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Tag: Military and defense

  • Russia downs over 100 Ukrainian drones in one of the largest barrages of the war

    Russia downs over 100 Ukrainian drones in one of the largest barrages of the war

    KYIV, Ukraine — More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

    Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses.

    Seventeen drones were also seen over Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment block and a private home, said Gov. Aleksandr Gusev. Images on social media showed flames rising from the windows of the top floor of a high-rise building. No casualties were reported.

    A further 18 drones were reported over Russia’s Rostov region, where falling debris sparked a wildfire, said Gov. Vasily Golubev.

    He said that the fire did not pose a threat to populated areas, but that emergency services were fighting to extinguish the blaze, which had engulfed 20 hectares (49.4 acres) of forest.

    Elsewhere, 16 civilians were injured in an overnight barrage on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia after Ukrainian military leaders warned that Moscow could be preparing for a new military offensive in the country’s south.

    The city was targeted by Russian guide bombs in 10 separate attacks that damaged a high-rise building and several residential homes, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov wrote on his official Telegram channel. More people could still be trapped beneath the rubble, he said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that the Zaporizhzhia attack had damaged the city’s transport links. “Today, Russia struck Zaporizhzhia with aerial bombs. Ordinary residential buildings were damaged and the entrance of one building was destroyed. The city’s infrastructure and railway were also damaged,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

    The Ukrainian leader appeared Sunday at a memorial service to make the 83rd anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass slaughters of World War II.

    Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation.

    “Babyn Yar is vivid proof of the atrocities that regimes are capable of when led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence. At any time, they are no different,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “But the world’s response should be different. This is the lesson the world should have learned. We must guard humanity, life, and justice.”

    The Ukrainian military warned Saturday that Russian forces may be preparing for offensive operations in the wider Zaporizhzhia region. Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said that Russia was amassing personnel in this direction.

    Ukraine’s air force also reported that 22 Russian drones were launched over the country overnight. It said that 15 were shot down in Ukraine’s Sumy, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions, and that five more were destroyed using electronic defenses. The fate of the remaining two drones was not specified. ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visits Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers

    Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visits Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers

    SCRANTON, Pa. — Under extraordinarily tight security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday visited the Pennsylvania ammunition factory that is producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.

    Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat who was among those who met with Zelenskyy at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, said the president had a simple message: “Thank you. And we need more.”

    The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells and has increased production over the past year. Ukraine has already received more than 3 million of them from the U.S.

    Zelenskyy’s visit kicked off a busy week in the United States as he works tirelessly to shore up support for Ukraine in the war. He will speak at the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday and then travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

    The area around the ammunition plant had been sealed off since Sunday morning, with municipal garbage trucks positioned across several roadblocks and a very heavy presence of city, regional and state police, including troopers on horseback.

    As Zelenskyy’s large motorcade made its way to the ammunition plant in the afternoon, a small contingent of supporters waving Ukrainian flags assembled nearby to show their appreciation for his visit.

    “It’s unfortunate that we need a plant like this, but it’s here, and it’s here to protect the world,” said Vera Kowal Krewson, a first-generation Ukrainian American who was among those who greeted Zelenskyy’s motorcade. “And I strongly feel that way.”

    She said many of her friends’ parents have worked in the ammunition plant, and she called Zelenskyy’s visit “a wonderful thing.”

    Laryssa Salak, 60, whose parents also immigrated from Ukraine, also said she was pleased Zelenskyy came to thank the workers. She said it upsets her that funding for Ukraine’s defense has divided Americans and that even some of her friends oppose the support, saying the money should go to help Americans instead.

    “But they don’t understand that that money does not directly go to Ukraine, Salak said. ”It goes to American factories that manufacture, like here, like the ammunition. So that money goes to American workers as well. And a lot of people don’t understand that.”

    The 155 mm shells made in the Scranton plant are used in howitzer systems, which are towed large guns with long barrels that can fire at various angles. Howitzers can strike targets up to 15 miles to 20 miles (24 kilometers to 32 kilometers) away and are highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.

    With the war now well into its third year, Zelenskyy has been pushing the U.S. for permission to use longer range missile systems to fire deeper inside of Russia.

    So far he has not persuaded the Pentagon or White House to loosen those restrictions. The Defense Department has emphasized that Ukraine can already hit Moscow with Ukrainian-produced drones, and there is hesitation on the strategic implications of a U.S.-made missile potentially striking the Russian capital.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its NATO allies if they allow Ukraine to use the long-range weapons.

    At one point in the war, Ukraine was firing between 6,000 and 8,000 of the 155 mm shells per day. That rate started to deplete U.S. stockpiles and drew concern that the level on hand was not enough to sustain U.S. military needs if another major conventional war broke out, such as in a potential conflict over Taiwan.

    In response the U.S. has invested in restarting production lines and is now manufacturing more than 40,000 155 mm rounds a month, with plans to hit 100,000 rounds a month.

    Two of the Pentagon leaders who have pushed that increased production through — Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer — were expected to join Zelenskyy at the plant, as was Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

    The 155 mm rounds are just one of the scores of ammunition, missile, air defense and advanced weapons systems the U.S. has provided Ukraine — everything from small arms bullets to advanced F-16 fighter jets. The U.S. has been the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than $56 billion of the more than $106 billion NATO and partner countries have collected to aid in its defense.

    Even though Ukraine is not a member of NATO, commitment to its defense is seen by many of the European nations as a must to keep Putin from further military aggression that could threaten bordering NATO-member countries and result in a much larger conflict.

    —-

    Copp reported from Washington.

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  • Hundreds of pagers exploded in Lebanon and Syria in a deadly attack. Here’s what we know.

    Hundreds of pagers exploded in Lebanon and Syria in a deadly attack. Here’s what we know.

    NEW YORK — In what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.

    The Iran-backed militant group blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. How the attack was executed is largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.

    Here’s what we know so far.

    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group’s movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.

    A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the exploded devices were from a new brand the group had not used before. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, did not identify the brand name or supplier.

    Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, explains smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to the more simple technology of pagers.

    This type of attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies, said Reese, who previously worked as an intelligence officer, adding that survivors of Tuesday’s explosions are likely to throw away “not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”

    With little disclosed from investigators so far, multiple theories have emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press suggest that the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.

    Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal.

    By the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery,” said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.

    A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.

    “A pager has three of those already,” explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”

    After security camera footage appeared on social media Tuesday purporting to show one of the pagers explode on a man’s hip in a Lebanese market, two munitions experts also said that the blast appeared to be the result of a tiny explosive device.

    “Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,” said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.

    This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He adds that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.

    N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, agreed that the scale and sophistication of the attack “almost certainly points to a state actor,” and that Israel had been accused of carrying out such operations in the past. Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.

    It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.

    The sophistication of the attack suggests that whoever is behind it has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese explained. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.

    And it’s likely the compromised pagers seemed normal to their users for some time before the attack. Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst with over 37 years experience in the region, said he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of Tuesday’s pager attack. He said the pagers were procured more than six months ago.

    “The pagers functioned perfectly for six months,” Magnier said. What triggered the explosion, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices.

    Based on his conversations with Hezbollah members, Magnier also said that many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They came to the conclusion that between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.

    Another possibility is that malware could have been inserted into the operating system of the pagers — somehow causing the device batteries to all overload at a specific time, causing them to burst into flame.

    According to a Hezbollah official and Lebanese security officials, the pagers first heated up and then exploded in the pockets, or the hands, of those carrying them Tuesday afternoon.

    These pagers run on lithium ion batteries, the Hezboolah official said, claiming the devices exploded as the result of being targeted from an Israeli “security operation,” without elaborating further.

    When overheated, lithium ion batteries can smoke, melt and even catch on fire. Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590 C (1,100 F).

    Still, Moorhouse and others noted that images and video footage seen Tuesday more strongly resembled the detonation of small explosive charge, not an overheating battery.

    “A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council.

    Among those pointing to the likelihood of a supply chain attack is Jenzen-Jones, who adds that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting” — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.

    “How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.

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  • After mass shooting, bill would require Army to use state crisis laws to remove weapons

    After mass shooting, bill would require Army to use state crisis laws to remove weapons

    PORTLAND, Maine — A bill introduced after a mass shooting in Maine would require the Army to use state crisis intervention laws to remove the weapons of a service member who is deemed to be a serious threat to themselves or others, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the bill’s sponsor, said Monday.

    The Armed Forces Crisis Intervention Notification Act is aimed at addressing missed opportunities by the military and civilian law enforcement to intervene before an Army reservist who had spiraled into psychosis opened fire at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others on Oct. 25, 2023.

    “We have a chance to help service members in crisis. We have a chance to help protect our neighbors and families. We have a chance to save lives,” Collins said in a statement. Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, is a co-sponsor of the bill.

    This bill seeks to ensure communication between state agencies and military service branches after criticism that the Army wasn’t as forthcoming as it could’ve been with state law enforcement officials about the gunman, 40-year-old Robert Card, before the shooting rampage. It requires the military to participate in state crisis actions, including so-called red flag or yellow flag laws aimed at removing weapons from someone who’s experiencing a psychiatric emergency.

    Law enforcement officials had known about Card’s growing paranoia, and Card had been hospitalized last summer while his reserve unit was training in New York state. Health care providers who assessed him said he was psychotic and had a hit list, and recommended that he not have access to weapons.

    Military officials restricted Card’s access to military weapons but Card still had access to privately owned weapons at his home in Bowdoin, Maine. The Army had no immediate comment.

    The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office was asked to go to Card’s home and check on his well-being after he’d threatened to “shoot up” the home of his Army Reserve unit, but a deputy who tried to meet with Card was unaware of details about what happened in New York state or the extent of his mental health crisis.

    ​This bill, introduced Monday afternoon, wouldn’t affect the military’s existing authority to disarm service members in a broad range of situations, Collins said. Instead, the bill aims to eliminate a gap in communication between military and civilian law enforcement that could’ve prevented the tragedy in Maine.

    “We cannot bring back our friends and family members we lost last October, but we can take steps to fix the cracks in the system that led to the tragedy,” King added.

    The mass shooting has been investigated by an independent commission appointed by the governor, along with the Army Reserve and by the Army Office of the Inspector General. Maine Gov. Janet Mills previously said that the tragedy “was caused by a colossal failure of human judgment by several people, on several occasions.”

    Maine’s so-called yellow flag law has been used 425 times — including 344 times since the tragedy in Lewiston, officials said.

    On Monday, she praised Collins and King for the bill. “Providing the military with this authority will equip them with another tool to address potentially dangerous situations among military personnel and close communication gaps, which will help protect people, prevent violence and save lives,” she said.

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  • Italy’s deputy premier Matteo Salvini faces a potential 6-year prison sentence in migration trial

    Italy’s deputy premier Matteo Salvini faces a potential 6-year prison sentence in migration trial

    ROME — Italian prosecutors on Saturday requested a six-year prison sentence for right-wing League leader Matteo Salvin i for his decision to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in Italy when he was interior minister in 2019. If convicted Salvini could be barred from holding government office.

    The prosecutors in the city of Palermo have accused Salvini — who’s currently deputy premier and transport minister in the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni — of alleged kidnapping for leaving a migrant rescue ship operated by charity Open Arms stranded at sea for 19 days.

    During the 2019 standoff, some of the migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a safe, close port. The remaining 89 people onboard were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa by a court order.

    “I would do it all again: defending borders from illegal immigrants is not a crime,” Salvini said on his social media on Saturday.

    His lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, will make her defense statement in Palermo on Oct. 18, and a first sentence could come by the end of the month. A conviction – which in Italy is definitive only at the end of a three-stage judicial process — could bar Salvini from holding government office.

    Meloni and several ministers of her government expressed solidarity with the League leader, defending his decisions. Since she stepped into power in 2022, Meloni has pledged a crackdown on migration, aiming to deter would-be refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.

    “It is incredible that a minister of the Italian Republic risks six years in prison for doing his job defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate received from its citizens,” the Italian premier wrote on X.

    Salvini maintained a hard line on migration in his tenure as interior minister in the first government of Premier Giuseppe Conte, from 2018-2019.

    He imposed a “closed ports” policy under which Italy refused entry to charity ships that rescued migrants in distress across the Mediterranean and repeatedly accused humanitarian organizations of effectively encouraging people smuggling.

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  • Japan and Australia agree to increase joint military training

    Japan and Australia agree to increase joint military training

    MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Japan and Australia agreed on Thursday to increase joint military training exercises as their government ministers shared concerns over China’s recent incursions into Japanese airspace and territorial waters.

    Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara met for a regular summit with their Australian counterparts, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defense Minister Richard Marles in the Australian coastal town of Queenscliff.

    They discussed greater security cooperation in the context of the ministers’ shared support for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and concerns over China’s increasingly aggressive territorial claims in the South and East China Seas, Wong said.

    The ministers agreed on more engagement in training exercises involving the two air forces after F-35A Lighting II stealth fighters from both countries joined in combat training over Japan last year in Exercise Bushido Guardian, Marles said.

    Next year, Australia will participate for the first time in Orient Shield, the largest annual field training exercise between the U.S. Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

    Australia and Japan also plan to involve the Japanese Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, a marine unit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, in annual training rotations of U.S. Marines in the northern Australian city of Darwin.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Japan and Australia’s cooperation should not disadvantage any third country.

    “China believes that defense and security cooperation between countries should be conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability and enhancing mutual trust among regional countries, and should not target third parties,” Mao said at a daily briefing in Beijing.

    China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace has caused unease among Japanese defense officials, who are also concerned about the growing military cooperation between the Chinese and Russian air forces.

    Japan lodged a formal protest through the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo against what it called an incursion by a Chinese survey ship in its waters last weekend.

    This followed Tokyo’s protest after a Chinese military aircraft briefly entered Japan’s southwestern airspace on Aug. 26. It was the first time the Japan Self-Defense Forces detected a Chinese military aircraft in Japan’s airspace.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said later his country had “no intention” to violate any country’s airspace.

    Kihara confirmed the incidents were discussed with the Australian counterparts.

    “We have shared very strong concern over these incidents and, for the East China Sea and South China Sea, any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or by coercion, we have put forward our strong opposition,” Kihara told reporters through an interpreter.

    Marles said he and Wong “did express our support for Japanese sovereignty in that moment.”

    “It really underlined our shared commitment to asserting the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific, in our neighborhood,” Marles said.

    “The countries of the region and indeed the world want to be in a world where disputes are resolved not by power and might but by reference to international law,” Marles added.

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  • Russia says it downed over 150 drones in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks of the war

    Russia says it downed over 150 drones in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks of the war

    Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over Moscow and nine over the surrounding region, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

    Forty-six of the drones were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion on Russian soil since World War II. A further 34 were shot over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region — all of which border Ukraine.

    Drones were also shot down deeper into Russia, including one each in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, and the Ivanovo region, northeast of the Russian capital. Russia’s Defense Ministry said drones were intercepted over 15 regions, while one other governor said a drone was shot down over his region, too.

    Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that falling debris from one of the two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery.

    Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s assault.

    Also in Russia, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said nine people were wounded in Ukrainian aerial missile attacks in the Russian border region of Belgorod on Sunday. These included eight in the regional capital, also called Belgorod.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday it had taken control of the towns of Pivnichne and Vyimka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.

    Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.

    At least three people were killed and nine wounded on Sunday in Russian shelling in the town of Kurakhove, some 20 miles (33 kilometers) south of Pokrovsk, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

    In Ukraine overnight, eight drones were shot down out of 11 launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian air force.

    One person was killed and four wounded in shelling overnight in the Sumy region, local officials said, while Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said five people were wounded in his region. On Sunday, 41 more were wounded when Russia shelled the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, Syniehubov said.

    Syniehubov said a shopping center, a sports facility and residential buildings were among those damaged in Sunday’s attack.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Russia launches a heavy bombardment of Ukraine for the third time in 4 days

    Russia launches a heavy bombardment of Ukraine for the third time in 4 days

    KYIV, Ukraine — One of the handful of F-16 warplanes that Ukraine has received from its Western partners to help fight Russia’s invasion has crashed, Ukraine’s Army General Staff said Thursday. The pilot died.

    The fighter jet went down on Monday, when Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage at Ukraine, a military statement posted on Facebook said. Four of those Russian missiles were shot down by F-16s, the statement said.

    The crash was the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, where they arrived at the end of last month. At least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered.

    The Defense Ministry has opened an investigation into the crash.

    Earlier Thursday, Russia conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine for the third time in four days, again launching missiles and scores of drones that mostly were intercepted, Ukraine’s air force said.

    Russian forces fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, an air force statement said. Air defenses stopped two missiles and 60 drones, and 14 other drones presumably fell before reaching their target, it said.

    Authorities in the capital, Kyiv, said debris of destroyed drones fell in three districts of the city, causing minor damage to civilian infrastructure but no injuries.

    Russia’s relentless and unnerving long-range strikes on civilian areas have been a feature of the war since it invaded its neighbor in February 2022.

    Belgium, Denmark the Netherlands and Norway — all NATO members — have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of the planes. That number is dwarfed by the Russian jet fighter fleet, which is around 10 times larger.

    Ukraine needs at least 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralize Russian air power, Kyiv officials say.

    U.S. officials told The Associated Press at the end of last month that the first of a batch of F-16s promised by European countries had arrived in Ukraine.

    Military analysts have said their arrival won’t be a game-changer in the war, given Russia’s massive air force and sophisticated air defense systems. But Ukrainian officials welcomed them as offering an opportunity to hit back at Russia’s air superiority.

    Ukraine has until now been using Soviet-era warplanes, and its pilots underwent intense training on the F-16s in the West for months. The usual training period is three years.

    U.S. President Joe Biden granted authorization in August 2023 for the U.S.-built warplanes to be sent to Ukraine. That came after months of pressure from Kyiv and internal debate in the U.S. administration where officials feared the move could escalate tensions with the Kremlin.

    The F-16s can fly up to twice the speed of sound and have a maximum range of more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). They can also fire modern weapons used by NATO countries.

    Ukrainian officials have recently become more vocal in their long-standing insistence that Western countries supporting their war effort should scrap restrictions on what Ukraine is allowed to target inside Russia with long-range weapons they have provided.

    Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his pleas for Western allies to untie his hands in deciding what to strike on Russian soil.

    “All our partners should be more active — much more active — in countering Russian terror,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday. “We continue to insist that their determination now — lifting the restrictions on long-range strikes for Ukraine now — will help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole.”

    The European Union’s top diplomat on Thursday backed Zelenskyy’s push for international backers to end their limits.

    Ukraine has deployed domestically produced drones to strike Russia.

    The Russian military said Thursday it had thwarted an overnight attack on Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed three Ukrainian sea drones aimed at the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

    The Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev added that four Ukrainian aerial drones and three sea drones were destroyed “at a significant distance” from the peninsula’s shore.

    In the meantime, Ukraine’s Army General Staff acknowledged Thursday Ukraine’s involvement in strikes this week on oil depots deep inside Russia, where blazes broke out.

    The attacks in the Rostov and Kirov regions were part of Ukraine’s effort to disrupt logistical infrastructure supporting Russia’s war machine.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Ukraine’s Russia offensive is risky. To help, it wants less US caution on weapons

    Ukraine’s Russia offensive is risky. To help, it wants less US caution on weapons

    WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s daring ground offensive has taken the fight to Russia, but not nearly as much as its leaders would like because, they say, the United States won’t let them.

    The U.S. restricts the use of long-range ballistic missiles it provides to Ukraine, which wants to aim them at military targets inside Russia. Ukraine’s offensive, along with a barrage of drones and missiles that Moscow launched this week, has intensified pressure on the Biden administration to ease its cautious approach to the use of Western weapons in escalating Ukrainian attacks.

    The Biden administration says its careful deliberations, including which advanced weapons it supplies to Ukraine and when, are necessary to avoid provoking retaliation from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some analysts agree Putin would take a Ukrainian strike by an American long-range ballistic missile as an attack by the U.S. itself.

    But other American and European supporters of Ukraine say the White House should see that Putin’s threats of attacking the West, including with nuclear weapons, are bluster. Their fear is the U.S. support that has allowed Ukraine to withstand Russia’s 2022 invasion comes with delays and caveats that could ultimately contribute to its defeat.

    “This war is going to end exactly how Western policymakers decide it will end,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. general who led NATO in Europe from 2013 to 2016 and is among the retired U.S. military leaders and diplomats, Republican lawmakers, security analysts and others pushing for a loosening of restrictions on how Ukraine uses Western-provided weapons.

    “If we keep doing what we’re doing, Ukraine will eventually lose,” Breedlove said. “Because right now … we are purposely not giving Ukraine what they need to win.”

    Lifting such restrictions “would strengthen Ukrainian self-defense, save lives and reduce destruction in Ukraine,” European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell wrote Monday on the social platform X after Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine. The next day, Russia launched 91 more.

    The push and pull is playing out during Ukraine’s surprise offensive into Russia’s southern Kursk region, the first ground invasion of Russia since World War II.

    Throughout the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has balanced copious thanks for U.S. support with frustrated appeals for more arms and ammunition. Upping the pressure this month, he again said Ukraine must fight the war as it sees fit with all the weapons at its disposal and appealed for the U.S. to drop a ban on using American long-range ATACMS missiles to strike deeper into Russia.

    “A sick old man from the Red Square, who constantly threatens everyone with the red button, will not dictate any of his red lines to us,” Zelenskyy said recently of Putin.

    The Biden administration this year allowed Ukraine to fire shorter-range U.S.-provided munitions across the border in self-defense, but not ATACMS.

    Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, and presidential adviser Andriy Yermak were coming to Washington this week to discuss the specific long-range military targets that Ukraine would like to hit in Russia, according to a person familiar with the plans. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to share the officials’ plans.

    Security analysts say Ukraine is using U.S.-provided HIMARS rocket systems in its offensive. Ukraine also announced it has used a U.S.-supplied glide bomb against Russian forces and deployed its own prototype of a long-range drone-missile hybrid.

    Zelenskyy’s military appeared to have launched the ground offensive on Aug. 6 without consulting American leaders.

    As Ukraine has claimed nearly 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers) of Russian territory, it has taken a message from another U.S. ally that receives military support, said Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and military commander.

    “Israel once stated that it is quite respectful of the advice of its partners, but as an independent state, it makes decisions independently,” Kostenko told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet. “I believe we can mirror this.”

    The U.S. has deliberated at length before eventually approving a succession of advanced weapons that Ukraine has pleaded for: modern tanks, precision medium-range rocket systems, Patriot missile batteries, ATACMS for use inside occupied Ukrainian territory and F-16 aircraft.

    The Biden administration condemned Russia’s attacks this week on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and is helping bolster its ally’s air defenses, but has not changed its policy on long-range weapons, national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week.

    A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the government’s internal discussions, said the Biden administration believes there’s no strategic advantage to ATACMS strikes within Russia.

    There are too few ATACMS overall to allow Ukraine to hit a significant number of targets within Russia, the official said, adding that Ukraine is using the long-range missiles it has to challenge Russia’s hold on the strategically important Crimean Peninsula.

    Russia also has moved many of its aircraft away from what the Institute for the Study of War research group says are 16 Russian airbases within potential range of the ATACMS. That includes aircraft launching the hard-to-intercept glide bombs that Russia is using in Ukraine, the official said.

    Many outside the administration disagree. More than 200 other Russian military targets are within ATACMS range in what appear to be carelessly guarded areas along 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) of border, said George Barros, a security analyst focusing on Ukraine and Russia for the Institute for the Study of War, which provides closely watched battlefield analysis of the conflict.

    Those targets include large military bases, communications stations, logistics centers, repair facilities, fuel depots, ammunition warehouses and permanent headquarters, Barros said.

    While tech-savvy Ukraine is pioneering aggressive new ways of using armed drones and electronic warfare against Russia, hardened targets like bases need the bigger punch that ATACMS can provide, Barros said.

    A few selective strikes against some Russian targets would force Putin to shift manpower and resources to protect those targets, he said.

    “That is the kind of strain that drastically reduces an attacker’s ability to successfully logistically support their front-line forces,” Barros said.

    Ukraine, fighting a far bigger military, needs the battlefield momentum that it hopes surprise offensives, demoralizing attacks within Russia and advanced weapons can provide. While it’s pulled off a feat by deploying armed and uncrewed drone boats to bottle up Russia’s navy in the Black Sea, its biggest battlefield successes were in the first dramatic months of the war.

    A 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive ended without major gains, and then U.S. political deadlock stalled military support for months and allowed Russian forces to gain territory.

    In grim conversations this summer, Ukrainians and Americans spoke of the risk of a cease-fire on Russia’s terms. Without leverage from battlefield successes, Ukraine could be forced to cede large amounts of Ukrainian territory and face another invasion later.

    Billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military support is flowing again. Zelenskyy has expanded military conscription. And American military leaders are back to talking of what had been allies’ vision for the next phase of the war, said Bill Taylor, a veteran former diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009.

    That is, Ukraine spends the rest of the year rebuilding its ground forces and adding capacity to hit Russia hard enough that it seeks a cease-fire next year on terms Ukraine can accept, he said.

    Long-range missile strikes on military targets anywhere inside Russia are part of that, Taylor said. “The Ukrainians should not have to give Russians a sanctuary.”

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  • Israel and Hezbollah trade their most intense fire in months and then pull back

    Israel and Hezbollah trade their most intense fire in months and then pull back

    JERUSALEM — Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah traded heavy fire early Sunday but backed off from sparking a widely feared all-out war, as both sides signaled their most intense exchange in months was over.

    The cross-border attacks came as high-level talks resumed in Egypt aimed at a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that also would ease regional tensions. The Hamas and Israeli delegations later left Cairo, and an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes diplomacy said the talks were expected to continue.

    Hezbollah claimed to hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of a barrage of hundreds of rockets and drones, and Israel claimed its dozens of strikes had been preemptive to avert a larger attack. Neither offered evidence.

    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the attack, a response to Israel’s killing of a top militant commander in Beirut last month, had been delayed to give the Gaza cease-fire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once. Israeli and U.S. military deployment also played a role.

    “We will now reserve the right to respond at a later time” if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient, Nasrallah said, adding that allied Houthi rebels in Yemen — and Iran itself — had yet to respond. But he told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”

    Israel and Hezbollah said they aimed only at military targets. Israel said no military target was hit by Hezbollah but that one soldier with its navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire, or by shrapnel from one. Two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed, the groups said.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel and shot down drones heading for the center of the country.

    “I repeat — this is not the end of the story,” he added.

    Flights diverted as air raid sirens wail

    Air raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel’s international airport closed and diverted flights for about an hour.

    Israel’s military spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said about 100 Israeli planes struck 270 targets, 90% of them rocket launchers aimed at northern Israel. He said they were investigating the percentage of incoming rockets and drones intercepted but said the “vast majority” were thwarted.

    Hezbollah said its attack involved more than 320 Katyusha rockets aimed at multiple sites in Israel and a “large number” of drones.

    Some Israelis were shaken. In the northern city of Acre, retired teacher Saadia Even Tsur, 76, said he was at the synagogue and arrived home five minutes after his bedroom was damaged. “I went up and saw the size of the miracle that happened to me,” he said. A window was broken and debris was on the bed.

    Lebanon’s caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam, after an emergency government meeting, said officials were “feeling a bit more optimistic” about a de-escalation after both sides confirmed that the operations had ended.

    President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon,” according to Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council. The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and ordered both U.S. carrier strike groups in the region to stay. The U.S. military has been building up its forces across the region in recent weeks.

    The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, arrived in Israel late Sunday for meetings on what the Israeli military called “joint preparations in the region as part of the response to threats in the Middle East.”

    All-out war apparently averted for now

    Danny Citrinowicz, an expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah might be trying to “balance the equation without escalating into war.” Each side hopes their narrative will be sufficient for them to declare victory and avoid a wider confrontation, he said.

    Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

    Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a stalemate in 2006, is believed to be far more powerful now. The United States and Israel estimate it has some 150,000 rockets and is capable of hitting anywhere inside Israel. The group has also developed drones capable of evading Israel’s defenses, as well as precision-guided munitions.

    Israel has vowed a crushing response to any major Hezbollah attack. It has an extensive multi-tiered missile defense system, and it is backed by a U.S.-led coalition that helped it shoot down hundreds of missiles and drones fired from Iran earlier this year.

    Hezbollah is a close ally of Iran, which has also threatened to retaliate against Israel for the killing of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. Israel has not said whether it was involved.

    Iranian state media played up the Hezbollah attack, calling it a success, but there was no immediate comment from Iranian officials.

    The U.S. and other mediators see a cease-fire in Gaza as key to averting a wider Mideast war. Hezbollah has said it will halt its strikes on Israel if there is a cease-fire.

    The talks in Cairo on Sunday aimed at bridging gaps in a proposal for a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas. The talks included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

    The Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but did not directly take part in negotiations.

    In the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military said it killed two people who allegedly tried to run over soldiers in Ariel, slightly hurting one.

    Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Alexis Triboulard in Acre, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Buellton, California, contributed.

    By Josef Federman, Abby Sewell and Kareen Chehayeb | Associated Press

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  • Trump rebukes Harris and Biden on anniversary of Afghanistan bombing that killed 13 service members

    Trump rebukes Harris and Biden on anniversary of Afghanistan bombing that killed 13 service members

    DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday tied Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members, calling the attack a “humiliation.”

    Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, who were killed alongside more than 100 Afghans in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport. He then traveled to Michigan to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference.

    “Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told an audience of about 4,000, including National Guard members and their families in Detroit.

    Taliban fighters carry rocket launchers as they celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southwestern Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)

    President Joe Biden’s administration was following a withdrawal commitment and timeline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020. A 2022 review by a government-appointed special investigator concluded decisions made by both Trump and Biden were the key factors leading to the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s military and the Taliban takeover.

    In his speech to the National Guard in Detroit, Trump said that leaving Afghanistan was the right thing to do but that the execution was poor. “We were going to do it with dignity and strength,” he said. He called the attack “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”

    Since Biden ended his reelection bid, Trump has been zeroing in on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her roles in foreign policy decisions. He has specifically highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.

    “The voters are going to fire Kamala and Joe on Nov. 5, we hope, and when I take office we will ask for the resignations of every single official,” Trump said in Detroit. “We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity, to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job.”

    In her own statement marking the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack, Harris said she mourns the 13 U.S. service members who were killed. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. My heart breaks for their pain and their loss,” she said.

    Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.

    Donald Trump campaigns in Michigan today, on the third anniversary of a deadly bombing during the US evacuation from Afghanistan. AP correspondent Jennifer King reports.

    Image

    Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

    “As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”

    Biden said in a statement Monday that the 13 Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    “Ever since I became Vice President, I carried a card with me every day that listed the exact number of American service members who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan—including Taylor, Johanny, Nicole, Hunter, Daegan, Humberto, David, Jared, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Maxton, and Ryan,” Biden said.

    The relatives of some of the American service members who were killed appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month and spoke on Monday in a media call along with Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. They said they are still trying to get answers on how their loved ones died.

    “For them to think that is OK and treat it as another page in a book that they’re just flipping over for the next chapter it saddens me and frightens me all at the same time,” said Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, who added she has another son serving in the military. “I pray that I don’t get another knock on my door because of the lack of responsibilities this administration has for our military.”

    Asked Monday why Biden and Harris weren’t marking the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack as Trump did at Arlington National Cemetery, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Trump had been personally invited by the family members and he called it one way to honor the fallen.

    “Another way is to continue to work,” Kirby said. “Maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of public attention, maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded, not just at Abbey Gate, but over the course of the 20-some odd years that we were in Afghanistan, have the support that they need.”

    Also Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that Congress will posthumously honor the 13 service members by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal next month. It’s the highest civilian award that Congress can bestow.

    Under Trump, the United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban that was aimed at ending America’s longest war and bringing U.S. troops home. Biden later pointed to that agreement as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, saying it bound him to withdraw troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.

    A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, and to U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.

    The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the administration inadequately planned for the withdrawal. The nation’s top-ranking military officer at the time, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, told lawmakers earlier this year he had urged Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 forces to give backup. Instead, Biden decided to keep a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.

    ___

    Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.

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  • Taiwan drills with anti-amphibious landing missiles to deter China

    Taiwan drills with anti-amphibious landing missiles to deter China

    PINGTING, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan drilled Monday with anti-amphibious landing missiles as part of strategy to remain mobile and deadly in an attempt to deter an attack from China, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

    Troops fired tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles known as TOW 2A missiles mounted on M1167 Humvees at floating targets off a beach in Pingtung County during the two days of exercises. The area on Taiwan’s southern tip faces both toward the Taiwan Strait and China, and toward the Pacific Ocean.

    The missiles are among the most effective and popular anti-tank weapons in the world and a key component in what some experts say is Taiwan’s best strategy to resist a potential Chinese invasion. China has ramped up its military threat in recent years based on its vast edge in numbers of warplanes, ships and missiles.

    Taiwan bought 1,700 units of the newer TOW 2B system from the U.S., the last of which are due to be delivered by the end of the year. The two days of testing will also gauge the more sophisticated TOW 2B’s interoperability with the TOW 2A and its ability to acquire targets at night, the Defense Ministry said.

    Advocates of such weaponry argue that these more mobile systems stand the best chance in an asymmetric battle against a much larger Chinese force. China has the world’s largest standing military, but most of Taiwan is composed of steep mountains, mud flats and heavily built-up urban areas poorly suited to such a conventional force. Others have argued Taiwan needs more warplanes and surface ships.

    China sends warplanes and warships near Taiwan on a near-daily basis in an attempt to intimidate its citizens and degrade the island’s defenses. In response, Taiwan has extended the period of national military service to one year, building its own submarines and importing sophisticated new equipment from the U.S.

    The vast majority of Taiwanese favor the current status of de-facto independence for their island, which separated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

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  • Fires break out on abandoned Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion that Yemen rebels attacked in Red Sea

    Fires break out on abandoned Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion that Yemen rebels attacked in Red Sea

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Fires broke out Friday on a Greek-flagged oil tanker previously attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this week, with the vessel now appearing to be adrift in the Red Sea, authorities said.

    It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened to the oil tanker Sounion, which had been abandoned by its crew on Thursday and reportedly anchored in place.

    The Houthis didn’t immediately acknowledge the fire. The rebels are suspected to have gone back and attacked at least one other vessel that later sank as part of their monthslong campaign against shipping in the Red Sea over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted a trade route that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it annually.

    The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported the fires in a note to mariners on Friday night.

    “UKMTO have received a report that three fires have been observed on vessel,” the center said. “The vessel appears to be drifting.”

    A United States defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said American officials were aware of the fires and continued to monitor the situation.

    The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti, the European Union’s Aspides naval mission in the Red Sea said Thursday.

    The Sounion has 150,000 tons of crude oil aboard and represents a “navigational and environmental hazard,” the mission warned. “It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation.”

    Late Friday night, the Houthis released footage of an explosion striking the Sounion, their fighters on the water in the distance chanting the group’s slogan: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

    A frame-by-frame analysis of the video conducted by The Associated Press suggested three simultaneous explosions struck the deck of the Sounion. That signature suggests an attack conducted by planted explosives, rather than a strike by missile or drone.

    The Houthis have targeted more than 80 vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. One of the sunken vessels, the Tutor, went down after the Houthis planted explosives aboard it, after its crew abandoned the ship due to an earlier attack, the rebel group later acknowledged.

    Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.

    The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

    As Iran threatens to retaliate against Israel over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the U.S. military told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area. Early Thursday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said that the Lincoln had reached the waters of the Middle East, without elaborating.

    Washington also has ordered the USS Georgia-guided missile submarine to the region, while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group was in the Gulf of Oman.

    Additional F-22 fighter jets have flown into the region and the USS Wasp, a large amphibious assault ship carrying F-35 fighter jets, is in the Mediterranean Sea.

    Early Saturday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it had destroyed a Houthi missile system in Yemen over the last 24 hours.

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  • Zelenskyy visits border area for first time since Ukrainian offensive into Russia

    Zelenskyy visits border area for first time since Ukrainian offensive into Russia

    KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy toured the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy on Thursday in his first visit to the border area since his forces launched their surprise cross-border offensive more than two weeks ago, seizing dozens of Russian villages and the town of Sudhza.

    Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces have claimed control of another settlement in the Russian region of Kursk and taken more Russian prisoners of war whom he hopes to swap for captured Ukrainians, adding to what he calls an “exchange fund.”

    “Another settlement in the Kursk region is now under Ukrainian control, and we have replenished the exchange fund,” Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X after hearing a report from the military commander, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

    While he traveled to an area close to the area of the Ukrainian incursion into Russia, he did not go into Russia itself — a move that would have been regarded by Moscow as a provocation. He has previously said that Ukraine has no plan to occupy the area long term but wants to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks from that area into Ukraine.

    After his meeting with local military authorities, Zelenskyy said the Kursk operation launched Aug. 6 has led to a decrease in Russian shelling and a reduction in civilian casualties in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region.

    The daring Ukrainian foray into the Kursk region has rattled the Kremlin, showing Russia’s vulnerability and shattered President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to pretend that the country has been largely unaffected by the 2 1/2 year war.

    Authorities in Kursk began to put up concrete shelters at bus stops and other locations around the city to protect it from shelling and plan similar work in Zheleznogorsk and Kurchatov, where the Kursk nuclear power plant is located, the region’s acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov said on his Telegram channel.

    Putin said in a video call with officials that he has ordered the creation of self-defense units in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.

    Smirnov reported to Putin that over 133,000 people have left areas affected by the fighting in the Kursk region, while more than 19,000 have stayed.

    The governor of Bryansk, another Russian region bordering Ukraine, said authorities in the region have conducted training for emergency evacuation from border areas in case it is needed.

    Separately, the Defense Ministry reported repelling Ukrainian attacks near the villages of Komarovka, Malaya Loknya, Korenevka and several other settlements in the Kursk region.

    Ukraine’s capture of Russian territory comes as Ukraine continues to lose ground in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its military has claimed control of the village of Mezhove in Donetsk, part of the industrial Donbas region which Moscow seeks to take entirely.

    Ukraine’s push into Russia marks the first capture of Russian territory since World War II.

    It comes as both sides in the war use drones to attack far within enemy lines.

    Ukraine attacked Russia overnight with 28 drones, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. Thirteen were shot down over the Volgograd region, seven over the Rostov region, four over the Belgorod region, two over the Voronezh region, and one each over the Bryansk and Kursk regions, the ministry said.

    Andrei Bocharov, governor of the Volgograd region, said Thursday that a military facility caught fire after being attacked by drones in the area of Marinovka where a Russian military air base is located. He did not specify what was damaged.

    Videos shared on Russian social media showed an explosion in the night sky, reportedly near the base. Marinovka is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of the Ukrainian border.

    Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Ukraine’s Security Service and the Special Operation Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducted the drone attack Wednesday night, striking the Marinovka airfield, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

    The Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russian law enforcement, said one drone was taken down several kilometers (miles) from the airfield near Marinovka and that wreckage from another fell on a trailer near the air base, causing it to catch fire.

    Data from NASA fire satellites, which monitor Earth for forest blazes, showed fires breaking out around the air base’s apron, where fighter jets were previously seen parked.

    Another fire burned Thursday in Russia’s Rostov region, where firefighters struggled for the fifth day to put out a fire at an oil depot in the town of Proletarsk. State news agency Tass said 47 firefighters have been injured while putting out the blaze.

    Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed Thursday by The Associated Press showed the fire at the oil depot still intensely burning as of Wednesday. Storage tanks at the facility appeared engulfed in flames. Visible flames could be seen in the images, with a thick black smoke cloud drifting west over the city of Proletarsk.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Emma Burrows in London and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

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  • Book Review: Former Pentagon insider says U.S. unwilling to release all its UFO info

    Book Review: Former Pentagon insider says U.S. unwilling to release all its UFO info

    A procession of books in recent years have explored the UFO phenomenon but few perhaps with the authority Luis Elizondo brings as a Defense Department insider, laboring for decades to learn who the visitors are, where they are from and what they want.

    In the 275 pages of “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs,” Elizondo provides evidence of what the U.S. Department of Defense knows with this somewhat surprising conclusion – Defense Department higher-ups often thwart Elizondo and his team’s efforts.

    Why? Elizondo writes that the defense establishment doesn’t want to present a problem it neither can explain nor offer a solution. But are these visitors a threat? Elizondo concludes that the visitors’ capabilities make them a “very serious national security issue.”

    Earliest documented UFO sightings go back to before World War II and since then, many UFOs have violated sensitive military airspace but no one appears to have been deliberately hurt by a UFO in the United States. However, perhaps given his combat experiences and long association with Defense Department work, Elizondo worries about another 9-11-type attack, a threat we should have anticipated but did not.

    Elizondo deploys way too many government acronyms — consider AAWSAAP/AATIP, for example — but he’s undeniably thorough in presenting what he has worked on and learned over two decades. Pages of diagrams and explanations suggest how UFOs might propel themselves.

    Elizondo became so alarmed at what he was learning about UFOs that the Defense Department refused to disclose to the public that he ultimately resigned his job with the Defense Department so he could go public with much of what he knows about the presence of visitors whose vehicles are far more advanced than what we earthlings have built. Several passages in the book are redacted and Elizondo writes multiple times that he cannot say more about certain subjects.

    Perhaps more alarmingly, as he points out, the Defense Department and other government entities at every level tend to regard our elected representatives as “temporary hires” who need to be managed and fed information as the departments see fit. The Defense bureaucracy, for example, didn’t trust President Nixon, so it didn’t tell him much about UFOs.

    The Defense Department recently has released more information on UFOs, thanks largely to Elizondo and his colleagues, but given the reluctant government pace, the bureaucracy doesn’t appear to judge UFOs as an “imminent” threat.

    Meantime, the American people — make that the world — seem to regard the proven-beyond-reasonable-doubt arrival of visitors from far away as news eliciting little more than a shrug.

    A Defense Department briefing detailing much more of what it knows might change that. A good starting point might be what happened to the remains of non-human bodies that have been recovered from crash sites.

    Elizondo fears the Defense Department never will disclose what it knows about that.

    ___

    AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

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  • US and South Korea begin military drills aimed at strengthening their defense against North Korea

    US and South Korea begin military drills aimed at strengthening their defense against North Korea

    SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean troops kicked off a large-scale exercise Monday aimed at strengthening their combined defense capabilities against nuclear-armed North Korea, which again accused the allies of practicing an invasion.

    The annual summertime exercise comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korea combined military exercises have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    The exercise began hours after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement repeating the North’s contention that such exercises are “provocative war drills for aggression.” It said the North’s nuclear ambitions are thus justified, adding that it is crucial to “constantly maintain the balance of power for preventing a war by stockpiling the greatest deterrence.”

    The United States and South Korea described their joint drills as defensive in nature and have been expanding and upgrading their training in recent years to cope with the North’s evolving threats.

    The U.S. and South Korean militaries did not immediately react to the North Korean Foreign Ministry statement.

    The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, which continue for 11 days, through Aug. 29, include both computer-simulated war games and more than 40 kinds of field exercises, including live-fire drills. The allies said this year’s program is focused on enhancing their readiness against various North Korean threats, including missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks and will also reflect lessons learned from recent armed conflicts.

    About 19,000 South Korean military personnel will participate in the drills, which will be held concurrently with civil defense and evacuation drills from Monday through Thursday that will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios.

    The U.S. military has not confirmed the number of American troops participating in the drills or said whether they will involve U.S. strategic assets. The United States in recent months has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese forces.

    The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which has been flaunting its growing weapons program and issuing verbal threats of nuclear conflicts against Washington and Seoul.

    Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un staged a huge ceremony in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units and called for a ceaseless expansion of his military’s nuclear program.

    The event added to concerns about Kim’s weapons program as he demonstrates an intent to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the North’s border with South Korea and claims that his military could react with preemptive nuclear strikes if it perceives the leadership as under threat.

    Analysts say Kim may seek to dial up pressure in a U.S. election year as he advances his long-term goals of forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

    During last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as simulating “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

    The North in recent weeks has also flown thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign that has further deteriorated relations between the war-divided rivals.

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  • South Korea and US will start summer military drills next week to counter North Korean threats

    South Korea and US will start summer military drills next week to counter North Korean threats

    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military exercises next week with a focus on improving their combined capabilities to deter and defend against growing North Korean nuclear threats, the allies said Monday.

    The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which portrays them as invasion rehearsals and have used the allies’ military cooperation as a pretext to advance the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems.

    South Korean and U.S. military officials said this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will include computer-simulated exercises designed to enhance readiness against such threats as missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, and concurrent field maneuvers and live-fire exercises.

    The allies in particular aim to “further strengthen (their) capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction,” military officials said in a joint news conference.

    Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about 19,000 South Korean troops will participate in the drills, which he described as an “essential element for maintaining a strong defense posture to protect the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s formal name.

    Ryan Donald, spokesperson of U.S Forces Korea, didn’t comment on the number of U.S. troops participating in the exercises and said he couldn’t immediately confirm whether the drills will involve U.S. strategic assets. The United States in recent months has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese assets in a show of force against the North.

    “This exercise will reflect realistic threats across all domains such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s missile threats and we will take in lessons learned from recent armed conflicts,” Donald said, invoking the North’s formal name.

    “ROK and U.S. units will execute combined field training exercises across all domains. Field maneuver and live fire exercises will strengthen the alliance’s interoperability while showcasing our combined capabilities and resolve,” he said.

    In addition to its military exercises with the United States, the South Korean military will support the country’s civil defense and evacuation drills on Aug. 19-22, which will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios, Lee said.

    Animosity on the Korean Peninsula is high, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to use Russia’s war on Ukraine as a window to accelerate weapons development while issuing verbal threats of nuclear conflict toward Washington and Seoul.

    In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around U.S. strategic assets.

    During last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as simulating “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

    The North in recent weeks has also flown thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South in a bizarre psychological warfare campaign that has further deteriorated relations between the war-divided rivals.

    South Korea’s military said Monday that the North launched about 240 balloons over the weekend, but only 10 were known to have landed in the South, all in areas north of the capital, Seoul. Those balloons carried paper waste and plastic bottles, and no dangerous substances were found, the South’s joint chiefs said.

    It was the first time North Korea flew balloons toward the South since July 24, when trash carried by at least one of them fell on the South Korean presidential compound, raising worries about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. The balloon contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt.

    Also on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol nominated presidential security chief Kim Yong-hyun, one of his closest confidants, as defense minister. Kim will be replacing Shin Won-sik, who was picked to be Yoon’s new national security adviser, according to the presidential office.

    As a nominee for a Cabinet job, Kim is subject to a parliamentary hearing, although Yoon can appoint him even if lawmakers object. Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The liberals have often criticized Yoon’s national security policies as hawkish and called for stronger efforts to revive dialogue with the North.

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  • Donald Trump’s campaign says its emails were hacked

    Donald Trump’s campaign says its emails were hacked

    Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said Saturday that it has been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.

    The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024.

    It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

    Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference “extremely seriously” and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, but said it deferred to the Justice Department on this matter.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations, when asked about the claim of the Trump campaign, denied being involved. “We do not accord any credence to such reports,” the mission told The Associated Press. “The Iranian government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”

    However, Iran long has been suspected of running hacking campaigns targeting its enemies in the Middle East and beyond. Tehran also long has threatened to retaliate against Trump over the 2020 drone strike he ordered that killed prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

    The U.S. Justice Department this past week unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani national with ties to Iran alleged to have plotted assassination attempts against political figures in the United States, including potentially Trump, and to have sought to hire purported hitmen who were actually undercover law enforcement officials. Court documents in that case pointedly noted a desire by Iran to conduct operations against perceived enemies of the regime and to avenge the killing of Soleimani.

    Politico first reported Saturday on the hack. The outlet reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

    “These documents were obtained illegally” and “intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Cheung said.

    He pointed to the Microsoft report issued Friday and its conclusions that “Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.”

    “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said, adding a warning that “any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”

    Cheung did not immediately respond to questions about the campaign’s interactions with Microsoft on the matter. Microsoft said Saturday it had no comment beyond its blog post and Friday report.

    In that report, Microsoft stated that “foreign malign influence concerning the 2024 US election started off slowly but has steadily picked up pace over the last six months due initially to Russian operations, but more recently from Iranian activity.”

    The analysis continued: “Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have been a consistent feature of at least the last three U.S. election cycles. Iran’s operations have been notable and distinguishable from Russian campaigns for appearing later in the election season and employing cyberattacks more geared toward election conduct than swaying voters.”

    “Recent activity suggests the Iranian regime — along with the Kremlin — may be equally engaged in election 2024,” Microsoft concluded.

    Specifically, the report detailed that in June 2024, an Iranian military intelligence unit, Mint Sandstorm, sent a phishing email to an American presidential campaign via the compromised account of a former adviser.

    “The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain,” the report states.

    Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported hacking or on the Democratic nominee’s cybersecurity protocols.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Mae Anderson in New York, Fatima Hussein in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Helicopter crash at military base kills 1 and injures another, county coroner says

    Helicopter crash at military base kills 1 and injures another, county coroner says

    FORT NOVOSEL, Ala. — A helicopter crash at a military base in Alabama on Wednesday afternoon killed one person and injured another, military officials said.

    An AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed during routine flight training on Fort Novosel Army base, about 94 miles (151 kilometers) south of Montgomery, according to a statement from the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel.

    The crash killed the flight instructor, while a US. Army student pilot was airlifted to a hospital for additional evaluation, according to the statement.

    Dale County Coroner John Cawley identified the deceased instructor pilot as Daniel Munger, 46, who was a contractor and retired from the Army.

    Military authorities did not immediately provide any information about the circumstances of the crash. The statement said the accident is under investigation.

    “Our primary concern is the welfare and health of the student pilot and care and concern for the family of the deceased,” Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel commanding general, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

    The AH-64 Apache is a two-crewmember aircraft.

    Fort Novosel was previously known as Fort Rucker. It is the Army’s primary training facility for helicopter pilots.

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  • Israel says it has confirmed Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif was killed in a July strike

    Israel says it has confirmed Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif was killed in a July strike

    Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 13, 2024. Israel said it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike Saturday in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 71 people, according to local health officials. Hamas immediately rejected the claim that Mohammed Deif was in the area. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

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