WAR 11-17-2018-to-11-23-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

[Housecarl]

Sorry folks...I've been mostly on my phone replying on the election mess as well as the fires to the north and south of me in-between rehab work and sleeping when the need comes to me. So I figured I'd start this week's thread a bit early while I had the laptop up and running....HC

(342) 10-27-2018-to-11-02-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...1-02-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(343) 11-03-2018-to-11-09-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...1-09-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(344) 11-10-2018-to-11-16-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...1-16-2018___****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

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For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.voanews.com/a/jim-mattis-cuts-us-troop-numbers-africa/4660589.html

Africa

Mattis Cuts US Troop Numbers in Africa by 10 Percent

November 15, 2018 6:00 PM
Carla Babb

PENTAGON — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is cutting hundreds of U.S. troops from Africa so he can use those resources for potential future conflicts with Russia and China.

Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Cmdr. Candice Tresch told VOA the move will cut roughly 700 counterterrorism troops and their enablers from West Africa. That is about 10 percent of U.S. Africa Command's presence on the continent.

"Operations in Libya, Somalia and Djibouti remain largely unchanged," she said.

The Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy (NDS) emphasizes near-peer competition over counterterrorism.

When asked whether the reduction was a result of the October 2017 attack in Niger that killed four U.S. troops, one military official said the deadly incident did not play a role in the decision.

"Discussions about this shift were under way before that incident occurred," the official said.

The military's "adjusted approach" to West Africa will decrease emphasis on tactical-level advice and assistance. Instead, the U.S. will rely more heavily on regional-level advising, assisting and sharing of intelligence, Tresch said.

As Mattis rolled out the NDS in January, he said the United States was losing its competitive military advantage over China and Russia.

"Great-power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security," Mattis said.

-

Carla Babb
Carla is VOA's Pentagon correspondent covering defense and international security issues. Her datelines include Ukraine, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Korea.

ETA: Meanwhile....
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https://www.voanews.com/a/un-bemoans-lack-of-funding-for-african-anti-jihadist-force/4658748.html

Africa

UN Bemoans Lack of Funding for African Anti-Jihadist Force

November 14, 2018 3:17 PM
Reuters

PARIS — International donors have disbursed less than half of what they had pledged for a regional force fighting to contain West African jihadists, hampering its efforts as insecurity spreads across the region, a United Nations report said.

A February conference of about 50 countries including the United States, Japan and Norway pledged 415 million euros ($470 million) for the G5 Sahel force, made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

But the force has struggled to get off the ground and in his Nov. 12 report to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said only 45.9 percent of funds (about 190.76 million euros) had either been disbursed or allocated for procurement processes.

"The support measures and the funding mechanism put in place must be revisited," Guterres said.

The G5 force has been hobbled by delays and poor coordination between the five countries, officials and diplomats say, while insecurity has escalated in the border region between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Three civilians were killed Monday after a car bomb exploded in the northern Malian city of Gao, an attack claimed by an Islamist militants.

"The spread of insecurity and terrorism to other parts of the region, including into eastern Burkina Faso, is particularly worrying," Guterres said. "Rebel attacks in eastern Chad indicate that borders are becoming more porous."

The arid Sahel region has been fertile ground for groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State, highlighting difficulties international partners face in restoring regional stability.

France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened in Mali in 2013 to drive out Islamist militants occupying the north and has since kept about 4,500 troops in the region as part of counterterrorism operations. The U.N. has thousands of troops in Mali as part of its peacekeeping mission.

Paris pushed the G5 force creation with the long-term aim of placing the region's security in the hands of local forces.

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.navytimes.com/news/your...tm_term=Editorial - Navy - Daily News Roundup

Your Navy

Shrinking Navy submarine fleet threatens national security, defense report says

By: Mark D. Faram  
12 hours ago

A independent review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy by a 12-member bipartisan commission warns that the military might of the United States has degraded and could lose a fight against a rival power.

Retired Adm. Gary Roughead, who led the Navy as the chief of naval operations from 2007 to 2011, co-chaired the 12-member panel. It was convened by Congress to take a critical look at America’s national defense strategy.

Their report — “Providing for the Common Defense” — was released Tuesday by the United States Institute of Peace.

Its candid findings laid out a potentially catastrophic fate for America’s armed forces in a future war.

“The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict,” the authors wrote. "It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia. The United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously.

“Additionally, it would be unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home while they seek to defeat our military abroad. U.S. military superiority is no longer assured and the implications for American interests and American security are severe.”

Navy’s top officer warns of increased Russian and Chinese activity in the Atlantic Ocean
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in a Voice of America interview that Russian sub activity in the North Atlantic is at a level unseen in 25 years.
By: Geoff Ziezulewicz

The panel warned that after waging 17 years of counter-insurgency wars, many of the “skills necessary to plan for and conduct military operations against capable adversaries — especially China and Russia — have atrophied.”

The report took aim at Congress, cautioning that the Pentagon must “overcome years of unprecedented budgetary turmoil" that have included “multiple government shutdowns and near-shutdowns, nine consecutive years beginning under either shutdowns or short-term continuing resolutions that have consumed over one-third of the time available to plan and execute readiness activities” plus defense caps within the so-called “sequestration” budget deal that began in 2013.

The report’s authors called for the Navy to grow, but not in the way that’s outlined now: “China and, to a lesser extent, Russia invest in their undersea capabilities, the United States must expand its submarine fleet.”

Both the National Defense Strategy and the shipbuilding plan that buttresses it fail to do that, the panelists warned, and “there will actually be a reduction in the number of submarines over the next decade.”

The panel also pointed to the military’s sealift forces, urging the Navy to dramatically recapitalize spending on those vessels to “project and sustain combat power into the Western Pacific and other theaters.”

The authors described “daunting challenges in establishing air superiority or sea control and retaking territory lost early in a conflict” and cautioned military planners that American forces “face harder fights and greater losses than at any time in decades.”

“The prolonged, deliberate buildup of overwhelming force in theater that has traditionally been the hallmark of American expeditionary warfare would be vastly more difficult and costly, if it were possible at all,” according to the report.

“Put bluntly, the U.S. military could lose the next state-versus-state war it fights.”

Mattis eyes major overhaul of Navy deployments
Days of predictable rotational floats could soon come to an end.
By: David Larter, Mark D. Faram

The panel studied a wide range of solutions to the problems the report identified, some simple fixes but others complex issues that require help from institutions outside the armed forces.

That’s not helped by murky concepts and Pentagon jargon — with notions in the national strategy such as “expanding the competitive space,” “accepting risk” in lower-priority theaters, the increasing importance of nuclear weapons or relying on “Dynamic Force Employment" — that are “imprecise and unpersuasive,” the report said.

“Absent a more integrated, whole-of-government strategy than has been evident to date, the United States is unlikely to reverse its rivals’ momentum across an evolving, complex spectrum of competition," the authors warned.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm…..

For links see article source.....
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https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/13/end-game-afghanistan-beginning/

OPINION: The End Game In Afghanistan Is Beginning

12:57 PM 11/13/2018 | Opinion
Lawrence Sellin | Retired Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve

China and Pakistan have plainly stated their plans for Afghanistan and South Asia.

According to a press release from the November 12 conference held at Islamabad’s Pakistan-China Institute, “Pakistan-Afghanistan-China Trilateral Dialogue supports the CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] as key to peace and regional cooperation.”

Pakistani news outlets emphasized the point, one stating, “Pakistan and China on Monday urged Afghanistan to join the Belt & Road Initiative as well as the CPEC.”

Is it a coincidence that such plain speaking occurs in parallel with an uptick in the frequency and intensity of Taliban attacks inside Afghanistan?

Within a span of a few days, Jaghori — long considered a safe district — was being overrun by 1,000 Taliban, while other Taliban killed at least twelve Afghan soldiers and four tribal elders during an attack on a military base in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province. And bombs continue to explode in Kabul.

In an effort to lure the Taliban to the bargaining table, the Trump administration may ask the Afghan government to postpone presidential elections — a move the Taliban will undoubtedly construe as a sign of American weakness because they have always claimed the Kabul regime as illegitimate.

In that respect, the Taliban are correct. Other than a “presence” in Afghanistan, the United States has no strategic cards to play.

There is no military solution in Afghanistan, at least from the standpoint of the manner in which we have conducted the war.

After an initial small-footprint victory in late 2001, driving the Taliban out of Afghanistan, the U.S. chose to mount an exhaustive and expensive counterinsurgency campaign with its nation-building component.

At the same time, Pakistan, sustaining the Taliban, waged a proxy war in Afghanistan, much like Pakistan’s and, indirectly, China’s reported support and use of the Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates against India.

Pakistan has always controlled the operation tempo of the war as well as the supply of our troops in landlocked Afghanistan.

U.S. inability or unwillingness to attack Taliban safe havens in Pakistan or forcing Islamabad to withdraw its support, essentially rendered a counterinsurgency victory unachievable. It is an obvious deduction the Pentagon should have made long ago, except for its blind love affair with Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency.

After 17 years of strategic mismanagement, the Trump administration is left only with bad options. Getting out of Afghanistan is inevitable. Given the current trends, we couldn’t stay even if we wished to do so.

We should let Pakistan and China “win” and then help them ruin their victory.

Clearly, CPEC is the foundation upon which China and Pakistan intend to exploit their triumph, which is highly vulnerable to the very instability they were inciting in Afghanistan.

Forty years ago, Pakistani President Zia ul Haq said that to control Afghanistan, the country should be kept “boiling at the right temperature.”

Like a frog, CPEC will be slowly boiled in South Asia’s pot of instability. CPEC is the flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s blueprint for global domination. As the maxim, widely attributed to Napoleon, says “Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.”

That is, by harnessing the potential power of ideological fissures, ethnic fault lines and differing national interests, in essence, the ability to manage instability, the U.S. can transform an untenable “presence” into longer-term regional leverage.

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, an IT command and control subject matter expert, trained in Arabic and Kurdish, and a veteran of Afghanistan, northern Iraq and a humanitarian mission to West Africa. He receives email at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.usip.org/publications/2018/11/libyas-migrant-crisis-isnt-just-european-problem

Libya’s Migrant Crisis Isn’t Just a European Problem

USIP’s Thomas Hill and AEI’s Emily Estelle on why it matters for U.S. national security

Friday, November 9, 2018 / By: Thomas M. Hill; Emily Estelle
Publication Type: Analysis and Commentary

Next week, Italy will host an international conference intended to finally bring Libya’s bloody seven-year conflict toward resolution. Since the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, successive U.S. administrations have watched Libya’s continuing collapse, believing that the country’s unraveling threatens only Europe. This is a mistake.

Qaddafi’s fall left much of Libya ungoverned or controlled by militias, criminal gangs, and terrorists like ISIS. The state’s breakdown opened the floodgates to hundreds of thousands of migrants, predominantly from sub-Saharan Africa, perilously attempting to reach the Mediterranean for the dangerous crossing to Europe. Today, the ancient smuggling networks and routes that cross Libya’s southern border have become big business for human traffickers and modern-day slave traders.

ISIS and al-Qaida profit directly from engaging in, and taxing, illegal activities like human trafficking and smuggling—activities which have been fueling Libya’s political and security crisis, helping to spawn terrorist threats and spreading instability across northern Africa. And Russia, which is building influence in Libya, has an opportunity to exploit the migrant crisis there. Both Russia and Turkey have done so in Syria, working through proxies to regulate the flow of migrants into Europe and creating a point of leverage against European governments.

A foothold for two major terror groups threatening the U.S. homeland, and a valuable geostrategic position for Russia, ought to be of obvious concern to the United States. But neither the current nor the previous administration appear to have noticed. Blame Benghazi.

Following the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, Congress and successive administrations have shied away from all involvement in Libya beyond a limited counterterrorism policy. The crisis is seen as a regional problem to be resolved by Europeans who are most affected by the influx of undocumented migrants. This overlooks the direct threats to U.S. national security interests posed by the influx of migrants.

Current U.S. policy toward Libya also assumes that the current U.N.-led political reconciliation process will establish a central governing authority, which will in turn eradicate the symptoms of political dysfunction: irregular migration and terrorism among them. Migration, however, is part of a larger system of corruption and criminality that is driving the conflict. This lawlessness has allowed people with guns—with real power—to resist any political resolution that would disrupt their highly profitable businesses.

Breaking this cycle of instability is critical. Today, Libya is a fertile environment for terrorists like ISIS and al-Qaida to metastasize and launch attacks against U.S. interests in the region and abroad. While U.S. military interventions have stopped groups like ISIS and al-Qaida from controlling major cities and the country’s infrastructure, they have not eliminated the threat. ISIS is resurging in central Libya just two years after a U.S.-backed operation ousted the group from the city of Sirte. The United Nations envoy to Libya recently warned that ISIS’s “presence and operation in Libya are only spreading … Libya may become a shelter for terrorist groups of all persuasions.” In short, military interventions have little impact long-term, and diplomatic avenues are stalled.

France and Italy recognize correctly that managing the irregular migration crisis is key to resolving the Libya conflict, but their interventions often work at cross-purposes. Their respective support of rival militia factions and their uncoordinated attempts at high-level peace negotiations only serve to undermine each other and prolong the conflict. Italy’s alliance with Libyan militias has successfully decreased the flow of migrants crossing to reach the Mediterranean, but it has also empowered militias that weaken Libya’s fledgling central government. In addition, the presence of an estimated 670,000 migrants in Libya—almost 12.5 percent of the total Libyan population—has been fueling social tensions and making conflict resolution even more complex.

The U.S. administration is consumed with other foreign and domestic challenges and is more than happy to cede management of the Libya problem to Europe. But the result will be a new tool in Vladimir Putin’s arsenal and a vital base of operations for both ISIS and al-Qaida. The only answer is the use of American leadership to end international infighting, limited intervention to stabilize key Libyan cities, additional sanctions targeting human traffickers, and assistance programs that stem the tide of humans flowing into Libya. This is not only a humanitarian imperative; it’s a national security imperative.

Thomas M. Hill is a senior program officer for North Africa at the United States Institute of Peace. Emily Estelle is a senior analyst for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. This article has been cross-posted with the American Enterprise Institute.

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/eln-present-half-venezuela/


ELN Now Present in Half of Venezuela
Analysis

Written by Venezuela Investigative Unit - November 13, 2018

Recent ELN attacks against the Venezuela military in the state of Amazonas and civilian miners in the state of Bolívar reflect the Colombian guerrilla group’s growing power and add to a series of events during 2018 that demonstrate its presence in at least half of the country.

On November 4, Colombia’s National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) attacked the Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana – GNB) in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, leaving three officers dead and 10 wounded. The attack was in response to the arrest of four ELN members, including one of the group’s top leaders, Luis Felipe Ortega Bernal, alias “Garganta,” who has an Interpol blue notice issued against him.

When they arrested Garganta, authorities found several identification documents in his possession. One of them was a form of identification used by Venezuelan citizens to obtain government-subsidized services, in this case under the false name of Gabriel Alfonso Ariza Suárez.

The attack — one of the most significant confrontations between the ELN and Venezuelan forces in recent years — elicited a statement from Colombia’s foreign ministry, while Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino only managed a delayed and noncommittal tweet on social media. He denounced the presence of any armed group in the country, never mentioning the ELN as the criminal organization that perpetrated the violent act.

https://www.insightcrime.org/wp-con...zuela_Insight-Crime_Map_Inglés-1-967x1024.jpg

Padrino also took the opportunity to criticize the “inability of the Colombian government to control its [criminal] groups, violence and drug trafficking.”

However, InSight Crime identified the presence of the ELN in 12 states in Venezuela — roughly half the country — by examining media reports detailing the guerrilla group’s activities in Venezuelan territory in 2018, as well as through non-governmental agency reports and information provided from official sources along the border.

SEE ALSO: ELN Profile

Based on the information InSight Crime gathered, the ELN could have a presence in the states of Táchira, Zulia, Apure, Trujillo, Anzoátegui, Lara Falcón, Amazonas, Barinas, Portuguesa, Guárico and Bolívar. Activities the group allegedly engages in include cattle smuggling, gasoline smuggling, extortion, food distribution, radio stations, recruitment of minors, attacks on security officials, drug trafficking and illegal mining.

Before the November 4 attack, the ELN allegedly perpetrated another deadly attack on October 14, in which seven people were killed in the town of Domingo Sifontes. The town is situated in Venezuela’s most extensive mining region, where the government is implementing the Orinoco Mining Arc project.

InSight Crime Analysis

ELN units have managed to advance nearly 1,500 kilometers from the Colombian border with Venezuela’s Táchira state, where the group has historically entered the country, to states that border Guyana and Brazil, such as Bolívar and Amazonas, and to coastal states like Anzoátegui and Falcón. That the ELN is present in half of Venezuela is a testament both to its continued military prowess and to just how far it has come in its expansion into President Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela without any major obstacles to speak of.

Towns like Atures in Amazonas state, José Gregorio Monagas in Anzoátegui and Domingo Sifontes in Bolívar have seen guerrilla presence and control over area mines to the point where some indigenous communities have left total control of public order in the hands of the ELN.

Residents of the town of Catatumbo in Venezuela’s Zulia state as well as journalists have confirmed that the ELN and another Colombian guerrilla group, the dissidence of the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación – EPL), have taken their ongoing conflict from Colombia into their territory on the Venezuelan side of the border. The expanding conflict has caused displacement and the deaths of civilians and military personnel.

The Venezuelan government, however, has so far kept silent about these events.

According to Venezuelan NGO Fundación Redes, the ELN could be receiving support from Venezuela’s armed forces in the form of weapons and entry into Venezuela. It has also been alleged that the military helped the ELN to integrate with communities in Táchira, for example, by allowing the group to distribute the Venezuelan government’s subsidized food via its Local Storage and Production Committees (Comités Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción – CLAP).

Meanwhile, radio stations, pamphlet distribution in schools, control points on rural roads and extortion (demanding 10 percent of production) in the mines have aided the ELN in gaining territory and power in Venezuela and, perhaps more importantly, the resources it uses to continue financing its criminal activities.

SEE ALSO: Venezuela: A Mafia State?

The ELN’s expansion in Venezuela has been marked by the Maduro administration’s inaction and even encouragement towards the group. One illustration of this is the government’s decision to send Garganta, who was arrested in Amazonas state, to a military prison in Caracas intended for political and military prisoners.

At the same time, however, the guerrilla group’s presence in Venezuela has led Colombian President Iván Duque to intensify his pressure on the ELN by refusing to participate in peace negotiations if it continues its illegal activities.

Venezuela is the perfect place for an ELN retreat as it seeks protection from political hostilities in Colombia, expands its operations and fills out its ranks with victims of the country’s economic crisis. Given such favorable circumstances, Venezuela’s mafia state status is icing on the cake for Colombia’s most powerful guerrilla group.

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...-leave-south-syria/ar-BBPNc24?ocid=spartanntp

Newsweek

Russia Warns U.S. Must 'Immediately' Leave South Syria

Tom O'Connor
4 hrs ago

Russia has called on the United States to withdraw from a base established by the Pentagon in southern Syria, alleging the presence runs contrary to international law.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Moscow's National Defense Control Center, addressed a joint session Friday of Russian and Syrian committees tasked with returning Syrian refugees and blamed the U.S. for deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Rukban refugee camp. The settlement is located within a U.S.-controlled security zone surrounding the Al-Tanf base on the harsh border of Syria and Jordan and has witnessed starvation deaths due to lack of supplies.

"Such a situation in which the camp finds itself reminds concentration camps of the Second World War, which seemed to be long gone. How is it possible in the modern world?" Mizintsev said. "Why, in these conditions, the world community, which cares so much about human rights, continues to persistently keep silent about the humanitarian disaster in the Rukban camp? In fact, being held hostage.

"Why are the official structures of the United Nations responsible for providing all-round assistance to refugees, in fact, are not active and persistent in resolving global humanitarian issues related to the terrible situation of Syrian citizens in the Rukban camp?" he added.

Mizintsev argued that the Pentagon's stated mission of battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) did not apply to Al-Tanf as "there are no ISIS groups in southern Syria."

"We call on the United States of America to immediately stop the illegal occupation of the 55-kilometer zone around Al-Tanf, which is the sovereign territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. This will automatically lead to the resolution of the Rukban problem and return of its residents back to their homes," he added.

The dire humanitarian situation in Rukban, where nearly 50,000 people remain isolated from the rest of the world, has received growing international attention in recent months. Jordan has closed its nearby border to all traffic, fearing potential infiltration by ISIS, which has targeted the camp in the past. The U.S.-led coalition in control of nearby Al-Tanf, has focused its resources on training insurgents of Mughawir al-Thawra, one of the last Syrian rebel groups directly supported by the U.S., to fight the jihadis.

With the last convoy from Jordan having arrived in January, the United Nations has instead appealed to the Syrian government—which it has charged with a number of war crimes—to provide assistance to the suffering inhabitants of Rukban. However, Damascus cut supply routes after its Russian ally argued that the U.S. failed to provide adequate security measures as international tensions rose. The U.S. denied this charge and, as conditions in the camp worsened, a U.N. humanitarian convoy escorted by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent finally arrived last week.

Both the U.S. and Russia have accused one another of using the camp as a pawn to advance their competing missions in Syria, where the former views Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as illegitimate and the latter backs him. Questioned on why the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS waited for Russia to provide assistance to the camp, spokesperson U.K. Major General Chris Ghika told a briefing Tuesday that "the situation around Rukban is very complicated."

"As you know, there's a deconfliction zone. There are a number of different forces operating there," Ghika told reporters. "And ensuring the security of the convoy in and out was our primary consideration. And therefore, I don't think it's surprising that it took quite a lot of time and effort to get it there. That we got it there and it delivered aid to people in need, I think is a thing we should focus on."

Outside of the Al-Tanf deconfliction zone's perimeters, a number of pro-Syrian government militias have operated as part of a separate anti-ISIS campaign waged by Assad and his Russian and Iranian partners. Skirmishes have occurred between the U.S.-led coalition and such groups that have allegedly approached the zone's perimeter. Damascus has also called for the U.S. to pull out of the zone, considering only Moscow and Tehran to be legitimate foreign allies.

Commenting on reports that Jordan was in talks with the U.S. and Russia to dismantle the Rukban camp, Ghika said he would not comment on "speculation," but "if we can assist in any way, as we did with this convoy, to bring humanitarian aid to some people who are suffering then we will try and assist."

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...‘high-tech’-weapon/ar-BBPKZ92?ocid=spartanntp

North Korea Says Kim Guided Test of New ‘High-Tech’ Weapon

Youkyung Lee and Nick Wadhams
1 day ago

(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a new “advanced tactical” weapon -- the first such demonstration in almost a year -- in a pointed signal to the U.S. and South Korea amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

Kim inspected the “successful” test during a visit to North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Friday morning local time. KCNA didn’t provide any details on the type of weapon, whether it was related to Kim’s nuclear program, or when the test occurred.

“The testing of the high-tech tactical weapon has been carried out successfully, meeting all superior and powerful designing indicators,” KCNA said. “It is a great way to defend the territory of the country with iron barriers and strengthen the combat power of the people’s army.”

The lack of details made it hard to assess whether the test would impact ongoing nuclear talks. References to the weapon as “tactical” -- as opposed to “strategic” -- would seem to exclude a ballistic missile launch.

One U.S. official said the initial report doesn’t seem overly provocative, noting the lack of keywords connecting the test to North Korea’s nuclear program. The response from South Korea was also muted, with Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Eugene noting that the regime had previously publicized seven military activities involving Kim this year. South Korea’s defense ministry said only that officials were reviewing the report.

The weapon test comes after U.S. and South Korean marines resumed small-scale exercises that North Korean state media said Friday violated a new military pact between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim. The announcement ensures North Korea will stay at the top of the agenda as world leaders, including Moon, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, gather for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits in Papua New Guinea this week.

The weapons test is the first known to have been observed by Kim since last November, when he oversaw the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the entire U.S. mainland. The move raises new questions about the prospects for nuclear talks, since President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted Kim’s decision to halt tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as evidence of his success.

“We haven’t seen details on the missile test, but if it’s tactical, it’s not a direct threat to U.S. territory,” said Soo Kim, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who’s now a North Korea specialist for the Center for Naval Analyses. “It’d be more of a threat to South Korea.”

Still, the test follows growing North Korean complaints about the international sanctions regime against the country, including a government think tank’s threat earlier this month to resume nuclear development efforts if the measures aren’t lifted. Kim denounced the economic blockade as “vicious” and his envoys last week cancelled planned talks with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in New York City.

The Trump administration has played down the suggestion that tensions are rising, saying a second summit with Kim is on track for next year. U.S. officials including Trump also brushed off a Washington think tank’s report showing that North Korea was maintaining several undeclared missile bases.

“We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new - and nothing happening out of the normal,” Trump said in a tweet Tuesday. “I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!”

On Thursday, Pence told NBC News that the U.S. would continue to pressure North Korea and keep sanctions in place while seeking a concrete plan to achieve denuclearization.

“It will be absolutely imperative in this next summit that we come away with a plan for identifying all of the weapons in question, identifying all the development sites, allowing for inspections of the sites and the plan for dismantling nuclear weapons,” Pence said.

 

[Housecarl]

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/14/inside-the-ring-remove-chinese-missiles/

Trump demands China remove missiles in the South China Sea

By Bill Gertz - - Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Trump administration is demanding that China remove all advanced missiles deployed on disputed islands in the South China Sea, the first time such a demand has been made public.

The call to take out the anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles was disclosed in a fact sheet from the State Department on Friday outlining the results of a strategic dialogue between senior U.S. and Chinese officials.

“The United States called on China to withdraw its missile systems from disputed features in the Spratly Islands, and reaffirmed that all countries should avoid addressing disputes through coercion or intimidation,” the statement said.

The Nov. 8 talks were led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis. The Chinese delegation was headed by Communist Party Politburo official and State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe.

The Pentagon disclosed in June that China has fielded advanced anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles and electronic jamming equipment on the Spratly Islands, a group of reefs and islets located close to U.S. ally Philippines that China claims as its own territory. Military officials said the missiles threaten U.S. warships and aircraft that have stepped up freedom of navigation operations near the islands in a bid to counter Chinese claims to control over 90 percent of the South China Sea.

The missiles include YJ-12B anti-ship cruise missiles capable of targeting warships as far as 340 miles away, and HQ-9B long-range, surface-to-air missiles with ranges of up to 184 miles. They are stationed on Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, and Subi Reef in the Spratlys, effectively creating a buffer zone around the entire area. Electronic jammers were deployed on Fiery Cross and Mischief reefs.

China also in recent months deployed strategic nuclear-capable H-6 bombers to Woody Island in the Paracel Islands for the first time.

The commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Philip S. Davidson, has said the missiles pose a “substantial challenge” to U.S. military operations in the region.

Tensions remain high between Washington and Beijing. The U.S.-China talks followed a Sept. 30 incident in the South China Sea when a Chinese destroyer tried to force the USS Decatur, a guided-missile destroyer, from sailing near the Spratlys. The Chinese ship came within 45 yards of the Decatur, causing it to change course to avoid a collision.

U.S.-China military ties recently soured when the State Department imposed sanctions on Lt. Gen. Li Shangfu, a senior member of the Central Military Commission and director of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Equipment Development Department, which is in charge of weapons procurement. The sanctions were aimed at punishing China for buying aircraft and other weapons from Russia in violation of American sanctions.

The PLA also called off talks scheduled to be held in Beijing last month and blocked a U.S. warship from visiting Hong Kong.

The contentious issue of removing the missiles was not mentioned during the post-talks press conference. Mr. Pompeo indirectly alluded to the issue when he told reporters that “I was clear, for example, that we have continued concern about China’s activities and militarization in the South China Sea. We pressed China to live up to its past commitments in this area.”

Mr. Mattis said the two sides discussed “the importance for all military, law enforcement, and civilian vessels and aircraft, including those in the PLA Navy, the Chinese Coast Guard, and the PRC Maritime Militia, to operate in a safe and professional manner, in accordance with international law” — a reference to the Chinese harassment of the Decatur.

Mr. Yang, a member of the ruling Communist Party Politburo, denied the Chinese were militarizing the islands and contended the area is “indisputable” Chinese territory.

He acknowledged at the press conference that China has built some facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea but insisted most were civilian.

“At the same time, it is necessary for China to build certain security facilities in response to possible threats from outside,” Mr. Wang said. “We believe that no country should use any excuse to engage in militarization in the region. Actually, to pursue militarization in the region will not only undermine interest of regional countries, but will hurt the countries who take these actions themselves.”

The comment by Mr. Yang contradicted the statement of Chinese President Xi Jinping who in September 2015 promised during a visit to Washington that China would not militarize the disputed islands. The Chinese Party official said there is no problem of freedom of navigation or overflight being restricted, “so to use the freedom of navigation and overflight as an excuse to pursue military actions is unjustifiable.”

Hypersonic missile boom
Ultra-high speed missiles being developed by China, Russia and the United States are at risk of being proliferated to other nations, according to a report by the defense firm RAND Corp.

To prevent the spread of hypersonic missiles that can travel at speeds up to five miles a second, the report suggests creating new arms agreements to limit the exports of the missiles.

“If hypersonic missiles spread into the international market, the existing threats posed by ballistic and cruise missiles would be compounded,” the report said.

A hypersonic missile attack would take place with very little warning. That increases the danger that nations like North Korea or a future nuclear-armed Iran would conduct “launch on warning” — retaliatory attacks carried out before an enemy missile hits.

“In short, hypersonic threats encourage hair-trigger tactics that would increase crisis instability,” the report said.

China is a major arms proliferator and has shared nuclear weapons and missile technology with several foreign states, including Pakistan and North Korea. Russia has been less willing to sell advanced weaponry abroad but has also done so in the past.

NATO on INF violations
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently criticized Russia for violating the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, in what is viewed as the strongest statement to date by a NATO leader on Moscow’s noncompliance. President Trump announced recently the United States will pull out of the Cold War arms accord as a result of Russian violations.

Mr. Stoltenberg said in a remarks Nov. 12 that the 1987 INF accord led to the dismantling of an entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles targeting Europe, and was “a cornerstone of arms control in Europe.”

“The deployment of new Russian missiles is putting this historic treaty in jeopardy,” he said. “For years, Russia has developed, produced, tested and fielded a new missile system: The SSC-8. These missiles are mobile; they are hard to detect; they can be nuclear-armed; they reduce warning time to minutes; they lower the threshold for nuclear conflict. And they can reach European cities like Berlin.”

Mr. Stoltenberg said that NATO members allies have raised their concerns “time and again” with the Russians over the new deployment, more than 30 times in recent years in total.

After years of denying the violation, Russia has acknowledged fielding the new illegal missiles, while the United States is in full compliance.

“So while there are no new U.S. missiles in Europe, there are new Russian missiles,” he said. “The new Russian missile system poses a serious risk to the strategic stability of the Euro-Atlantic area.”

The NATO chief said the alliance does not intend to deploy new nuclear missiles in Europe. But the alliance is committed to the safety and security of the region and must “not allow arms control treaties to be violated with impunity because that undermines the trust in arms control in general,” he said.

“So we call on Russia to ensure compliance, and to return to constructive dialogue with the United States.”

• Contact Bill Gertz on Twitter at @BillGertz.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm…..

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/11/18/taliban-hold-talks-with-us-envoy-in-qatar/

Flashpoints

Taliban hold talks with US envoy in Qatar

By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press  
1 hour ago

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have held three days of talks with U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in the Gulf state of Qatar, where the Afghan insurgent group has a political office, a Taliban official and another individual close to the group said Sunday.

Without referring explicitly to the talks in Qatar, Khalilzad told a news conference Sunday in the Afghan capital Kabul “I am talking to all interested parties, all Afghan groups... and I think there is an opportunity for reconciliation and peace.”

"The Afghan government wants peace," he said. "The Taliban are saying they do not believe they can succeed militarily, that they would like to see the problems that remain, resolved by peaceful means, by political negotiations."

Afghan ex-president Karzai welcomes Gitmo 5 into peace talks, sees post-war role for Taliban
Karzai: 5 Taliban leaders freed from prison in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are “good Afghans” who deserve role in peace negotiations.
By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

Peace efforts have accelerated since Khalilzad’s appointment as Washington’s peace envoy to Afghanistan aimed at eventually winding down America’s longest war. Seventeen years after the U.S.-led invasion that ended Taliban rule, the militants control nearly half of Afghanistan and carry out near-daily attacks on local security forces and government officials.

The U.S. administration now appears focused on reaching a political settlement with the Taliban, and has given in to a number of the group’s longstanding demands, beginning with the holding of direct talks. The Taliban have long refused U.S. demands to negotiate with the Western-backed government in Kabul, which the insurgents view as a puppet regime.

Pakistan has meanwhile released a number of high-level Taliban prisoners, including the movement's co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The releases are widely seen as a U.S.-directed move aimed at encouraging the Taliban to participate in talks.

Khalilzad on Sunday said he was "cautiously optimistic," a peace settlement, which he preferred to call a "roadmap to Afghanistan's future," could be hammered out among rival Afghans. What that roadmap will look like and what rights and guarantees it will enshrine, including women's rights and rule of law, will be a decision for Afghans to make, said Khalilzad.

This is not going to be won militarily’: Top US commander in Afghanistan reveals pessimism
The U.S.-backed Afghan government's control over territory is slipping, according to a new report.
By: Kyle Rempfer

The United States has spoken “loudly and proudly” for equal rights for men and women, said Khalilzad, but how — or even if — those rights are woven into Afghanistan’s “roadmap for the future,” will be decided by Afghans. Saying he would like to see a settlement “sooner rather than later,” he urged both sides in Afghanistan’s protracted conflict to consider next year’s presidential elections, scheduled for April 20, as the deadline for peace.

The Taliban, who spoke about the talks in Qatar, said Khairullah Khairkhwah, the former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mohammed Fazl, a former Taliban military chief, attended the marathon talks. The Taliban spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

A third individual with knowledge of the discussions said the Taliban pressed for a postponement of next year's presidential elections and the establishment of an interim government under a neutral leadership. Abdul Sattar Sirat, an ethnic Tajik and Islamic scholar, was suggested as a candidate to lead an interim administration.

The individual, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said Khalilzad wants to reach a settlement within six months, a timescale the Taliban said was too short. Khalilzad also proposed a cease-fire, which the Taliban rejected, the individual said, adding that there was no agreement on the release of prisoners, opening the Taliban office or lifting a Taliban travel ban.

5 freed from Gitmo in exchange for Bergdahl join Taliban’s political office in Qatar
They may complicate efforts toward peace talks with Taliban, some analysts say.
By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

Khairkhwah and Fazl were among five senior Taliban members released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 in exchange for U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban after walking off his base in Afghanistan in 2009. The five are now based in Qatar, and are seen as having enough stature to sell a peace deal to insurgents fighting on the front lines.

President Donald Trump harshly criticized the 2014 prisoner exchange, and in a speech last August pledged to send in additional U.S. forces and redouble efforts to defeat the Taliban. But that strategy has had little if any impact on the ground, with the Taliban keeping up a steady tempo of attacks and an Islamic State affiliate carrying out massive bombings targeting minority Shiites.

In a lengthy statement issued earlier this month, the Taliban had demanded the lifting of sanctions against the group's leaders, the release of prisoners and the recognition of their office in Qatar. The Afghan government is deeply opposed to any recognition of the Qatar office, which the Taliban in the past have billed as a government in exile.

Khalilzad has been touring the region in recent days. In meetings in Kabul, Khalilzad is expected to press Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to cobble together his own negotiating team, which could prove difficult given the deep divisions within the government.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ic-state-in-southeastern-desert-idUSKCN1NN0S8


World News November 18, 2018 / 1:09 PM / Updated 2 hours ago

Syrian army advances against Islamic State in southeastern desert

2 Min Read

AMMAN (Reuters) - Hundreds of Islamic State militants withdrew from the heart of a rugged area in southeastern Syria after holding up for over three months against a major campaign by the Syrian army and its allies to crush them, rebels and residents said on Sunday.

They said jihadists dug into the Tulul al Safa heights, east of Sweida province, had begun their retreat in the last few days as Syrian army tanks backed by heavy air strikes approached their last hideout.

Local leaders in Sweida city said the army and militias had suffered heavy losses in weeks of attempts to advance deep into the volcanic plateau area where the rugged terrain had long made it an ideal refuge for fugitives and insurgents.

Syrian state media, quoting army sources, said they had closed in on Tulul al Safa and pro-government websites said the army had finally raised the national flag near the tomb of an revered holy figure close to the site.

The jihadist group, which lost most of its territory in Syria last year, rampaged through Sweida city in July from the desert areas east of the city, killing more than 200 people and detonating suicide vests.

The militants are believed to have fled to other areas to the west, including the towns of al Hasa and al Rahba, with many also melting into the vast sparsely populated eastern desert region, a former rebel source familiar with the area said.

Further northeast, the U.S.-led coalition was waging air strikes against the town of Hajin, east of the Euphrates River, in the last remaining Islamic State-held pocket in Syria near the border with Iraq.

Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by David Evans

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemeni-rebels-halt-rocket-fire-saudi-arabia-075032698.html

Yemeni rebels say they will halt rocket fire at Saudi Arabia

AHMED AL-HAJ and BRIAN ROHAN, Associated Press 1 hr ago

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A senior leader of Yemen's Shiite rebels said on Monday that the group will halt rocket fire into Saudi Arabia for the sake of peace efforts, answering a key Saudi demand in the first public sign of hope for the latest push to stop the bloodshed and civilian suffering in the Arab world's poorest country.

For the past three years, a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has been waging war against the rebels, known as Houthis, to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government to power. The rebels say they had been excluded from that government and took power to rectify historic grievances against central authority.

The rebel leader, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said in a statement to journalists that the Iran-backed rebels ordered the cessation of rocket and drone attacks on the Saudis and forces loyal to coalition member the United Arab Emirates at the request of U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths.

"We are ready to freeze and stop military operations on all fronts in order to achieve peace," al-Houthi said, mentioning the rockets specifically as part of a longer statement in which he blamed the United States for being the main driver for what he called "the aggression" against Yemen.

Yemen's civil war began in the wake of its Arab Spring uprising, when the Houthis swept down from their northern stronghold and took the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, with the help of troops loyal to Yemen's former strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The government fled the following year, and Saudi Arabia, citing fears that its nemesis Iran was using the Shiite leanings of the revolt to make inroads on the Arabian Peninsula, began launching airstrikes against the rebels.

Riyadh formed a coalition of Sunni Arab states, including the UAE, Kuwait, Egypt and Sudan, and launched ground assaults on several fronts but failed to take the capital. After some major setbacks, it began outsourcing the ground fighting to local troops, including a group trained by the UAE in the south.

The latest Saudi-led offensive, which began last summer, has been focused on capturing the key rebel-held port city of Hodeida, through which almost all of Yemen's food and desperately needed humanitarian aid flows.

Griffiths, the U.N. envoy, announced on Friday that both sides had agreed to attend talks in Sweden "soon" aimed at ending the conflict. His announcement followed an informal de-escalation last week around Hodeida, although fighting has continued on the ground in other areas.

It was not immediately to what extent the Houthi move on stopping missile fire into the kingdom would stop the overall violence.

Truces rarely hold entirely in Yemen's disorderly civil war, where fighting is on several fronts, and peace talks attempts abroad have repeatedly broken down.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the war so far, and two-thirds of Yemen's 27 million-strong population relies on aid. More than 8 million are at risk of starvation in what has become the world's worst humanitarian disaster.
___

Rohan reported from Cairo.
Comments (4)

 

[danielboon]

Russia, Turkey, Iran to hold Syria talks in Astana next week Russia, Turkey and Iran are set to hold a next round of talks on Syria on November 28 and 29 in the Kazakh capital Astana, according to Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

Delegations of the Syrian government and the opposition are also expected to attend, Abdrakhmanov was quoted as saying by Russia's Tass news agency on Monday.

He also said that the United Nations and Jordan were invited as observers.

The November talks will be the 11th conference organised by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran, including nine held in Astana.

The biggest achievement of the trio is the creation of de-escalation zones, which they claim to have reduced the level of violence in the country.

The last Moscow-led conference in the Astana format took place in Russia's southern city of Sochi in July.Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people since it started in 2011 with the police crackdown on anti-government protests.

The Syrian government has regained control over the majority of the country's territory since the Russian military intervened in 2015, backing President Bashar al-Assad's government.

On Saturday, the regime recaptured a volcanic plateau in the south of Syria from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group after weeks of fighting.

State news agency SANA reported that pro-government forces had made "a great advance in Tulul al-Safa" and were combing the area for any remaining ISIL fighters.

The development leaves ISIL in the Deir Az Zor pocket, although it also has a presence in the vast Badia desert stretching across the country to the border with Iraq.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...-syria-talks-astana-week-181119062520312.html

 

[danielboon]

Russia releases video of Su-57 combat debut in Syria

The Russian Defence Ministry has released video footage on 19 November showing unique footage of the Su-57 5th-generation fighter jet in its first combat operation in the Syrian Arab Republic.

According to a news release put out by the Russian Defence Ministry, the sorties of modern Su-57 5th-generation fighter jets were carried out in order to prove announced possibilities of the newest aircraft in a real combat environment.

“During the flights, pilots checked aircraft performances, smart data management system, operation of on-board systems, including armament at high temperatures, complicated underlying surface and other factors,” said in a statement.

A Russian Air Force official confirmed that the Su-57, in its first combat operation, was used over Syria during operations against the Islamic State (IS) and other militants.

Crews of newest Russian-made Su-57 5th-generation fighter jet made over 10 sorties in Syria.

“Su-57 is the Russian advanced air complex of the fifth generation designed for elimination of all types of air, ground and maritime targets. It high maneuverability, supersonic capabilities as well as modern on-board systems and stealth capability provides high efficiency and air superiority,” – also added in a statement.In August, the Russian Aerospace Forces Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Viktor Bondarev stated that the Russian T-50 5th-generation fighter had received the index of Su-57.https://defence-blog.com/news/russia-releases-video-of-su-57-combat-debut-in-syria.html

 

[danielboon]

Guy Elster
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Verified account

@guyelster
6h6 hours ago
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#Iran President #Rouhani says Iran will not yield to US sanctions, economic pressure

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/e...during-a-fueling-drill-yomiuri-shimbun-writer

The Asian Voice

The Chinese vessel we encountered during a fuelling drill: Yomiuri Shimbun writer

Published Nov 16, 2018, 7:12 pm SGT
In the article, the writer warns about China's moves in the South China Sea.
Tatsuya Fukumoto

TOKYO (THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - In late October, I spent nine days embedded aboard the Kaga, the largest helicopter carrier-type destroyer of the Maritime Self-Defence Force, as the vessel toured the South China Sea on a long-term training deployment.

The South China Sea has been the site of increased manoeuvring between China and the United States.

China's presence is growing as it continues to construct military bases on artificial islands, putting it at odds with the United States and its goal of advancing freedom of navigation in international waters.

Under such tense circumstances, Japan and China have also been probing each other's true intentions in the region.

It was past 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 25.

A silent tension gripped the bridge of the Kaga as it sailed through the South China Sea south of Vietnam.

A Chinese warship, whose silhouette had only just come into view, had closed rapidly and begun to tail the Kaga, settling into a position about 10km from the Kaga's right rear side.

Suddenly, a voice burst through over an international radio channel.

"Japanese Warship 184. This is Chinese Warship 170. Good morning. Nice to meet you. Over."

The Kaga's hull number is 184.

The ship tailing the Kaga was ship number 170 of the Chinese Navy - the Lanzhou, a Luyang II-class guided-missile destroyer, with a full-load displacement of 7,112 tons.

The Lanzhou is said to be equipped with anti-aircraft and antiship missiles, as well as a phased array radar that can acquire multiple targets simultaneously.

It is called the "Chinese Aegis-equipped destroyer."

It is also the ship that had a near miss with an Aegis-equipped U.S. destroyer near an artificial island in the Spratly Islands in late September, coming within about 41 meters of the U.S. destroyer, which is believed to have been conducting freedom of navigation operations.

"We're being hailed. Now responding."

Upon relaying this to their superiors, the Kaga's assistant anti-submarine warfare officer returned the Chinese vessel's hail with much the same phrasing, but the conversation with the Lanzhou ended there.

The Kaga was in the midst of a round-trip to the Indian Ocean as part of the Maritime and Self-Defence Force's (MSDF's) first Indo-Southeast Asia Deployment.

That morning, the Kaga and the Inazuma, an accompanying destroyer, were refueled at sea by the Pecos, a U.S. Navy replenishment oiler.

The refueling was part of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement between Japan and the United States.

The Lanzhou closed to about five kilometers away during the about two-hour process, and continued to follow and monitor the MSDF ships until early the next morning without taking additional provocative action.

The refueling took place outside the so-called "nine-dash line," within which China claims to have historic rights to sovereignty.

But the setting symbolises the standoff between China and Japan and the United States, with the former accelerating its maritime expansion and the latter two working in close coordination in the South China Sea.

At night, the game of tag between the MSDF and the Chinese Navy took on a new dimension.

"Screech, screech."

Sometime after 2 a.m. on Oct 26, a sound reminiscent of a whale's song rang out repeatedly through the darkened halls of the ship, waking me.

It was the sound of the Kaga's sonar as it searches for submarines.

About 10 days prior, on the way back from the Indian Ocean, something happened that surprised the crew of the Kaga.

At the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the Japanese vessel encountered one of the Chinese Navy's submarines, which was cruising at the surface.

It is rare to encounter another country's submarine carrying out covert actions.
A Chinese submarine is an especially rare sight.

The submarine passed through the Strait of Malacca ahead of the Kaga and disappeared into the South China Sea.

The MSDF is believed to have conducted a search for the submarine while heading north through the South China Sea on Oct. 26, in an effort to spot it a second time.

It is believed that in addition to the Kaga's on-board sonar, a sonar device called a sonobuoy was dropped from an SH-60K patrol helicopter, and the search was carried out in cooperation with the Inazuma.

In the early morning on Oct. 26, back on the surface, a smaller Jiangkai II-class frigate vessel began tailing the Kaga in place of the Lanzhou.

Ultimately, the search for the Chinese submarine on Oct. 26 likely had to be stopped, as the MSDF ships were forced to increase their speed in order to get through the South China Sea quickly to avoid a direct hit from Typhoon No. 26, approaching from the east.

The Kaga passed through the Bashi Channel on the night of Oct. 27 and arrived at Okinawa on the morning of Oct. 30, completing its deployment.

The Kaga's two-month deployment was part of the "free and open Indo-Pacific strategy" that the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has touted.

During that time, the ship made port calls in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Singapore, and took part in separate exercises with seven countries in total - those five nations plus the United States and Britain.

In mid-September, the Japanese government made the first public announcement concerning the MSDF's anti-submarine drills in the South China Sea, which had been occurring for some time.

The announcement was a sign that Japan's efforts to increase its presence in the South China Sea had begun in earnest.

Japan's strategic releases of information are thought to be modeled in part on methods employed by countries such as the United States and Britain.

At present, the MSDF and the Chinese Navy directly communicate with each other under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), an international standard that establishes protocols for the purpose of preventing maritime incidents.

During the Kaga's outward voyage, as it headed south through the South China Sea, it used the wording stipulated by CUES to exchange course and speed information with the tailing Chinese ship.

The MSDF's Cort Flotilla 4 Commander Tatsuya Fukuda, 51, who oversaw the deployment, said: "There is a difference in the level of tension between the East China Sea and the South China Sea. In the East China Sea (the site of conflict over the Senkaku Islands), China is more aggressive, while in the South China Sea, it is gentlemanly. We're aware China is also starting to take actions that have a legal basis."

However, in this instance, the MSDF had prepared itself for the possibility of an emergency with China, including by having a legal officer well versed in international law on the crew of the Kaga.

In contrast to its attitude toward the United States, China has taken a calmer approach to Japan because Japan has not approached its artificial islands.

Nonetheless, the MSDF must remain vigilant in the face of China's "smile diplomacy."

The South China Sea is a key sea-lane for Japan.

If it became necessary to take a detour around the South China Sea, the additional time and fuel costs are estimated to be 1½ days and US$120,000 (S$165,216) for travel via the Sunda Strait, and three days and US$240,000 for travel via the Lombok Strait.

Both of these straits can be perilous, with strong tidal currents, sunken ships and shoals.

If either were to see a large increase in marine traffic, chaos is predicted to ensue.

According to Kenji Hongan, 43, a captain for the shipping company NYK Line, a growing number of oil rigs and research vessels of unknown nationality have been sighted on and alongside the regular routes of merchant ships in the South China Sea in recent years, with the rigs' and research vessels' crews frequently instructing other ships in English to "keep five miles (about eight kilometers) away and pass through."

China has a base for nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines in Sanya on Hainan Island.

China's construction of military footholds in the Spratly Islands in the southern half of the South China Sea is said to also be aimed at making the deeper waters of the northern half of the South China Sea "off-limits" and protecting its nuclear submarine base.

A court of arbitration on the South China Sea handed down a ruling in 2016 that it would not recognise China's claims to "historical rights" to the waters within the nine-dash line.

"China has declared it will not abide by the verdict. But this means that a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council denies the rule of law. In order to establish the rule of law in the South China Sea, China is being called upon to adopt the posture of a responsible power, one that respects judicial decisions," said Shigeki Sakamoto, a professor of international law at Doshisha University.

In the immediate future, it will be necessary to maintain a careful watch over China's movements in and around the South China Sea.

The Yomiuri Shimbun is a member of The Straits Times media partner Asia News Network, an alliance of 23 news media entities.

 

[danielboon]

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������️ #IAF aircraft reported over #lebanon right now! Related with a takeoff of Gulfstream G550 Nachshon Eitam tail:537 ICAO: #738A4C from #Nevatim air base.
@5472_nde @GDarkconrad @Obs_IL @Gh0str1dr91 @IntelliTimes @IdeologyWars @ELINTNews @avischarf @TheWarOfNow @ua4wiy_

 

[danielboon]

Trump administration hawks putting US on course for war with Iran, report warns Donald Trump has surrounded himself with hardliners in his administration who have openly called for bombing Iran and carrying out regime change, says a new report, which also warns of the possibility of a military confrontation being engineered through provocative action.

Senior members of the US administration, which has pulled out of the nuclear deal with Tehran unilaterally, have vocalised its desire to destroy the agreement and cripple the Iranian economy in the process, the document prepared by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) points out.

The report holds, however, that there is a chance of averting a violent scenario following the American midterm elections, which have given the Democrats control of the House of Representatives. There are Republicans as well as Democrats who are wary of the hawkish approach of some of Mr Trump’s advisers, and a bipartisan approach may pave the way for the deal to be saved and even for Washington to rejoin it in the future.NIAC, an independent organisation which studies issues involving the US and Iran, reminds readers that the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, the other signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have all said repeatedly that Tehran is living by its obligations, as have the United Nations. The Trump administration’s stance, it has pointed out, has caused a serious rift with western allies who are now taking legal and commercial measures to protect international companies from US sanctions.Re-engaging with Tehran would give the US, with the help of its western allies, the means to address issues of concern such as human rights in Iran and its activities in the region, the report stresses. The imposition of sanctions, it continues, will not only hurt the Iranian people by interrupting the provision of humanitarian supplies like medicine, but bolster anti-western reactionaries.

The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is in Tehran to press for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman who has spent two and half years in jail charged with spying, but he is also raising the issue the issue of Iranian support for Houthis in the Yemen civil war while reiterating the UK’s commitment to the nuclear agreement. Such engagement, it is held, is the right way to address the situation.Israel and Saudi Arabia, the two states which successfully lobbied Mr Trump to sabotage the JCPOA signed between Tehran and international powers, have long urged Washington to take military action against Iran.

The report reminds how previous administrations had to resist repeated calls for strikes against Iran by Israel and a Sunni bloc. “Every leader I met with in the region,” John Kerry, secretary of state under Barack Obama, recalled, “said, ‘You have to bomb Iran, that is the only thing they understand and that is the only way you will stop them having a nuclear weapon.’” Robert Gates, defence secretary in both the Bush and Obama administrations, said these leaders were hoping to “fight the Iranians to the last American”.

Senior Trump officials who had urged against withdrawing from the nuclear agreement, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser Lieutenant General HR McMaster, have left the administration. Another moderate voice, General James Mattis, is expected to depart in the near future.

The NIAC report states: “While Trump himself routinely pillories the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, he has surrounded himself with hawks who seek the same fate for Iran. National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have in the past openly called for regime change and bombing Iran.”

Mr Bolton, like Mr Trump, is a Vietnam draft-dodger but has always been a strong advocate of US military action and remains a firm defender of the Iraq invasion. He has stated in the past: “To stop Iran’s bomb, bomb Iran... The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attacks on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required.”The report cautions that the Trump administration could be attempting to provoke Tehran to leave the nuclear agreement. It says: “If they succeed in goading Iran to leave the constraints of the JCPOA, Bolton and Pompeo would have all the ammunition they need to replicate the Iraq war playbook and tee up a preventive war to stop Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. Even if they fail, the spark for a massive military conflagration with Iran could come from multiple directions in the absence of deconfliction channels. “A clash in the tight waterways of the Persian Gulf, US manoeuvres to push Iran out of Syria, or Iranian retaliation for perceived foreign support for terror within Iranian borders could be all war hawks in Washington and Riyadh would need to push headlong into a disastrous war.”

NIAC urges Congress to act as speedily as possible: “Given the risks of President Trump and his administration fully collapsing the JCPOA and instigating war with Iran, the work needs to begin now in order to rein in the White House and prevent a disastrous war. In this context, a top priority must be to signal that there is political will in Washington to re-enter the JCPOA.”

Warning of the impact of American punitive action on Iranian politics, the report points out: “The current supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, is also 79 years old and Iran’s various factions are already jockeying over his potential successor.

“The political dynamics inside Iran may well determine how forward-leaning the next administration can be in seeking to resolve remaining sources of conflict with Iran and it is critical that the US acts before it is too late to salvage the JCPOA and with it the political space to pursue diplomatic solutions.”https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-for-war-with-iran-report-warns-a8641756.html

 

[danielboon]

US pledges strong backing, missile defense for Israel against Hezbollah Israel can expect unqualified support from the Trump Administration in the event of a rocket bombardment from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, according to a senior Administration official.

The official was asked how the Trump Administration would respond in the event of a war between Israel and Hezbollah in which Israel was compelled to attack Hezbollah rockets behind human shields and inflict a very large number of civilian casualties.


The answer was that the Administration’s unqualified support for Israel’s right to defend itself in Gaza would apply to Hezbollah as well. Not only would the US support Israel diplomatically, but the US would contribute to Israel’s missile defense along the lines of this year’s Operation Juniper Cobra exercise. Presumably, Iran and Hezbollah know this, which makes a war on the northern front unlikely.

According to the Israel Defense Forces website, “Hezbollah militants and arms are systematically embedded in civilian areas and urban population centers. Hundreds of arms depots, thousands of militants, and tens of thousands of rockets are distributed throughout Southern Lebanon alone, an area characterized by its dense Shiite population.”

Juniper Cobra is a five-day joint military exercise, which has in recent years provided training for the potential event of a ballistic missile attack from Iran. The exercises have been conducted every two years since 2001, most recently in March of this year.

America’s energetic backing for Israel may explain Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reluctance to escalate the present conflict in Gaza. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned last week in protest against Netanyahu’s decision to call a ceasefire with the Hamas government in Gaza rather than exact a severe penalty for the hundreds of Gazan rockets launched at Israeli civilian targets.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, meanwhile, threatened to take the Israel Home Party out of the coalition and force new elections unless he were appointed Defense Minister, but backed down from the threat after Netanyahu took on the Defense portfolio personally.

Trump Administration officials believe that the Hamas government in Gaza will remain a major annoyance rather than an existential threat to Israel, and that Israel does not want to accept the significant number of military casualties that would result from an invasion of the enclave.

Hamas can’t be stopped from the air, and the cost of a ground incursion would be substantial. With the most pro-Israel US Administration in history, Netanyahu remains in a strong position against Iran and Hezbollah, and can afford a degree of caution in dealing with Gaza, they believe. http://www.atimes.com/article/us-pl...issile-defense-for-israel-against-hezbollah//

 

[danielboon]

Israel more concerned about threats from Hezbollah than Hamas, says Middle East expert American Enterprise Institute research fellow Katherine Zimmerman said on Thursday that Israel is more concerned about threats from Hezbollah and the ongoing Syrian civil war than it is with Hamas.

"For the Israelis, the concern is less about Hamas right now and much more about Hezbollah and the events in Syria, and that's where they want to put their effort," Zimmerman told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti on "Rising," when asked how much Israel will have to invest in ground operations amid recent attacks from Hamas.

Her comments come after a failed Israeli operation in Gaza sparked a new wave of violence, resulting in the deaths of three Palestinians.

Israeli forces launched over 30 airstrikes into the Gaza strip, while Hamas-linked militants launched hundreds of rockets into Israel, wounding at least seven Israelis.

"It's estimated that it was over 450 rocks in 24 hours, and that's a level that we haven't seen, so yes it is unprecedented, and it shows that Hamas has been stockpiling, but the Israeli defense systems worked," Zimmerman said.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi’ite group, has become a significant participant in Syria's ongoing civil war, which is taking place in relatively close proximity to Israel.

"We condemn any normalization with Israel, and call on the Palestinian people not to be afraid," Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, told supporters last week.

"If Syria and the Assad regime were to fall, we would have seen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Damascus, because most of the opposition in Syria maintains ties with Israel," he continued. https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/4...ts-from-hezbollah-than-hamas-says-middle-east

 

[danielboon]

News_Executive
‏

@News_Executive
2h2 hours ago
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BREAKING: 37 Al-Shabaab militants were killed on Monday in two air-strikes carried out by the US military in Somalia.

 

[danielboon]

Death Toll Rises To 50 In Kabul Wedding Hall Explosion At least 50 people have been killed and 83 others wounded in an explosion inside a very large wedding hall on the airport road in Kabul city center.

The explosion happened at about 6.15pm local time during a large gathering of people who were marking Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, officials said.

The blast happened at the Uranus Wedding Hall, in the city, according to ministry of public health.

However, the Ministry of interior (MoI) said over 50 people were killed and wounded in the attack.

MoI spokesman Najib Danish told TOLOnews that the blast was reportedly a suicide bombing.

One eyewitness, who was interviewed outside Kabul’s Emergency Hospital, said many people were wounded.

“There were a lot of wounded people, I saw at least ten wounded people brought here,” the eye witness said.

An hour after the explosions ambulances were still heard rushing to-and-from the scene of the explosion to hospitals in the city center.

The presidential palace immediately condemned the bombing and said it was a criminal act.

“President Ghani strongly condemns this criminal and Un-Islamic act and said that the terrorist attack on Milad un Nabi ceremony which conveys the message of peace and blessing is an enmity with the Islamic principles and way of life of the prophet (peace be upon him),” presidential palace (ARG) said in a statement.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has also deplored the attack.

UNAMA says it is outraged by Kabul bombing when communities across Afghanistan are marking a day of special religious significance.

“UNAMA outraged by #Kabul bombing when communities across #Afghanistan are marking day of special religious significance. Credible reports of heavy civilian casualties. UN human rights teams establishing facts. UN family extends deepest condolences to the many families affected,” UNAMA tweeted.

The Indian embassy in Kabul also condemned the attack.

“We condemn in the strongest possible words the henious and cowardly terrorist attack in#Kabul today which resulted in the death and injury of scores of innocent Afghans. Perpetrators of these attacks and their supporters must be held accountable by the international community,” Indian embassy tweeted.

US ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass also condemned the attack on the religious gathering in Kabul

“Sickened and deeply saddened by tonight’s terror attack as the Ulema Council marked the Prophet’s Birthday. I extend our condolences to the families and followers of those killed and wounded,” Bass tweeted.

The High Peace Council also condemning the attack said Afghan people will work for peace and stability despite all the challenges they may face in this way.

The council said the enemies conspiracies cannot stop peace and stability in the country. https://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/40-killed-80-wounded-kabul-wedding-hall-blast

 

[danielboon]

Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) quietly training for large scale attack on the US electrical grid For the conspiracy-minded among us, Plum Island, New York, may have a familiar ring to it. Deep within the tin foil hat-wearing corners of the internet, Plum Island’s Animal Disease Center is rumored to be the site of gruesome government experiments in the vein of “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Legends of biological weapons programs and genetically modified creatures on Plum Island have only grown in recent years, thanks in large part to the discovery of a strange-looking carcass that washed up on a nearby Long Island beach in 2008. The creature was dubbed “the Montauk Monster,” and among the locals, there’s little debate as to where it came from: Plum Island.

The reality of Plum Island, however, may actually be more disturbing than the fiction, if not quite as theatrical. Earlier this month, Plum Island was the site of a DARPA-led training initiative in which cyber warfare experts and energy grid operators joined forces to prepare for an attack that experts contend could result in the deaths of 90% of the American population over the span of just a few years: a large-scale invasion of the American electrical grid.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration levied a new series of sanctions against the Russian government for their infiltration of a number of assets associated with the nation’s electrical infrastructure. While the American government claims to have located and done away with any malicious software or backdoors the Russian operatives may have left behind, it confirmed the idea that American opponents are using cyber warfare techniques to gain access the United States electrical grid.

The United States, like most highly developed nations around the world, has grown dependent on reliable electricity for more than just creature comforts. The vast majority of military bases, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies all rely on commercially sourced power within the United States for day-to-day operations and communications. Without electricity to process and refrigerate foods, the nation’s urban populations would be plunged into starvation. Medication wouldn’t reach patients; winters would freeze pipes, destroy infrastructure, and kill many. The nation’s economy would quickly degrade, as businesses closed their doors and factories went dark. A nation-wide power outage that lasted three days could cause widespread panic… but a nation-wide power outage that lasted three years could wipe the nation off the map.

And that’s where DARPA’s “Black Start” scenarios come in. Thus far, DARPA’s Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems (RADICS) program has conducted three smaller scale “Black Start” scenarios in which teams of cyber warfare professionals and grid operators use the latest techniques and equipment to try to reroute electrical flow from functioning generators to mission-critical assets that have been compromised by an attack. In effect, the “Black Start” scenarios are all about pitting the best cyber attackers America has against our existing systems and then working to find creative solutions before an adversary state has a chance to try the same.

“We have a bunch of things that try to make this as painful as possible for everyone,” project leader Walter Weiss told the press. “How do you actually keep the smartest people in the world busy for a week? That takes effort.”

November’s tests on Plum Island were the largest scale “Black Start” exercise to date, and DARPA intends to keep repeating the drills every six months for as long as funding will allow. Thus far, that extends at least through 2020.

“Our goal is to be dynamic. We don’t want them to be perfect. We want to find the limits of the tools. We’re driving them to a point where we see how far they can get and then we beat them back down,” Weiss continued. “We exercise with that absolute worst-case scenario where everything’s gone wrong, everything’s failed for a month and ask how are our tools still relevant. If we can prove a tool works when everything else is broken, that gives us more confidence.”https://thenewsrep.com/110403/darpa...large-scale-attack-on-the-us-electrical-grid/

 

[danielboon]

Ankit Panda
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Verified account

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Update from a source: Russia's Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile has a NATO designator — SSC-X-9 SKYFALL. (USIC also calls this missile the KY30.)

1:18 PM - 20 Nov 2018

 

[danielboon]

PUTIN TO ISRAEL, U.S.: LOOSEN SANCTIONS IN EXCHANGE FOR IRAN LEAVING SYRIA Russia offered Israel and the United States a deal involving Iran's withdrawal of its forces from Syria in exchange for a reduction in American sanctions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a closed session of the Knesset's Foreign and Security Committee Monday, Channel 10 News reported. The offer was made by Russian President Putin, according to an MK who was present at the meeting.

Netanyahu met Putin in Paris last week during the ceremonies marking the centenial of the armistice that ended the first World War, but it is unclear if Putin made the offer then. After the meeting, Netanyahu said that "the conversation with Putin was good, productive and very important. There is no point in going into further details."

MKs said that Netanyahu said at the meeting that the Russians and Americans are in discussions on containing the Iranian influence in Syria, and held their last meeting on the issue on November 8 in Vienna.

According to the report, at the beginning of the month Netayahu met with the American envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffery, and discussed the matter with him. Netanyahu was asked by the Knesset members if Israel expressed its stance on the proposal, and he answered that at this stage there is no official Israeli position.

"We are continuing our conversations in order to reach a political solution in Syria," a senior US State Department official told Channel 10. "We will not go into detail on the content of those diplomatic conversations."https://www.jpost.com//Middle-East/Putin-to-Israel-US-loosen-sanctions-in-exchange-for-Iran-leaving-Syria-572386

 

[danielboon]

WAR ALERT

EndGameWW3 Retweeted
EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS COMMANDER SAYS U.S. BASES AND AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE WITHIN RANGE OF IRANIAN MISSILES -TASNIM NEWS
4:01 PM · Nov 21, 2018

 

[Housecarl]

EndGameWW3 Retweeted
EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS COMMANDER SAYS U.S. BASES AND AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE WITHIN RANGE OF IRANIAN MISSILES -TASNIM NEWS
4:01 PM · Nov 21, 2018

Hummm....November Sierra....what does this tool or his boss have in mind?....

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
US targets within Iranian missiles’ striking range, commander warns — RT World News

US targets within Iranian missiles’ striking range, commander warns — RT World News
rt.com
7:47 PM · Nov 21, 2018 ·https://t.co/xEqwixJto2?amp=1

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
MEMRI: Lebanese Daily: Hizbullah Controls Area In Syrian Territory Along Border With Lebanon – And Has Built Military Bases, Training Camps, And Underground Warehouses There

Lebanese Daily: Hizbullah Controls Area In Syrian Territory Along Border With Lebanon – And Has...
memri.org
8:08 PM · Nov 21, 2018 ·https://t.co/yn3dnOrmGY?amp=1

 

[Housecarl]

EndGameWW3 Retweeted
EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS COMMANDER SAYS U.S. BASES AND AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARE WITHIN RANGE OF IRANIAN MISSILES -TASNIM NEWS
4:01 PM · Nov 21, 2018

EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
US targets within Iranian missiles’ striking range, commander warns — RT World News

US targets within Iranian missiles’ striking range, commander warns — RT World News
rt.com
7:47 PM · Nov 21, 2018 ·https://t.co/xEqwixJto2?amp=1

Hummm....November Sierra....what does this tool or his boss have in mind?....

More.....

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...thin-missile-range/ar-BBPXRWq?ocid=spartandhp

Iran says U.S. bases and aircraft carriers within missile range

11 hrs ago

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Wednesday that U.S. bases in Afghanistan, the UAE and Qatar, and U.S. aircraft carriers in the Gulf were within range of Iranian missiles, as tensions rise between Tehran and Washington.

"They are within our reach and we can hit them if they (Americans) make a move," Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards' airspace division, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

Hajizadeh said the Guards had improved the precision of their missiles, and specifically said they could hit the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Al Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates and Kandahar base in Afghanistan that host U.S. forces.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement on Iran's nuclear program in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. He said the deal was flawed because it did not include curbs on Iran's development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

The Islamic Republic's government has ruled out negotiations with Washington over its military capabilities, particularly its missile program run by the Guards.

Iran, which says its missile program is purely defensive, has threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if the United States tries to strangle Iranian oil exports.

In October, the Revolutionary Guards fired missiles at Islamic State militants in Syria after the Islamist group took responsibility for an attack at a military parade in Iran that killed 25 people, nearly half of them members of the Guards.

-----

I guess the "War of the Cities" from the Iran-Iraq War has been forgotten by these guys and they don't really understand what a JDAM fueled version of Linebacker would be like, especially for themselves personally. And that assumes nothing "fancy" in any warheads they used.....

https://worldwideweapons.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/iranarsenal_280909.jpg

http://static3.uk.businessinsider.c...733/screen shot 2015-07-22 at 11.48.26 am.png

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.stripes.com/news/top-na...etition-amid-talk-of-a-european-army-1.557387


Top NATO leader warns against competition amid talk of a European army

By JOHN VANDIVER | STARS AND STRIPES
Published: November 20, 2018

STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S.-led NATO alliance warned Tuesday that the European Union should avoid competing with NATO as the key security pact on the Continent, after leaders in Germany and France raised the possibility of setting up a European army.

During the past year, NATO has sought closer ties with the European Union on security matters, but allies have also cautioned that the trading and political bloc should not undercut the 29-nation trans-Atlantic military alliance.

“I have been equally clear about the fact that EU efforts must not compete with NATO, must not duplicate NATO, because NATO remains the bedrock for European security,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday ahead of meetings with EU officials.

The idea of a European army has garnered increased attention in recent weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel touted the idea as a counterweight to a less reliable United States under President Donald Trump.

Macron, calling for a “true European army,” said earlier this month that “we have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America.”

Trump ridiculed the idea, saying on Twitter that “perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!”

What Macron and his backers are proposing is a EU joint crisis intervention force that could be deployed in emergencies. But while the EU has long been involved in various security efforts and has deployed limited military contingents in the Balkans, Africa and elsewhere under the EU banner, it’s unclear how it would develop an intervention force capable of fending off the likes of China and Russia.

Any EU army would have to rely heavily on the armed forces of France and Germany, but Berlin has long struggled to meet its NATO defense spending obligations.

The result for Germany is a military that critics say is virtually non-deployable in a crisis. As of May, none of Germany’s submarines were operational, only four of its 128 Eurofighter jets were combat-ready and the army was short dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, according to various internal government reports. Troops also are short on the basics, such as body armor, night vision gear and cold-weather clothing.

Germany’s lack of combat readiness was brought into embarrassing focus in 2015 when photos emerged of troops training with broomsticks instead of guns because of an equipment shortage.

Still, Merkel last week again endorsed the idea of a European army, but added that it is years away from becoming a reality. “We have to create a European intervention unit with which Europe can act on the ground where necessary,” Merkel said.

So far, there are no concrete details on how such an army would be formed and what the command structures would be. But the bloc already has a military staff and other military components as part of its foreign policy and security establishment.

Stoltenberg said EU officials should remember that once the U.K. leaves the union, 80 percent of NATO’s defense expenditures will be derived from non-union members.

Stoltenberg also highlighted the role non-EU members play when it comes to guarding the Baltics and Poland. “Three of the four battle groups we have deployed in the eastern part of the alliance, in the Baltics countries and Poland will be led by non-EU allies,” he said.

Meanwhile, geography matters when it comes to security strategy in Europe, Stoltenberg said. Norway in the north, Turkey in the south and Canada, the U.S. and U.K. to the west all play key roles, Stoltenberg said.

"So geography and money, these are facts which we cannot ignore,” he said.

vandiver.john@stripes.com
Twitter: @john_vandiver

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm….

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/11/china-has-more-nuclear-subs-west-believed/152984/

China Has More Nuclear Subs Than the West Believed

By Patrick Tucker
Technology Editor
Read bio
November 20, 2018

There’s an extra sub under construction, but no permanent nuclear deterrent at sea — yet.

Western observers have likely underestimated the number of Chinese nuclear submarines in development, but overestimated how many are operational, a new analysis suggests. In particular, only half of China’s nuclear-armed SSBNs appear to be in operation.

Photos of the Bohai Shipyard and the Longpo Naval Facility produced by Planet Labs suggest that “China does not yet have a credible sea-based deterrent,” said Catherine Dill of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Two of China’s four JIN (or 094)-class subs “appear to not be in operation and are undergoing maintenance or repairs at the Bohai shipyard, suggesting to us that credibility is still in question.”

That rebuts the Defense Department’s 2018 China Military Report and CSIS’s Chinapower group, which had stated that China had four operational 094s.

But Dill and colleague Jeffrey Lewis also found that China had one more nuclear submarine in development than previously believed. They observed a total of five hulls in production, three at Longpo and two at the Bohai shipyard, suggesting that China is well on its way to meeting its goal of eight.

“China is continuing to modernize its nuclear weapons program, broadly,” Dill said. “There’s a big emphasis on the SSBN program because all of their deliverable nuclear weapons are on land-based systems. Expanding into these SSBNs gives China more flexibly and credibility.”

She added, “These observations would not have been possible without the high cadence of the Planet imagery, which gave us 244 days of exploitable imagery to monitor from July 2017 to November 2018.”

Patrick Tucker is technology editor for Defense One. He’s also the author of The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move? (Current, 2014). Previously, Tucker was deputy editor for The Futurist for nine years. Tucker has written about emerging technology in Slate, ... Full bio

Comments

----------

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/arc...type-094-jin-class-ssbns-with-planet-imagery/

Counting Type 094 Jin-class SSBNs with Planet Imagery

by Catherine Dill | November 21, 2018 | 2 Comments

A quick post before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S.

In my professional life, I am especially grateful for high frequency satellite imagery. This week Planet Lab’s SkySat sensor allowed us to make two very interesting observations about China’s SSBN program. Jeffrey Lewis and I both gave a few comments to Defense One, but I thought it might be useful to go into a bit more detail about using Planet imagery for monitoring China’s SSBNs.

In the most recent Annual Report to Congress on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, the DOD assessed that China has four operational Type 094 Jin-class SSBNs. How do we know this? How can we monitor this? Colleagues like Hans Kristensen have done an exceptional job over the years of identifying areas where the Chinese SSBN fleet lives, starting from the production facilities through to the operational bases. Sightings of Chinese SSBNs are rare, and the context in which a sighting occurs can help analysts make judgements about the current status of the Chinese program to expand the country’s SSBN fleet to eventually reach eight operational Type 094 Jin-class SSBNs by 2020.

There is a list of haunts associated with the SSBN program in China, but there are two facilities in particular that are useful to monitor to track developments in the SSBN program: the Bohai Shipyard at Huludao where the submarines are built and maintained, and the Longpo Naval Base at the Hainan Island Naval Complex where there are four piers designed for docking nuclear submarines, like the Type 094.

As anyone who has ever listened to me speak before surely will know, one of the issues in using high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to monitor anything over a long period of time is that there is just not enough imagery, especially to monitor geographically distant but related facilities. The revisit rate for the high-resolution sensors simply is too infrequent to allow for certainty in analytic judgements, especially in areas of the world that are prone to more clouds.

On 16 November, the Planet SkySat sensor captured beautiful images of both the Bohai shipyard and the Longpo Naval Base, allowing us to count the Chinese SSBNs with much more certainty than if we only had imagery of one location.

Jeffrey and I initially fixated on the two hulls back at the Bohai shipyard, typically used for maintenance and repairs, which leads to the first interesting observation: two of the SSBNs are not operational at the moment, contrary to the DOD assessment of four operational SSBNs. In reviewing imagery of the past year, we can observe that one of the hulls has been at the shipyard for some time, and the second hull arrived relatively recently. The next thing to monitor is how long the hulls will continue to be at Bohai, a statistic that might give some indications about potential maintenance and repair issues. (Bonus: we can observe that all 12 launch tubes in the top hull are open).

But after reviewing imagery of all the other facilities associated with SSBNs we observed something even more interesting: there are five 094s out in the wild, not four as analysts have been able to observe previously. There are three (3!) Type 094 submarines docked at Longpo, not the two we were expecting to see as we had a few weeks ago.

I measured the five submarines to persuade myself that they were all indeed 094s, and I have high confidence that they are.

High frequency imagery, like the imagery provided by Planet Labs, allows us to narrow analytic gaps that stem from simply not being able to see a location often enough. As a complement to the 70cm resolution SkySat imagery of Bohai and Longpo, we also reviewed the available 3m resolution Planetscope imagery of the locations, which is still quite useful for monitoring an SSBN. Between July 2017 and November 2018, Planetscope imagery was available on 244 days, which provides much more regular imagery for monitoring purposes.

With plentiful imagery, we can observe progress in the Chinese SSBN program that might be near impossible to observe only with high-resolution commercial satellites. In this case, what is particularly beautiful to me is that we have imagery from the same day in two locations that are geographically distant, providing the accurate count of five Type 094 SSBNs in various operational states.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm…..

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-secret-plans-build-five-nuclear-warheads/

Iran Had Secret Plans to Build Five Nuclear Warheads
New report stirring Iran hawks on Capitol Hill, Trump administration

BY: Adam Kredo
November 21, 2018 3:00 pm

A new bombshell report based on a secret trove of seized Iranian nuclear documents shows the Islamic Republic had concrete plans to manufacture and build at least five nuclear weapons and that it was much further along in this scheme than previously known by the international community.

Iran's contested nuclear weapons program was much further along than the international community thought, according to a report based on scores of secret Iranian plans seized by Israel and publicly disclosed for the first time earlier this year.

Information obtained in this raid on Iran's secretive nuclear files has revealed that Tehran was well along the path to building several nuclear weapons by around 2003, including the complex infrastructure needed to produce such weapons, according to a new report from the Institute for Science and International Society, a nuclear watchdog group that has exposed in the past the extent of Iran's nuclear works.

The report is being viewed as a bombshell revelation on Capitol Hill and is seen as validating critics of the Obama administration who alleged the former White House has underestimated the extent of Iran's nuclear weapons progress.

"Iran intended to build five nuclear warheads, each with an explosive yield of 10 kilotons and able to be delivered by ballistic missile," the group disclosed in a new report that shows Iran has retained much of its nuclear infrastructure and could continue using it to clandestinely conduct weapons work in violation of the landmark nuclear accord.

"Iran's initial plans show that it had achieved much more than feasibility and scientific studies relating to nuclear weapons, as the IAEA assessed in late 2015, as the Iran nuclear deal was being implemented," according to the group, which based its report on access it was granted to the seized Iranian nuclear documents, which show the regime allocated millions of dollars to the purchase of nuclear materials, including uranium, the key component in a bomb.

"Iran had put in place by the end of 2003 the infrastructure for a comprehensive nuclear weapons program," according to the report. "The evidence supports that Iran was preparing to conduct an underground test of a nuclear weapon, if necessary. The end goal was to have tested, deliverable nuclear weapons, and Iran made more progress toward that goal than known before the seizure of the archives."

Iran hawks on Capitol Hill say the report confirms warnings from many that the Obama administration downplayed Iran's nuclear activities in a bid to ink the nuclear pact with Iran.

"Republicans have long known that the Obama administration lied to the country about the Iran deal," said one senior Republican congressional official familiar with the report. "Just a few months ago PSI published documents showing they lied to Congress about enforcing sanctions and giving dollar access."

The latest disclosures are fueling the push in Congress for the Trump administration to reimpose greater economic sanctions on Iran, a portion of which went back into effect earlier this month. Some in Congress have called on the Trump administration to go further in its actions, including by fully cutting off Iran's oil exports and access to international financial markets.

"Now this report shows they also lied about Iran's nuclear weapons work," the source said. "You can expect congressional Republicans to increase pressure on the Trump administration to implement maximum pressure on Iran, which they still aren't doing."

Iran was poised to construct at least five nuclear warheads based on its weapons work at the time, according to the new report, which also found that Tehran's nuclear infrastructure was far more sophisticated than previously believed.

"Iran made far more progress toward its goal of manufacturing five nuclear weapons than known before the seizure of the archives," according to the watchdog group.

Information about Iran's nuclear activities, although far less complete, was kept hidden from the public as the Obama administration pressed the international community to support the nuclear agreement.

"It must be acknowledged that at that time, the IAEA and the JCPOA parties, appeared to be downplaying the Iranian nuclear weapons program so as not to stand in the way of starting the implementation of the JCPOA in January 2016," the report found, noting that international nuclear inspectors have yet to take a stance on the new information.

"Today, the IAEA has in its possession much of the content from the Iranian archive; it should be expected to act on this information, something that is not yet visible, after six months of examining the new information.

This nuclear infrastructure remains intact, further fueling concerns about what Iran has been hiding from nuclear inspectors, who must give Iran advance notice of any inspections and refrain from entering the country's contested military sites.

"The continued existence of the Iranian nuclear archive and warehouse reinforces that the Iranian nuclear program's remains, and likely some activities, may have continued up to today," the group said.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm…..

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...rand-new-observation-posts-in-northern-syria/

Your Military

The US military is putting new observation posts in northern Syria

By: Kyle Rempfer  
12 hours ago

The U.S. military will begin putting observation posts in northern Syria to help Turkey secure its border from the threats wandering through the war-torn country.

The move could prevent skirmishes in areas near Turkey’s border from distracting U.S.-backed fighters from their mission to defeat the Islamic State. The buildup, though, could draw the ire of U.S. lawmakers, some of whom view the mission in Syria as drifting away from the original goal of defeating ISIS.

“This is a change, now," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon. “We are putting observation posts in several locations up along the northern Syrian border because we want to be the people who call the Turks and warn them if we see something coming out of an area that we’re operating in."

Mattis said this move was made in close consultation with Turkey, a NATO ally that has made several offensive operations into Syria over the past few years to deal with militant groups it says pose a threat.

“We are going to track any threat we can spot going up into Turkey,” Mattis said. "That means we’ll be talking to Turkish military across the border.”

The new observation posts won’t require additional troops, though, he added.
The observation posts will be “very clearly marked” for both day and night operations so Turkish forces know their locations, according to Mattis. The U.S. military also this month began joint patrols with uniformed Turkish troops, part of a road map for easing tensions in the region between the two NATO allies.

The White House has revealed massive mission creep in Syria. Here’s why.
The White House signaled a fundamental shift in the military mission for troops in Syria that would focus on Iran rather than ISIS.
By: Kyle Rempfer, Todd South

“What this is designed to do is make sure that the people we have fighting down in the [Middle Euphrates River Valley] are not drawn off that fight and that we can crush what’s left of the geographic [ISIS] caliphate,” Mattis said.

ISIS is largely relegated to a pocket of land near the Syria-Iraq border. Fighting there has been exceptionally difficult, as it is one of the last places the terror group still holds territory, and they are determined not to lose it.

The U.S. has also had difficulties keeping one of its most lethal contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces — the Kurdish YPG — from abandoning the fight against ISIS in order to head north where they clash with Turkish military and proxy forces.

Turkey and the Kurds have a long history of conflicts. Turkey considers YPG fighters an offshoot of the Kurdish PKK, a U.S. State Department-recognized terror group.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, have consistently praised the YPG for their role in winning back swaths of territory from ISIS, buoyed by U.S. air power.

“We do not say the YPG is the same as PKK,” Mattis said. “And the Syrian Democratic Forces, who have lost thousands of troops killed and wounded fighting ISIS, got distracted by the instability up around Afrin and Manbij [in northern Syria], so they were not staying fully focused.”

The observation posts could play an important role in reigning in the clashes that erupt periodically between Turkish and Kurdish forces. However, the Pentagon’s Syria mission has also faced scrutiny in recent months from members of Congress, who view a prolonged buildup in the country as ill-advised.

A bipartisan group of legislators on the House Armed Services Committee questioned Pentagon officials about the war in Syria in late September.

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a former Marine Corps infantry officer, raised concerns about using U.S. troops to take back towns and keep them separate from a united Syrian state in the long term, which he characterized as looking akin to “Medieval kingdoms."

The U.S. presence in Syria is situated close to Jordan near Al-Tanf, in Syria’s north at Manbij, along the country’s border with Iraq near Al Qaim and Abu Kamal, and in other portions of Syria’s northeast, where the U.S. military partners with the Syrian Democratic Forces.

 

[danielboon]

I smell an attack on Iran is coming

EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
U.S. ambassador: Iran failed to declare all chemical weapons to global agency | Article [AMP] | Reuters

U.S. ambassador: Iran failed to declare all chemical weapons to...
reuters.com
6:19 PM · Nov 22, 2018 · https://t.co/N5yenLBQAP?amp=1

 

[danielboon]

EndGameWW3
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
Iran says no confidence in new US nuclear talks

Iran says no trust in Trump's US for new nuclear talks
alaraby.co.uk
6:28 PM · Nov 22, 2018 · https://t.co/GvJQdJYao1?amp=1

 

[danielboon]

Blast Kills 25 at Market in Northwest PakistanPESHAWAR, PAKISTAN —
A suicide bomb attack on a crowded festival and market in northwest Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 25 people Friday and wounded 20, a government official said.

The blast occurred around the same time that three attackers tried to storm the Chinese consulate in the southern city of Karachi. Two policemen and the three attackers were killed.

The Karachi attack was claimed by a separatist insurgent group called the Baluchistan Liberation Army, and did not appear to be connected to the attack on the market in the northwestern region of Orakzai.

In Orakzai, a suicide bomber drove a motorcycle into a crowd attending a festival and market that attracts people from different religious communities, before detonating his explosives.No group claimed responsibility.

“It was a suicide blast at the festival that takes place every Friday,” said Abbas Khan, the assistant commissioner of the district, told Reuters.

Khan said that among the 25 dead were three members of the minority Sikh community and two security officials.

The Geo television channel showed footage of military officials cordoning off the bomb site.

Orakzai was formerly a semi-autonomous part of Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun tribal area along the Afghan border.

The region was for decades a refuge for Islamist militants fighting in Afghanistan, and more recently against the Pakistani state.

The Pakistani military stepped up operations along the border in 2009 and has managed to clear some areas of militants.

The tribal areas were incorporated into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in May. https://www.voanews.com/a/blast-kills-25-at-market-in-northwest-pakistan/4670724.html

 

[Zagdid]

China 'strongly condemns' Pakistan consular attack

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-strongly-condemns-pakistan-consular-attack-10962126 (fair use)
23 Nov 2018 04:05PM (Updated: 23 Nov 2018 10:07PM

BEIJING: China on Friday (Nov 23) condemned an attack on its consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi that killed four people, including two policemen, and urged its ally to ensure the security of Chinese citizens.

"China strongly condemns any violent attacks against diplomatic agencies and requests that Pakistan takes practical measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions in the country," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing.

The Chinese government's top diplomat, Wang Yi, said he was "shocked" by the attack and urged Pakistan to prevent any more such incidents.

Wang, who is a state councillor and China's foreign minister, strongly condemned the attack during a phone call with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, according to a statement published on the Chinese ministry's website.

Three suicide attackers stormed the consulate amid a series of gunshots and an explosion earlier but were killed before they could enter the building in a car packed with explosives.

 

[danielboon]

Iran's Rouhani calls for Muslims to unite against United States
Reuters|Published: 11.24.18 , 10:10
DUBAI—President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslims worldwide on Saturday to unite against the United States, instead of "rolling out red carpets for criminals".



Washington in May reimposed sanctions on Tehran, after US President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran under which they had been lifted.


"Submitting to the West headed by America would be treason against our religion ... and against the future generations of this region," Rouhani told an international conference on Islamic unity in Tehran, in a speech broadcast live on state television.


"We have a choice to either roll out red carpets for criminals, or to forcefully stand against injustice and remain faithful to our Prophet, our Koran and our Islam," Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states which have close ties to Washington.


Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals and have supported opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen and different political factions in Iraq and Lebanon. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5412897,00.html

 

[danielboon]

Iran's Rouhani calls Israel a 'cancerous tumor'
Associated Press|Published: 11.24.18 , 10:11
TEHRAN—Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called Israel Saturday a "cancerous tumor" established by Western countries to advance their interests in the Middle East.



Iran's leaders frequently condemn Israel and predict its demise, but Rouhani, a relative moderate, rarely employs such rhetoric.


Addressing an annual Islamic Unity Conference, Rouhani said "one of the ominous results of World War II was the formation of a cancerous tumor in the region." He went on to refer to Israel as a "fake regime" set up by Western countries.


Rouhani says the United States cultivates close ties with "regional Muslim nations" to protect Israel, an apparent reference to Iran's archrivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Iran supports militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that are pledged to Israel's destruction. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5412898,00.html

 

[danielboon]

Turkey uneasy about US plan for observation posts on Syria border-
Reuters|Published: 11.24.18 , 14:36
ISTANBUL— Turkey is uneasy about US plans to set up "observation posts" in Syria along parts of its border with Turkey, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.


US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday the United States was setting up the posts to help keep the focus on clearing the final Islamic State militant strongholds in Syria.


The United States has long complained that tension between Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - which includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia - has at times slowed progress on the fight against Islamic State.


Akar said he told US Chief of Staff Joseph Dunford and other US officials during a recent visit to Canada that setting up the posts would have a very negative impact on perceptions of the United States in Turkey.


"During our talks with both political and civilian interlocutors we repeatedly expressed our unease in various ways," he said. "I think actions like this will make the complicated situation in the region even more complicated.Turkey is angry at US support for the YPG, which it views as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waging a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5413009,00.html