The United States considers the latest incident on the Israeli-Syrian border to be Iran's "calculated escalation" of tension, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Saturday.From Haaretz:"The United States is deeply concerned about today's escalation of violence over Israel's border and strongly supports Israel's sovereign right to defend itself. Iran's calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project its power and dominance, places all the people of the region - from Yemen to Lebanon - at risk. The U.S. continues to push back on the totality of Iran's malign activities in the region and calls for an end to Iranian behavior that threatens peace and stability," Nauert said in a statement.Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway told Sputnik that the United States is concerned about "destabilizing activities" of Iran and supports Israel's right to defend itself."Israel is our closest security partner in the region and we fully support Israel's inherent right to defend itself against threats to its territory and its people. We share the concerns of many throughout the region that Iran's destabilizing activities that threaten international peace and security, and we seek greater international resolve in countering Iran's malign activities," Rankine-Galloway said. The spokesman stressed that the US Defense Department did not take part in this military operation.
IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Ronen Manelis said"We identified an Iranian drone UAV which took off from Syrian territory. The drone was identified by IAF systems and was downed by an IAF helicopter.The Iranian drone fell in our territory and is in our possession."
"As part of the country's defenses, sirens were activated but there was no danger for the residents of Beit She'an. It was decided to attack the trailer from which the Iranians launched the UAV. This was a surgical action deep in Syria, target destroyed."
"This is a serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory. Iran is dragging the region into a situation in which it doesn't know how it will end. We are prepared for a variety of incidents...whoever is responsible for this incident is the one who will pay the price."
"has, to put it bluntly, usurped the authority of the state's rule-of-law institutions and its ability to work independently from the executive." What is happening now, he said, "is tantamount to an all-out assault on democracy."
"The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false," the Central Intelligence Agency said in a statement sent to AFP.
"The people swindled here were James Risen and Matt Rosenberg," the CIA said, referring to Times reporter Rosenberg, who wrote the story, and Risen, a former Times reporter who authored The Intercept's article.
Both reports appeared on Friday.
The president tweeted approvingly that The Times article shows a need to "drain the swamp" in Washington.
[...]
The Intercept reported that the "off-the-books communications channel" with Russia created rifts in the CIA. The agency is led by Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo, but many of its staffers are still smarting over Trump's repeated harsh comments about the intelligence community's role in the Russia meddling investigation.
If that's true, Lieu said, "the CIA Director needs to explain his actions to Congress. He took an oath to the Constitution, not to Trump."
Trump on Saturday referred favorably to the Times article about the Russian who "sold phony secrets on 'Trump' to the US," and noted the operative reportedly had drastically lowered his original price.
"I hope people are now seeing and understanding what is going on here. It is all now starting to come out -- DRAIN THE SWAMP!" he tweeted, in a reference to what he sees as a need for reform.
Trump has frequently criticized the Times, which has published numerous investigative reports about him and his administration, calling it a "failing" newspaper providing "fake news."
Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia.
The Times reported that, in the end, the deal with the Russian broke down last month as the Russian failed to come up with any of the sought-after NSA materials, and the Trump-related material was either already known or untrustworthy.
The Russian was told by the Americans to leave Western Europe and not return, according to the Times.
Comment: As Eva Bartlett writes, the US-backed terrorists have been intentionally targeting high-density civilian areas with mortars throughout the war. None of the areas hit are governmental or military sites so the attacks are just vengeful acts against the people of Damascus for not supporting them.