Iraq has a new Prime Minister. A major development for a country that has been in a state of political paralysis since November, one that comes as Iraq was moving increasingly toward the precipice amid a series of crises that the new cabinet must now quickly move to contain. 2/ The political paralysis has left the Iraqi state hanging by a thread & facing its worst crisis since ISIS seized Mosul in 2014 after the emergence of a country-wide protest movement in October that has rocked the political crisis to its core.

Reports coming in suggest the US has struck a convoy carrying senior PMF officials. There's been a tectonic shift in US policy it seems - and if Iran's going to avenge Soleimani's death anyway then the US may now see no reason *not* to go after Iraq's most powerful militia heads. Confirmed. What's becoming apparent is that the US is no longer carrying out ad-hoc attacks on militia groups in Iraq. What we may be witnessing is an intensified US *campaign* of airstrikes designed to undermine, contain and paralyse Iran's proxy network in Iraq.

It is now confirmed: the US has killed Qassem Soleimani. Make no mistake - this is bigger than taking out Osama Bin Laden.