🇺🇸🇮🇶 Iraqis reported again that “fighter jets passed over Maysan region south of the country.”

It turned out that these were Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) pilots training there, and it’s possible that the US is providing support; A USAF KC-135R “Stratotanker” (#AE0485 & N/A) is currently heading back to al-Udied Air Base in Qatar after following a path similar to yesterday’s.

🇬🇧 UK Royal Air Force (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon jet (#43C79F & SPARTA23) is squawking 7700 emergency northeast of the UK.

🇮🇶 Unidentified drone struck the Khor Mor gas & oil field, one of Iraq's largest, north of the country, with reports of casualties there. Operations in the field have been halted.

Only Iran-backed factions, primarily Kataib Hezbollah, has the ability to conduct such operations in Iraq.

Well said, actually.

🔗 Atlantic Council's Simon Shuster & Missy Ryan

During his meeting with Western officials in Kyiv last Friday, US Secretary of Army Daniel P. Driscoll told the assembled officials that Russia is building enough to amass a growing stockpile of long-range weaponry, according to The New York Times. Some Western officials who attended the meeting with Driscoll and spoke to the NYT called the Russian buildup alarming and said his warning had resonated.

🔗 NYT

While answering Russian journalists in a press conference following his state visit to Kyrgyzstan and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "the troops of Ukraine will withdraw from the territories they occupy—that is when the hostilities will cease. If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by armed means."

🔗 Kremlin

Citing two senior European government officials and three EU diplomats, POLITICO reports that Europe is thinking of launching joint offensive cyber operations against Russian infrastructure, like the Alabuga economic zone in Tatarstan, where Moscow is producing Shahed-136/238 drones, as well as energy facilities or trains carrying weapons, in addition to surprise NATO-led military exercises, in response to Russia's drone and fighter jet incursions that temporarily suspended air traffic in major European airports multiple times, as well as its recruitment for agents to plan sabotage operations across the continent.

🔗 POLITICO

Overnight, a reserve force from the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a special operation in the Beit Jinn village in rural Damascus to apprehend two “terrorists” in the Islamic Jama’a (IJ), a Lebanon-based Muslim Brotherhood-linked group that allegedly operated against Israel during the war with Hezbollah.

The two suspects were successfully apprehended by the IDF following clashes with multiple armed men in the village who were apparently part of the IJ, injuring six IDF soldiers, who were deployed along with two tanks and a number of Hammers and aerial support.

Notably, one of the HUMVEEs jammed during the “almost zero-range” clash in the village, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, forcing the IDF to leave it in the village. But later, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out a strike destroying it (the 2nd airstrike shown in the video above).

For the fourth time this month, operators of the 1st Separate Unmanned Systems Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) struck the Saratov Oil Refinery in Saratov Region, about 600 km from the state border of Ukraine.

The IDF published footage from the night raid that resulted in apprehending three suspects (not two as it was reported earlier).

One of the suspects was seemingly sleeping in a hideout [00:15]. Late in the footage, IDF soldiers are seen surrounded somewhere in the village, exchanging fire with IJ members.

🔗 IDF

FPV drone Operators from Ukraine’s 2nd Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems destroyed a Russian army T-72B3 tank with a cope cage, somewhere in Donetsk or Kharkiv regions.

🔗 AFU’s Third Army Corps

According to The Telegraph, citing sources, US President Donald Trump is poised to “de facto” recognize Russia’s control over the Crimean Peninsula, the two eastern Donbas regions, and the Russian-held land behind the line of contact in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to secure a deal to end the war, with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in their upcoming visit.

Russian drone operators drop a VOG-17/25 explosive grenade on an ammunition depot inside a Ukrainian trench somewhere on the frontline, resulting in a massive explosion.

New satellite imagery reveals the aftermath of Thursday’s rocket attack on Khor Mor Gas Field in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region.

The strike precisely impacted a fuel tank located northeast of the main plant, igniting extensive fires that spread towards the processing pipelines.

Russian Ilyushin Il-62M (#1551DF & RFF8466) from the 223rd Flight Unit State Airline (sanctioned by the US Treasury and linked to Wagner Group... now likely used by Wagner's replacement, the Africa Corps) departed a short while ago Khmeimim Air Base in western Syria, probably en route to Moscow.

It was used before as an emergency response and evacuation aircraft by the Russian Government and had a flight from Khmeimim to the African country of Togo yesterday.

Those flights to that African country is highly linked to a new agreement between Russian and Togo on Nov. 19 that was signed that day in the Kremlin during a visit by the President of the Togolese Council of Ministers to Russia's Vladimir Putin. This agreement provides for Togolese soldiers to be trained by Russian instructors, as well as intelligence sharing. It also allows each country to use the other's military ports, securing Russia a foothold in the Gulf of Guinea, where its warships and military aircraft can now dock.