrew its forces from the camp and handed it over to the Iraqi military. According to the official statement, the coalition trained 50,000 personnel and invested $5 million into the creation of training infrastructure there.

https://southfront.org/israel-reinforces-troops-near-golan-heights/

More Explosive Leaks From OPCW Show Trump Bombed Syria On False Grounds

As the ongoing increased sanctions regimen on Syria demonstrates, Washington's pursuit of regime change against Assad is not over, despite Damascus clearly having won the war, and with the US having wisely ditched talk of some kind of overt major Iraq-style military intervention (as was the case under Obama in August 2013).

While mainstream media has largely "moved on" from coverage of Syria (so much for feigned humanitarian "concern" for millions of Syrians suffering under severe American-led sanctions!), some analysts like independent journalist Aaron Maté have been detailing damning leaks from the chemical weapons watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

"A series of leaked documents from the OPCW raise the possibility that the Trump administration bombed Syria on false grounds and pressured officials at the world’s top chemical weapons watchdog to cover it up," Maté's latest report in The Nation begins.

They are being conveniently ignored, and not just ignored, but covered up.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/more-explosive-leaks-opcw-show-trump-bombed-syria-false-grounds

Rockets Hit Two US-Operated Bases In Iraq

Just a few hours after clashes between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah on the Lebanese-Israeli contact line, rockets struck US-operated military bases in Iraq.

The first strike hot Camp Speicher, located near Tikrit, causing a large explosion on the site.

At the same time, at least three rockets targeted another US-operated military base – Camp Taji, located near Baghdad. According to local media, one rocket hit an Iraqi helicopter while another landed in an artillery weapon depot. The third rocket landed in the 2nd Air Force Squadron but did not explode.

Local sources claim that the strikes came in response to a drone strike on the al-Saqer military camp, south of Baghdad, on July 26. This camp is operated by the Popular Mobilization Units. This branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces is often described by Washington and mainstream media as Iranian proxies and even terrorists.

https://southfront.org/rockets-hit-two-us-operated-bases-in-iraq-video/