For the past few years, governments across the world have paid close attention to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. There, it is said, we see the first glimpses of what warfare of the future will look like, not just in terms of weaponry, but also in terms of new technologies and tactics.

Most recently, the United States-Israeli attacks on Iran demonstrated not just new strategies of drone deployment and infiltration but also new vulnerabilities. During the 12-day conflict, Iran and vessels in the waters of the Gulf experienced repeated disruptions of GPS signal.

This clearly worried the Iranian authorities who, after the end of the war, began to look for alternatives.

• READ MORE: Aid Israel allowing into Gaza still a ‘drop in the ocean’, says UN
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

“At times, disruptions are created on this [GPS] system by internal systems, and this very issue has pushed us toward alternative options like BeiDou,” Ehsan Chitsaz, deputy communications minister, told Iranian media in mid-July. He added that the government was developing a plan to switch transportation, agriculture and the internet from GPS to BeiDou.

Iran’s decision to explore adopting China’s navigation satellite system may appear at first glance to be merely a tactical manoeuvre. Yet, its implications are far more profound. This move is yet another indication of a major global realignment.

For decades, the West, and the US in particular, have dominated the world’s technological infrastructure from computer operating systems and the internet to telecommunications and satellite networks.

This has left much of the world dependent on an infrastructure it cannot match or challenge. This dependency can easily become vulnerability. Since 2013, whistleblowers and media investigations have revealed how various Western technologies and schemes have enabled illicit surveillance and data gathering on a global scale — something that has worried governments around the world.

Clear message
Iran’s possible shift to BeiDou sends a clear message to other nations grappling with the delicate balance between technological convenience and strategic self-defence: The era of blind, naive dependence on US-controlled infrastructure is rapidly coming to an end. Nations can no longer afford to have their military capabilities and vital digital sovereignty tied to the satellite grid of a superpower they cannot trust.

This sentiment is one of the driving forces behind the creation of national or regional satellite navigation systems, from Europe’s Galileo to Russia’s GLONASS, each vying for a share of the global positioning market and offering a perceived guarantee of sovereign control.

GPS was not the only vulnerability Iran encountered during the US-Israeli attacks. The Israeli army was able to assassinate a number of nuclear scientists and senior commanders in the Iranian security and military forces. The fact that Israel was able to obtain their exact locations raised fears that it was able to infiltrate telecommunications and trace people via their phones.

On June 17 as the conflict was still raging, the Iranian authorities urged the Iranian people to stop using the messaging app WhatsApp and delete it from their phones, saying it was gathering user information to send to Israel.

Whether this appeal was linked to the assassinations of the senior officials is unclear, but Iranian mistrust of the app run by US-based corporation Meta is not without merit.

Cybersecurity experts have long been sceptical about the security of the app. Recently, media reports have revealed that the artificial intelligence software Israel uses to target Palestinians in Gaza is reportedly fed data from social media.

Furthermore, shortly after the end of the attacks on Iran, the US House of Representatives moved to ban WhatsApp from official devices.

Western platforms not trusted
For Iran and other countries around the world, the implications are clear: Western platforms can no longer be trusted as mere conduits for communication; they are now seen as tools in a broader digital intelligence war.

Tehran has already been developing its own intranet system, the National Information Network, which gives more control over internet use to state authorities. Moving forward, Iran will likely expand this process and possibly try to emulate China’s Great Firewall.

By seeking to break with Western-dominated infrastructure, Tehran is definitively aligning itself with a growing sphere of influence that fundamentally challenges Western dominance. This partnership transcends simple transactional exchanges as China offers Iran tools essential for genuine digital and strategic independence.

The broader context for this is China’s colossal Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While often framed as an infrastructure and trade project, BRI has always been about much more than roads and ports. It is an ambitious blueprint for building an alternative global order.

Iran — strategically positioned and a key energy supplier — is becoming an increasingly important partner in this expansive vision.

What we are witnessing is the emergence of a new powerful tech bloc — one that inextricably unites digital infrastructure with a shared sense of political defiance. Countries weary of the West’s double standards, unilateral sanctions and overwhelming digital hegemony will increasingly find both comfort and significant leverage in Beijing’s expanding clout.

This accelerating shift heralds the dawn of a new “tech cold war”, a low-temperature confrontation in which nations will increasingly choose their critical infrastructure, from navigation and communications to data flows and financial payment systems, not primarily based on technological superiority or comprehensive global coverage but increasingly on political allegiance and perceived security.

As more and more countries follow suit, the Western technological advantage will begin to shrink in real time, resulting in redesigned international power dynamics.

Jasim Al-Azzawi is an analyst, news anchor, programme presenter and media instructor. He has presented a weekly show called Inside Iraq.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem

Kia ora koutou,

I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.

Israeli forces killed over 200 Palestinians in Gaza over the last 48 hours, injuring over 1037. Countless more remain under the rubble and in unreachable zones. 450 killed seeking aid, 39 missing, and around 3500 injured at the joint US-Israeli humanitarian foundation “death traps”.

Forty one  killed by Israeli forces since dawn today, including three children in an attack east of Gaza City. Gaza’s Al-Quds brigades destroyed a military bulldozer in southern Gaza.

*

Settlers, protected by soldiers, violently attacked Palestinian residents near the southern village of Susiya last night, including children. The West Bank siege continues with Israeli occupation forces severely restricting movement between Palestinian towns and cities. Continued military/settler assaults across the occupied territories.

*

Iranian strikes targeted Ben Gurion airport and several military sites in the Israeli territories. Israeli regime discuss a 3.6 billion shekel defence budget increase.

*

400 killed and 3000 injured by Israel’s attacks on Iran, in the nine days since Israel’s aggression began. Iranian authorities have arrested dozens more linked to Israeli intelligence, and cut internet for the last three days to prevent internal drone attacks from agents within their territories.

Israeli strikes have targeted a wide range of sites; missile depots, nuclear facilities, residential areas, and reportedly six ambulances today.

Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Sharing the image, X user Nagendra Pandey (@nagendr_24) claimed, “Pakistan’s Rawalpindi Stadium was attacked by a drone and is covered in smoke.” (Archive)

Another X user, Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala), also shared the picture and indicated that the Rawalpindi stadium was scorched. (Archive)

At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 11 million times.

Instagram handle ‘asgardiwana_official‘ also shared the picture in two separate posts. (Archives 1, 2)

Fact Check

Alt News performed a keyword search to investigate the viral claim. This led us to a video report by the Times of India. According to this report, an Indian attack drone allegedly struck the Rawalpindi stadium a few hours before a cricket match on May 8, following which a part of the stadium was damaged. The report also shows broken glass windows from shops and food stalls.

We searched for more news reports but did not find any that shows the stadium in the same condition as in the viral image.

We then compared an actual photo of the Rawalpindi cricket stadium with the viral picture. Both images are clearly different. The Rawalpindi stadium (on the right) has only two tiers of audience stands, while the viral image shows three separate tiers. It is worth noting that the stadium ground in the viral picture looks much smaller than the image on the right. Further, there is also clear difference in the structure and design of both.

Upon taking a closer look at the viral picture, the nearby wall and the ground appear to be connected to each other. Apart from this, the trees and plants around appear green and fresh, which is strange since the drone resulted in so much damage to the stadium, the trees ought to have bene scorched or suffered some damage too. These were signs that hinted that the image was likely AI-generated.

Alt News then tested the image using some AI detection tools that confirmed the viral image was, in fact, generated using artificial intelligence. One tool called sightengine showed a 96% probability of the image being AI-generated.

Another tool named decopy.ai found that the image was 99.98% AI-generated.

To sum up, the viral image does not depict Pakistan’s Rawalpindi stadium destroyed any an Indian drone. Our findings indicate that it may have been created using artificial intelligence. In reality, the Rawalpindi stadium did suffer some damage, but the footage from there appears distinctly different from this. Thus, the claims are baseless.

The post Viral image does not show damage to Rawalpindi cricket stadium by Indian drone appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

A West Papua independence leader says escalating violence is forcing indigenous Papuans to flee their ancestral lands.

It comes as the Indonesian military claims 18 members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) were killed in an hour-long operation in Intan Jaya on May 14.

In a statement, reported by Kompas, Indonesia’s military claimed its presence was “not to intimidate the people” but to protect them from violence.

• READ MORE: Fiji rights coalition slams ‘betrayal’ of West Papua for Indonesian benefits
• Other West Papua reports

“We will not allow the people of Papua to live in fear in their own land,” it said.

Indonesia’s military said it seized firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows. They also took Morning Star flags — used as a symbol for West Papuan independence — and communication equipment.

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom, told RNZ Pacific that seven villages in Ilaga, Puncak Regency in Central Papua were now being attacked.

“The current military escalation in West Papua has now been building for months. Initially targeting Intan Jaya, the Indonesian military have since broadened their attacks into other highlands regencies, including Puncak,” he said.

Women, children forced to leave
Wenda said women and children were being forced to leave their villages because of escalating conflict, often from drone attacks or airstrikes.

Earlier this month, ULMWP claimed one civilian and another was seriously injured after being shot at from a helicopter.

Last week, ULMWP shared a video of a group of indigenous Papuans walking through mountains holding an Indonesian flag, which Wenda said was a symbol of surrender.

“They look at us as primitive and they look at us as subhuman,” Wenda said.

He said the increased military presence was driven by resources.

President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has a goal to be able to feed Indonesia’s population without imports as early as 2028.

Video rejects Indnesian plan
A video statement from tribes in Mappi regency in South Papua from about a month ago, translated to English, said they rejected Indonesia’s food project and asked companies to leave.

In the video, about a dozen Papuans stood while one said the clans in the region had existed on customary land for generations and that companies had surveyed land without consent.

“We firmly ask the local government, the regent, Mappi Regency to immediately review the permits and revoke the company’s permits,” the speaker said.

Wenda said the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) had also grown.

But he said many of the TPNPB were using bow and arrows against modern weapons.

“I call them home guard because there’s nowhere to go.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“We are shocked by the killing of freelance photojournalist Al-Shykh Al-Samany Saadaldyn Mousa Abdulla ‘Sheikho,’ who lost his life while documenting events on the frontlines of Sudan’s war. His death is yet another tragic reminder of the extreme dangers Sudanese journalists face while doing their jobs,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “All parties to the war must stop targeting members of the press, ensure that journalists can work safely, and hold those responsible for Sheikho’s killing to account.”

The drone attack in the Al-Butna area in the central eastern region of Sudan killed Sheikho, at least 7 soldiers from the Sudan Shield Forces, and injured 14 others, according to a local journalist who told CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Sheikho is a freelance photojournalist who covers the Sudan war on his Facebook page, which has over 20,000 followers. 

Since the war erupted between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, at least 12 other journalists and media workers have been killed in the country.

CPJ’s email to the RSF seeking comment on Sheikho’s death did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

A fortnight after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam had killed 26 people, Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7 launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine sites in Pakistan and PoK from where attacks against India had been planned and directed. The Union ministry of defence described the action as “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”, with no Pakistani military facilities having been targeted. Late on May 7, reports came in of heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan on forward villages along the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri areas of Jammu and Kashmir killing at least 16 civilians. They also attempted to engage a number of military targets in northern and western India including in Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar, among other places, using drones and missiles. These were neutralized by India’s integrated counter UAS grid and air defence systems. Subsequently, Indian armed forces targeted air defence radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan in a proportionate response, and neutralized the air defence system in Lahore.

The viral video in question seems to be recorded from a vehicle and shows a roadside building on fire. The picture also shows a similar scene. A verified account named Arman Khan tweeted this picture and claimed it showed a drone attack on Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. (Archived link)

Many users posted this picture with the same claim. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4)

X account WarUpdates also posted the viral picture and video, calling it unconfirmed footage. (Archived link)

Unconfirmed Report: Local sources claim that an Indian suicide drone struck an area near Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.#Turkey #BoycottTurkeyAzerbaijan#OperationSindoor2#DroneAttack #Airdefence https://t.co/O3VWwJJqyw pic.twitter.com/nohAB1bU5R

— WarUpdate (@WarUpdaaate) May 8, 2025

X user Mohammad Sharifi posted a video of the same incident claiming it to be an Indian drone attack on a mosque in Islamabad. ( Archive link )

د پاکستن د اسلام اباد په ښار کي فیصل جومات ته نږدې د بې پیلوټه الوتکي برید: pic.twitter.com/WJDXTiKZp2

— Mohammad Sharifi (@Mohamma61363694) May 8, 2025

The viral clip has also been uploaded on YouTube with similar claims.

Fact Check

Alt News started investigating both the viral clip and the image. A simple keyword search based on the claim led us to a report by a Pakistani media outlet dated May 28, 2024 which carried the same photo. According to the report, a fire broke out near the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad and spread to surrounding areas. In other words, the viral image and video have nothing to do with the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict.

The article contains other visuals of the incident which match the viral video and image.

Pakistani newspaper Pakistan Observer also published a report on this matter and gave the same information.

To sum up, the video and image shared with the claim that the fire at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad was caused by an Indian drone attack are from a fire last year in which the mosque in Islamabad and its surroundings were gutted.

The post Old video of fire near Shah Faisal mosque shared as Indian drone strike in Islamabad amid escalating tensions appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.

A human rights agency has called for an investigation into the drone attacks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla aid ship Conscience with Israel suspected of being responsible.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement that the deliberate targeting of a civilian aid ship in international waters was a “flagrant violation” of the United Nations Charter, the Law of the Sea, and the Rome Statute, which prohibits the targeting of humanitarian objects.

It added: “This attack falls within a recurring and documented pattern of force being used to prevent ships from reaching the Gaza Strip, even before they approach its shores.”

• READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla attacked in an apparent Israeli drone attack in international waters
• Kia Ora Gaza page on the Freedom Flotilla

The monitor is calling for an “independent and transparent investigation under Maltese jurisdiction, with the participation of the United Nations”.

It is also demanding “guarantees for safe sea passage for humanitarian aid bound for Gaza”.

“Any failure to act today will only encourage further attacks on humanitarian missions and deepen the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza,” said the monitor.

A spokesperson for the Gaza Freedom Flotilla said the group blamed Israel or one of its allies for the attack, adding it currently did not have proof of this claim.

Israeli TV confirms attack
However, Israel’s channel 12 television reported that Israeli forces were responsible for the attack.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The organisation said its goals included:

• breaking Israel’s more than 17-year illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip;
• educating people around the world about the blockade of Gaza;
• condemning and publicising the complicity of other governments and global actors in enabling the blockade; and
• responding to the cry from Palestinians and Palestinian organisations in Gaza for solidarity to break the blockade.

The MV Conscience — with about 30 human rights and aid activists on board — came under direct attack in international waters off the coast of Malta at 00:23 local time.

The Maltese government said everyone on the ship was safe following the attack. Although several New Zealanders have been on board past flotilla ships, none were on board this time.

In May 2010, Israeli security forces attacked six vessels in a Freedom Flotilla mission carrying aid aid bound for Gaza.

Nine of the flotilla passengers were killed during the raid, with 30 wounded — one of whom later died of his wounds.

• More information about the Freedom Flotilla at Kia Ora Gaza.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“The killing of Musab Al-Hattami is yet another stark reminder to the international community that the warring parties in Yemen are violating international law by killing civilians. Such indiscriminate violence exposes all journalists who are brave enough to document the war in Yemen to extreme risk,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “We call on the international community to investigate the attack and hold those responsible to account.”

Al-Hattami left his native Yemen for Jordan, where he studied film, before moving to the Netherlands and becoming a citizen. He worked as a freelancer, making documentaries and writing for various outlets, including Al Jazeera.

Al-Hattami recently returned to Yemen with his wife to make a documentary about his parents’ home town. Three government soldiers were also killed in the attack.

Al-Hattami is the 20^th journalist to be killed in Yemen since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on Houthi insurgents who had taken control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

In December 2024, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced the execution of 11 individuals, including Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Maqri, who they abducted in 2015 and accused of spying. Between 2015 and 2020, 18 journalists were killed in Yemen.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The post Trump’s Dangerous Drone Strike Threat  appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Stewart Lawrence.

The journalists killed were Farouk al-Zahir, producer and director, Magdy Abdel Rahman, a camera operator, Ibrahim Mudawi, an editor and director, who succumbed to his injuries later that day, and the crew’s driver, Wajeh Jaafar. 

“We are deeply saddened by the killing of Sudanese state television journalists Farouk Al-Zahir, Magdy Abdel Rahman, Ibrahim Mudawi, and their driver Wajeh Jaafar, who were killed while courageously covering historical events on the ground in Khartoum,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “Journalists should never be targets in conflict. All parties to Sudan’s war must ensure the safety of the press and respect the essential role journalists play in documenting truth, even in times of war.”

The state television crew had arrived at the presidential palace early Friday to document the SAF’s advance when they were hit by what was described as a loitering munition. Two local journalists told CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that the journalists were targeted by the RSF for their coverage.

Sudan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists since the war between the SAF and the RSF broke out April 2023, with at least 8 journalists killed in connection with the war.

CPJ’s requests for comment about the killings sent to the RSF via Telegram were not returned.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The journalists killed were Farouk al-Zahir, producer and director, Magdy Abdel Rahman, a camera operator, Ibrahim Mudawi, an editor and director, who succumbed to his injuries later that day, and the crew’s driver, Wajeh Jaafar. 

“We are deeply saddened by the killing of Sudanese state television journalists Farouk Al-Zahir, Magdy Abdel Rahman, Ibrahim Mudawi, and their driver Wajeh Jaafar, who were killed while courageously covering historical events on the ground in Khartoum,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “Journalists should never be targets in conflict. All parties to Sudan’s war must ensure the safety of the press and respect the essential role journalists play in documenting truth, even in times of war.”

The state television crew had arrived at the presidential palace early Friday to document the SAF’s advance when they were hit by what was described as a loitering munition. Two local journalists told CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, that the journalists were targeted by the RSF for their coverage.

Sudan remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists since the war between the SAF and the RSF broke out April 2023, with at least 8 journalists killed in connection with the war.

CPJ’s requests for comment about the killings sent to the RSF via Telegram were not returned.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Getty Images and Unsplash+.

Vladimir Putin right now has in his sights nearly 300 pre-deployed atomic weapons set to easily launch a radioactive apocalypse with a single drone strike.

He may already have crashed an early warning into the sarcophagus at Chernobyl.

And taken as a whole, the “Peaceful Atom” lends a terrifying reality to Donald Trump’s Oval Office threat of an impending World War 3.

Some 180 operational “Peaceful Atom” reactors now operate throughout Europe. There are 93 more in the US, 19 in Canada, two in Mexico.

Putin, or anyone else of his ilk, would need precisely one technician with one weaponized drone to turn any “peaceful” nuke into a radioactive apocalypse.

When Donald Trump brought Ukraine’s Volodymir Zelensky into the Oval Office to accuse him of flirting with “World War 3,” atomic reactors were among the specifics he failed to cite.

As of today, more than 50 commercial nuclear power plants are considered operable in France. Another 130+ operate in Belarus; Belgium; Bulgaria; the Czech Republic; Finland; Hungary; the Netherlands; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Ukraine; the UK (Germany, Italy and Lithuania have gone nuke-free).

Six reactors are under unstable Russian control at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia; two more are in Kursk, now a hotly contested war zone. Russia has a further three dozen.

Each could blanket the globe with atomic radiation, as has Chernobyl Unit 4 since it exploded on April 26, 1986.

The still-hot Chernobyl core could explode yet again.

Europe has collectively spent more than $2 billion to cover that core with a giant sarcophagus, the world’s largest movable structure.

On February 14, 2025, it was struck by a military drone.

Putin denies ordering the hit. His supporters say it could have been a “false flag.” But the drone itself was of an Iranian design widely used by the Russians.

On-going maintenance at Chernobyl has been conflicted and highly suspect, especially as impacted by the Russian invasion. After decades of denial, nuke supporters admit that what’s left of Chernobyl #4 could explode again. A definitive 2007 study by the Russian Academy of Sciences put the downwind human death toll at more than 985,000…and rising.

Three melt-downs and four explosions at American-designed reactors at Fukushima have raised the stakes. Caused by an earthquake and tidal wave, their lost cores still send unfathomable quantities of radioactive poisons into the Pacific, with no end in sight.

Both Fukushima and Chernobyl have released far more radioactive cesium and other deadly isotopes than did the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No western insurer will gamble against the likelihood of a new catastrophe caused by natural disasters, faulty designs, operator error, or acts of terror…drone-inflicted or otherwise.

Even without drone attacks, America’s 21st century reactor projects are catastrophic economic failures. Two at VC Summer, South Carolina, are dead, at a cost of $9 billion. Two more at Vogtle, Georgia, came in years behind schedule, billions over budget and completely incapable of competing with renewables. Talks of reviving shut reactors like Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Michigan’s Palisades and Duane Arnold in Iowa all depend on huge federal subsidies to cover vastly inflated market prices.

Parallel projects in France, Britain and Finland are also very late and far beyond budget.

Soaring costs and lagging production schedules have already killed the first order from NuScale, the first licensed US producer of Small Modular Reactors.

No significant supply from SMRs can be realistically expected in less than a decade. None can be protected from drone attacks.

But the billions SMR (Silly Mythological Rip-offs) backers want to squander on this pre-failed technology will help keep Europe dependent on Putin’s gas.

Germany has shut all its reactors, as have Italy and Lithuania. Putin’s war has destabilized their fossil fuel supply, especially complicating Germany’s transition to 100% renewables, still likely within the next decade.

Corporate hype will not can’t deliver any new nukes, big or small, that can compete with wind, solar, battery backup or increased efficiency, all of whose cost projections continue to plummet.

And no explosion at a wind turbine or solar panel will ever cause a radioactive apocalypse.

But whoever attacked the Chernobyl sarcophagus has made it clear that as long as atomic reactors continue to operate, World War 3 is just a drone strike away.

The post A Single Drone Can Turn the “Peaceful Atom” Into World War 3 appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Harvey Wasserman.

“The Russian drone strike that killed Ukrainian journalist Tetyana Kulyk just days after the grim three-year milestone of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is a tragic reminder of the risks that journalists living and working in the country face every day,” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “CPJ is deeply saddened by Kulyk’s killing and expresses its sincere condolences to her family. We strongly condemn Russia’s targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.” 

Overnight Wednesday, a Russian drone hit Kulyk’s house in the village of Kriukivshchyna, in the Kyiv region, killing Kulyk and her husband Pavlo Ivanchov, a surgeon and medical university professor, according to a Ukrinform report, statements by Ivanchov’s university and the local Institute of Mass Information (IMI) press freedom group. Their bodies were recovered on later that day.

Kulyk was the author and host of a series of interviews, “Nation of the Invincible,” which focused on the resilience of Ukrainians during the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Tetyana Kulyk was a great journalist. She made many programs about our struggle and our heroes,” Ukrinform Director General Serhiy Cherevatyi said in a statement, adding, “We will avenge our colleague with materials that expose the war crimes of the aggressor.”

Cherevatyi told CPJ that Kulyk’s death was “yet another barbaric killing of an innocent civilian, our colleague,” and that “Russia must be held to account for each and every murder they commit.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

At least 17 other journalists and media workers have been killed while reporting in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In April 2022, Russian forces shelled a residential apartment building in the Shevchenko district of Kyiv, killing Vira Hyrych, a journalist for the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian service. In April 2024, Russian forces shelled the southeast region of Zaporizhzhia, injuring Ukrinform reporter Olha Zvonaryova.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

However, a top opposition party lawmaker said the claim was suspicious and would likely be used to designate opposition activism in Cambodia and abroad as terrorism.

“When they are called terrorists, the punishment is very serious, they could be imprisoned for many years, and they could persecute Cambodia’s opposition officials,” said Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, who now lives in the United States.

Speaking at a school building inauguration, Hun Sen said an audio clip was recently sent to him that revealed the assassination scheme, which would have targeted him at his home in Takhmao town, about 11 km (7 miles) south of the capital, Phnom Penh.

(Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

He warned “all foreign entities” to stay out of Cambodia’s internal affairs – a statement he has made repeatedly over the years.

“Be warned – the plan to attack my Takhmao residence with a drone is real,” he said in central Kandal province. “Supporting such an attack threatens national security. Do not dare to harm or kill me.”

Cambodian police haven’t made any statements about an arrest related to the alleged assassination attempt.

Just ‘an excuse’

Hun Sen, 72, stepped down as prime minister in 2023 but retains influence as the Senate president and as the leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. His son, Hun Manet, now serves as prime minister.

A recent draft law would label “extremist opposition” members as terrorists -– possibly a way of targeting overseas opposition groups.

Most opposition lawmakers left Cambodia after the CNRP was banned in 2017. More recently, Cambodian activists and government critics in Thailand, Japan, Australia and elsewhere have faced legal threats or other forms of pressure from Hun Sen.

Um Sam An told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen’s assassination plot claim was just “an excuse to protect the family’s power.”

“He will use it to tell the international community that democrats in Cambodia are not real democrats – that they are a terrorist group that must be suppressed,” he said.

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Um Sam An recalled an alleged bomb plot in 1997 that led to a fighting in the streets of Phnom Penh that saw Hun Sen overthrow Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who at the time held the title of first prime minister under a power-sharing agreement

There was another incident in 1998, when hundreds demonstrated in front of Hun Sen’s home in Phnom Penh. One person threw a grenade at the home, and Hun Sen responded by ordering the military and police to crack down on the protesters, Um Sam An said.

Assassinating Hun Sen with a drone at his heavily guarded Takhmao home would be almost impossible, political scientist Em Sovannara told RFA.

“Ordinary citizens do not have the ability to do this,” he said. “And I think that within the opposition party, it is difficult and they are not capable of doing such a thing.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

“Journalists are civilians and must be protected at all times,” said CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser in New York. “We call on Turkey’s defense authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the killings of journalists Jihan Belkin and Nazim Dashdan in Syria. It is imperative to ensure those responsible are held accountable.”

The journalists  were killed in a suspected Turkish drone attack on their vehicle on the road between Tishreen Dam and the town of Sarrin, in northeastern Aleppo, according to multiple news reports and Belkin’s employer, who spoke to CPJ.

Belkin, 28, was a correspondent for the Hawar News Agency (ANHA), while Dashdan, 32, worked as a freelance journalist for multiple outlets including ANHA, Firat News Agency, and Ronahi TV. Both journalists were inside a car while moving between locations as they were covering the recent clashes between Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed opposition forces Syrian National Army (SNA), which has been supported by Turkish airstrikes during its offensive. Their driver, Aziz Haj Bozan, was also injured in the attack.

ANHA is a news agency affiliated with the Kurdish administration of northeast Syria and broadcasts in six different languages. ANHA, Firat News Agency, and Ronahi TV are pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey designates a terrorist organization.

ANHA manager Akram Barakat told CPJ via messaging app that the incident took place around 3:20 pm. “They were returning to Kobani city after covering the fighting near Tishreen when a Turkish drone deliberately targeted their vehicle, killing them instantly,” he said. Barakat said that Belkin had been working as a journalist in northern Syria since 2017, and Dashdan since 2014. “Both had consistently reported on wars and conflicts in the region for various outlets,” he said.

Barakat told CPJ that the journalists’ vehicle was clearly marked as “Press,” but that Turkey “continues to disregard”  international laws.

“Turkish drone strikes have repeatedly targeted journalists in our region while the international community remains silent,” Barakat said. “We urge international organizations, human rights groups, and the global community to take immediate action to stop these attacks on journalists and hold the perpetrators accountable. This silence has only exacerbated the dangers faced by journalists in the region.”

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response. The Turkish Defense Ministry website did not provide access to allow CPJ to request comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Journalists are civilians and must be protected at all times,” said CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director Gypsy Guillén Kaiser in New York. “We call on Turkey’s defense authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the killings of journalists Jihan Belkin and Nazim Dashdan in Syria. It is imperative to ensure those responsible are held accountable.”

The journalists  were killed in a suspected Turkish drone attack on their vehicle on the road between Tishreen Dam and the town of Sarrin, in northeastern Aleppo, according to multiple news reports and Belkin’s employer, who spoke to CPJ.

Belkin, 28, was a correspondent for the Hawar News Agency (ANHA), while Dashdan, 32, worked as a freelance journalist for multiple outlets including ANHA, Firat News Agency, and Ronahi TV. Both journalists were inside a car while moving between locations as they were covering the recent clashes between Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed opposition forces Syrian National Army (SNA), which has been supported by Turkish airstrikes during its offensive. Their driver, Aziz Haj Bozan, was also injured in the attack.

ANHA is a news agency affiliated with the Kurdish administration of northeast Syria and broadcasts in six different languages. ANHA, Firat News Agency, and Ronahi TV are pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey designates a terrorist organization.

ANHA manager Akram Barakat told CPJ via messaging app that the incident took place around 3:20 pm. “They were returning to Kobani city after covering the fighting near Tishreen when a Turkish drone deliberately targeted their vehicle, killing them instantly,” he said. Barakat said that Belkin had been working as a journalist in northern Syria since 2017, and Dashdan since 2014. “Both had consistently reported on wars and conflicts in the region for various outlets,” he said.

Barakat told CPJ that the journalists’ vehicle was clearly marked as “Press,” but that Turkey “continues to disregard”  international laws.

“Turkish drone strikes have repeatedly targeted journalists in our region while the international community remains silent,” Barakat said. “We urge international organizations, human rights groups, and the global community to take immediate action to stop these attacks on journalists and hold the perpetrators accountable. This silence has only exacerbated the dangers faced by journalists in the region.”

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response. The Turkish Defense Ministry website did not provide access to allow CPJ to request comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

For the first time, North Korea is adding drone training to its annual civil defense military drills, but the lack of available drones means that the training will amount to reading about drones, not actually flying them, military sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

The move shows the increased role that drones will have North Korea’s arsenal. Last month, supreme leader Kim Jong Un visited a test site for unmanned attack aircraft and said he wanted the country to begin mass producing “suicide” drones that explode when flown into targets.

The training in their use is now being extended to the thousands of ordinary citizens in North Korea’s civil defense forces, paramilitary units that defend cities and towns. Most members of civil defense forces are reservists who have previously served in the military, which is mandatory for all able-bodied men and women.

But the actual number of drones for such drills appears to be in short supply.

“There are no actual drones, so only theoretical training is being conducted,” a member of the civil defense force in the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for personal safety.

“However, from what I know, training drones will be supplied to each North Korean People’s Army brigade, city, county, and civil defense force within the next year,” he said.

He said the training amounted to explanations about the practical applications of drones on the battlefield, and instructions on how to use them.

RFA Korean interviewed two drone experts who said there was a strong possibility that North Korean troops sent to Russia could begin using drones supplied by Russia in the war with Ukraine.

Drone training for all soldiers

The winter training period for civil defense units calls up reserves in shifts from December to March for 15 days -- which many secretly regard as a nuisance.

A member of the military in the same province said that Kim Jong Un secretly ordered “all soldiers who fire guns” -- meaning those who can be deployed in combat roles -- to learn to use drones.

“People’s Army units have already been training to use military drones since ... last year, but now ... drone training will also be provided to civil defense force members ... starting in December,” he said on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

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“No matter how politically and ideologically armed an army is, it cannot win a modern war if it does not possess excellent military technology.”

North Korea is also looking for ways to improve its capacity to produce drones domestically, he said.

“This year, new drone technology courses were opened at Kim Jong Un National Defense University, Pyongyang University of Automation, and Kim Chaek Air Force University,” he said. “Drone pilot training is being conducted at Kim Il Sung Military University and Kang Kon Military Academy.”

All of those schools ramped up drone development research this year, he said. But development and production are not the same.

In North Korea, “there are so many cases of successful development but failed production, so it is difficult to determine when and to what extent military drones will actually be distributed.”

Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Moon Sung Whui for RFA Korean.

Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 40 members of a single family. The official death toll in Gaza is now over 44,000, although experts believe that is a vast undercount of the true figure. Israel’s onslaught has continued to kill medical and aid workers in recent days, including three people with World Central Kitchen, the head of the intensive care unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital, a staff member with Save the Children, as well as Mahmoud Almadhoun, who co-founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen that has fed Palestinians suffering hunger due to Israel’s blockade of vital food aid. Almadhoun was killed in an Israeli drone strike and is survived by seven children, including a newborn baby. His brother Hani Almadhoun joins Democracy Now! to discuss what he calls a targeted assassination. “My brother slowed down the ethnic cleansing of north Gaza, and that’s why he was taken out,” says Almadhoun. “This is a war against the civilians in Palestine.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

North Korea said on Friday that the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. South Korea denied the claim. 

“The South Korean authorities should take Pyongyang’s warnings very seriously and cease further escalation on the peninsula through their reckless and provocative campaign, which exacerbates tension and could lead to actual armed confrontations,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a statement Monday.

North Korea claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-regime propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang three times this month, and threatened to respond with force if such flights occurred again. 

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry warned that the North would face “the end of its regime” if it caused any harm to South Korean people, while its Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm whether the North’s drone claims were true.

The Russian statement came after media reports that Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma to ratify a treaty on a strategic partnership with North Korea. 

Putin submitted the bill to the lower house of parliament on Monday to ratify the treaty on a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was sealed in June, Russia’s state-run Sputnik news agency reported.

The treaty was signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 19 in Pyongyang after their summit talks during the Russian President’s state visit.   

The new partnership includes a mutual defense assistance clause that would apply in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.

The agreement is subject to ratification and enters into force on the date of exchange of instruments of ratification.

Russia and North Korea have deepened military cooperation as Moscow seeks arms and other support in its war against Ukraine. In recent weeks, claims of a more direct North Korean presence in Ukraine have increased.

Citing Ukraine’s military intelligence, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russia plans to involve North Korea directly in the full-scale war against Ukraine in coming months.

Zelensky’s statement came after media reports that several North Korean officers had been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in Russian-occupied territory near the city of Donetsk on Oct. 3.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun told lawmakers in early October that North Korea was likely planning to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Oct. 10, however, dismissed these reports as “fake news.”

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Security meeting in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting with top security officials on Monday to discuss what Pyongyang claimed was South Korea’s infiltration of drones and military action plans to respond to it, state media reported.

At the meeting, Kim received reports about North Korea’s plan to deal with the “enemy’s serious provocation,” including the military’s counteraction plan and the situation related to Pyongyang’s intelligence operations, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported on Tuesday. 

At the meeting, Kim put in place a plan to carry out “immediate military action” and suggested “important tasks to be fulfilled in the operation of the war deterrent and the exercise of the right to self-defense for safeguarding the national sovereignty,” KCNA added.

The North said on Sunday its army units near the border with South Korea had been ordered to be ready to launch strikes on the South.

The South’s military said on Monday that North Korea appeared to be preparing to carry out explosions at roads connected to South Korea as early as that day.

Pyongyang announced last Wednesday it would cut off roads and railways to South Korea and bolster border defenses, saying South Korean military exercises and U.S. “strategic nuclear assets” prompted the decision.  

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

The North said on Friday that the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. South Korea denied the claim. 

In a statement carried by state media Sunday, the North’s Defense Ministry said that the military had issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other army units near the border with South Korea to “get fully ready to open fire.”

An unidentified ministry spokesperson also said North Korea’s military ordered relevant units to fully prepare for situations like launching immediate strikes on unspecified enemy targets when South Korean drones cross the border again, possibly triggering fighting on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

Separately, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the North was ready to take a “strong corresponding retaliatory action” in case drones carrying anti-Pyongyang materials are flown again into the North.

She also warned that the “attack time” can come at any time.

In response, South Korea’s defense ministry said any attempts by the North to harm its people would result in the end of the Kim regime.

North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday that South Korean drones carrying leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, as well as Wednesday and Thursday last week.

Releasing photos of a drone that it said it had captured, as well as photos of propaganda leaflets and bundles sent from the South, the ministry demanded that South Korea immediately end “dangerous provocation” it said could lead to “an armed conflict that could even escalate into war.”

At that time, South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun denied that the military had sent any drones across the border, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it could not confirm whether the North’s claims were true, suggesting the possibility that the drones were sent by a civic group. 

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Amid simmering tension, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik said on Sunday that North Korea should not start a war unless it is contemplating suicide, and that its leader Kim must fear South Korea's military power as he has “the most to lose.”

“The possibility of North Korea waging a war has always existed ever since the Korean War,” Shin said during an interview with the South’s national broadcaster KBS.

“Whether North Korea initiates war depends not on its intentions, but on our will and readiness. It is crucial that we have our unified efforts to ensure that North Korea cannot act on such intentions,” he said. 

“I believe that North Korea will not start a war unless it decides to commit suicide.”

Shin added that what matters the most is South Korea maintaining the capability to respond timely to any provocations by the North, stressing the importance of the alliance with the United States. 

“The South Korea-U.S. alliance is robust, and South Korea is strong as an advanced nation,” said Shin.

Regarding the North’s claim over the drones, Shin said the government will remain noncommittal, as addressing the issue will only stir up discord within South Korea and that is the exact intention of Pyongyang.

“Based on experience, the best way is to ignore,” Shin said.

Shin also said that North Korea has overreacted since South Korea’s unveiling of the Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile, as the missile should be very intimidating to the North. 

South Korea unveiled its Hyunmoo-5 missile on Oct. 1 during a ceremony to mark the 76th founding anniversary of South Korea’s armed forces.

It is designed to respond to a North Korean nuclear attack by targeting the country’s leadership and military headquarters in a retaliatory strike. 

“Kim Jong Un, who controls all decision-making in North Korea, is the richest and most powerful person there,” Shin said. 

“In other words, he should deeply fear our high-precision weapons since he has the most to lose, and is the most scared.”

Edited by Mike Firn. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic August 23 drone strike that killed two journalists and injured a third in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly investigate this attack and determine if the reporting team was targeted for their work.”

The attack killed Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Turkish journalist, and Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Iraqi video editor. All three journalists worked for Chatr Multimedia Production Company, which operates Sterk TV and Aryen TV, news channels funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.) Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group earlier this year.

Turkey has escalated its military operations in the Kurdistan Region, targeting the PKK, which has been engaged in a decades-long conflict with Turkey. On July 8, a Turkish strike in Sinjar, northern Iraq, led to the death of a Çira TV reporter.

Rebin Bakir, an Iraqi video editor and social media officer injured in the August 23 attack, is in stable condition after treatment at Shar Hospital in Sulaymaniyah for broken legs and hands, according to Hawzhin Shwan, a Sterk TV reporter and anchor, who spoke to CPJ.

The three were on a reporting mission in an unmarked car along the Sulaymaniyah-Halabja road near the village of Goptapa when they were hit, Kamal Hamaraza, head of Chatr Multimedia Production Company, told CPJ, adding that they were journalists “with no direct or indirect connection to politics or military activities.”

“We have faced ongoing threats from Turkish attacks due to our consistent coverage of their operations and violations in the Kurdistan region,” Hamaraza said.

Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, told CPJ that the agency “will publish publicly if they issue anything.” 

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The drone appears to be a new version of China’s Harbin BZK-005 medium-altitude, long-range drone, which has repeatedly entered Taiwan and Japan’s air defense identification zones, the Taipei-based Liberty Times reported on Sunday.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced that a Chinese BZK-005 reconnaissance drone was spotted on Friday last week, when it flew to the west Pacific via airspace between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island and flew back using the same route.

Photos released by the Japanese ministry show that the BZK-005 drone was different from ones spotted earlier as it had a large number of antennas under the nose of the aircraft and a pod for an unknown purpose attached under its belly.

A military source told the Liberty Times that the new version of the drone could be deployed to disrupt all radio communications within the chain of command in the Taiwanese military and cause the radar system to malfunction.

China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never ruled out invading the island to enforce its territorial claim.

Taiwan aims to increase its defense spending to NT$647 billion (US$19.76 billion) next year to the biggest sum ever as it seeks to bolster its defenses and its cooperation with democratic allies, President Lai Ching-te announced last week.

Beijing fiercely opposed Lai in his bid to become president in a January election. He ran on a platform of promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait while not compromising on claims of Taiwanese sovereignty. 

China responded to Lai’s inauguration in May with two days of military exercises around the island. Taiwan held its annual Han Kuang military drills on the island of Kinmen in late July. 

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On the diplomatic front, Taiwan is considering closing down its representative office in Macau over a request by the government of the former Portuguese colony that a new employee at the office, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, or TECO, sign a “One China” affidavit, the Liberty Times reported.

The “One China” principle, China’s official position, states that the  government in Beijing is the sole legitimate representative of China, that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and that resolving the question of the democratic island’s sovereignty is an internal Chinese affair, which no external force has the right to interfere in.

TECO Macau is aiming to fill a vacancy created by the departure of an employee on July 23, but Macau’s government requested that the newly appointed official sign an affidavit recognizing Beijing’s One China principle as a precondition for a visa, which the office refused, said a source, cited by the Liberty Times. 

TECO Macau is supposed to have eight Taiwanese officials, but it has been left with only two and 14 employees from Macau, which means the office can not operate in a sustainable way as new appointments would be forced to sign the pledge, the paper added. 

One way out could be to follow the example of TECO Hong Kong, which is operated solely by local employees, while a worst-case scenario would be closing TECO Macau, an unidentified source told the Liberty Times. 

Edited by RFA Staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

Data provided by Flightradar24, a Swedish flight tracker, shows that a Wing Loong-10 unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, flew from China’s Hainan island into space over Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). It followed a path along the coastline for about 800 kilometers (500 miles) before turning around near Phan Rang province.

Using the call sign 00CA6181 and HEX code 783132, the drone is likely the WZ-10 unmanned aircraft that was reportedly spotted on Aug. 2, also close to Vietnam’s coast.

A HEX code, also called a ICAO 24-bit address, is a unique identification number given by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and is different for every aircraft.

At some point, the WZ-10 was 160 km-170 km (100-106 miles) from Cam Ranh, a strategic deep-water seaport and an important Vietnam’s naval base.

An EEZ is a maritime area measured 200 nautical miles (370 km) from a country’s coast. The space above it is international space but part of it falls within Ho Chi Minh City’s flight information region where Vietnam provides flight information service.

The Vietnamese government has not made any comment on the recent Chinese drone sightings. 

Radio Free Asia was not immediately able to contact relevant Chinese authorities for comment. It was also not able to determine if China had flown such UAVs near Vietnam before this month.

A Vietnamese coast guard ship is in Manila this week and is expected to conduct the first-ever joint drills with the Philippine coast guard on Friday. Both countries have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, the vast majority of which Beijing claims.

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Reconnaissance drone

The WZ-10 is a high-altitude, long-endurance UAV developed by Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute for reconnaissance purposes. It’s said to have a wingspan of about 20 meters (65 feet), a length of about 9 meters (30 feet), and a height of approximately 4 meters (13 feet). 

The WZ-10 is believed to be able to operate at altitudes up to 49,000 feet (14,900 meters) – much higher than commercial aircraft - with a flight time of 20 hours at a cruising speed of 330 knots. 

On May 27, the Japanese defense ministry said that the Japan Air Self-Defence Force intercepted a WZ-10 UAV from China flying near Okinawa for the first time amid rising tension between the neighbors in the East China Sea.

“The WZ-10 is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, so potentially it can carry missiles,” said Jyh-Shyang Sheu, a military expert at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

“The deployment of such a drone can be for both reconnaissance and political purposes, perhaps to give some warnings or coercion signals,” Sheu said, “China always shows its muscles to neighbors and UAVs can be used as a tool for gray zone tactics.”

Gray zone warfare is not an act of war but a means to coerce that is harmful to the security of the target country.

The Chinese military has flown reconnaissance and strike drones near Taiwan in the past. In September 2022, China sent UAVs almost every day to Kinmen island in the Taiwan Strait.

Sheu said the drones sent to Taiwan were of different types and China, one of the largest drone manufacturers in the world, is increasingly using them.

Editing by Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

Criticism of the deal came swiftly from several prominent Taiwanese figures. Julian Kuo, formerly a legislator and now a political commentator, voiced serious concerns, suggesting that the Switchblade 300, which he claims were previously “cracked by Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war,” were being sold to Taiwan at an inflated price – five times higher than the market rate. According to Kuo, other nations have shunned this model for the same reasons.

Echoing Kuo’s skepticism, Shuai Hua-Ming, another well-known political commentator, bluntly labeled the drone “trash.” Further adding to the critical chorus, retired Taiwanese General Li Cheng-chieh lamented the treatment by the U.S. of Taiwan, using the Taiwanese dialect term “plate” to describe Taiwan as easily deceived and exploited.

These remarks quickly found their way into Chinese media. Outlets like Phoenix and Tencent, along with several influential Chinese social media users, spread the commentators’ doubts widely, intensifying the scrutiny and debate over the proposed arms sale.

But AFCL found that this criticism is not supported by sufficient evidence.

Taiwan in ‘critical need’ of drones

Taiwan is in critical need of thousands of such drones in order to hold off the People’s Liberation Army’s airborne and amphibious invasion forces that would be supported by thousands of their loitering drones, said Richard Fisher, an expert on China’s military at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Confronting the PLA with a variety of drones to complicate their defensive requirements was a good strategy for Taiwan; the Switchblades 300 may get through when others do not, he added. 

While Taiwan could theoretically arm itself by buying thousands of cheap Chinese-made drones as weapons for a fraction of the cost, the software of these weapons could very well be controlled by the PLA, Fisher told AFCL.

Different situation in Taiwan

There have been reports with mixed views on the effectiveness of the Switchblade 300 used by Ukraine, many noting that Russia’s ability to inhibit the drone’s navigation system has led Ukraine to gradually reduce its use of them. 

But Tony Hu, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, believes that the situation in Taiwan and Ukraine is different, adding that the use of the Switchblade 300 is more suitable for Taiwan’s environment. 

This is because the drones would first be deployed over water in the event of any invasion of Taiwan, said Hu. 

Unlike in Ukraine, PLA troops would not have room to hide or buildings in which to take cover in such circumstances, Hu added.

In response to criticism of the proposed sale, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a press release on June 24 that the drones were important tools in waging asymmetric warfare, and the two models procured by Taiwan were employed by the U.S. military’s active service. 

Are the drones overpriced? 

The price of the Switchblade 300 is debatable, with different sources citing different numbers. 

But Hu believes that such numbers are “meaningless” because Taiwan is purchasing not only the drones but also the training and spare parts needed to use them.

Hu noted that the actual sales price would be determined only after talks between the U.S. and Taiwan, adding that some of the political commentators’ statements were “nonsense” made by people without any actual experience in arm sales. 

Below is a basic outline of the different stages of cost evaluation in U.S. Foreign Military Sales. 

A U.S. State Department official told AFCL that the U.S. government works closely with its foreign partners, including Taiwan, to tailor foreign military sales to their specific needs.

Because these weapons are new to Taiwan, the sale involves not only the requirements for the armament system itself, but also the associated components and services that Taiwan needs to successfully introduce and maintain the system, the official added.

Orders for the Switchblade 300

The claim that other nations have shunned the Switchblade 300 is also false. 

France and one more U.S. ally placed orders for the Switchblade 300 in 2023, with systems scheduled to be delivered by July 2024, the Switchblade’s manufacturing company, AeroVironment, said in a press release. The military outlet Army Recognition also reported the orders.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.

Among the many sayings attributed to Winston Churchill is, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

This sentiment seems appropriate as Israel potentially appears ready to embark on a war against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said this week a decision on an all-out war against Hezbollah was “coming soon” and that senior commanders of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had signed off on a plan for the operation.

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This threat comes despite the fact Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is far from over. Israel has still not achieved the two primary objectives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put forth at the start of the conflict:

• the destruction of Hamas as a military and governing entity in Gaza
• the freeing of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas (about 80 believed to still be alive, along with the remains of about 40 believed to be dead).

Why Hezbollah is attacking Israel now
Israel has cogent reasons for wanting to eliminate the threat from Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been launching Iranian-supplied missiles, rockets and drones across the border into northern Israel since the Gaza war began on October 8.

Its stated purpose is to support Hamas by distracting the IDF from its Gaza operation.

Hezbollah’s attacks have been relatively circumscribed – confined so far to northern Israel. But they have led to the displacement of some 60,000 residents from the border area. These people are understandably fed up and demanding Netanyahu’s government takes action to force Hezbollah to withdraw from the border.

This anger has been augmented this week by Hezbollah publicising video footage of military and civilian sites in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, which had been taken by a low-flying surveillance drone.

The Israeli army said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were “approved and validated” amid escalating cross-border clashes with Hezbollah and a relative lull in Gaza fighting https://t.co/H0nq61Gbay pic.twitter.com/qzzFq3nDt5

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 18, 2024

The implication: Hezbollah was scoping the region for new targets. Haifa, a city of nearly 300,000, has not yet been subject to Hezbollah attacks.

The most far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, have openly called for Israel to invade southern Lebanon. Even without this pressure, Netanyahu has ample reason to want to neutralise the Hezbollah threat because residents of northern Israel are strong supporters of his Likud party.

US and Iranian interests in a broader conflict
The United States is obviously concerned about the risk Israel will open a second front in its conflicts. As such, President Joe Biden has sent an envoy, Amos Hochstein, to Israel and Lebanon to try to reduce tensions on both sides.

In Lebanon, he cannot publicly deal directly with the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, because the group is on the US list of global terrorist organisations. Instead, he met the long-serving speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, who as a fellow Shia is able to talk with Nasrallah.

But Hezbollah answers to Iran — its main backer in the region. And it’s doubtful if any Lebanese leader can persuade it to desist from action approved by Iran.

Iran’s interests in the potential for an Israel-Hezbollah war at this time are mixed. It would obviously be glad to see Israel under military pressure on two fronts. But Iranian leaders see Hezbollah as insurance against an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.

Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 missiles and rockets, including some that could reach deep into Israel. So far, Iran seems to want Hezbollah to hold back from a major escalation with Israel, which could deplete most of that arsenal.

That said, although Israel’s Iron Dome defensive shield has been remarkably successful in neutralising the rocket threat from Gaza, it might not be as effective against a large-scale barrage of more sophisticated missiles.

Israel needed help from the US, Britain, France and Jordan in countering a direct attack from Iran in April that involved some 150 missiles and 170 drones.

Israel and Hezbollah conflict: escalating cross-border tensions. Video: ABC News

Lessons from previous Israeli interventions in Lebanon
The other factor – especially for wiser heads mindful of history – is the country’s previous interventions in Lebanon have been far from cost-free.

Israel’s problems with Lebanon started when the late King Hussein of Jordan forced the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), then led by Yasser Arafat, to relocate to Lebanon in 1970. He did that because the PLO had been using Jordan as a base for operations against Israel after the 1967 war, provoking Israeli retaliation.

From the early 1970s, the PLO formed a state within a state in Lebanon. It largely acted independently from the perennially weak Lebanese government, which was divided on sectarian grounds, and in 1975, collapsed into a prolonged civil war.

The PLO used southern Lebanon to launch attacks against Israel, leading Israel to launch a limited invasion of its northern neighbour in 1978, driving Palestinian militia groups north of the Litani River.

That invasion was only partially successful. Militants soon moved back towards the border and renewed their attacks on northern Israel. In 1982, then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided to remove the PLO entirely from Lebanon, launching a major invasion of Lebanon all the way to Beirut. This eventually forced the PLO leadership and the bulk of its fighters to relocate to Tunisia.

Gaza Genocide: 17th June: In depth report on escalation of cross border conflict: Hezbollah v Israel: Dissolving of genocidal war cabinet by Netenyahu to select others: visit by U.S. Hochstein today & far right fascists Gver/Smotrich jostling for war cabinet positions pic.twitter.com/g5J44afWeB

— JANET Gibson (@JANETGi59151282) June 17, 2024

Despite this success, the two Israeli invasions had the unintended consequence of radicalising the until-then quiescent Shia population of southern Lebanon.

That enabled Iran, in its early post-revolutionary phase under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to work with Shia clerics in Lebanon to establish Hezbollah (Party of God in Arabic), which became a greater threat to Israel than the PLO had ever been.

Bolstered by Iranian support, Hezbollah has become stronger over the years, becoming a force in Lebanese politics and regularly firing missiles into Israel.

In 2006, Hezbollah was able to block an IDF advance into southern Lebanon aimed at rescuing two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah had captured. The outcome was essentially a draw, and the two soldiers remained in captivity until their bodies were exchanged for Lebanese prisoners in 2008.

Many Arab observers at the time judged that by surviving an asymmetrical conflict, Hezbollah had emerged with a political and military victory.

For a while during and after that conflict, Nasrallah was one of the most popular regional leaders, despite the fact he was loathed by rulers of conservative Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia.

Will history repeat itself?
This is the background to discussions in Israel about launching a war against Hezbollah. And it demonstrates how the quote from Churchill is relevant.

Most military experts would caution against choosing to fight a war on two fronts. Former US President George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq in 2003 when the war in Afghanistan had not concluded. The outcome was hugely costly for the US military and disastrous for both countries.

The 19th century American writer Mark Twain is reported to have said that history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Will Israel’s leaders listen to the echoes of the past?

Dr Ian Parmeter, research scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The mines are concerning because the developer Global Green has cleared forest cover and the project has impacted residents’ farmland without compensation. In the footage, the abrupt end of the forest is clearly visible, and the cleared area, said to be several hectares, is active with trucks bustling to and from work areas and large buildings where other trucks are parked.

“We request that the government release more information on the conservation and strict implementation of the law on the protection of natural resources in the Prey Lang Conservation Area,” a member of the core group of the Prey Lang Community Network in Preah Vihear province, Khem Soky, told RFA Khmer.

Global Green is owned by Try Dalux, the eldest son of tycoon Try Pheap, an advisor to Senate President Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia as prime minister from 1985 until he stepped down last year so his son could succeed him.

The company has plans to expand its iron ore business in Preah Vihear and Stung Treng provinces.

On April 10, a community network in Preah Vihear province issued a statement alleging that Global Green's iron ore operation has damaged community forests and affected indigenous livelihoods, including preventing them from activities like resin extraction, picking mushrooms, traditional medicine gathering and family-owned mining. 

The mining site, which used to be a cashew plantation, has been cleared by Global Green without proper compensation, a resident of Preah Vihear province, who asked not to be named over the concern of the security, told RFA.

He said that the company is currently hiding some information and that people suspect that the company has been smuggling gold ore to be sold abroad, which would be in violation of the government's license to exploit only iron ore.

“It is difficult for us to know whether it is iron ore or gold ore,” he said. “But if it is only iron they shouldn’t put it in trucks and take it away. I suspect it's gold because it is red.”

RFA was unable to contact Pen Bona, head of government spokesman, and Ministry of Mines and Energy spokesman Ung Dipola for comment. Global Green representative Hak Sinath also could not be reached for comment.

The project coordinator of the Cambodian Youth Network Association, Ot Latin, said that any development or government investment must have an accurate and transparent assessment of social and environmental impact and must involve the people living there in the area first, otherwise those developments do not reflect the legitimacy and legality.

"Looking at this mining investment, the company seems to be making a lot of money, but if we look at the challenges of the people, the living standards of the people, it is not better and benefits from the mine business,” Ot Latin said. “I think the government should review the companies that have been granted concessions, especially the mining concessions."

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The recent video from northern Cambodia shows that hundreds of hectares of forest in the vast Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary have been subject to anarchic destruction and clearance.

The sanctuary, created in 2016, covers an area of 431,683 hectares (1.07 million acres), across parts of Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Kratie provinces.

Footage taken by an activist shows mostly empty sections of land, containing a small number of leftover felled trees, and surrounded by still-forested land.

But activists have said that government authorities have done nothing in the years since to prevent supporters of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party from illegally exporting timber to neighboring Vietnam, a major buyer of luxury hardwood.

According to the Global Forest Watch, an open-source web application that monitors global forests in near real-time, Cambodia lost 114,000 hectares of natural forest in 2023 alone – equivalent to an area the size of Los Angeles.

“I really regret having witnessed such deforestation,” said Khem Sokhy, a core member of the Prey Lang Community Network. “From the very beginning, illegal logging has been allowed to occur, causing impacts on our natural resources.”

Activists still hold out hope that authorities will one day “love our natural resources and stop committing corruption.”

Neither Song Chansocheat, the head of Preah Vihear Provincial Department of Environment, nor National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy could be reached for comment on Monday.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

An X user named Ritik stated that Ranchi police found heaps of stones on 10 terraces a day ahead of Ram Navami. He also wrote that one could guess which religious community these 10 homes belonged to.

Right Wing troll handle Ajeet Bharti also shared the video calling it a conspiracy to carry out attacks on Ram Navami.

Former BJP spokesperson Naveen Kumar Jindal promoted the video with a communal angle, asking which community owned the aforementioned homes.

Right Wing TV panelist and BJP supporter Anand Ranganathan also amplified the footage describing it as ‘shocking’.

Similarly, many media outlets and Right-Wing users shared it with sensational and communal angles. These include Navbharat Times, Times Now Navbharat, Right Wing propaganda website OpIndia, RSS’s magazine Panchjanya, Anand Ranganathan, Amitabh Chaudhary, Anshul Saxena, and Roshan Sinha alias MrSinha.

Fact Check

Alt News reached out to Ranchi SSP Chandan Kumar Sinha regarding this issue. He stated, “There is no communal angle in this matter, and the landlords receiving notices are not from any specific community.”

According to him, this was part of a routine administrative practice, in which the routes of processions or parades were monitored, and attention was paid to ensure that there were no materials related to construction, such as bricks, sand, gravel, etc., on the terraces of buildings on the routes of the processions.

He added that notices had been sent to the owners of approximately 10 houses where materials related to construction were found on the rooftops. They were instructed to remove them by Ram Navami.

The Ranchi police issued a statement on Twitter denying any conspiracy or communal angle in this matter and stating that the discovery was part of a routine administrative process carried out in multiple districts.

जुलूस के मार्गों की ड्रोन से निगरानी एक सामान्य प्रशासनिक प्रक्रिया है। यह अनेक जिलों में किया जाता है और यदि किसी के छत पर कोई निर्माण सामग्री यथा पत्थर,ईट ,बालू आदि पड़ा रहता है तो उसे हटाने के लिए संबंधित मकान मालिकों को @JharkhandPolice @Lathkar_IPS @amolhomkar_IPS @NBTBihar

— Ranchi Police (@ranchipolice) April 16, 2024

Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren, too, issued a statement through his official X handle, stating “Some of these houses have been built recently, while some are still under construction. Police has also clarified that the owners of these houses belong to different communities.” He made an appeal to everyone to not fall for rumours.

कल से कुछ सोशल मीडिया हैंडल द्वारा रांची की हिंदपीढ़ी में कुछ घरों के ऊपर ईंट, पत्थर आदि होने को लेकर भ्रामक खबरें चलाई जा रही हैं।

रांची पुलिस ने स्पष्ट किया है कि रूटीन चेक के दौरान 10-11 घरों की छतों पर निर्माण सामग्री मिली थी, जिसे हटवा दिया गया है। इनमें से कुछ घर हाल में…

— Champai Soren (@ChampaiSoren) April 17, 2024

To sum it up, a number of Right-Wing users and news outlets falsely shared a video of Ranchi police monitoring through drones, which is a routine practice, with a sensational and communal angle.

The post Ram Navami: Right Wing users amplify Ranchi Poilce’s drone surveillance footage with communal spin appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Shin Daewe was arrested on October 15, 2023, while picking up a video drone she had ordered online to use for filming a documentary, according to a U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America (VOA) report quoting her husband Ko Oo.

Police interrogated the journalist for nearly two weeks before charging her and transferring her to Yangon’s Insein Prison, Ko Oo told VOA. Shin Daewe was tried by a secret military tribunal and was denied legal representation during the proceedings, the VOA report said.

On January 10, 2024, Shin Daewe was convicted under Section 50(j) of the Anti-Terrorism Law, a provision that allows for life sentences for financing terrorist activities, news reports said.  

Ko Oo told the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) that Shin Daewe appeared to have been beaten during police interrogations, based on reports he received saying that she had stitches on her head and welts on her arms.  

Shin Daewe, a former reporter with the local media group Democratic Voice of Burma and a regular freelance contributor to RFA, is known for her documentary coverage of environmental issues and the toll that armed conflict has taken on the country’s civilians, according to news reports.

Her “Ayeyarwady Riverbank Erosion” video report for RFA, which examines the human impact of climate change in Myanmar, won a Gracie Award in March.

Myanmar was the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s latest annual prison census, with 43 behind bars on December 1, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

Vladimir Putin has claimed a fifth presidential term with a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election that has been condemned by the West as neither free nor fair as the Russian leader seeks to prove overwhelming popular support for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

With 99.75 percent of ballots counted, Putin won another six-year term with a post-Soviet record of 87.29 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Committee (TsIK) said on March 18, adding that turnout was also at a "record" level, with 77.44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

The 71-year old Putin -- who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 -- is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.

"This election has been based on repression and intimidation," the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists in Brussels on March 18 as the bloc's foreign ministers gathered to discuss the election, among other issues.

The March 15-17 vote is the first for Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of Russians and led to a clear break in relations with the West. In holding what has widely been viewed as faux elections, Putin wants to show that he has the nation’s full support, experts said.

The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located. Moscow illegally annexed the regions since launching the invasion, though it remains unclear how much of the territory it controls.

The Kremlin's goal "is to get as many people as possible to sign off on Russia's war against Ukraine. The idea is to get millions of Russian citizens to retroactively approve the decision Putin single-handedly made two years ago," Maksim Trudolyubov, a senior fellow at the Kennan Institute, wrote in a note ahead of the vote.

In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin said the election showed that the nation was "one team."

But Western leaders condemned the vote, with the White House National Security Council spokesperson saying they "are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him."

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said "this is not what free and fair elections look like," adding in his message on X, formerly Twitter, that illegal elections have also been held on occupied Ukrainian territory.

The French Foreign Ministry said Putin's reelection came amid a wave of repression against civil society. It also praised in a statement the courage of "the many Russian citizens who peacefully protested against this attack on their fundamental political rights."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin has become "sick with power" and he is just "simulating" elections.

"This imitation of 'elections' has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up in the dock in The Hague [at the International UN Tribunal for War Crimes]," Zelenskiy said on X.

Putin's allies were quick to heap praise on the Russian leader for his election success.

China, one of Russia's most importants allies, congratulated Putin, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying President Xi Jinping and the Russian leader "will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold long-standing good-neighborly friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Putin's victory "decisive," the state news agency IRNA reported.

WATCH: Leading psychiatrists discuss how excessive power can impact brain functioning and what the impulse for total control reveals about the mind and personality traits of authority figures.

Putin was opposed by three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians whose campaign was barely noticeable. The main intrigue was whether Russians would heed opposition calls to gather at polling stations at noon on March 17 to silently protest against Putin’s rule.

Russian media had reported in the months leading up to the election that the Kremlin was determined to engineer a victory for Putin that would surpass the 2018 results, when he won 77.5 percent of the vote with a turnout of 67.5 percent.

The Kremlin banned anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot after tens of thousands of voters lined up in the cold to support his candidacy. Nadezhdin threatened to undermine the narrative of overwhelming support for Putin and his war, experts said.

Independent election observers were barred from working at this year’s presidential election for the first time in post-Soviet history, experts said. Russian elections have been notorious for ballot stuffing and other irregularities.

The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located.

The United States called the elections neither fair nor free.

'Noon Against Putin'

With options to express resistance severely limited by the lack of competition and repressive laws, opposition leaders called on voters opposed to Putin to gather near polls at noon to show the Kremlin and the country that they were still a force.

Russia's opposition movement suffered a serious blow last month when Aleksei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest and most popular critic, died in unclear circumstances in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.

Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia's 11 time zones at the designated time for the "Noon Against Putin" protest, including in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

"We're not really expecting anything, but I'd somehow like to make a record of this election for myself, tick the box for myself, so, when talking about it later, I could say that I didn't just sit at home, but came and tried to do something," said one Russian who came to vote at noon.

"The action has achieved its goals," Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, said in a YouTube video. "The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin."

The Moscow prosecutor's office had earlier warned of criminal prosecution against those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts "containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation."

Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a "violation."

But she warned that there were "some basic safety rules that you can follow if you're worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on."

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

Russians living abroad also took part in the "Noon Against Putin" campaign, with hundreds of people lining up at 12 p.m. outside the Russian embassies in Sidney, Tokyo, Phuket, Dubai, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, and Yerevan among other capitals.

"It's not an election. It's just a fake. And so we're here to show that not Russians elect the current leader of Russia, that we [are] against him very severely, and that lots of people had to flee their country to be free," said Anna, a Russian citizen living in Berlin and who gathered outside the embassy in the German capital.

Putin was challenged by Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, none of whom opposed the war.

The Russian leader had the full resources of the state behind him, including the media, police, state-owned companies, and election officials.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia's 11 time zones in time for the "Noon Against Putin" protest against a presidential election expected to virtually gift Vladimir Putin another six years of rule, making him the country's longest-serving leader.

Voting on March 17, the last day of the election held over a span of three days, took place with virtually no opposition to the long-serving incumbent.

Russians not in favor of seeing Putin serve yet another term settled on showing up at polling places simultaneously at midday in large numbers, with some taking steps to spoil their ballots.

Dozens of detentions were reported around the country as the vote took place under tight security, with Russia claiming that Ukraine, which it accused of launching a wave of air attacks that reached as far as Moscow, was attempting to disrupt voting.

Putin's greatest political rival, Aleksei Navalny, died a month before the polls in an Arctic prison amid suspicious circumstances while serving sentences widely seen as politically motivated.

Other serious opponents to Putin are either in jail or exile or were barred from running against him amid a heightened crackdown on dissent and the independent media.

The situation left only three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly parties on the ballot -- Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party.

Despite Navalny's death, his support for the idea of using the "Noon Against Putin" action to show the strength of the opposition lived on. The protest, a workaround of Russia's restrictive laws on public assembly, called on people to assemble at polling stations precisely at noon.

While it was difficult to determine voters' reasoning for showing up to vote, many appeared to be answering the call to protest across the country as the deadline moved from Russia's Far East toward Moscow, and from then to the western area of the country and parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

Videos and images posted on social media showed long lines of voters formed at noon in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

"The action has achieved its goals," said Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, on YouTube. "The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin."

The protests were accompanied by a heavy police presence and the threat of long prison terms for those seen as disrupting the voting process.

The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests in Russia, said that more than 65 people were arrested in 14 cities across the country on March 17.

Twenty people in Kazan, in the Tatarstan region, were detained and later released, according to Current Time. One Ufa resident was reportedly detained for trying to stuff a photograph of Navalny into a ballot box. And in Moscow, a voter was detained after he appeared at a polling station wearing a T-shirt bearing Navalny's name.

In St. Petersburg, a woman was reportedly arrested after she threw a firebomb at a polling station entrance, others were detained elsewhere in the country for spoiling ballots with green antiseptic into ballot boxes.

Some activists were reportedly summoned to visit Federal Security Service branches precisely at 12 p.m., the same time the protest was expected.

Outside Russia, Russian citizens also reportedly took part in the "Noon Against Putin" campaign, including in Tokyo, Istanbul, and Phuket. In Moldova, voting at the Russian Consulate in Chisinau was reportedly delayed after an apparent fire-bombing.

The Moscow prosecutor's office earlier warned of criminal prosecution of those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts "containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation."

Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a “violation.”

But she warned that there are "some basic safety rules that you can follow if you're worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on."

The OVD-Info human rights group issued a statement labeled "How to Protect Yourself" ahead of the planned protest, also saying not to bring posters or banners and "do not demonstrate symbols that can attract the attention of the police, do not shout slogans. If you are asked why you came at noon, do not give the real reason."

Russian election officials, officially, said that as of late afternoon on March 17 more than 70 percent of the country's 114 million eligible voters had cast ballots either in person or online.

Observers widely predict that there was virtually no chance that Putin would not gain another term in office. A victory would hand him his fifth presidential term over a span of 24 years, interrupted only by his time spent as prime minister from 2008-2012.

Over the first two days, some Russians expressed their anger over Putin's authoritarian rule by vandalizing ballot boxes with a green antiseptic dye known as "zelyonka" and other liquids, with Russian officials and independent media reporting at least 28 cases.

Incidents were reported in at least nine cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Volgograd.

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

On March 16, independent media reported that Russian police had opened at least 28 criminal probes into incidents of vandalism in polling stations, a number expected to grow.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Security Council, on March 16 denounced election protesters as "villains" and "traitors" who are aiding the country's enemies, particularly Ukraine.

"This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today," he said on Telegram. "Criminal activists at polling stations should be aware that they can rattle for 20 years in a special regime [prison]," he added.

Many observers say Putin warded off even the faintest of challengers to ensure a large margin of victory that he can point to as evidence that Russians back the full-scale war Moscow launched against Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russia leading up to the election, including strikes deep inside the country.

On March 17, Russia's Defense Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four in the Moscow region. Other drones were reportedly downed in the Kaluga and Yaroslavl regions neighboring the Moscow region, and in the Belgorod, Kursk, and Rostov regions along Russia's southwestern border with Ukraine.

On March 16, Ukrainian forces shelled the border city of Belgorod and the village of Glotovo, killing at least three people and wounding eight others, Russian officials said.

The same day, a Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at an oil refinery that belongs to Russian oil giant Rosneft in the Samara region, some 850 kilometers southeast of Moscow, regional Governor Dmitry Azarov said. An attack on another refinery was thwarted, he added.

Ukraine generally does not comment on attacks inside Russia, but Reuters quoted an unidentified Ukrainian source as saying that Kyiv's SBU intelligence agency was behind strikes at three Samara region Rosneft refineries -- Syzran, Novokuibyshevsky, and Kuibyshevsky, which is inside the Samara city limits.

"The SBU continues to implement its strategy to undermine the economic potential of the Russian Federation that allows it to wage war in Ukraine," the news agency quoted the source as saying.

Russian authorities, who have accused Kyiv of launching assaults designed to disrupt voting, claimed that Ukraine on March 16 dropped a missile on a voting station in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region, although the report could not be verified.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

The Iranian government "bears responsibility" for the physical violence that led to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, and for the brutal crackdown on largely peaceful street protests that followed, a report by a United Nations fact-finding mission says.

The report, issued on March 8 by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, said the mission “has established the existence of evidence of trauma to Ms. Amini’s body, inflicted while in the custody of the morality police."

It said the mission found the "physical violence in custody led to Ms. Amini’s unlawful death.... On that basis, the state bears responsibility for her unlawful death.”

Amini was arrested in Tehran on September 13, 2022, while visiting the Iranian capital with her family. She was detained by Iran's so-called "morality police" for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, or hair-covering head scarf. Within hours of her detention, she was hospitalized in a coma and died on September 16.

Her family has denied that Amini suffered from a preexisting health condition that may have contributed to her death, as claimed by the Iranian authorities, and her father has cited eyewitnesses as saying she was beaten while en route to a detention facility.

The fact-finding report said the action “emphasizes the arbitrary character of Ms. Amini’s arrest and detention, which were based on laws and policies governing the mandatory hijab, which fundamentally discriminate against women and girls and are not permissible under international human rights law."

"Those laws and policies violate the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and the autonomy of women and girls. Ms. Amini’s arrest and detention, preceding her death in custody, constituted a violation of her right to liberty of person,” it said.

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran hailed the findings and said they represented clear signs of "crimes against humanity."

“The Islamic republic’s violent repression of peaceful dissent and severe discrimination against women and girls in Iran has been confirmed as constituting nothing short of crimes against humanity,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the center.

“The government’s brutal crackdown on the Women, Life, Freedom protests has seen a litany of atrocities that include extrajudicial killings, torture, and rape. These violations disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in society, women, children, and minority groups,” he added.

The report also said the Iranian government failed to “comply with its duty” to investigate the woman’s death promptly.

“Most notably, judicial harassment and intimidation were aimed at her family in order to silence them and preempt them from seeking legal redress. Some family members faced arbitrary arrest, while the family’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbaht, and three journalists, Niloofar Hamedi, Elahe Mohammadi, and Nazila Maroufian, who reported on Ms. Amini’s death were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to imprisonment,” it added.

Amini's death sparked mass protests, beginning in her home town of Saghez, then spreading around the country, and ultimately posed one of the biggest threats to Iran's clerical establishment since the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979. At least 500 people were reported killed in the government’s crackdown on demonstrators.

The UN report said "violations and crimes" under international law committed in the context of the Women, Life, Freedom protests include "extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution.

“The violent repression of peaceful protests and pervasive institutional discrimination against women and girls has led to serious human rights violations by the government of Iran, many amounting to crimes against humanity," the report said.

The UN mission acknowledged that some state security forces were killed and injured during the demonstrations, but said it found that the majority of protests were peaceful.

The mission stems from the UN Human Rights Council's mandate to the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran on November 24, 2022, to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran related to the protests that followed Amini's death.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

In the annual State of the Union address, Biden came out swinging from the get-go against Putin and Trump -- whom he called "my predecessor" without mentioning him by name -- and on behalf of Ukraine, as he sought to win over undecided voters ahead of November’s election.

The March 7 address to a joint session of Congress this year carried greater significance for the 81-year-old Biden as he faces a tough reelection in November, mostly likely against Trump. The president, who is dogged by questions about his physical and mental fitness for the job, showed a more feisty side during his hourlong speech, drawing a sharp contrast between himself and Trump on a host of key foreign and domestic issues.

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Biden denounced Trump for recent remarks about NATO, the U.S.-led defense alliance that will mark its 75th anniversary this year, and compared him unfavorably to former Republican President Ronald Reagan.

"Bowing down to a Russian leader, it is outrageous, dangerous, and unacceptable," Biden said, referring to Trump, as he recalled how Reagan -- who is fondly remembered by older Republicans -- stood up to the Kremlin during the Cold War.

At a campaign rally last month, Trump said that while serving in office he warned a NATO ally he "would encourage" Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to alliance members who are "delinquent" in meeting defense-spending goals.

The remark raised fears that Trump could try to pull the United States out of NATO should he win the election in November.

Biden described NATO as "stronger than ever" as he recognized Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the audience. Earlier in the day, Sweden officially became the 32nd member of NATO, ending 200 years of nonalignment. Sweden applied to join the defense alliance after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Finland became a NATO member last year.

Biden called on Congress to pass a Ukraine aid bill to help the country fend off a two-year-old Russian invasion. He warned that should Russia win, Putin will not stop at Ukraine's border with NATO.

A group of right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives have for months been holding up a bill that would allocate some $60 billion in critical military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as it defends its territory from Russian invaders.

The gridlock in Washington has starved Ukrainian forces of U.S. ammunition and weapons, allowing Russia to regain the initiative in the war. Russia last month seized the eastern city of Avdiyivka, its first victory in more than a year.

"Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself," Biden said.

"My message to President Putin...is simple. We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down," Biden said.

Trump, who has expressed admiration for Putin, has questioned U.S. aid to Ukraine, though he recently supported the idea of loans to the country.

Biden also criticized Trump for the former president's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, saying those efforts had posed a grave threat to democracy at home.

"You can't love your country only when you win," he said, referring not just to Trump but Republicans in Congress who back the former president's claim that the 2020 election was rigged.

Biden "really strove to distinguish his policies from those of Donald Trump," said Kathryn Stoner, a political-science professor at Stanford University and director of its Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

By referencing Reagan, Biden was seeking "to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents to remind them that this is what your party was -- standing up to Russia," she told RFE/RL.

The State of the Union address may be the biggest opportunity Biden has to reach American voters before the election. More than 27 million people watched Biden’s speech last year, equivalent to about 17 percent of eligible voters.

Biden's address this year carries greater importance as he faces reelection in November, most likely against Trump. The speech may be the biggest opportunity he has to reach American voters before the election.

Trump won 14 of 15 primary races on March 5, all but wrapping up the Republican nomination for president. Biden beat Trump in 2020 but faces a tough reelection bid amid low ratings.

A Pew Research poll published in January showed that just 33 percent of Americans approve of Biden's job performance, while 65 percent disapprove. Biden's job-approval rating has remained below 40 percent over the past two years as Americans feel the pinch of high inflation and interest rates.

Biden, the oldest U.S. president in history, has been dogged by worries over his age. Two thirds of voters say he is too old to effectively serve another term, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

Last month, a special counsel report raised questions about his memory, intensifying concerns over his mental capacity to run the country for four more years.

As a result, Biden's physical performance during the address was under close watch. Biden was animated during the speech and avoided any major gaffes.

"I thought he sounded really strong, very determined and very clear," Stoner said.

Instead of avoiding the subject of his age, Biden took it head on, saying the issue facing our nation "isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our ideas are."

He warned Trump was trying to take the country back to a darker period.

"Some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution," Biden said, referring to the 77-year-old Trump.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

David Slater entered the plea in federal court in Nebraska on March 5 in the latest in a series of embarrassing disclosures and leaks of classified U.S. intelligence, some of it concerning Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine and U.S. support for Kyiv.

The federal public defender who represented Slater at the hearing didn't comment on the case, but the judge ordered Slater to hire his own attorney after reviewing financial documents indicating he owns several rental homes in Nebraska and a property in Germany.

The judge also confirmed during the hearing that Slater no longer has access to classified information, but it was not clear if that mean he lost his job.

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U.S. prosecutors said on March 4 that Slater, a retired lieutenant colonel, was working as a civilian employee at U.S. Strategic Command, when he allegedly began an online relationship with a woman on a “foreign dating platform.” U.S. Strategic Command oversees U.S. nuclear arsenals, among other things.

It’s unclear whether Slater, 63, ever physically met the woman, who prosecutors said identified herself as Ukrainian.

In a series of e-mails and chats on the unnamed dating site between February and April 2022, the woman sent messages asking Slater specific questions about U.S. intelligence on Russia’s invasion.

"Dear, what is shown on the screens in the special room?? It is very interesting," the woman texted Slater around March 11, 2022, according to the unsealed indictment.

“By the way, you were the first to tell me that NATO members are traveling by train and only now (already evening) this was announced on our news. You are my secret informant, love! How were your meetings? Successfully?” the woman texted Slater days later.

"Beloved Dave, do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us?" the woman wrote on March 18.

“You are my secret agent. With love,” the woman allegedly wrote a week later.

The indictment does not quote any e-mails or messages authored by Slater, who was expected to be released on March 6 on the condition that he surrenders his passport, submits to GPS monitoring, and remains in Nebraska.

If convicted at trial, Slater faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each of the three counts laid out in the indictment.

A series of leaks of classified U.S. data on Ukraine and other issues have embarrassed the U.S. intelligence community and stirred doubts among U.S. allies sharing closely held information.

On March 4, a man who served in the U.S. Air National Guard unit pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other U.S. national security secrets.

Jack Teixeira, 22, admitted to obtaining the information while he worked as an information technology specialist, and then sharing it with other users on Discord, a social media platform popular with online gamers.

The leaks, which included information about troop movements in Ukraine and the provision of U.S. equipment to Ukrainian troops, were seen as highly embarrassing for the Pentagon; more than a dozen military personnel were reprimanded in the subsequent investigation.

With reporting by AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Russia is increasing its cooperation with China in 5G and satellite technology and this could facilitate Moscow's military aggression against Ukraine, a report by the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) security think tank warns.

The report, published on March 1, says that although battlefield integration of 5G networks may face domestic hurdles in Russia, infrastructure for Chinese aid to Russian satellite systems already exists and can "facilitate Russian military action in Ukraine."

China, which maintains close ties with Moscow, has refused to condemn Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and offered economic support to Russia that has helped the Kremlin survive waves of sweeping Western sanctions.

Beijing has said that it does not sell lethal weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine, but Western governments have repeatedly accused China of aiding in the flow of technology to Russia's war effort despite Western sanctions.

The RUSI report details how the cooperation between Russia and China in 5G and satellite technology can also help Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"Extensive deployment of drones and advanced telecommunications equipment have been crucial on all fronts in Ukraine, from intelligence collection to air-strike campaigns," the report says.

"These technologies, though critical, require steady connectivity and geospatial support, making cooperation with China a potential solution to Moscow's desire for a military breakthrough."

According to the report, 5G network development has gained particular significance in Russo-Chinese strategic relations in recent years, resulting in a sequence of agreements between Chinese technology giant Huawei and Russian companies MTS and Beeline, both under sanctions by Canada for being linked to Russia's military-industrial complex.

5G is a technology standard for cellular networks, which allows a higher speed of data transfer than its predecessor, 4G. According to the RUSI’s report, 5G "has the potential to reshape the battlefield" through enhanced tracking of military objects, faster transferring and real-time processing of large sensor datasets and enhanced communications.

These are "precisely the features that could render Russo-Chinese 5G cooperation extremely useful in a wartime context -- and therefore create a heightened risk for Ukraine," the report adds.

Although the report says that there are currently "operational and institutional constraints" to Russia's battlefield integration of 5G technology, it has advantages which make it an "appealing priority" for Moscow, Jack Crawford, a research analyst at RUSI and one of the authors of the report, said.

"As Russia continues to seek battlefield advantages over Ukraine, recent improvements in 5G against jamming technologies make 5G communications -- both on the ground and with aerial weapons and vehicles -- an even more appealing priority," Crawford told RFE/RL in an e-mailed response.

Satellite technology, however, is already the focus of the collaboration between China and Russia, the report says, pointing to recent major developments in the collaboration between the Russian satellite navigation system GLONASS and its Chinese equivalent, Beidou.

In 2018, Russia and China agreed on the joint application of GLONASS/Beidou and in 2022 decided to build three Russian monitoring stations in China and three Chinese stations in Russia -- in the city of Obninsk, about 100 kilometers southwest of Moscow, the Siberian city of Irkutsk, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia's Far East.

Satellite technology can collect imagery, weather and terrain data, improve logistics management, track troop movements, and enhance precision in the identification and elimination of ground targets.

According to the report, GLONASS has already enabled Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine through satellite correction and supported communications between Russian troops.

The anticipated construction of Beidou's Obninsk monitoring station, the closest of the three Chinese stations to Ukraine, would allow Russia to increasingly leverage satellite cooperation with China against Ukraine, the report warns.

In 2022, the Russian company Racurs, which provides software solutions for photogrammetry, GIS, and remote sensing, signed satellite data-sharing agreements with two Chinese companies. The deals were aimed at replacing contracts with Western satellite companies that suspended data supply in Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The two companies -- HEAD Aerospace and Spacety -- are both under sanctions by the United States for supplying satellite imagery of locations in Ukraine to entities affiliated with the Wagner mercenary group.

"For the time being, we cannot trace how exactly these shared data have informed specific decisions on the front line," Roman Kolodii, a security expert at Charles University in Prague and one of the authors of the report, told RFE/RL.

"However, since Racurs is a partner of the Russian Ministry of Defense, it is highly likely that such data might end up strengthening Russia's geospatial capabilities in the military domain, too."

"Ultimately, such dynamic interactions with Chinese companies may improve Russian military logistics, reconnaissance capabilities, geospatial intelligence, and drone deployment in Ukraine," the report says.

The report comes as Western governments are stepping up efforts to counter Russia's attempt to evade sanctions imposed as a response to its military aggression against Ukraine.

On February 23, on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, the United States imposed sanctions on nearly 100 entities that are helping Russia evade trade sanctions and "providing backdoor support for Russia's war machine."

The list includes Chinese companies, accused of supporting "Russia's military-industrial base."

With reporting by Merhat Sharpizhanov

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

The February 25 elections were widely expected to solidify the position of the country's authoritarian leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Only four parties, all of which support Lukashenka's policies, were officially registered to compete in the polls -- Belaya Rus, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the Party of Labor and Justice. About a dozen parties were denied registration last year.

Polls opened for the general elections at 8 a.m. local time and closed at 8 p.m.

According to the Central Election Commission, as of 6 p.m., voter turnout was 70.3 percent.

Results are expected to be announced on February 26, the commission said.

Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has claimed her victory over Lukashenka in the 2020 presidential election was stolen, described the elections as a "farce" and called for a boycott.

"There are no people on the ballot who would offer real changes because the regime only has allowed puppets convenient for it to take part," Tsikhanouskaya said in a video statement from her exile in Lithuania, where she moved following a brutal crackdown on protests against the 2020 election results. "We are calling to boycott this senseless farce, to ignore this election without choice."

In a separate message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tsikhanouskaya said on February 25 that her video address to the Belarusian people about the elections and Russia's invasion of Ukraine had been displayed on 2,000 screens in public spaces throughout Belarus. The action, she said, was organized by a coalition of former police and security forces officers.

The U.S. State Department blasted what it called a "sham" election, held amid a "climate of fear."

"The United States condemns the Lukashenka regime's sham parliamentary and local elections that concluded today in Belarus," it said in a statement.

"The elections were held in a climate of fear under which no electoral processes could be called democratic. The regime continues to hold more than 1,400 political prisoners. All independent political figures have either been detained or exiled. All independent political parties were denied registration."

"The Belarusian people deserve better,” it said.

The general elections were the first to be held in Belarus since the 2020 presidential election, which handed Lukashenka a sixth term in office. More than 35,000 people were arrested in the monthslong mass protests that followed the controversial election.

On the occasion, Lukashenka told journalists after voting that he plans to run again for president in 2025.

"Tell them (the exiled opposition) that I'll run," the state news agency BelTa quoted Lukashenka as saying.

Ahead of the voting in parliamentary and local council elections, the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) announced a record amount of early voting, which began on February 20. Nearly 48 percent of registered voters had already voted by February 24, according to the CEC, eclipsing the nearly 42 percent of early voting recorded for the contentious 2020 presidential election.

Early voting is widely seen by observers as a mechanism employed by the Belarusian authorities to falsify elections. The Belarusian opposition has said the early voting process allows for voting manipulation, with ballot boxes unprotected for a five-day period.

The Vyasna Human Rights Center alleged that many voters were forced to participate in early voting, including students, soldiers, teachers, and other civil servants.

"Authorities are using all available means to ensure the result they need -- from airing TV propaganda to forcing voters to cast ballots early,” said Vyasna representative Pavel Sapelka. “Detentions, arrests, and searches are taking place during the vote.”

The Belarusian authorities stepped up security on the streets and at polling stations around the country, with Interior Ministry police conducting drills on how to deal with voters who might try to violate restrictive rules imposed for the elections.

For the first time, curtains were removed from voting booths, and voters were barred from taking pictures of their ballots -- a practice encouraged by activists in previous elections in an effort to prevent authorities from manipulating vote counts.

Polling stations were guarded by police, along with members of a youth law-enforcement organization and retired security personnel. Armed rapid-response teams were also formed to deal with potential disturbances.

Lukashenka this week alleged without offering proof that Western countries were considering ways to stage a coup and ordered police to boost armed patrols across the country in order to ensure "law and order."

For the first time, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were denied access to monitor the vote in OSCE-member Belarus.

In the run-up to the vote, rights organizations uncovered violations pertaining to how local election committees were formed. An expert mission organized by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and Viasna said in late January that the lower number of local election committees and their compositions could indicate higher control by the authorities over the election process and an effort to stack the committees with government loyalists.

Following the vote, Belarus is expected to form a new, 1,200-seat All-Belarus Popular Assembly that will have broad powers to appoint judges and election officials and to consider amendments to the constitution. The new body will include elected local legislators, as well as top officials, union members, and pro-government activists.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Regime soldiers working in collaboration with the Pyu Saw Htee militia are responsible for a weapons accident that occurred on Saturday, locals said. The militia is made up of pro-junta supporters, veterans and Buddhist nationalists. 

The drone, carrying several bombs, flew over Sagaing region’s Kale township, close to the Chin state border. Soldiers are permanently stationed in Kale township’s Aung Myin Thar village, leading them to believe the attack was an accident, they added.

A resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA on Tuesday that a drone mounted with explosives flew over a nearby monastery compound when it suddenly crashed and exploded. Thirteen children playing in the monastery’s soccer field were injured when the bombs detonated. 

“The military junta gave weapons to the Pyu Saw Htee members and they were testing them to carry out bombardments with drones that evening. The bombs fell on the soccer field where the children were playing,” he said. “Six of the children were critically injured. Some of them were hit in their faces and eyes. Some had to have their limbs amputated.”

The children who are critically injured are being treated at Kale city’s military hospital, while the remaining seven are being treated at Kale General Hospital in the township’s capital, he added. All victims are between the ages of eight and 15 years old, but identifying information is not known at this time. 

The junta’s Ministry of Information released a statement on Tuesday saying that the accident was fake news, reporting that the blasts in Aung Myin Thar village were due to landmines planted by terrorists. 

RFA contacted Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson Sai Naing Naing Kyaw for more details, but did not receive an answer.

According to data compiled by RFA, 1,429 civilians have been killed and 2,641 were injured by junta airstrikes and heavy artillery from the Feb. 1, 2021 coup until Jan. 31, 2024.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

European Union foreign ministers in Brussels provided strong public backing to the exiled widow of Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, vowing additional sanctions against Moscow to hold it responsible for the death of her husband in a remote Arctic prison.

"The EU will spare no efforts to hold Russia's political leadership and authorities to account, in close coordination with our partners; and impose further costs for their actions, including through sanctions," the EU’s top diplomats said in a joint statement following their meeting with Yulia Navalnaya on February 19.

Navalnaya, who has become a vocal Kremlin critic in her own right over recent years, vowed to "continue our fight for our country" as she traveled to Brussels to seek backing from the 27-member bloc, whose leaders have expressed outrage over Navalny's death in custody last week and Russian authorities' refusal to allow his mother and lawyers to see his body.

"Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Aleksei Navalny," Yulia Navalnaya said in a two-minute video post on X, formerly Twitter.

Navalnaya, who along with their two children lives abroad, was already in Munich for a major international security conference when reports emerged on February 16 that Navalny had died at a harsh Arctic prison known as Polar Wolf, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for alleged extremism that Navalny and Kremlin critics say was heaped atop other convictions to punish him for his anti-corruption and political activities.

"I will continue the work of Aleksei Navalny," Navalnaya said. "Continue to fight for our country. And I invite you to stand beside me."

She called for supporters to battle the Kremlin with "more fury than ever before" and said she longed to live in "a free Russia."

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell emerged from that meeting expressing "the EU's deepest condolences" and confidence that Russian President "Vladimir Putin & his regime will be held accountable for the death of [Aleksei Navalny]."

"As [Navalnaya] said, Putin is not Russia. Russia is not Putin," Borrell said, adding that the bloc's support is assured "to Russia's civil society & independent media."

An ally of Navalny, Ivan Zhdanov, said in a post on Telegram that an investigator had stated that tests on Navalny's body will take 14 days to complete.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis insisted earlier that the EU must "at least" sharpen sanctions against Russia following Navalny's death.

The EU has already passed 12 rounds of Russian sanctions and is working on a 13th with the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaching later this week, with member Germany pressing for more.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had said Berlin would propose new sanctions on Moscow at the meeting with Navalnaya, but the outcome remained unclear.

The German Foreign Office said it was summoning the Russian ambassador over Navalny's death to "condemn this in the strongest possible terms and expressly call for the release of all those imprisoned in Russia for political reasons."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's office called separately for clarification on the circumstances and for Russian authorities to release Navalny's body to the family.

The Kremlin -- which for years avoided mention of Navalny by name -- broke its official silence on February 19 by saying an investigation was ongoing and would be carried out according to Russian law. It said the question of when his body would be handed over was not for the Kremlin to decide.

It called Western outcry over the February 16 announcement of Navalny's death "absolutely unacceptable."

The Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta Europe said on February 18 that police were securing a local morgue in the Siberian city of Salekhard as speculation swirled around the location of the 47-year-old Navalny's body and whether it showed signs of abuse.

Navalny is the latest on a significant list of Putin foes who have ended up dead under suspicious circumstances abroad or at home, where the Kremlin has clamped down ruthlessly on dissent and free speech since the Ukraine invasion began.

Political analyst Yekaterina Shulman told Current Time that Navalny "possessed incomparable moral capital" in Russia but also well beyond its borders.

"He possessed fame -- all Russian and worldwide," Shulman said. "He had moral authority [and] he had a long political biography. These are all things that cannot be handed down to anyone and cannot be acquired quickly."

She cited Navalny's crucial credibility and "political capital" built up through years of investigations of corruption, campaigning for elections, and organizing politically.

"Perhaps this apparent political assassination will become a rallying point not for the opposition -- the opposition is people who run for office to acquire mandates [and] we are not in that situation -- but for the anti-war community...inside Russia," Shulman said.

Navalny's family and close associates have confirmed his death in prison and have demanded his body be handed over, but authorities have refused to release it pending an investigation.

Mediazona and Novaya.gazeta Europe said Navalny’s body was being held at the district morgue in Salekhard, although officials reportedly told Navalny's mother otherwise after she traveled to the remote prison on February 17 and was denied access.

A former spokeswoman for Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, claimed Navalny's mother had been turned away again early on February 19.

Yarmysh tweeted that Russia's federal Investigative Committee had told his mother and lawyers that "the investigation into Navalny’s death had been extended. How much longer she will go is unknown. The cause of death is still 'undetermined.'"

"They lie, stall for time, and don't even hide it," she added.

The OVD-Info human rights group website showed more than 57,000 signatories demanding that the Investigative Committee return Navalny's body to his family.

WATCH: Court documents examined by RFE/RL reveal that medical care was repeatedly denied to inmates at the prison where Aleksei Navalny was held. In one case, this resulted in the death of an inmate. The revelation comes amid questions over how Navalny died and as his body has still not been handed over to his family.

The group noted that a procedural review process could allow authorities to keep the body for at least 30 days, or longer if a criminal case was opened.

Since the announcement of his death on February 16, Russian police have cordoned off memorial sites where people were laying flowers and candles to honor Navalny, and dispersed and arrested more than 430 suspected violators in dozens of locations.

Closely watched by police, mourners on February 19 continued to leave flowers at tributes in Moscow to honor Navalny. Initial reports suggested police in the capital did not intervene in the latest actions.

The Western response has been to condemn Putin and his administration, with U.S. President Joe Biden saying there is "no doubt" that Putin is to blame for Navalny's death.

The British and U.S. ambassadors laid tributes over the weekend at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to repression that has emerged as a site to honor Navalny.

U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy said she was honoring "Navalny and other victims of political repression in Russia," adding, "His strength is an inspiring example. We honor his memory."

The French ambassador also visited one of the memorials.

With reporting by Reuters

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Al-Jazeera Arabic reporter Ismail Abu Omar and freelance camera operator and photojournalist Ahmed Matar were traveling by motorcycle in Miraj, north of Rafah, while reporting on displaced Palestinians in the area, when an Israeli drone strike hit them, according to media reports. Both journalists were wearing protective vests clearly marked “Press” and carrying their equipment, Al-Jazeera said.

Al-Jazeera said the journalists received emergency surgery at the European Hospital in Rafah. Abu Omar’s right foot and some fingers on his right hand were amputated, his left leg was severely injured, and pieces of shrapnel remained in his head and chest, the channel said. A photograph shared with CPJ via messaging app showed Matar in the hospital with injuries to his face.

“The Israeli drone strike that injured critically Al-Jazeera reporter Ismail Abu Omar and freelance camera operator and photojournalist Ahmed Matar is another horrific example of the high personal price that journalists in Gaza are paying to cover the war so that the world can witness what is happening,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator in Washington D.C. “We are deeply alarmed by this new attack and call for an independent investigation into whether the journalists were targeted, which constitutes a war crime.”

Al-Jazeera said in a statement that it believed the reporters were deliberately targeted, describing the incident as “a full-fledged crime added to Israel’s crimes against journalists, and a new part in the series of the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents in Palestine.”

A video posted by Al-Jazeera Arabic, reviewed by CPJ, appeared to show Abu Omar, wearing a blue press vest, lying on the ground soon after the attack with severe leg injuries as people rushed to provide first aid. CPJ also reviewed photographs of the damaged motorcycle that were shared by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hadath in a messaging app.

On February 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah, which borders Egypt and is the last refuge for some 1.4 million displaced people who have fled attacks further north. The United States, United Nations, International Criminal Court, and humanitarians have spoken out against Israel’s planned assault on Rafah.

Since October 7, CPJ has documented 85 journalists and media workers killed while covering the war, including the killing by Israeli drone strikes of Al-Jazeera’s Samer Abu Daqqa on December 15, and of Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7. CPJ has called for independent investigations into the attacks.

On Monday, the Israeli cabinet approved a law that allows it to close Al-Jazeera in the country, according to news reports, a move that CPJ has previously spoken out against.

CPJ’s email to the North America Desk of the IDF seeking comment did not immediately receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Al-Jazeera Arabic reporter Ismail Abu Omar and freelance camera operator and photojournalist Ahmed Matar were traveling by motorcycle in Miraj, north of Rafah, while reporting on displaced Palestinians in the area, when an Israeli drone strike hit them, according to media reports. Both journalists were wearing protective vests clearly marked “Press” and carrying their equipment, Al-Jazeera said.

Al-Jazeera said the journalists received emergency surgery at the European Hospital in Rafah. Abu Omar’s right foot and some fingers on his right hand were amputated, his left leg was severely injured, and pieces of shrapnel remained in his head and chest, the channel said. A photograph shared with CPJ via messaging app showed Matar in the hospital with injuries to his face.

“The Israeli drone strike that injured critically Al-Jazeera reporter Ismail Abu Omar and freelance camera operator and photojournalist Ahmed Matar is another horrific example of the high personal price that journalists in Gaza are paying to cover the war so that the world can witness what is happening,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator in Washington D.C. “We are deeply alarmed by this new attack and call for an independent investigation into whether the journalists were targeted, which constitutes a war crime.”

Al-Jazeera said in a statement that it believed the reporters were deliberately targeted, describing the incident as “a full-fledged crime added to Israel’s crimes against journalists, and a new part in the series of the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents in Palestine.”

A video posted by Al-Jazeera Arabic, reviewed by CPJ, appeared to show Abu Omar, wearing a blue press vest, lying on the ground soon after the attack with severe leg injuries as people rushed to provide first aid. CPJ also reviewed photographs of the damaged motorcycle that were shared by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hadath in a messaging app.

On February 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah, which borders Egypt and is the last refuge for some 1.4 million displaced people who have fled attacks further north. The United States, United Nations, International Criminal Court, and humanitarians have spoken out against Israel’s planned assault on Rafah.

Since October 7, CPJ has documented 85 journalists and media workers killed while covering the war, including the killing by Israeli drone strikes of Al-Jazeera’s Samer Abu Daqqa on December 15, and of Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7. CPJ has called for independent investigations into the attacks.

On Monday, the Israeli cabinet approved a law that allows it to close Al-Jazeera in the country, according to news reports, a move that CPJ has previously spoken out against.

CPJ’s email to the North America Desk of the IDF seeking comment did not immediately receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has so far announced the winners of 253 of the 265 contested parliamentary seats amid a slow counting process hampered by the interruption of mobile service.

According to those results, independents backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) won 92 seats, while former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) garnered 71, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) obtained 54 mandates. The remainder are spread among other small parties and candidates.

Both Khan and Sharif declared victory.

As results appeared to point to a hung parliament, PTI's acting Chairman Gohar Ali Khan on February 10 told a news conference in Islamabad that the party aimed at forming a government as candidates backed by it had won the most seats.

Khan also announced that if complete results were not released by February 10 in the evening, the PTI intended to stage a peaceful protest on February 11.

Third-placed PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister who is the son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, could play kingmaker in case of talks to form a coalition government.

Sharif said on February 9 that he was sending his younger brother and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as an envoy to approach the PPP and other political parties for coalition talks.

The elections were held in a highly polarized environment as Khan, a former cricket superstar, and his party were kept out of the election. Khan is currently in prison after he was convicted of graft and leaking state secrets. He also saw his marriage annulled by a court.

Earlier on February 10, the chief of Pakistan's powerful military urged the country's political class to set aside rivalries and work for the good of the people.

"The nation needs stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarization, which does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people," General Syed Asim Munir said in a statement.

"Political leadership and their workers should rise above self-interests and synergize efforts in governing and serving the people, which is perhaps the only way to make democracy functional and purposeful," Munir said.

The military has run Pakistan for nearly half its history since partition from India in 1947 and it still wields huge power and influence.

The February 8 vote took place amid rising political tensions and an upsurge of violence that prompted authorities to deploy more than 650,000 army, paramilitary, and police personnel across the country.

Despite the beefed-up security presence, violence continued even after the election. On February 10, the leader of Pakistan’s National Democratic Movement, Mohsin Dawar, was shot and wounded in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district.

Daward was shot and injured as he addressed supporters in front of a military camp in Miramsha in the country’s northwest.

Dawar, a well-known Pashtun politician, was shot in the thigh and rushed to a nearby hospital in stable condition. He was later transported to the capital, Islamabad, for further treatment. His injuries are not life threatening. Videos of a bloodied Dawar circulated on social media

Three supporters were killed and 15 more injured in the incident, Rahim Dawar, a party member and eyewitness who is of no relation to the Pashtun politician, told RFE/RL.

Dawar, who was running for the lower house of parliament, arrived at the headquarters of the regional election committee, located inside the military camp, to demand officials announce the result of the vote.

Soldiers barred Dawar from entering and he was later shot as he addressed supporters outside the office. Dawar’s supporters accuse the police and security forces of firing at them.

The security forces have yet to respond to the allegation. Local media, citing unidentified security sources, reported that some policemen were also killed in the incident, but RFE/RL could not confirm that.

Dawar won a five-year term in 2018 and served in parliament until it was dissolved. Election officials later in the day said Dawar had lost the election.

Crisis-hit Pakistan has been struggling with runaway inflation while Islamabad scrambles to repay more than $130 billion in foreign debt.

Reported irregularities during the February 8 poll prompted the United States, Britain, and the European Union to voice concerns about the way the vote was conducted and to urge an investigation.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on February 10 rejected the criticism.

PTI was banned from participating in the vote because the ECP said it had failed to properly register as a party. Its candidates then decided to run as independents after the Supreme Court and the ECP said they couldn’t use the party symbol -- a cricket bat. Parties in the country use symbols to help illiterate voters find them on the ballots.

Yet the PTI-backed independents have emerged as the largest block in the new parliament. Under Pakistani law, they must join a political party within 72 hours after their election victory is officially confirmed. They can join the PTI if it takes the required administrative steps to be cleared and approved as a party by the ECP.

Khan, 71, was prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He still enjoys huge popularity, but his political future and return to the political limelight is unclear.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Tower 22, the U.S. base in Jordan where three American service members were killed last month, is not simply a “logistics support base,” as the Pentagon has described it. 

What the Pentagon hasn’t mentioned is that Tower 22 is also a drone base conducting long-range reconnaissance on militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq for airstrikes, according to two U.S. military sources. The base also serves as a staging facility for special operations forces and a medevac helicopter home base.

And while the Pentagon says Tower 22’s mission was to combat the Islamic State, or ISIS, since Hamas’s assault on Israel in October, its focus has turned to Iran-backed militia groups. 

“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit.”

“To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit,” an Air Force airman, whose unit was recently stationed at the base, told The Intercept. Logistics was a small part of the mission, amounting to weekly food and fuel deliveries to the nearby Al-Tanf base.

“The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes,” the airman said. “The main objective I witnessed was taking out targets.”

Tower 22 provided targeting intelligence to Air Force assets stationed at other bases in Jordan, such as Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, to use in strikes, the airman said.

An early news story on the drone attack that killed the U.S. service members cited unnamed officials discussing a preliminary report that the drone managed to enter Tower 22 because it was mistaken for another friendly drone returning to the base. (The Intercept later reported that the base lacked adequate air defenses.) Despite the account pointing to a drone presence, few questioned the Pentagon’s refrain that base’s purpose was logistics.

In interviews with defense sources and experts, however, a picture emerges of Tower 22’s purpose as a key base from which to support hostilities with Iran-aligned groups, even as the Biden administration insists that it does not want war with Tehran. The shift in its mission, from fighting ISIS to fighting groups linked with Iran, has not been acknowledged by the Defense Department, which still insists that this is part of its war on ISIS. (The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.)

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the troops killed by a kamikaze drone on January 28 were deployed there “to work for the lasting defeat of ISIS.” U.S. forces continue to operate in Syria under the legal basis of Operation Inherent Resolve, the Pentagon’s name for the international campaign against ISIS that began in 2014. But experts say it’s unlikely that counter-ISIS mission is the main focus.

Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser and now with the International Crisis Group, a think tank that works to prevent and resolve wars, said, “Whatever they’re doing there, there’s very little evidence that it’s counter-ISIS.”

Counter-ISIS Mission?

When ISIS was driven from their strongholds years ago, the withdrawal of U.S forces from Syria finally seemed within reach. “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there,” former President Donald Trump said in 2018, later announcing that he would withdraw all U.S. troops from the country.

Finucane explained that Trump was outmaneuvered by hawks, like his national security adviser at the time, John Bolton, who wanted to maintain the troop presence but with a new focus: Iran.

One of Tower 22’s functions is to provide support to Al-Tanf, a nearby U.S. military base in Syria whose official purpose is to combat ISIS. A Pentagon inspector general report last year found that there were “no kinetic engagements,” or combat incidents, by coalition forces at Al-Tanf. 

While Tower 22 may have provided logistics such as food and fuel for training operations at Al-Tanf, the lack of combat involving troops at the larger base indicates a diminished role for both facilities in the fight against ISIS.

“If Tanf doesn’t have a counter-ISIS function, it’s hard to see how a support facility for Tanf does,” said Finucane.

The inspector general report, covering data through September 30, preceded Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has spurred an intensified conflict with Iranian-backed groups in the region. The group that claimed credit for the attack on Tower 22 that killed three troops cited as its motivation U.S. support for Israel in the war, as The Intercept has previously reported.

Amid the increase in fighting, the U.S. is faced with a conundrum: how to respond to attacks from groups that the anti-ISIS coalition was not meant to fight.

“The counter-ISIS mission is the only legal basis there is for the U.S. to be there,” said Finucane. “There’s no legal basis to have U.S. troops in Syria to be countering Iran.”

The Pentagon’s solution has been to cast military operations against these Iranian-aligned groups as defensive in nature and necessary for force protection, which the legal basis for the anti-ISIS mission allows for.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it had killed a militia commander for participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region, a likely reference to Tower 22.

“The United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our people,” the Defense Department said, emphasizing the self-defense framing. “We will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threaten our forces’ safety.” 

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Ken Klippenstein.

In the more than two-hour interview, released on Carlson’s website early on February 9, Putin again claimed Ukraine was a threat to Russia because the West was drawing the country into NATO -- an assertion the military alliance has called false -- while avoiding topics such as his brutal crackdown at home on civil society and free speech.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

The interview took place as Putin hopes that Western support for Kyiv will wane and morale among Ukrainians will flag to the point where his war aims are achievable. It also comes as U.S. military support for Kyiv is in question as Republican lawmakers block a $60 billion aid package proposed by President Joe Biden, and a reshuffle of Ukraine's dismissal of the top commander of the armed forces after a counteroffensive fell far short of its goals.

Putin urged the United States to press Kyiv to stop fighting and cut a deal with Russia, which occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine.

Carlson rarely challenged Putin, who gave a long and rambling lecture on the history of Russia and Ukraine, failing to bring up credible accusations from international rights groups that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine -- Putin himself has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the conflict -- or the imprisonment of opposition figures such as Aleksei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza on trumped up charges that appear politically motivated.

"Putin got his message out the way he wanted to," said Ian Bremmer, a New York-based political scientist and president of Eurasiagroup.

Even before the meeting was published, Carlson faced criticism for interviewing Putin when his government is holding Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and another U.S. journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL, in jail on charges related to their reporting that both vehemently deny.

Kurmasheva's case was not even mentioned in the interview, while Carlson angered the Wall Street Journal by suggesting that Putin should release the 33-year-old journalist even if “maybe he was breaking your law in some way.”

The U.S. State Department has officially designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia.

“Evan is a journalist and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction,” the newspaper said in reaction to the interview.

“Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”

Putin said “an agreement can be reached” to free Gershkovich and appeared to suggest that a swap for a “patriotic” Russian national currently serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany -- an apparent reference to Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy organization convicted of assassinating a former Chechen fighter in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019.

"There is no taboo to settle this issue. We are willing to solve it, but there are certain terms being discussed via special services channels. I believe an agreement can be reached," Putin told Carlson.

Carlson, a former Fox News host, has made a name for himself by spreading conspiracy theories and has questioned U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against invading Russian troops. The interview was Putin's first with a Western media figure since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Putin said during the interview Russia has no interest in invading NATO member Poland and could only see one case where he would: "If Poland attacks Russia."

"We have no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don't have any interest. It's just threat mongering. It is absolutely out of the question," he added.

Describing his decision to interview Putin in an announcement posted on X on February 6, Carlson asserted that U.S. media outlets focus fawningly on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy but that Putin’s voice is not heard in the United States because Western journalists have not “bothered” to interview him since the full-scale invasion.

Carlson has gained a reputation for defending the Russian leader, once claiming that "hating Putin has become the central purpose of America's foreign policy."

Numerous Western journalists rejected the claim, saying they have consistently sought to interview Putin but have been turned away. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that, saying his office receives “numerous requests for interviews with the president” but that most of the Western outlets asking are “traditional TV channels and large newspapers that don’t even attempt to appear impartial in their coverage. Of course, there’s no desire to communicate with this kind of media.”

Carlson’s credentials as an independent journalist have been questioned, and in 2020 Fox News won a defamation case against him, with the judge saying in her verdict that when presenting stories, Carlson is not "stating actual facts" about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in "exaggeration" and "'nonliteral commentary."

Carlson was one of Fox News' top-rated hosts before he abruptly left the network last year after Fox settled a separate defamation lawsuit over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election. Fox agreed to pay $787 million to voting machine company Dominion after the company filed a lawsuit alleging the network spread false claims that its machines were rigged against former President Donald Trump.

Carlson has had a rocky relationship at times with the former president, but during Trump's presidency he had Carlson's full backing and he has endorsed Trump in his 2024 run to regain the White House.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Tower 22, the U.S. base in Jordan where three U.S. troops were killed by a one-way attack drone late last month, suffered from inadequate anti-drone defenses, said military sources who have served on the base.

The lethal attack followed a spate of one-way drone attacks on U.S. bases in neighboring Syria and Iraq in recent weeks, an escalation by anti-American militants since the outbreak of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. No one was reported killed in the previous attacks, including one on Al-Tanf in Syria, a base just 12 miles away from Tower 22.

Despite the repeated attacks and a well-funded Pentagon’s investment in counter-drone technology, the U.S. military failed to stop the Tower 22 drone attack. 

“We had a radar system called TPS-75 that was broken 80 percent of the time I was there.”

“The air defenses were minimal, if any,” an Air Force airman, who served at Tower 22 last year, told The Intercept. “We relied heavily on aircraft from MSAB” — Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a nearby Jordanian base that houses a U.S. military presence — “to stop any targets. We had a radar system called TPS-75 that was broken 80 percent of the time I was there.”

A preliminary military investigation reported in the Washington Post on Tuesday concluded that the drone was never detected, likely by flying too low for the bases antiquated radar system. Just a week before the attack, the military announced an $84 million contract to work on a replacement to the TPS-75, a mobile, ground-based radar array from the 1960s.

With inadequate defenses in place, the Tower 22 drone attack led to the deaths of the three U.S. service members and injuries to at least 40 others, casualties that spurred deepening U.S. military involvement in a tense Middle East.

“The small U.S. military contingents in Iraq and Syria have long represented a vulnerability — as convenient targets for anyone wishing to make a violent anti-U.S. statement,” said Paul Pillar, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. “Over the past four months those targets have become an extension of the Gaza war.”

After the Tower 22 deaths, prominent Republicans in Congress, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called for the U.S. to directly bomb Iran, which backs the militias that took responsibility for the attack. Last Friday, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon’s combat command for the Middle East, announced that it had conducted airstrikes on over 85 Iranian-aligned targets in Iraq and Syria, the largest U.S. strike on the militias since Israel’s war on Gaza war began.

The recriminations would only deepen U.S. involvement in the conflict, Pillar said: “The U.S. airstrikes on targets in Syria and Iraq — as retaliation for retaliation for the U.S. support for Israel — represents a further extension of the war in Gaza.”

“Plenty of Reason to Harden Defenses”

American service members familiar with Tower 22 outlined the small outpost’s paltry capabilities to detect and defend against air attacks.

“They have outposts surrounding the base, but that does little to nothing when faced with attacking aircraft,” said the airman, who, like other members of the military who had been deployed to Tower 22, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the sensitive base. “Only solution was to ‘blackout,’” he added, referring to the practice of turning off lights to obscure locations during an air raid. “And even when we had blackouts no one adhered to the rules of the blackout.”

An Army soldier currently deployed to another base in Jordan and who has served at Tower 22 echoed the airman’s account, saying bases in the area lacked key countermeasures for aerial threats, including capable alert systems and two defense systems designed for small, low-flying drones and rocket and artillery attacks, respectively. The network of small outposts in Jordan, Syria, and Iraq have to rely on warnings provided to them from outside the base through a secure phone system, sometimes resulting in service members warning others by knocking on doors, the Army soldier said.

The Associated Press appeared to reference the problem earlier this week, reporting that although the base has some counter-drone systems like the Coyote, “there are no large air defense systems” at Tower 22. The Army has not confirmed the presence of the Coyote, nor whether it was activated or employed during the drone attack. The Coyote is a Raytheon-manufactured small turbine engine-powered missile that is launched in the sky and loiters before undertaking a high-speed attack on low-flying drones.

Spokespeople for the Pentagon could only tell The Intercept that Tower 22 possessed some kind of counter-unmanned aircraft system. When pressed on what specific capabilities the base had on the day of the attack, they declined to comment, citing operational security.

“To maintain operational security, it would not be prudent for us to discuss Tower 22’s defense capabilities,” Pentagon spokesperson Peter Nguyen said. 

When White House national security spokesperson John Kirby was asked how the drone “might have gotten past the defense systems at Tower 22,” he demurred. Kirby said, “I think I’m going to let the Defense Department talk about the forensics on this.” 

At a Pentagon press briefing on Monday, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said, “We are still assessing what happened and how a one-way attack drone was able to impact the facility.”

The drone attack at Tower 22 was the first instance of U.S. troops being killed by enemy forces since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, but it was far from the first attack on U.S. personnel.

On January 20, U.S. Central Command announced that three one-way drones attacked the Al-Tanf garrison, another U.S. base in Jordan just 12 miles from Tower 22. Multiple drones have also attacked U.S. bases in southern Syria, which Jordan borders.

The airman who spoke with The Intercept said, “The drone attacks at Al-Tanf should’ve given military leadership plenty of reason to harden defenses prior to the attack on Tower 22.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Ken Klippenstein.

More U.S. drone bases in Africa spell more violence, vicious anonymity, and “collateral damage” from drone assassinations. It spells enhanced surveillance capabilities for imperialism to use against any threat to the neocolonial order. U.S. maneuvering to expand its already massive military drone operations is consistent with the U.S. incessant drive to wage war globally and its militarization of the planet. U.S. drone and air strikes in Africa have primarily been in Libya and Somalia with the numbers of confirmed civilian deaths from drones as high as 3,200 in these two countries, and studies have shown these conditions “have inadvertently aided the growth of terrorist groups in the region.” This is what the U.S. proposes now for West Africa.

There are clear and disturbing geostrategic implications regarding the countries they have chosen for these U.S. drone bases. The bases will form a border along the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – countries which have been adopting an anti-imperialist disposition. In fact, Burkina Faso’s entire southern flank would be surrounded by these U.S. drone bases. The last two administrations as well as members of Congress have clearly stated in policy declarations and legislation that the U.S.’ primary objective in Africa is to counteract the presence and influence of China and Russia in order to maintain its full spectrum dominance of all regions of the world. This is also consistent with the Global Fragility Act that states the Biden administration’s first sites of focus would be Haiti, Libya, and “West African coastal states,” where the U.S. seeks to place the drone bases.

The bases will not be there to end so-called terrorism of extremists in Africa; they will be there for the U.S. to terrorize the region. It is folly to believe that the settler criminals who rule the U.S. state, who can justify the genocidal assault on Gaza, and who systematically murder, sanction, and attack nations globally to maintain white supremacy and global capitalism, are spending hundreds of millions to “fight terrorism” in Africa.

Rather than “an urgent effort to stop the spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State in the region,” according to American and African officials, the USOAN contends that this is more likely a contingency plan to preserve drone capabilities in the event of losing their $110 million U.S. drone base in Agadez, Niger. Niger has also recently temporarily suspended the granting of new mining licenses and ordered an audit of the sector, a move that would invariably raise the eyebrows of the U.S.-EU-NATO axis of domination, concerned over the future of exploitative access to the mineral resources there, such as uranium. Resource sovereignty runs counter to the true colonialist objectives of U.S. foreign policy.

BAP and the USOAN call on all who support African sovereignty to denounce the U.S.’ latest imperialist moves in Western Africa as well as the neocolonial African governments and collaborators like the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo who, face-to-face with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken, openly begged for the U.S. to violate the sovereignty of the countries in the Alliance of Sahel States.

BAP and the USOAN will continue to expose the puppets of neocolonialism in Africa and the misleaders masquerading as Black representatives in the legislative branches of the U.S. setter state. We maintain that the U.S. and its Western Europe progenitors are the root cause and primary sustenance for the poverty, displacement, despair, and violence in Africa, born from decades of colonialist plunder.

#ShutDownAFRICOM!

#USOutofAfrica!

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Black Alliance for Peace.

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The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – February 2, 2024 US hits Iranian-backed militant targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for drone strike that killed US servicemembers. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

The Times of Israel offered a workmanlike description of the site’s role: “Tower 22 is located close enough to US troops at Tanf that it could potentially help support them, while potentially countering Iran-backed militants in the area and allowing troops to keep an eye on remnants of Islamic State in the region.”  The paper does not go on to mention the other role: that US forces are also present in the region to protect Israeli interests, acting as a shield against Iran.

While Tower 22 is located more towards Jordan, it is a dozen miles or so to the Syria-based al-Tanf garrison, which retains a US troop presence.  Initially, that presence was justified to cope with the formidable threat posed by Islamic State as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.  In due course, it became something of a watch post on Iran’s burgeoning military presence in Syria and Iraq, an inflation as much a consequence of Tehran’s successful efforts against the fundamentalist group as it was a product of Washington’s destabilising invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A January 28 press release from US Central Command notes that the attack was inflicted by “a one-way attack UAS [Unmanned Aerial System] that impacted on a base in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border.”  Its description of Tower 22 is suitably vague, described as a “logistics support base” forming the Jordanian Defense Network.  “There are approximately 350 US Army and Air Force personnel deployed to the base, conducting a number of key support functions, including support to the coalition for the lasting defeat of ISIS.”  No mention is made of Iran or Israel.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh found it hard to conceal the extent that US bases in the region have come under attack.  Clumsily, she tried to be vague as to reasons why such assaults were taking place to begin with, though her department has, since October 17 last year, tracked 165 attacks, 66 on US troops in Iraq and 98 in Syria.  The singular feature in the assault on Tower 22, she stressed, was that it worked.  “To my knowledge, there was nothing different or new about this attack that we’ve seen in other facilities that house our service members,” she told reporters on January 29.  “Unfortunately, this attack was successful, but we can’t discount the fact that other attacks, whether Iraq or Syria, were not intended to kill our service members.”

A senior official from the umbrella grouping known as Islamic Resistance in Iraq justified the attack as part of a broader campaign against the US for its unwavering support for Israel and its relentlessly murderous campaign in Gaza.  (Since October 17, the group is said to have staged 140 attacks on US sites in both Iraq and Syria.)  “As we have said before if the US keeps supporting Israel, there will [be] escalations.”  The official in question went on to state that, “All the US interests in the region are legitimate targets, and we don’t care about US threats to respond.”

A generally accepted view among security boffins is that US troops have achieved what they sought to do: cope with the threat posed by Islamic State.  As with any such groups, dissipation and readjustment eventually follows.  Washington’s military officials delight in using the term “degrade”, but it would be far better to simply assume that the fighters of such outfits eventually take up with others, blend into the locale, or simply go home.

With roughly 3,000 personnel stationed in Jordan, 2,500 in Iraq, and 900 in Syria, US troops have become ripe targets as Israel’s war in Gaza rages.  In effect, they have become bits of surplus pieces on the Middle Eastern chessboard and, to that end, incentives for a broader conflict.  The Financial Times, noting the view of an unnamed source purporting to be a “senior western diplomat” (aren’t they always?), fretted that the tinderbox was about to go off.  “We’re always worried about US and Iranian forces getting into direct confrontation there, whether by accident or on purpose.”

President Joe Biden has promised some suitable retaliation but does not wish for “a wider war in the Middle East.  That’s not what I’m looking for.”  A typically mangled response came from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby: “It’s very possible what you’ll see is a tiered approach here, not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”

Rather than seeing these attacks as incentives to leave such outposts, the don’t cut and run mentality may prove all too powerful in its muscular stupidity.  Empires do not merely bring with them sorrows but incentives to be stubborn.  The beneficiaries will be the usual coterie of war mongers and peace killers.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

Photograph Source: Pfc. James Bowen – Public Domain

The BBC’s characteristically mild-mannered note said it all: What is Tower 22?  More to the point, what are US forces doing in Jordan?  (To be more precise, a dusty scratching on the Syria-Jordan border.)  These questions were posed in the aftermath of yet another drone attack against a US outpost in the Middle East, its location of dubious strategic relevance to Washington, yet seen as indispensable to its global footprint.  On this occasion, the attack proved successful, killing three troops and wounding dozens.

The Times of Israel offered a workmanlike description of the site’s role: “Tower 22 is located close enough to US troops at Tanf that it could potentially help support them, while potentially countering Iran-backed militants in the area and allowing troops to keep an eye on remnants of Islamic State in the region.”  The paper does not go on to mention the other role: that US forces are also present in the region to protect Israeli interests, acting as a shield against Iran.

While Tower 22 is located more towards Jordan, it is a dozen miles or so to the Syria-based al-Tanf garrison, which retains a US troop presence.  Initially, that presence was justified to cope with the formidable threat posed by Islamic State as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.  In due course, it became something of a watch post on Iran’s burgeoning military presence in Syria and Iraq, an inflation as much a consequence of Tehran’s successful efforts against the fundamentalist group as it was a product of Washington’s destabilising invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A January 28 press release from US Central Command notes that the attack was inflicted by “a one-way attack UAS [Unmanned Aerial System] that impacted on a base in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border.”  Its description of Tower 22 is suitably vague, described as a “logistics support base” forming the Jordanian Defense Network.  “There are approximately 350 US Army and Air Force personnel deployed to the base, conducting a number of key support functions, including support to the coalition for the lasting defeat of ISIS.”  No mention is made of Iran or Israel.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh found it hard to conceal the extent that US bases in the region have come under attack.  Clumsily, she tried to be vague as to reasons why such assaults were taking place to begin with, though her department has, since October 17 last year, tracked 165 attacks, 66 on US troops in Iraq and 98 in Syria.  The singular feature in the assault on Tower 22, she stressed, was that it worked.  “To my knowledge, there was nothing different or new about this attack that we’ve seen in other facilities that house our service members,” she told reporterson January 29.  “Unfortunately, this attack was successful, but we can’t discount the fact that other attacks, whether Iraq or Syria, were not intended to kill our service members.”

A senior official from the umbrella grouping known as Islamic Resistance in Iraq justified the attack as part of a broader campaign against the US for its unwavering support for Israel and its relentlessly murderous campaign in Gaza.  (Since October 17, the group is said to have staged 140 attacks on US sites in both Iraq and Syria.)  “As we have said before if the US keeps supporting Israel, there will [be] escalations.”  The official in question went on to state that, “All the US interests in the region are legitimate targets, and we don’t care about US threats to respond.”

A generally accepted view among security boffins is that US troops have achieved what they sought to do: cope with the threat posed by Islamic State.  As with any such groups, dissipation and readjustment eventually follows. Washington’s military officials delight in using the term “degrade”, but it would be far better to simply assume that the fighters of such outfits eventually take up with others, blend into the locale, or simply go home.

With roughly 3,000 personnel stationed in Jordan, 2,500 in Iraq, and 900 in Syria, US troops have become ripe targets as Israel’s war in Gaza rages.  In effect, they have become bits of surplus pieces on the Middle Eastern chessboard and, to that end, incentives for a broader conflict.  The Financial Times, noting the view of an unnamed source purporting to be a “senior western diplomat” (aren’t they always?), fretted that the tinderbox was about to go off.  “We’re always worried about US and Iranian forces getting into direct confrontation there, whether by accident or on purpose.”

President Joe Biden has promised some suitable retaliation but does not wish for “a wider war in the Middle East.  That’s not what I’m looking for.”  A typically mangled response came from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby: “It’s very possible what you’ll see is a tiered approach here, not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”

Rather than seeing these attacks as incentives to leave such outposts, the don’t cut and run mentality may prove all too powerful in its muscular stupidity.  Empires do not merely bring with them sorrows but incentives to be stubborn.  The beneficiaries will be the usual coterie of war mongers and peace killers.

The post Flashpoint for War: The Drone Killings at Tower 22 appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

The Pentagon is accusing Iranian-backed militants of killing three U.S. soldiers in a drone strike at a base in Jordan along the Syrian border, making the troops the first U.S. armed forces killed by enemy fire in the region since October 7. A group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack and said attacks would escalate if the U.S. continues to support Israel during the latter’s destruction of Gaza. President Biden vowed the U.S. would respond. “There will be more of these attacks, for sure,” says Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri, who lays out the simmering regional conflict and questions U.S. foreign policy running counter to American opinion and strategic goals. “All these actions, are they for the sake of Israel? … Or is this really about U.S. strategic interests?”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Three drone strikes last year by the government of Burkina Faso killed scores of civilians, according to a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch. The attacks, targeting Islamist militants in crowded marketplaces and at a funeral, left at least 60 civilians dead and dozens more injured.

The drone strikes in Burkina Faso and Mali are just the latest in a yearslong string of atrocities carried out as part of Burkina Faso’s counterterrorism campaign against the Al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM, and other Islamist militant groups that operate in the West African Sahel.

“The Burkina Faso military used one of the most accurate weapons in its arsenal to attack large groups of people, causing the loss of numerous civilian lives in violation of the laws of war,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, or HRW. “The Burkinabè government should urgently and impartially investigate these apparent war crimes, hold those responsible to account, and provide adequate support for the victims and their families.”

Burkina Faso’s government-controlled media said that all three attacks targeted and killed militants; none mentioned any civilian harm. Last August, for example, Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina, Burkina Faso’s government-run national television network, reported a “successful” airstrike on Islamist militants who were “preparing large-scale attacks.” After geolocating the strike site from the video, Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses to the attack, which occurred during the weekly market day near the northern edge of the Bouro village. Survivors said that members of JNIM, which controls Bouro and the surrounding area, had arrived at the packed marketplace just before the strike.

“The market was full of civilians when the drone hit,” a 25-year-old man told HRW, noting that people travel from “all over” the region to buy and sell animals there. HRW obtained a list of 28 people killed in the attack, compiled by survivors and confirmed by two local authorities, but witnesses said the death toll was far higher. “There were hundreds of people at the market at the time of the strike,” said a 45-year-old man. “We counted 70 dead, but we only identified 28 of them. The other bodies were unrecognizable.”

The Burkinabè Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to repeated requests from The Intercept to speak with the defense attaché or other officials.

“Little or No Concern for Civilian Harm”

The Burkinabè military conducted the strikes with Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, which it acquired in 2022. At the time, Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs defended the use of the country’s “limited financial resources” on drones and helicopters, touting their surveillance capabilities, the increased firepower they would provide, and their potential for “humanitarian actions for the benefit of our population.” Human Rights Watch documented casualties and damage consistent with the type of laser-guided bombs delivered by these drones.

“The Burkina Faso military repeatedly carried out drone strikes in crowded areas with little or no concern for civilian harm,” Allegrozzi said, noting that governments that provide such weapons to Burkina Faso risk complicity in war crimes.

Turkey isn’t alone in its support of the Burkinabè military. The United States has assisted Burkina Faso with counterterrorism aid since the 2000s, providing funds, weapons, equipment, and American advisers, as well as deploying commandos on low-profile combat missions. In that time, however, militant Islamist violence has skyrocketed. Across all of Africa, the State Department counted just 23 casualties from terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003. Burkina Faso alone saw 6,130 deaths from terrorist attacks between July 2022 and July 2023, according to the Defense Department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution.

U.S.-trained Burkinabè military officers have also repeatedly overthrown the government, in 2014, 2015, and twice in 2022. Following military coups, U.S. law generally restricts countries from receiving military aid, but the U.S. has continued to provide training to Burkinabè forces, according to Gen. Michael Langley, the chief of Africa Command, or AFRICOM. Last year, for example, Burkinabè forces took part in Flintlock 2023, an annual exercise sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa. (Several past Flintlock attendees have overthrown the government, including Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who carried out one of the 2022 coups.)

American assistance has continued despite widespread documentation of Burkinabè government atrocities and the “Leahy law,” which prohibits U.S. funding for foreign security forces implicated in gross violations of human rights. “The military has been credibly accused of various instances of human rights abuses and has been implicated in the extrajudicial killings of children by human rights organizations and journalists,” the Pentagon’s Africa Center noted in reference to Burkina Faso last year. A little over a month before Langley told members of the House Armed Services Committee about continued U.S. support for Burkina Faso, Burkinabè soldiers, accompanied by militia, arrested 16 men in the Ekeou village, at least nine of whom were later found executed, according to Human Rights Watch. In April 2023, less than a month after Langley’s admission, the Burkinabè military massacred at least 156 civilians, including 45 children, in the village of Karma. And state-backed militia reportedly killed at least 70 civilians in the Zaongo village last November.

“As some U.S. military assistance still goes to Burkina Faso, under the Leahy law, the U.S. should be determining if human rights violations by members of Burkina’s junta are occurring and if the aid being provided follows U.S. law,” HRW’s Allegrozzi told The Intercept. “Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented serious abuses perpetrated by Burkinabè security forces, including mass executions and enforced disappearances of hundreds of civilians.”

Neither AFRICOM nor the State Department responded to detailed questions about the extent of U.S. support for Burkina Faso and reports of atrocities by Burkinabè forces.

“People Were Screaming and Running”

In late September 2023, Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina reported on a drone strike against supposed motorbike-riding Islamist militants who traveled from Mali to a compound in Burkina Faso’s Bidi village. Locals told Human Rights Watch, however, that the attack hit a funeral for a local woman, attended by more than 100 people, and that there were no fighters at the compound at the time.

Left: Two screenshots taken from a video posted on Sept. 24, 2023, to Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina’s YouTube channel. It shows the activities before the strike on the compound. © 2023 Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina. Right: A satellite image shows the approximate distance between the motorbikes and the compound.

“It hit the tent where the old and wise men were sitting and praying for the old woman who died. The explosion was so strong and loud that the ground trembled and I fell,” a 54-year-old farmer who survived the attack told HRW. “People were screaming and running. Everyone was looking for his relatives and friends or fleeing. I saw many bodies on the ground, scattered, some torn into pieces.” Survivors said that 24 civilian men and a boy were killed, and 17 others were injured.

On November 18, another Burkinabè drone strike hit a market in Mali. That evening, Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina reported that the Burkinabè military launched attacks on “terrorists,” hitting a “logistics base” for Islamist fighters. The video shows at least three munitions striking a crowded marketplace.

Human Rights Watch used the video and accounts from survivors to identify Boulkessi, Mali — located in an area controlled by Islamist militants — as the site of the attack. Witnesses said that several armed JNIM fighters were present but that the overwhelming majority of those in the marketplace were civilians.

“The market was beginning to fill up with lots of people, only men, mostly civilians. Women are not allowed to go to the market because of the Islamic law imposed by the jihadists,” a 21-year-old survivor told HRW. “At around 10 a.m., I didn’t see anything coming but a bomb that fell on us like an arrow, then another bomb, and a third one … I was wounded in the arm by shrapnel … I helped my comrades get out of the market despite my injury … unfortunately, one of us died along the way – he had been wounded in the stomach.” Survivors provided HRW with a list of the names of seven civilians killed and five wounded in the strike.

Human Rights Watch did not receive a response to its allegations from the government of Burkina Faso.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

CHISINAU -- Moldova has paused a recruitment effort to funnel construction workers to Israel, alleging that Israelis have put Moldovans in "high-risk conflict zones," withheld passports, and committed other abuses while plugging gaps in their workforce brought on by the current war in the Gaza Strip.

The Labor Ministry confirmed to RFE/RL's Moldovan Service this week that Chisinau had "temporarily postponed" the latest round of recruitment under the bilateral agreement following the accusations by Moldovan citizens, but said it could resume once Israel confirmed the practices were stopped and "security and respect" for Moldovan nationals were ensured.

Israel has faced an acute labor squeeze since hundreds of thousands of reservists and other Israelis were called up to fight and thousands of Palestinians were denied access to jobs in Israel after gunmen from the EU- and U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas carried out a massive cross-border attack that killed just over 1,100 people, most of them Israeli civilians, on October 7.

"As a result of the deterioration of the security situation in the state of Israel, workers from the Republic of Moldova were employed to work in high-risk conflict zones, some citizens had their passports withheld by employers, complaints were registered about the confiscation of workers' luggage, as well as Israeli authorities carried out activities of direct recruitment of Moldovan workers, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, which is contrary to the provisions of the agreement," the ministry said in a January 17 response to an RFE/RL access-to-information request.

The ministry did not accuse the Israeli state of perpetrating the abuses. It said Moldovan officials have reported the "violations" to Israel and asked it to put a stop to them and "ensure the security and respect of the rights of workers coming from the Republic of Moldova," one of Europe's poorest countries with a population of some 3.4 million.

The Moldovan Embassy in Tel Aviv said some 13,000 Moldovans were in Israel before the current war broke out. Many work at construction sites or provide care for the elderly, inside or outside the auspices of the recruitment agreement.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to RFE/RL's request for comment on the Labor Ministry's accusations.

Since the war erupted in early October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has sought to extend worker visas and attract more foreign labor from around the world, including by raising its quota on foreign construction workers by roughly half, to 65,000 individuals.

It appealed publicly for 1,200 new Moldovan workers for the construction sector, including blacksmiths, painters, and carpenters.

Speaking in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, the director of the Foreign Workers Administration, Inbal Mashash, named Moldova, along with Thailand and Sri Lanka, as countries where Israeli hopes were highest for more guest workers.

The bilateral Moldovan-Israeli agreement on temporary employment in "certain sectors" including construction in Israel was signed in 2012 and has been amended on multiple occasions, including in December.

In addition to setting up training and procedures to regulate and steer labor flows, it imposes restrictions that include a ban on Israeli companies recruiting on Moldovan territory.

In its decade-long existence, some 17,000 Moldovans have worked in Israel under the auspices of the agreement through 28 rounds of recruitment. At the last available official count, in 2022, there were about 4,000 participating Moldovans.

"The [29th] recruitment round will resume once the above-mentioned irregularities are eliminated and we receive confirmation from the Israeli side of the necessary measures being taken to ensure security and respect for the rights of employed [Moldovan] citizens on the territory of the state of Israel," the Moldovan Labor Ministry said.

From the early days of the current war, Moldovans have spoken out about family concerns and the pressures to pack up and leave Israel, but most appear to have stayed.

As rumors spread of pressure on Moldovan construction workers to stay in Israel after a January 5 pause announcement, Labor Minister Alexei Buzu confirmed there were problems but focused on the accusation that Israeli firms were improperly recruiting Moldovans outside the program or for repeat stints.

A failure to comply with some provisions brings "a risk that other commitments will be ignored [or] will not be delivered at the time or according to the expectations described in the agreement," he said.

Buzu stopped short of leveling some of the most serious accusations involving Moldovan workers being sent to work in 'high-risk conflict zones" or having their passports or belongings taken from them.

Reuters has reported that the worker shortage is costing Israel's construction sector around $37 million per day.

Moldova's National Employment Agency (ANOFM) is responsible for implementing the Israeli-Moldovan recruitment agreement. The Labor Ministry said the agency had already lined up construction recruits and scheduled professional exams for the end of December before the postponement.

The ministry said a similar agreement on the home-caregiver sector between Moldova and Israel -- the subject of negotiations in December -- had “not yet been signed."

The Hamas-led surprise attack on October 7 sparked a massive response from Israel including devastating aerial bombardments and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the latest fighting displaced most of them.

The Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say 24,700 people have been killed in the subsequent fighting and 62,000 more injured.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

CHISINAU -- Moldova has paused a recruitment effort to funnel construction workers to Israel, alleging that Israelis have put Moldovans in "high-risk conflict zones," withheld passports, and committed other abuses while plugging gaps in their workforce brought on by the current war in the Gaza Strip.

The Labor Ministry confirmed to RFE/RL's Moldovan Service this week that Chisinau had "temporarily postponed" the latest round of recruitment under the bilateral agreement following the accusations by Moldovan citizens, but said it could resume once Israel confirmed the practices were stopped and "security and respect" for Moldovan nationals were ensured.

Israel has faced an acute labor squeeze since hundreds of thousands of reservists and other Israelis were called up to fight and thousands of Palestinians were denied access to jobs in Israel after gunmen from the EU- and U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas carried out a massive cross-border attack that killed just over 1,100 people, most of them Israeli civilians, on October 7.

"As a result of the deterioration of the security situation in the state of Israel, workers from the Republic of Moldova were employed to work in high-risk conflict zones, some citizens had their passports withheld by employers, complaints were registered about the confiscation of workers' luggage, as well as Israeli authorities carried out activities of direct recruitment of Moldovan workers, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, which is contrary to the provisions of the agreement," the ministry said in a January 17 response to an RFE/RL access-to-information request.

The ministry did not accuse the Israeli state of perpetrating the abuses. It said Moldovan officials have reported the "violations" to Israel and asked it to put a stop to them and "ensure the security and respect of the rights of workers coming from the Republic of Moldova," one of Europe's poorest countries with a population of some 3.4 million.

The Moldovan Embassy in Tel Aviv said some 13,000 Moldovans were in Israel before the current war broke out. Many work at construction sites or provide care for the elderly, inside or outside the auspices of the recruitment agreement.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to RFE/RL's request for comment on the Labor Ministry's accusations.

Since the war erupted in early October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has sought to extend worker visas and attract more foreign labor from around the world, including by raising its quota on foreign construction workers by roughly half, to 65,000 individuals.

It appealed publicly for 1,200 new Moldovan workers for the construction sector, including blacksmiths, painters, and carpenters.

Speaking in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, the director of the Foreign Workers Administration, Inbal Mashash, named Moldova, along with Thailand and Sri Lanka, as countries where Israeli hopes were highest for more guest workers.

The bilateral Moldovan-Israeli agreement on temporary employment in "certain sectors" including construction in Israel was signed in 2012 and has been amended on multiple occasions, including in December.

In addition to setting up training and procedures to regulate and steer labor flows, it imposes restrictions that include a ban on Israeli companies recruiting on Moldovan territory.

In its decade-long existence, some 17,000 Moldovans have worked in Israel under the auspices of the agreement through 28 rounds of recruitment. At the last available official count, in 2022, there were about 4,000 participating Moldovans.

"The [29th] recruitment round will resume once the above-mentioned irregularities are eliminated and we receive confirmation from the Israeli side of the necessary measures being taken to ensure security and respect for the rights of employed [Moldovan] citizens on the territory of the state of Israel," the Moldovan Labor Ministry said.

From the early days of the current war, Moldovans have spoken out about family concerns and the pressures to pack up and leave Israel, but most appear to have stayed.

As rumors spread of pressure on Moldovan construction workers to stay in Israel after a January 5 pause announcement, Labor Minister Alexei Buzu confirmed there were problems but focused on the accusation that Israeli firms were improperly recruiting Moldovans outside the program or for repeat stints.

A failure to comply with some provisions brings "a risk that other commitments will be ignored [or] will not be delivered at the time or according to the expectations described in the agreement," he said.

Buzu stopped short of leveling some of the most serious accusations involving Moldovan workers being sent to work in 'high-risk conflict zones" or having their passports or belongings taken from them.

Reuters has reported that the worker shortage is costing Israel's construction sector around $37 million per day.

Moldova's National Employment Agency (ANOFM) is responsible for implementing the Israeli-Moldovan recruitment agreement. The Labor Ministry said the agency had already lined up construction recruits and scheduled professional exams for the end of December before the postponement.

The ministry said a similar agreement on the home-caregiver sector between Moldova and Israel -- the subject of negotiations in December -- had “not yet been signed."

The Hamas-led surprise attack on October 7 sparked a massive response from Israel including devastating aerial bombardments and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the latest fighting displaced most of them.

The Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say 24,700 people have been killed in the subsequent fighting and 62,000 more injured.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

UFA, Russia -- A court in Ufa, the capital of Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan, has sentenced eight men to up to 14 days in jail for taking part in an unprecedented rally earlier this week to support the former leader of the banned Bashqort movement, Fail Alsynov, who has criticized Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

The Kirov district court on January 18 sentenced activists Salavat Idelbayev and Rustam Yuldashev to 14 and 13 days in jail, respectively, after finding them guilty of taking part in "an unsanctioned rally that led to the disruption of infrastructure activities and obstructed the work of a court" on January 15.

A day earlier, the same court sentenced Ilnar Galin to 13 days in jail, and Denis Skvortsov, Fanzil Akhmetshin, Yulai Aralbayev, Radmir Mukhametshin, and Dmitry Petrov to 10 days in jail each on the same charges.

The sentences were related to a January 15 rally of around 5,000 people in front of a court in the town of Baimak, where the verdict and sentencing of Alsynov, who was charged with inciting ethnic hatred, were expected to be announced. But the court postponed the announcement to January 17 to allow security forces to prepare for any reaction to the verdict in the controversial trial.

On January 17, thousands of supporters gathered in front of the court again, and after Alsynov was sentenced to four years in prison, clashes broke out as police using batons, tear gas, and stun grenades forced the protesters to leave the site. Several protesters were injured and at least two were hospitalized.

Dozens of protesters were detained and the Investigative Committee said those in custody from the January 17 unrest will face criminal charges -- organizing and participating in mass disorder and using violence against law enforcement.

Separately on January 18, police detained two young men in Baimak on unspecified charges. Friends of the men said the detentions were most likely linked to the rallies to support Alsynov.

The head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, made his first statement on January 18 about the largest protest rally in Russia since Moscow launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, saying he "will not tolerate extremism and attempts to shake up the situation," and promising to find the "real organizers" of the rallies.

It was Khabirov who initiated the investigation of Alsynov, accusing him of inciting ethnic hatred as well as calling for anti-government rallies and extremist activities and discrediting Russia's armed forces.

In the end, Alsynov was charged only with inciting hatred, which stemmed from a speech he gave at a rally in late April 2023 in the village of Ishmurzino in which he criticized local government plans to start mining gold near the village, as it would bring in migrant laborers.

Investigators said Alsynov's speech "negatively assessed people in the Caucasus and Central Asia, humiliating their human dignity." Alsynov and his supporters have rejected the charge as politically motivated.

Bashkortostan's Supreme Court banned Alsynov's Bashqort group, which for years promoted Bashkir language, culture, and equal rights for ethnic Bashkirs, in May 2020, declaring it extremist.

Bashqort was banned after staging several rallies and other events challenging the policies of both local and federal authorities, including Moscow's move to abolish mandatory indigenous-language classes in the regions with large populations of indigenous ethnic groups.

With reporting by RusNews

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

U.S. and British forces have hit Iran-backed Huthi rebel military targets in Yemen -- -- an action immediately condemned by Tehran -- sparking fears around the world of a growing conflict in the Middle East as fighting rages in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the move was meant to show that the United States and its allies “will not tolerate” the Iran-backed rebel group’s increasing number of attacks in the Red Sea, which have threatened freedom of navigation and endangered U.S. personnel and civilian navigation.

The rebels said that the air strikes, which occurred in an area already shaken by Israel's war with Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, totaled 73 and killed at least five people.

"Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces -- together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands -- successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Huthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways," Biden said in a statement.

“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Huthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea -- including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said of the international mission that also involved Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden approved the strikes after a Huthi attack on January 9. U.S. and British naval forces repelled that attack, shooting down drones and missiles fired by the Huthis from Yemen toward the southern Red Sea.

Kirby said the United States does not want war with Yemen or a conflict of any kind but will not hesitate to take further action.

"Everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night," he said.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting for later on January 12 over the strikes. The session was requested by Russia and will take place after a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Huthi rebels have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since Israel launched its war on Hamas over the group's surprise cross-border attack on October 7 that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw dozens more taken hostage.

The Huthis have claimed their targeting of navigation in the Red Sea is meant to show the group's support for the Palestinians and Hamas.

Thousands of the rebels held protests in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where they chanted “We aren’t discouraged. Let it be a major world war!”

The White House said Huthi acts of piracy have affected more than 50 countries and forced more than 2,000 ships to make detours of thousands of kilometers to avoid the Red Sea. It said crews from more than 20 countries were either taken hostage or threatened by Huthi piracy.

Kirby said a "battle damage assessment" to determine how much the Huthi capabilities had been degraded was ongoing.

Britain said sites including airfields had been hit. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is still hospitalized following complications from prostate cancer surgery, said earlier the strikes were aimed at Huthi drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles, as well as coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the strikes were "necessary and proportionate."

"Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Huthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea," Sunak said in a statement.

Iran immediately condemned the attacks saying they would bring further turbulence to the Middle East.

"We strongly condemn the military attacks carried out this morning by the United States and the United Kingdom on several cities in Yemen," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kannani said in a post on Telegram.

"These arbitrary actions are a clear violation of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of international laws and regulations. These attacks will only contribute to insecurity and instability in the region," he added.

A Huthi spokesman said the attacks were unjustified and the rebels will keep targeting ships heading toward Israel.

The Huthis, whose slogan is "Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam," are part of what has been described as the Iran-backed axis of resistance that also includes anti-Israel and anti-Western militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Huthi rebels have fought Yemen's government for decades. In 2014, they took the capital, Sanaa.

While Iran has supplied them with weapons and aid, the Huthis say they are not Tehran's puppets and their main goal is to topple Yemen's "corrupt" leadership.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

U.S. and British forces have hit Iran-backed Huthi rebel military targets in Yemen -- -- an action immediately condemned by Tehran -- sparking fears around the world of a growing conflict in the Middle East as fighting rages in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the move was meant to show that the United States and its allies “will not tolerate” the Iran-backed rebel group’s increasing number of attacks in the Red Sea, which have threatened freedom of navigation and endangered U.S. personnel and civilian navigation.

The rebels said that the air strikes, which occurred in an area already shaken by Israel's war with Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, totaled 73 and killed at least five people.

"Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces -- together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands -- successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Huthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways," Biden said in a statement.

“These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Huthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea -- including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history,” Biden said of the international mission that also involved Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden approved the strikes after a Huthi attack on January 9. U.S. and British naval forces repelled that attack, shooting down drones and missiles fired by the Huthis from Yemen toward the southern Red Sea.

Kirby said the United States does not want war with Yemen or a conflict of any kind but will not hesitate to take further action.

"Everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night," he said.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting for later on January 12 over the strikes. The session was requested by Russia and will take place after a meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Huthi rebels have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since Israel launched its war on Hamas over the group's surprise cross-border attack on October 7 that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw dozens more taken hostage.

The Huthis have claimed their targeting of navigation in the Red Sea is meant to show the group's support for the Palestinians and Hamas.

Thousands of the rebels held protests in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where they chanted “We aren’t discouraged. Let it be a major world war!”

The White House said Huthi acts of piracy have affected more than 50 countries and forced more than 2,000 ships to make detours of thousands of kilometers to avoid the Red Sea. It said crews from more than 20 countries were either taken hostage or threatened by Huthi piracy.

Kirby said a "battle damage assessment" to determine how much the Huthi capabilities had been degraded was ongoing.

Britain said sites including airfields had been hit. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is still hospitalized following complications from prostate cancer surgery, said earlier the strikes were aimed at Huthi drones, ballistic, and cruise missiles, as well as coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the strikes were "necessary and proportionate."

"Despite the repeated warnings from the international community, the Huthis have continued to carry out attacks in the Red Sea," Sunak said in a statement.

Iran immediately condemned the attacks saying they would bring further turbulence to the Middle East.

"We strongly condemn the military attacks carried out this morning by the United States and the United Kingdom on several cities in Yemen," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kannani said in a post on Telegram.

"These arbitrary actions are a clear violation of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of international laws and regulations. These attacks will only contribute to insecurity and instability in the region," he added.

A Huthi spokesman said the attacks were unjustified and the rebels will keep targeting ships heading toward Israel.

The Huthis, whose slogan is "Death to America, Death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam," are part of what has been described as the Iran-backed axis of resistance that also includes anti-Israel and anti-Western militias such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Huthi rebels have fought Yemen's government for decades. In 2014, they took the capital, Sanaa.

While Iran has supplied them with weapons and aid, the Huthis say they are not Tehran's puppets and their main goal is to topple Yemen's "corrupt" leadership.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny says he was immediately placed in a punitive solitary confinement cell after finishing a quarantine term at the so-called Polar Wolf prison in Russia's Arctic region where he was transferred last month.

In a series of messages on X, formerly Twitter, Navalny said on January 9 a prison guard ruled that "convict Navalny refused to introduce himself according to format, did not respond to the educational work, and did not draw appropriate conclusions for himself" and therefore must spend seven days in solitary confinement.

Navalny added that unlike in a regular cell, where inmates are allowed to have a walk outside of the cell in the afternoon when it is a bit warmer outside, in the punitive cell, such walks are at 6:30 a.m. in a part of the world where temperatures can fall to minus 45 degrees Celsius or colder.

"I have already promised myself that I will try to go for a walk no matter what the weather is," Navalny said in an irony-laced series of eight posts, adding that the cell-like sites for walks are "11 steps from the wall and 3 steps to the wall" with an open sky covered with metal bars above.

"It's never been colder here than -32 degrees Celsius (-25 degrees Fahrenheit). Even at that temperature you can walk for more than half an hour, but only if you have time to grow a new nose, ears, and fingers," Navalny joked, comparing himself with the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Revenant film, who saved himself from freezing in the cold by crawling inside the carcass of a dead horse.

"Here you need an elephant. A hot or even roasted elephant. If you cut open the belly of a freshly roasted elephant and crawl inside, you can keep warm for a while. But where am I going to get a hot, roasted elephant [here], especially at 6:30 in the morning? So, I will continue to freeze," Navalny concludes in his sarcastic string of messages.

Navalny was transported in December to the notorious and remote prison, formally known as IK-3, but widely referred to as Polar Wolf.

Some 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow, the prison holds about 1,050 of Russia's most incorrigible prisoners.

Human rights activists say the prison holds serial killers, rapists, pedophiles, repeat offenders, and others convicted of the most serious crimes and serving sentences of 20 years or more.

In some cases, like Navalny's, the government sends convicts who are widely considered to be political prisoners there as well. Platon Lebedev, a former business partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky who was convicted of tax evasion and other charges during the dismantling of the Yukos oil giant, spent about two years at IK-3 in the mid-2000s.

The prison was founded in 1961 at a former camp of dictator Josef Stalin's Gulag network. The settlement of Kharp, with about 5,000 people, mostly provides housing and services for prison workers and administrators.

Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August 2023 on extremism charges, on top of previous sentences for fraud. He says the charges are politically motivated, and human rights organizations recognized him as a political prisoner.

He has posed one of the most-serious threats to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently announced he is running for reelection in March. Putin is expected to easily win the election amid the continued sidelining of opponents and a clampdown on opposition and civil society that intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Navalny survived a poisoning with Novichok-type nerve agent in 2020 that he says was ordered by Putin. The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny's poisoning.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

“The killings of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya must be independently investigated, and those behind their deaths must be held accountable. The continuous killings of journalists and their family members by Israeli army fire must end: journalists are civilians, not targets,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour.  

Wael Al Dahdouh has lost five family members in Israeli attacks. On October 25, an airstrike killed his wife, daughter, son and grandson when it hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a statement from Al-Jazeera and Politico. “The Al Dahdouh family and their journalist colleagues in Gaza are rewriting what it means to be a journalist today with immensely brave and never-seen-before sacrifices, said Mansour.” 

Hamza Al Dahdouh was a journalist and camera operator for Al-Jazeera. He was killed along with Thuraya, a freelance videographer who worked with AFP, according to multiple news reports. At least one other man was injured in the strike, which occurred outside of Khan Yunis, according to news reports. 

CPJ has repeatedly expressed concern at the apparent targeting of journalists reporting on the war.  Investigations  by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) into the October 13 strike in southern Lebanon that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists found that the attack was likely a deliberate assault by the Israel Defense Forces on civilians, which would constitute a war crime.

“Israel says it does not target journalists. It needs to explain whether it used one of its drones for a precision attack on these two journalists  and why it launched strikes on those like Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was clearly wearing press insignia and away from direct fighting,” said Mansour.

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the North America Desk of the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately receive a response.

The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on the media community. Dozens of journalists and their family members have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war since the start of fighting on October 7. More journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the conflict than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year, according to CPJ data.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said during a surprise visit to Kyiv, becoming the first official foreign visitor for 2024.

"I can feel how tense the situation in Ukraine is now," she told a news conference -- held in a shelter due to an air-raid alert in the capital at the time -- alongside her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

"I once again strongly condemn Russia's missile and drone attacks, particularly on New Year's Day," she added, while also saying Japan would provide an additional $37 million to a NATO trust fund to help purchase drone-detection systems.

The Japanese diplomat also visited Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian forces are blamed for a civilian massacre in 2022, stating she was "shocked" by what occurred there.

In a Telegram post, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked "Japan for its comprehensive support, as well as significant humanitarian and financial assistance."

In particular, he cited Tokyo's "decision to allocate $1 billion for humanitarian projects and reconstruction with its readiness to increase this amount to $4.5 billion through the mechanisms of international institutions."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told a Stockholm defense conference that the main goal of the country’s foreign policy efforts in the coming years will be to support Kyiv.

“Sweden’s military, political, and economic support for Ukraine remains the Swedish government’s main foreign policy task in the coming years,” he posted on social media during the event.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking via video link, told the conference that the battlefield in his country was currently stable but that he remained confident Russia could be defeated.

"Even Russia can be brought back within the framework of international law. Its aggression can be defeated," he said.

Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive last summer largely failed to shift the front line, giving confidence to the Kremlin’s forces, especially as further Western aid is in question.

Ukraine has pleaded with its Western allies to keep supplying it with air defense weapons, along with other weapons necessary to defeat the invasion that began in February 2022.

U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a national-security spending bill that includes $61 billion in aid for Ukraine, but it has been blocked by Republican lawmakers who insist Biden and his fellow Democrats in Congress address border security.

Zelenskiy also urged fellow European nations to join Ukraine in developing joint weapons-production capabilities so that the continent is able to "preserve itself" in the face of any future crises.

"Two years of this war have proven that Europe needs its own sufficient arsenal for the defense of freedom, its own capabilities to ensure defense," he said.

Overnight, Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 28 drones and three cruise missiles, and 12 people were wounded by a drone attack in the central city of Dnipro.

Though smaller in scale than other recent assaults, the January 7 aerial attack was the latest indication that Russia has no intention of stopping its targeting of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, often far from the front lines.

In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s air force claimed that air defenses destroyed 21 of the 28 drones, which mainly targeted locations in the south and east of Ukraine.

"The enemy is shifting the focus of attack to the frontline territories: the Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions were attacked by drones," air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV.

Russia made no immediate comment on the attack.

In the southern city of Kherson, meanwhile, Russian shelling from across the Dnieper River left at least two people dead, officials said.

In the past few months, Ukrainian forces have moved across the Dnieper, setting up a small bridgehead in villages on the river's eastern banks, upriver from Kherson. The effort to establish a larger foothold there, however, has faltered, with Russian troops pinning the Ukrainians down, and keeping them from moving heavier equipment over.

Over the past two weeks, Russia has fired nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones at targets in Ukraine, as part of an effort to terrorize the civilian population and undermine morale. On December 29, more than 120 Russian missiles were launched at cities across Ukraine, killing at least 44 people, including 30 in Kyiv alone.

Ukraine’s air defenses have improved markedly since the months following Russia’s mass invasion in February 2022. At least five Western-supplied Patriot missile batteries, along with smaller systems like German-made Gepard and the French-manufactured SAMP/T, have also improved Ukraine’s ability to repel Russian drones and missiles.

Last week, U.S. officials said that Russia had begun using North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles as part of its aerial attacks on Ukrainian sites.

Inside Russia, authorities in Belgorod said dozens of residents have been evacuated to areas farther from the Ukrainian border.

“On behalf of regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, we met the first Belgorod residents who decided to move to a safer place. More than 100 people were placed in our temporary accommodation centers,” Andrei Chesnokov, head of the Stary Oskol district, about 115 kilometers from Belgorod, wrote in Telegram post.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

On December 15, Al Dahdouh and Abu Daqqa were covering the aftermath of the nightly Israeli strikes on a UN school sheltering displaced people in the center of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, when they were wounded as a result of a missile launched from what is believed to be an Israeli drone, according to reports by their outlet and the Middle East Eye. Al-Jazeera urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate Abu Daqqa from the school to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. 

Al-Jazeera later announced that Abu Daqqa died, which was also reported by the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes.

In live coverage before his death, Al-Jazeera said Abu Daqqa wasn’t immediately evacuated from the school because he was trapped with other injured civilians. Al-Jazeera reporter Hisham Zaqqout said that Israeli forces were surrounding the school, and medics were unable to reach the hospital to evacuate wounded civilians, including Abu Daqqa.

“CPJ is deeply saddened and alarmed by a drone attack that injured Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh and killed Samer Abu Daqqa in Khan Yunis, Gaza, and the pattern of attacks on Al-Jazeera journalists and their families,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna, from New York. “CPJ calls on international authorities to independently investigate the attack and hold those responsible to account.”

Many Gazans were taking refuge in the UNRWA-Khan Yunis school for girls, according to Al-Jazeera, which said the school was also hit by bombardment from Israeli tanks. Al-Jazeera aired footage of Al Dahdouh wearing his press vest and assured in its reporting that he was taking precautions and was identifiable as a member of the press.

Al Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel in his right hand and waist and transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis for treatment, videos shared by his outlet show. In videos at the hospital, Al Dahdouh continuously urged the evacuation of his colleague Abu Daqqa.

Israeli artillery is targeting the center of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians displaced from the central and northern parts of Gaza are sheltering, Al-Jazeera correspondents say. Clashes with Palestinian fighters are also ongoing as the Israeli military tries to enter the city, according to Al-Jazeera.

On October 25, Wael Al Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief for Gaza, lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson when an Israeli airstrike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to a statement from Al-Jazeera and Politico. Other Al-Jazeera journalists have been injured or lost family members during the war, CPJ previously documented.

CPJ’s email to the North America Desk of the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately receive a response.

Since October 7, CPJ has documented dozens of journalists and media workers killed while covering the war.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Mogadishu, SOMALIA — Mariam Shilow Muse was born in the springtime. When relatives dropped by, the bright-eyed 4-year-old bolted through the yard and beyond the fence to greet them. When her father came home, she smothered him with hugs.

In late March 2018, Mariam’s mother, 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed, planned to visit her brother to see his children for the first time, and Mariam insisted on coming along to meet her young cousins. Luul’s brother had planned to pick them up, but Luul couldn’t reach him by phone, so on the morning of April 1, she and Mariam caught a ride with some men in a maroon Toyota Hilux pickup.

That same afternoon, as Luul’s brother Qasim Dahir Mohamed was on his way to pick up his sister and niece, he passed the maroon Toyota pickup. He noticed mattresses and pillows in the bed and, at the last second, caught sight of Luul, with Mariam on her lap, in the passenger seat. He waved and honked, but the truck kept going. 

Qasim’s phone wasn’t working, so he decided to drive on to El Buur, where Luul and Mariam had just spent the night, to see other relatives before returning home to welcome his sister and niece. Seconds after he reached the house, Qasim heard the first explosion, followed by another and, after a pause, one more blast.

This is a story about missed connections, flawed intelligence, and fatal blindness, about Americans misreading what they saw and obliterating civilians they didn’t intend to kill but didn’t care enough to save. In rural Somalia, cellphones often fail because the militant group al-Shabab forces the local carrier to suspend service to thwart informants and government eavesdropping. But after the explosions, the telecom immediately restored service. Qasim began calling Luul, but her phone rang endlessly.

The news spread fast: A drone strike had hit a pickup carrying mattresses. Qasim and one of his brothers started driving toward the site of the attack. They were the only ones on the road and his brother demanded they stop, Qasim told me when we met recently in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. It was too dangerous, the brother said. What if they were targeted by another strike? “I told him that I didn’t care,” Qasim recalled.

Qasim wasn’t the only person to spot the Toyota pickup that day. In a military joint operations center that the U.S. government refuses to identify, members of a Special Operations task force that officials won’t name watched live footage that they declined to release of everyone who entered the Hilux. They recorded and scrutinized it, chronicling when each “ADM” — or adult male — got in or out, where they walked and what they did. The Americans logged these minute details with a pretense of precision, but they never understood what they were seeing.

For all their technology and supposed expertise, the Americans were confused, and some were inexperienced, according to a Pentagon investigation obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act. The inquiry is the first such document to be made public about a U.S. drone strike in Africa. It reveals that after months of “target development,” the Americans suddenly found themselves in a mad rush to kill people who posed no threat to the United States in a war that Congress never declared. They argued among themselves about even the most basic details, like how many passengers were in the vehicle. And in the end, they got it wrong. The Americans couldn’t tell a man from a woman, which might have affected their decision to conduct the strike. They also missed the 4-year-old child whose presence should have caused them to stand down.

In the joint operations center, the Americans quickly realized their initial strike had failed to kill all the passengers and decided to eliminate what the investigation file refers to as a sole “survivor running away from vehicle post the first engagement.” But the “survivor” was actually two people: Luul and Mariam. Seconds later, another missile screamed down from the sky.

“It seemed like they did everything wrong,” said an American drone pilot who worked in Somalia and examined the investigation file at The Intercept’s request.

When Qasim found the Toyota, the roof was torn open, the bed was smashed, and the mattresses and pillows were aflame. Four men were dead inside and another young man lay lifeless in the dirt nearby. There was no sign of Luul or Mariam.

About 200 feet away, Qasim found what remained of Luul. Her left leg was mangled, and the top of her head was missing. She died clutching Mariam, whose body was peppered with tiny shards of shrapnel.

Qasim tore off a swath of his sarong and began gathering up small pieces of his sister. Stunned and grieving, he spent hours searching for fragments of her body along the dirt road, working by the glare of his car’s headlights as the sky darkened. Finally, he bundled Luul’s and Mariam’s remains and brought them home. Luul’s body was so mutilated that it was impossible to properly wash, as is required in Islam. Instead, he wrapped her with care in a shroud and buried Luul and Mariam together in a village cemetery. The next day, locals living near the strike site called Qasim. They had found the top of Luul’s skull, complete with hair and a delicate gold teardrop dangling from one ear.

That same day — April 2 — U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, announced it had killed “five terrorists” and destroyed one vehicle and that “no civilians were killed in this airstrike.” The Somali press immediately said otherwise. By the following month, the task force had appointed an investigating officer to sort it all out. He quickly determined that his unit had killed an “adult female and child” but expressed doubt that their identities would ever be known. 

From left to right: Shilow Muse Ali, the father of 4-year-old Mariam Shilow Muse and husband of 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed, both of whom were killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2018; Luul’s father and Mariam’s grandfather, Dahir Mohamed Abdi; and Luul’s brothers and Mariam’s uncles Qasim Dahir Mohamed, Ahmed Dahir Mohamed, Hussein Dahir Mohamed, and Abdi Dahir Mohamed, in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May 10, 2023.

“We Can Do Whatever We Want”

The exclusive documents and interviews with more than 45 current and former U.S. and Somali military personnel and government officials, victims’ relatives, and experts offer an unprecedented window into the U.S. drone war in Somalia, an investigator’s efforts to excuse the killing of a woman and child, and a “reporting error” that kept those deaths secret for more than a year from Congress, the press, and the American people. The Intercept’s investigation reveals that the strike was conducted under loosened rules of engagement sought by the Pentagon and approved by the Trump White House, and that no one was ever held accountable for the civilian deaths.

“Ultimately, this is just one of many tragedies caused by the U.S. military’s systemic failure to adequately distinguish civilians from combatants, to own up to its deadly mistakes, to learn from them, and to provide assistance to survivors,” Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, told The Intercept. “The failure to adequately distinguish civilians from combatants isn’t just tragic. It’s also a violation of international law and completely undermines U.S. counterterrorism strategy.” 

More than five years after the strike, Mariam and Luul’s family has not been contacted by any U.S. official or received a condolence payment. Over two days this spring, I met with eight of their relatives in Mogadishu. They spoke about Mariam’s wide smile, Luul’s nurturing role as a sister and mother of two, and the terror that haunts Luul’s surviving son. Their anguish and outrage were palpable, particularly when I showed them the findings of the formerly secret U.S. investigation.

If the Somali military had killed Americans in similar circumstances, Abdi Dahir Mohammed, another of Luul’s brothers, told The Intercept, “the United States would have reacted and the Somali government would have reacted. The pain that Americans would feel is the pain that we feel. They know innocent people were killed, but they’ve never told us a reason or apologized. No one has been held accountable. We’ve been hurt — and humiliated.”

The attack was the product of faulty intelligence as well as rushed and imprecise targeting carried out by a Special Operations strike cell whose members considered themselves inexperienced, according to the documents. The secret investigation led to an admission that civilians were killed and a strong suggestion of confirmation bias: a psychological phenomenon that leads people to cherry-pick information that confirms their preexisting beliefs. Despite this, the investigation exonerated the team involved.

“The strike complied with the applicable rules of engagement,” wrote the investigator. “[N]othing in the strike procedures caused this inaccurate [redacted] call.” Luul’s husband and Mariam’s father, Shilow Muse Ali, seemed staggered as he tried to process those words. “The attack was horrible and their response was horrible. I lost a wife and a child,” he told The Intercept. “But I cannot understand the explanation in the investigation. How can you admit that you killed two civilians and also say the rules were followed?”

“How can you admit that you killed two civilians and also say the rules were followed?”

AFRICOM declined to answer The Intercept’s questions about the attack or civilian casualties in general. When the command finally admitted the killings in 2019, AFRICOM’s then-commander, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, said it was “critically important that people understand we adhere to exacting standards and when we fall short, we acknowledge shortcomings and take appropriate action.”

Some who took part in America’s drone war in Somalia dispute that. “When I went to Africa, it seemed like no one was paying attention,” the drone pilot and strike cell analyst, who served in Somalia the year Luul and Mariam were killed, told The Intercept. He spoke on the condition of anonymity due to government secrecy surrounding U.S. drone operations. “It was like ‘We can do whatever we want.’ It was a different mindset from the Special Forces I worked with in Afghanistan. There was almost no quality control on the vetting of the strikes. A lot of safeguards got left out.”

Those safeguards began to evaporate once Donald Trump took office in 2017, and their absence was soon felt across Africa and the Middle East. Under international law, governments cannot kill people they deem to be enemies outside of recognized battlefields if they do not pose an imminent danger or can be stopped another way. But just days after Trump entered the White House, the Pentagon reportedly asked for parts of Somalia to be declared an “area of active hostilities,” allowing the military to employ looser, war-zone targeting despite the lack of a congressional declaration of war. “It allows us to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion,” Waldhauser said that March, emphasizing the need for a “little more flexibility, a little bit more timeliness in terms of [the] decision-making process.”

In response, Trump, now the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, secretly issued rules for counterterrorism “direct action” operations, including drone strikes in places like Somalia, according to a redacted copy of the document. By the end of March 2017, the number of U.S. airstrikes in Somalia skyrocketed.

“The burden of proof as to who could be targeted and for what reason changed dramatically,” Donald Bolduc, who led Special Operations Command Africa at the time, told The Intercept. During the Obama administration, strikes required high-level approval, the strike cell analyst said. “Giving strike authority down to a ground commander was a massive difference,” he explained. “It had a big effect.”

Attacks in Somalia tripled after Trump relaxed targeting principles, while U.S. military and independent estimates of civilian casualties across U.S. war zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, spiked. The U.S. conducted 208 declared attacks in Somalia during Trump’s single term in the White House, a 460 percent increase over the eight years of the Obama presidency. (The Biden administration has conducted 31 declared strikes there, including 13 so far in 2023.)

A review of Trump-era rules by the Biden administration found that, in some countries, “operating principles,” including a “near certainty” that civilians would “not be injured or killed in the course of operations,” were reportedly enforced only for women and children, while a lower standard applied to civilian adult men. All military-age males were considered legitimate targets if they were observed with suspected al-Shabab members in the group’s territory, Bolduc said.

There was another possible contributing factor to civilian casualties. During 2017 and 2018, commanders within Task Force 111, the Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC-led unit responsible for drone attacks in Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, competed to produce high body counts, raising red flags in the intelligence community, according to a U.S. intelligence source who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic.

Further down the chain of command, new awards — special “remote” devices on medals to recognize the work of drone operators in combat zones — encouraged attacks, according to the strike cell analyst. “That made some people want to do more strikes,” the analyst said. “They want to brag about being in combat.”

Left/Top: People stand next to destroyed walls at the scene of an al-Shabab car bombing attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Dec. 22, 2018. Right/Bottom: Somali soldiers at Sanguuni military base, where an American special operations soldier was killed by a mortar attack on June 13, 2018. Photos: AFP via Getty Images

“The United States Failed Us”

Less than a month before Luul and Mariam were killed, Waldhauser praised AFRICOM’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties before the House Armed Services Committee. He specifically referenced procedures meant to ensure “levels of certainty” to prevent harm to noncombatants. Days later, he emphasized that it was “very important … that we know exactly who we are attacking on the ground.”

Yet the Pentagon investigation found that the Americans had no idea who they were targeting. “During the post-strike review,” according to the investigator, “it was assessed that one of the ADM that loaded into the vehicle … was an Adult Female and child.”

Three Somali government sources — including Nur Gutale, a Somali official on the front lines of the conflict against al-Shabab in El Buur, where the drone strike took place — said there were seven people in the pickup truck that day, not the four or five the Americans argued about before the strike or the six their most seasoned analyst counted after numerous post-strike reviews of drone footage.

The men in the truck included members of al-Shabab: Alas Jango’an, the driver and the local head of Jaysh Al-Hisbah, al-Shabab’s police force; a tax collector with the militant group; and a poet associated with the group, who was identified in local press reports as Yusuf Dhegay. Others said a community elder in the car, identified as Ali Hared, also had relations with the militants, but they were unsure if he and the poet were “real” members or simply — like most civilians living in Shabab-controlled areas — compelled to deal with an armed group that functioned as the local government.

But the young man whose body Qasim found sprawled beside the pickup after the strike, 20-year-old Yusuf Dahir Ali, was a civilian, Gutale and others said. “He was a student in Mogadishu. It was school break, and he was just traveling home,” Gutale told The Intercept. “He was innocent.”

The Pentagon redacted all images of Luul and Mariam in the documents they released. The former U.S. strike cell analyst said those still frames from the drone footage — known as “snaps” — “would seal the deal on how blatantly obvious it was. If you got a snap of the woman and child running from the vehicle, you would be able to go: ‘How don’t you see that as a female and child?’” the analyst told The Intercept. “Typically, males in Somalia wear a dress-type thing. But women still look very different. If it’s during the day, you can tell.”

Nur Gutale agreed, insisting that even if the Americans confused a woman for a man when she entered the vehicle, there was no way to mistake her as she ran down the road with her child. Qasim noted that Luul was wearing a flowing green jilbab: a garment more voluminous than a hijab, covering the entire body and leaving only the face, hands, and feet exposed. “Because al-Shabab is there in the area, she had to wear it,” Luul’s brother Mohamed Dahir Mohamed explained of the terror group’s strict dress code. He likened Luul’s garb to a huge umbrella.

“Her death isn’t only what makes me angry. It’s that they say that they mistakenly killed her. That hurts me deeply. It was no mistake,” said Qasim, a formidable man with a hard stare, close-cropped hair, and a bright orange, henna-dyed goatee. “She wasn’t killed in the car where they couldn’t see her. She was hit out in the open. There is no way they could mistake her for a man. It’s a lie and it makes me sick.”

“This wasn’t top leadership. These were low-ranking guys. I don’t understand their priorities.”

Gutale said he “had a good relationship with AFRICOM” and provided intelligence on high-ranking Shabab officials, but he found American targeting choices puzzling — especially the strike that killed Luul and Mariam.

“This wasn’t top leadership. These were low-ranking guys. I don’t understand their priorities,” he told The Intercept. “There was no reason to kill a woman and child in a big strike. They know that they did this. The U.S. is at fault.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” he added in exasperation. “The United States failed us.”

Qasim Dahir Mohamed, who found his sister Luul’s body after the U.S. drone strike, poses for a photo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023.

Even under the Trump administration’s loosened rules of engagement, Sarah Harrison, who worked as a lawyer in the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel at the time of the attack, questioned the follow-up strike that killed Luul and Mariam. “U.S. forces were required by policy to take ‘extraordinary measures to ensure with near certainty’ that there would be no civilians injured or killed,” Harrison told The Intercept. She wondered why the U.S. hadn’t made another “near certainty assessment” before the second strike was carried out.

The investigator found that “some members did not have any FMV experience.”

The Pentagon investigator concluded that “time was the biggest factor” in misidentifying Luul. For reasons that are explained nowhere in the unredacted portion of the documents, the strike cell found itself “under perceived pressure” to launch the attack “as quickly as possible.” Experience levels also loom large in the investigation file. The most senior team member on duty had eight years of experience analyzing full motion video, or FMV, as live feeds from drones are known — a significant track record, according to experts. But the youngest member had spent just six months with the task force and the same amount of time analyzing such feeds. Elsewhere, the investigator asserts that “some members did not have any FMV experience.” One team member noted that “due to a contracting issue, they have lost a lot of experienced personnel.”

“For those without much experience as well as contractors working with a task force, the pressure to say ‘yes’ to get to the commander’s perceived desired outcome is pretty great,” said Todd Huntley, a former Staff Judge Advocate who served as a legal adviser on Joint Special Operations task forces conducting drone strikes in Afghanistan and elsewhere and now directs the national security law program at Georgetown University Law Center. “The combination of confirmation bias and the pressure to move quickly and achieve results is already tough to overcome. When you have less experienced people, that pressure is even greater.”

The investigator determined that no one tracked how much time strike cell members spent in a particular geographic area of responsibility, known in military jargon as an AOR. “This could lead to a very inexperienced crew working in an AOR due to a lack of a Checks and Balance system,” he wrote.

Another of Luul’s brothers, 38-year-old Abubakar Dahir Mohamed, had a succinct response: “If you admit that you assign someone with no experience then you have to take responsibility for what they do.”

The Pentagon investigator urged procedural changes that would affect every subsequent mission: “I recommend that each senior analyst has a brief with their team prior to going on shift to ensure the entire team has the correct mindset and highlights that accuracy is more important than speed.” There is no indication that that recommendation or any others were implemented. 

Qaali Dahir Mohamed shows a picture of her nephew Mohamed Shilow Muse, far right, on her cellphone in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023.

Erased From Existence

Living in al-Shabab territory in the 2010s, Luul inhabited a world almost devoid of smartphones and social media. Her family has no photographs to remember her by.

The U.S. government, meanwhile, has countless images of Luul. Its cameras captured video of her and Mariam entering the pickup truck, and analysts had eyes on her through her last moments. Luul’s visage now exists only in classified files and in the memories of those who knew her — and in the face of her younger sister, to whom she bore an uncanny, almost identical, resemblance.

“If you want to see Luul, it’s me,” Qaali Dahir Mohamed, Luul’s sad-eyed, soft-spoken, 18-year-old sister, told me when we spoke in a deserted rooftop lounge in Mogadishu. As the only two girls in their household, they shared a tight bond that extended past childhood when, in keeping with local custom, Qaali moved into Luul and Shilow’s home after they married. “When I was young, she used to carry me, protect me, tell me traditional stories to prepare me for life,” said Qaali, who hunched her tall, lithe form as she talked about her sister. “After she had her children, she had me look after them and continued to teach me about how to be responsible, how to be a good mother.” Qaali spoke with her hands, her fingers slowly twisting in the air as she talked about Luul. “She loved her children so much. She couldn’t bear to see them cry,” Qaali said before she sank down in her chair and started wiping away tears.

The entire family has been traumatized by the airstrike. Luul’s brothers say their elderly father never recovered from his daughter’s traumatic death and has been in failing health ever since. When Qasim’s son saw a “normal airplane” flying over their farm, he began running around, trying to hide, convinced it might kill him. The family told Luul’s son, Mohamed Shilow Muse, the truth about his mother’s death: “The Americans killed her with their airplane.” When he sees or hears a drone, they said, “he rushes under a tree to hide.” 

A 2012 study of civilians in Pakistan found that the constant presence of drones, the fear that a strike might occur at any time, and people’s inability to protect themselves “terrorize[d] men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities.”   

Mohamed, now 6 years old and living with his grandmother, constantly asks why Luul left him. He’s terrified of being alone. “If I or my mother leave him,” said Qaali, “he cries all day. He won’t stop. He feels abandoned.” Unable to continue, Qaali grasped her blue-veiled head with both hands, laid it on the glass table, and sobbed.

A June 12, 2018 email from a member of the Joint Task Force that conducted a drone strike that killed 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter Mariam Shilow Muse to the investigator who found that the rules of engagement and standard operating procedures were followed. 

“The Height of Disrespect”

On April 5, 2019, Qasim was listening to the radio at a tea shop when he heard a BBC news report about the U.S. military acknowledging that it had killed a woman and child in a drone strike the previous April, the first admission of a civilian casualty by AFRICOM.

The announcement came more than a year after the attack, a delay AFRICOM blamed on a “reporting error,” claiming that its headquarters was only notified of the investigation months after it concluded. Four days later, in response to questions about compensating the family, then-spokesperson John Manley told The Intercept that AFRICOM was “working with our embassy in Somalia on a way forward.” 

On April 12, 2019, Luul’s brother Abubakar wrote a letter to the Somali Ministry of Justice asking for help in obtaining compensation from the United States. Four days later, he wrote to AFRICOM via the “Contact Us” function on the command’s website, noting the family’s appreciation for acknowledging the deaths and asking the military to “take appropriate action toward the case as restitution for the lost lives.” After AFRICOM added a new online portal to file civilian casualty claims, Abubakar did so using this method as well. Abubakar, who lives part-time in Mogadishu and speaks and writes English, shared copies of his letters and screenshots of his submissions with The Intercept. Five years after the strike, the family has yet to be contacted, much less compensated, by AFRICOM.

“It is unacceptable that AFRICOM would resign itself to such total ignorance,” Amnesty’s Eviatar told The Intercept, noting the Pentagon’s repeated failures to contact survivors or offer condolence payments. “It is the height of disrespect for the local populations where the U.S. operates for the military to completely ignore the direct victims of lethal strikes, even when the U.S. knows they were civilians and the strikes were in error.”

After almost 17 years of drone strikes and commando raids in Somalia, the U.S. has carried out 282 declared attacks as well as an undisclosed number of CIA strikes. AFRICOM claims to have killed just five civilians in that period, including Luul and Mariam — although the command has never referred to them by name. But since nothing about the April 2018 attack was out of the ordinary, according to members of the task force, there is good reason to believe that the real number is far higher. Airwars, the U.K.-based airstrike monitoring organization, says the actual count of civilians killed by U.S. strikes in Somalia may be more than 3,000 percent higher than the official tally. 

Over the last two decades, investigative reporters and human rights groups have increasingly documented America’s killing of civilians, underreporting of noncombatant casualties, failures of accountability, and outright impunity in Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. A 2021 investigation by New York Times reporter Azmat Khan revealed that the U.S. air war in Iraq and Syria was marked by flawed intelligence and inaccurate targeting, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Out of 1,311 military reports analyzed by Khan, only one cited a “possible violation” of the rules of engagement; none included a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action; and fewer than a dozen condolence payments were made. 

Last year, in the wake of these damning findings, the Pentagon pledged reforms. The 36-page Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan provides a blueprint for improving how the Pentagon addresses noncombatant deaths but lacks mechanisms for addressing past civilian harm. 

The Defense Department has publicly confirmed five civilian harm incidents in Somalia and maintains a $3 million annual budget to compensate survivors, but there is no evidence that any Somali victims or their families have ever received amends. The Pentagon has also been clear that it isn’t interested in looking back. “At this point we don’t have an intent to re-litigate cases,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., when she asked last year whether the Pentagon was planning to revisit past civilian harm allegations. 

There’s no re-litigation necessary, however, in the case of Luul Dahir Mohamed and Mariam Shilow Muse. More than four years ago, AFRICOM admitted killing them. “Credibility, transparency, and accountability are fundamental to military operations,” Waldhauser said in a press release taking responsibility for the strike. To date, however, AFRICOM won’t even discuss reparations with a journalist, much less provide compensation to relatives of the dead.

Experts say that the deaths of Luul and Mariam offer AFRICOM the chance to finally live up to Waldhauser’s rhetoric. “This case is a real opportunity for AFRICOM, since they’ve acknowledged that this is a credible report of civilian harm,” said Joanna Naples-Mitchell, a human rights attorney and director of the nonprofit Zomia Center’s Redress Program, which helps survivors of U.S. airstrikes submit requests for compensation. “Given that there’s an English-speaking member of the family in Mogadishu, it would not be hard for the Pentagon to offer amends.”

Shilow Muse Ali, Luul’s husband, poses for a photo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023.

“They Don’t Know Who They Killed”

For most of the day I spent with Shilow Muse Ali in an outdoor restaurant in Mogadishu, he sat slack-jawed and blank-eyed, with a dazed look on his face. Sometimes he seemed confused, sometimes confounded. He answered my questions, but it was difficult to elicit much detail about the wife and child he’d lost. When I decided to end the interview and asked if there was anything else he wanted to say, his eyes narrowed and his demeanor changed.

“I was bewildered at the beginning when my daughter and wife were killed. I expected an apology and compensation considering the Americans’ mistake. But we received nothing,” he said in a voice with an increasingly hard edge. “They admitted there were civilian casualties, but this investigation shows that they don’t even know who they killed.”

For the first time all afternoon, Shilow looked me square in the eye and fury seemed to surge through him. “We aren’t the people they are targeting. We are not supposed to be treated like we’re enemies. Does the U.S. military even see a difference between enemies and civilians?” he asked, his voice rising and his hands slicing through the air. “They said they were following the car from the beginning. How could someone following the car, watching everything, not see a woman with a child?”

I had no answer.

“We want the truth from the American government. But we already know it,” he told me. “This attack shows that there’s no distinction, none at all. The Americans see enemies and civilians as the same.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

On Tuesday, September 19, Oleksandr Pavlov, a Ukrainian producer with the privately owned Swedish TV channel TV4, was wounded when a drone struck his team’s car in Stepnohirsk, near the frontline in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, according to Pavlov, who spoke to CPJ, TV4, and media reports.

The two other members of the crew, reporter Johan Fredriksson and photojournalist Daniel Zdolsek, were not harmed but a Ukrainian police officer escorting them was injured and all their filming equipment in the vehicle was destroyed, according to those sources.

All three journalists had followed security procedures as directed by the police and their media outlet and were wearing bulletproof vests and helmets marked “Press,” according to Pavlov and those reports.

“Journalists reporting in Ukraine should be able to do their job without fear of being targeted,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian and Ukrainian authorities should investigate the drone attack that injured Oleksandr Pavlov and ensure that members of the press covering the war are protected under international humanitarian law.”

The journalists said they were deliberately targeted after stepping out of their vehicle to talk to local people.

“It was a direct drone attack on us,” Fredriksson told privately owned Ukrainian broadcaster Channel 24.

“There was a camera on a tripod. There was no way the cameraman of that vile drone couldn’t have realized it was a camera crew,” Pavlov told the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) in an interview. “The drone operator apparently saw that we ran away and redirected the drone to the car.”

Pavlov told NUJU that a policeman warned them about the incoming drone but the producer fell while running away and received treatment for the resulting injury to his left arm at a police station.  

The head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council Olena Zhuk described the incident as “a blatant attack on the press” in an interview with TV4 Nyheterna, the channel’s news programme.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also told TV4 that Russia could be trying to prevent media coverage of the war.

“It cannot be ruled out that it is also a consequence that Russia wants to see. That journalists should not dare to be there, that they should get as little coverage as possible from this war,” he said.

Ukraine’s foreign affairs spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko condemned the attack on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling it “yet another” Russian war crime against journalists.

CPJ could not independently confirm the origin of the attack.

Fredriksson, an experienced war reporter who has made regular trips to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, told Channel 24 that the crew would stay in Ukraine and continue to cover the war.

CPJ’s emails to Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office did not receive any replies.

At least 15 journalists have been killed while working in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, while many others have been injured, detained, or threatened.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday, September 19, Oleksandr Pavlov, a Ukrainian producer with the privately owned Swedish TV channel TV4, was wounded when a drone struck his team’s car in Stepnohirsk, near the frontline in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, according to Pavlov, who spoke to CPJ, TV4, and media reports.

The two other members of the crew, reporter Johan Fredriksson and photojournalist Daniel Zdolsek, were not harmed but a Ukrainian police officer escorting them was injured and all their filming equipment in the vehicle was destroyed, according to those sources.

All three journalists had followed security procedures as directed by the police and their media outlet and were wearing bulletproof vests and helmets marked “Press”, according to Pavlov and those reports.

“Journalists reporting in Ukraine should be able to do their job without fear of being targeted,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian and Ukrainian authorities should investigate the drone attack that injured Oleksandr Pavlov and ensure that members of the press covering the war are protected under international humanitarian law.”

The journalists said they were deliberately targeted after stepping out of their vehicle to talk to local people.

“It was a direct drone attack on us,” Fredriksson told Ukrainian broadcaster Channel 24.

“There was a camera on a tripod. There was no way the cameraman of that vile drone couldn’t have realized it was a camera crew,” Pavlov told the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) in an interview. “The drone operator apparently saw that we ran away and redirected the drone to the car.”

Pavlov told NUJU that a policeman warned them about the incoming drone but the producer fell while running away and received treatment for the resulting injury to his left arm at a police station.  

The head of the Zaporizhizhia Regional Council Olena Zhuk described the incident as “a blatant attack on the press” in an interview with TV4 Nyheterna, the channel’s news programme.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also told TV4 that Russia could be trying to prevent media coverage of the war.

“It cannot be ruled out that it is also a consequence that Russia wants to see. That journalists should not dare to be there, that they should get as little coverage as possible from this war,” he said.

Ukraine’s foreign affairs spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko condemned the attack on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling it “yet another” Russian war crime against journalists.”

CPJ could not independently confirm the origin of the attack.

Fredriksson, an experienced war reporter who has made regular trips to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, told Channel 24 that the crew would stay in Ukraine and continue to cover the war.

CPJ’s emails to Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office, did not receive any replies.

At least 15 journalists have been killed while working in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, while many others have been injured, detained, or threatened.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The post 22 Years of Drone Warfare and No End in Sight appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Maha Hilal.

On Wednesday, August 23, a suspected Turkish drone strike in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast hit a car belonging to the all-female broadcaster JIN TV, killing driver Najm el-Din Faisal Haj Sinan and wounding journalist Dalila Agid, according to news reports and Dijla Eito, a member of JIN TV’s board, who spoke to CPJ.

Eito said Agid had undergone surgery and was in an intensive care unit as of Friday.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic drone attack that killed driver Najm el-Din Faisal and injured journalist Dalila Agid while they were working in northeastern Syria,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly launch an investigation into this attack, determine who was responsible and if the reporting team was targeted, and hold the perpetrators to account.”

Eito told CPJ that the JIN TV team was driving near the Turkish border, between the Syrian cities of Amuda, where the broadcaster has a studio, and Qamishli, when they were attacked. Eito said Agid had been covering an event to commemorate the death of two Kurdish officials in another drone attack in June.

“She regained consciousness temporarily after suffering a severe injury to her neck and losing her left arm. However, she soon slipped back into an unconscious state. Numerous explosive fragments remained within her body,” Eito told CPJ.

In a statement, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeastern Syria condemned the attack and called on the international community to intervene and ensure accountability.

CPJ emailed the Turkish president’s office for comment but did not receive a reply. CPJ was unable to find any contact information for the Turkish Defense Ministry or any comments it had issued about the attack.

Turkey has previously said that its strikes in northern Syria target Kurdish fighters that it considers terrorists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.