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Tag: Military technology

  • Russian official: Ukrainian drones strike Crimea oil depot

    Russian official: Ukrainian drones strike Crimea oil depot

    KYIV, Ukraine — A massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine‘s drones, a Russia-appointed official there reported Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

    Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, a port city in Crimea, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.

    Razvozhayev said the fire at the city’s harbor was assigned the highest ranking in terms of how complicated it will be to extinguish. However, he reported that the open blaze had been contained.

    Razvozhayev said the oil depot was attacked by “two enemy drones,” and four oil tanks burned down. A third drone was shot down from the sky, and one more was deactivated through radio-electronic means, according to Crimea’s Moscow-appointed governor, Sergei Aksyonov.

    Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview this week that his country will seeking to reclaim the peninsula in the upcoming counteroffensive.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea last month to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine. Putin’s visit took place the day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.

    The attack reported in Sevastopol comes a day after Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Almost all of the victims died when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the city of Uman, located in central Ukraine.

    Six children were among the dead, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Saturday, adding that 22 of the 23 bodies recovered have been identified. Two women remained missing, Klymenko said.

    Russian forces launched more drones at Ukraine overnight. Ukraine’s Air Force Command said two Iranian-made self-exploding Shahed drones were intercepted, and a reconnaissance drone was shot down on Saturday morning.

    Razvozhayev said the oil depot fire did not cause any casualties and would not hinder fuel supplies in Sevastopol. The city has been subject to regular attack attempts with drones, especially in recent weeks.

    Earlier this week, Razvozhayev reported that the Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian sea drone that attempted to attack the harbor and another one blew up, shattering windows in several apartment buildings, but not inflicting any other damage.

    Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, Andriy Yusov, told the RBC Ukraine news site on Saturday that the oil depot fire was “God’s punishment” for “the murdered civilians in Uman, including five children.”

    He said that more than 10 tanks containing oil products for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were destroyed in Sevastopol, but stopped short of acknowledging Ukraine’s responsibility for a drone attack. The difference between the number of tanks Yusov and Razvozhayev gave could not be immediately reconciled.

    After previous attacks on Crimea, Kyiv also wouldn’t openly claim responsibility, but emphasized that the country had the right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression.

    Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Nova Kakhovka, according to Moscow-installed authorities in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson province. “Severe artillery fire” cut off power in the city, the officials said.

    The Ukrainian-controlled part of the province also came under fire on Saturday. Russian shelling in the area of the village of Bilozerka killed one person and wounded another, according to the Kherson prosecutor’s office.

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  • N. Korea insults Biden, slams defense agreement with Seoul

    N. Korea insults Biden, slams defense agreement with Seoul

    SEOUL, South Korea — The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new U.S.-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence to counter the North’s nuclear threat, which she insists shows their “extreme” hostility toward Pyongyang.

    Kim Yo Jong also lobbed personal insults toward U.S. President Joe Biden, who after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday stated that any North Korean nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies would “result in the end of whatever regime” took such action.

    Biden’s meeting with Yoon in Washington came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the combined U.S.-South Korean military exercises have increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles, including multiple demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland and a slew of short-range launches the North described as simulated nuclear strikes on South Korea.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is widely expected to up the ante in coming weeks or months as he continues to accelerate a campaign aimed at cementing the North’s status as a nuclear power and eventually negotiating U.S. economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

    During their summit, Biden and Yoon announced new nuclear deterrence efforts that call for periodically docking U.S. nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea for the first time in decades and bolstering training between the two countries. They also committed to plans for bilateral presidential consultations in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, the establishment of a nuclear consultative group and improved sharing of information on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans.

    In her comments published on state media, Kim Yo Jong said the U.S.-South Korean agreement reflected the allies’ “most hostile and aggressive will of action” against the North and will push regional peace and security into “more serious danger.”

    Kim, who is one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said the summit further strengthened the North’s conviction to enhance its nuclear arms capabilities. She said it would be especially important for the North to perfect the “second mission of the nuclear war deterrent,” in an apparent reference to the country’s escalatory nuclear doctrine that calls for preemptive nuclear strikes over a broad range of scenarios where it may perceive its leadership as under threat.

    She lashed out at Biden over his blunt warning that North Korean nuclear aggression would result in the end of its regime, calling him senile and “too miscalculating and irresponsibly brave.” However, she said the North wouldn’t simply dismiss his words as a “nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage.”

    “When we consider that this expression was personally used by the president of the U.S., our most hostile adversary, it is threatening rhetoric for which he should be prepared for far too great an after-storm,” she said.

    “The more the enemies are dead set on staging nuclear war exercises, and the more nuclear assets they deploy in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, the stronger the exercise of our right to self-defense will become in direct proportion to them.”

    She called Yoon a “fool” over his efforts to strengthen South Korea’s defense in conjunction with its alliance with the United States and bolster the South’s own conventional missile capabilities, saying he was putting his absolute trust in the U.S. despite getting only “nominal” promises in return.

    “The pipe dream of the U.S. and (South) Korea will henceforth be faced with the entity of more powerful strength,” she said.

    South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, described her comments as “absurd” and insisted that they convey the North’s “nervousness and frustration” over the allies’ efforts to strengthen nuclear deterrence.

    Kim Yo Jong’s comments toward Biden were reminiscent of when her brother called former U.S. President Donald Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” while they exchanged verbal threats during a North Korean testing spree in 2017 that included flight tests of ICBMs and the North’s sixth nuclear test.

    Kim Jong Un later shifted toward diplomacy and held his first summit with Trump in Singapore in June 2018, where they issued aspirational goals for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

    But their diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of their second summit in February 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a limited surrender of their nuclear capabilities.

    Kim Yo Jong did not specify the actions the North is planning to take in response to the outcome of the U.S.-South Korea summit.

    Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the North will likely dial up military exercises involving its purported nuclear-capable missiles to demonstrate pre-emptive strike capabilities. The North may also stage tests of submarine-launched ballistic missile systems in response to the U.S. plans to send nuclear-armed submarines to the South, he said.

    Kim Jong Un said this month that the country has built its first military spy satellite, which will be launched at an unspecified date. The launch would almost certainly be seen by its rivals as a banned test of long-range missile technology.

    In March, he called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his increasing range of nuclear-capable missiles, as the North unveiled what appeared to be a new warhead possibly designed to fit on a variety of delivery systems. That raised questions on whether the North was moving closer to its next nuclear test, which U.S. and South Korean officials have been predicting for months.

    North Korea has long described the United States’ regular military exercises with South Korea as invasion rehearsals, although the allies described those drills as defensive. Many experts say Kim likely uses his rivals’ military drills as a pretext to advance his weapons programs and solidify his domestic leadership amid economic troubles.

    Facing growing North Korean threats, Yoon has been seeking stronger reassurances from the United States that it would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear weapons if the South comes under a North Korean nuclear attack.

    His government has also been expanding military training with the U.S., which included the allies’ biggest field exercises in years last month and separate drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group and advanced warplanes, including nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and F-35 fighter jets.

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  • Russian missile and drone attack in Ukraine kills 8 people

    Russian missile and drone attack in Ukraine kills 8 people

    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least eight people and striking a residential building in central Ukraine, officials said.

    Air raid sirens sounded around the capital in the first attack against the city in nearly two months and Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv, according to the Kyiv City Administration.

    There were no immediate reports of any missiles hitting targets in Kyiv but fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and a road in one neighborhood. No casualties were reported.

    But in Uman, around 215 kilometers (134 miles) south of Kyiv, two cruise missiles hit a nine-story residential building, killing at least six people and wounding 17, according to Ukrainian national police. Three children were rescued from the rubble, police said.

    “All the glass flew out, everything flew out, even the chandelier fell. Everything was covered in glass,” resident Olha Turina told The Associated Press at the scene.

    “Then there was an explosion. … We barely found our things and ran out,” she said.

    Turina, whose husband is fighting on the front lines, said one of her child’s classmates was missing.

    “I don’t know where they are, I don’t know if they are alive,” she said. “I don’t know why we have to go through all this. We never bothered anyone.”

    One of the people killed in the Uman attack was a 75-year-old who was in her apartment in a neighboring building and suffered internal bleeding from the shockwave of the blast, according to emergency personnel on the scene.

    Three body bags lay next to the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack. Soldiers, civilians and emergency crews searched through the rubble outside for more victims, while residents dragged belongings out of the damaged building.

    One woman, crying in shock, was taken away by rescue crews for help.

    A 31-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter were also killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional Governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were also wounded, and a private home and business were damaged.

    In Kyiv, the anti-aircraft system was activated, according to the Kyiv City Administration. Air raid sirens started at about 4 a.m., and the alert ended about two hours later.

    The attack was the first on the capital since March 9.

    The missiles were fired from aircraft operating in the Caspian Sea region, according to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

    Overall, he said, Ukraine intercepted 21 of 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 type cruise missiles launched, as well as the two drones.

    The attacks came as NATO announced that its allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia’s invasion and war, strengthening Kyiv’s capabilities as it contemplates launching a counteroffensive.

    Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine’s allies have sent “vast amounts of ammunition” and trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

    Some NATO partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, have also provided armored vehicles.

    The overnight attacks and comments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a “long and meaningful” phone call on Wednesday in their first known contact since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than a year ago.

    Though Zelenskyy said he was encouraged by Wednesday’s call and Western officials welcomed Xi’s move, it didn’t appear to improve peace prospects.

    Russia and Ukraine are far apart in their terms for peace, and Beijing — while looking to position itself as a global diplomatic power — has refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion. The Chinese government sees Russia as a diplomatic ally in opposing U.S. influence in global affairs, and Xi visited Moscow last month.

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    Andrea Rosa in Uman and Patrick Quinn in Bangkok contributed to this story.

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

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  • US to begin training Ukrainian troops on Abrams tank

    US to begin training Ukrainian troops on Abrams tank

    RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — The United States will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use and maintain Abrams tanks in the coming weeks, as it continues to speed up its effort to get them onto the battlefield as quickly as possible, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday.

    The decision comes as defense leaders from around Europe and the world are meeting at Ramstein Air Base, in the effort to coordinate the delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine.

    According to the officials, 31 tanks will arrive at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany at the end of May, and the troops will begin training a couple weeks later. Officials said the troop training will last about 10 weeks. The training tanks will not be the ones given to Ukraine for use in the war against Russia. Instead, 31 M1A1 battle tanks are being refurbished in the United States, and those will go to the frontlines when they are ready.

    Germany, meanwhile, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Poland and Ukraine to set up a maintenance hub for Kyiv’s Leopard 2 tank fleet in Poland, near the Ukrainian border. Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, told reporters he expects the hub to cost 150-200 million euros ($165-220 million) per year, which “we will split fairly, like everything else.” He said he expects it to start work around the end of next month

    The announcement came as ministers and representatives from about 50 nations gathered for the U.S.-led meeting of what’s called the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

    Austin, speaking to reporters at the close of the meeting, said the delivery of training tanks in the next few weeks represents “huge progress.” He added, “I’m confident this equipment — and the training that accompanied it — will put Ukraine’s forces in a position to continue to succeed on the battlefield.”

    The U.S. goal has been to have the Ukrainian troops trained by the time the refurbished Abrams tanks are ready so they can then immediately move to combat. The tanks are being refitted to meet Ukraine’s needs.

    Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that he believes the American tanks will be very effective on the battlefield. “I do think the M1 tank will make a difference,” he said, while cautioning “there is no silver bullet in war.”

    According to officials, about 250 Ukrainian troops will be trained — with some learning to operate the tanks and others learning to repair and maintain them. Additional training on how to fight and maneuver with the tanks could also be provided after the initial 10 weeks.

    So far, the U.S. has trained 8,800 Ukrainian troops who have already returned to the battlefield, and an additional roughly 2,500 are in training now. Their training has included everything from basic weapons instruction to how to conduct combat operations and maintain and repair equipment.

    In other comments, Austin dismissed questions about providing fighter jets to Ukraine, saying the U.S. is giving Ukraine ground-based air defense capabilities, which he said is needed most.

    President Joe Biden’s administration announced in January that it would send Abrams tanks to Ukraine — after insisting for months that they were too complicated and too hard to maintain and repair. The decision was part of a broader political maneuver that opened the door for Germany to announce it would send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow Poland and other allies to do the same.

    Under intense pressure from Ukraine and others to get the tanks into Ukraine faster, the Biden administration said last month that it would speed up the delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that can be ready faster. The goal is to get the 70-ton battle powerhouses to the war zone by the fall.

    The U.S. also made clear at the time that it would begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use, maintain and repair the tanks and that the instruction would coincide with the refurbishment of the tanks, so that both would be ready for battle at the same time later this year.

    At the same time, the Pentagon must make sure that Ukrainian forces have an adequate supply chain for all the parts needed to keep the tanks running.

    The Russian and Ukrainian forces have been largely in a stalemate, trading small slices of land over the winter. The fiercest battles have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is struggling to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the face of dogged Ukrainian defense. But both sides are expected to launch more intensive offensives in the spring.

    Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Friday in its daily war assessment that soft ground conditions and mud across most of Ukraine will probably slow operations for both sides.

    In other developments, Mykola Oleschuk, commander of Ukraine’s Air Forces, said Friday he had visited a U.S.-made Patriot missile system deployed on the battlefield after its recent delivery. Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that the Patriots had arrived.

    Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with Iranian-made self-exploding Shahed drones, the Ukrainian military said Friday. Russia launched about 10 drones at Ukraine targets, and eight of them were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

    At least six civilians have been killed and six more have been wounded in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported on Friday morning. According to Ukrainian officials, Russian shelling and missile strikes mostly targeted cities and villages in the embattled, partially occupied regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Outside of these regions, the Russian forces also attacked the Chernihiv province on Thursday from mortars. Overnight, Russia launched drones to attack Kyiv, as well as the Poltava and Vinnytsia regions.

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    Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine; Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin, and Yuras Karmananu contributed from Tallinn, Estonia.

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  • NATO head defiantly says Ukraine belongs in alliance one day

    NATO head defiantly says Ukraine belongs in alliance one day

    KYIV, Ukraine — NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declared Thursday that Ukraine deserves to join the military alliance and pledged continuing support for the country on his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion just over a year ago.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Stoltenberg, who has been instrumental in marshaling support from NATO’s members, to push for even more from them, including warplanes, artillery and armored equipment.

    The Kremlin has given various justifications for going to war, but repeated Thursday that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO was a key goal behind its invasion, arguing that Kyiv’s membership in the alliance would pose an existential threat to Russia.

    NATO leaders said in 2008 that Ukraine would join the alliance one day, and Stoltenberg has repeated that promise throughout the course of the war — though the organization has established no pathway or timetable for membership.

    “Let me be clear, Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family,” Stoltenberg told a press conference. “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.”

    He said he and Zelenskyy discussed a NATO support program.

    “This will help you transition from Soviet-era equipment and doctrines to NATO standards and ensure full interoperability with the alliance,” Stoltenberg said. “NATO stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.”

    He noted Thursday’s announcement by Denmark and the Netherlands that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least another 14 refurbished Leopard 2 battle tanks from early 2024. He added that he expected countries to “make new announcements of concrete military support to Ukraine” at a meeting Germany on Friday.

    The fighting in recent months has become a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain momentum. But Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive in coming weeks, and it has recently received sophisticated weapons from its Western allies.

    NATO has no official presence in Ukraine and provides only provides nonlethal support to Kyiv, but Stoltenberg has been the strong voice of the alliance throughout the war.

    A procession of international leaders has made the journey to Kyiv over the last year, and the former Norwegian prime minister is one of the last major Western figures to do so.

    NATO, formed to counter the Soviet Union, has long feared being dragged into a wide war with nuclear-armed Russia, but as the West has moved from hesitantly providing helmets and uniforms to tanks, warplanes and advanced missile systems, high-level visits have become routine.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO remains one of the goals of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.” Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Peskov said that Ukraine’s accession would pose a “serious, significant threat to our country, to our country’s security.”

    Earlier this month, Finland joined the alliance, setting aside decades of neutrality in a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape. While NATO says it poses no threat to Russia, the Nordic country’s accession dealt a major political blow to Putin.

    Finland’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Neighboring Sweden is expected to join in coming months, too, possibly by the time U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts meet in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July.

    The alliance has focused on bolstering defenses on its own territory to dissuade Putin from attacking any member country. Under NATO’s collective security guarantee, an attack on one member country is considered to be an attack on them all.

    On Friday, Stoltenberg will attend a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. It’s the main international forum for drumming up military support for the conflict-ravaged country.

    Meanwhile, the Ukraine Space Agency said Thursday that a bright flash of light in the night sky over the country the previous day was probably a meteorite entering the earth’s atmosphere. Residents of the capital and several cities in Belarus saw the flash of light, which lingered for a couple of seconds, and an explosion was heard in the Kyiv region. It triggered an air raid alarm in Kyiv.

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    Cook reported from Brussels.

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

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  • US Navy sails first drone through Mideast’s Strait of Hormuz

    US Navy sails first drone through Mideast’s Strait of Hormuz

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy sailed its first drone boat through the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies where American sailors often faces tense encounters with Iranian forces.

    The trip by the L3 Harris Arabian Fox MAST-13, a 13-meter (41-foot) speedboat carrying sensors and cameras, drew the attention of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, but took place without incident, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins. Two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, the USCGC Charles Moulthrope and USCGC John Scheuerman, accompanied the drone.

    The trip saw the drone safely pass with the accompanying ships through the strait, a busy waterway between Iran and Oman which at its narrowest is just 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide. A fifth of all oil traded passes through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

    “The Iranians observed the unmanned surface vessel transiting the strait in accordance with international law,” Hawkins told The Associated Press. He said an Iranian drone and at least one Houdong-class fast-attack vessel operated by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard observed the MAST-13 drone.

    The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet patrols Mideast waters, particularly the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, to keep open the waterways for international trade, as well as protect American interests and allies. However, Iran views the Navy’s presence as an affront, comparing it to its forces running patrols in the Gulf of Mexico.

    Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged the drone’s voyage, citing the AP. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

    The 5th Fleet launched a special drone task force last year, aiming to have a fleet of some 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible, operating in the region with America’s allies.

    Iran briefly seized several of the American drones being tested in the region in late August and early September, though there hasn’t been any similar incident since.

    The MAST-13 now is operating in the Gulf of Oman, where a maritime shadow war has played out as oil tankers have been seized by Iranian forces and suspicious explosions have struck vessels in the region, including those linked to Israeli and Western firms. Iran has denied involvement in the explosions, despite evidence from the West to the contrary.

    The MAST-13’s video feeds can transmit images back to shore and to ships at sea, helping sailors see ships before approaching them, Hawkins said. That can come in handy, particularly as the Navy and Western allies have increasingly seized weapons it believes were from Iran bound for Yemen.

    “It puts more eyes out on the water, enabling us to better monitor what is happening,” Hawkins said.

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    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP

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  • US-made Patriot guided missile systems arrive in Ukraine

    US-made Patriot guided missile systems arrive in Ukraine

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s defense minister said Wednesday his country has received the U.S-made Patriot surface-to-air guided missile systems it has long craved and which Kyiv hopes will help shield it from Russian airstrikes during the war.

    “Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a tweet.

    Ukrainian officials have previously said the arrival of Patriot systems, which Washington agreed to send last October, would be a major boost and a milestone in the war against Moscow’s full-scale invasion. It’s the latest contribution from Kyiv’s Western allies, who have also pledged tanks, artillery and some types of fighter jets as Ukraine gears up for an expected counteroffensive.

    China, on the other hand, insists it won’t help arm Russia, one of its key allies, and on Wednesday denied recent reports that Chinese drones have been found on Ukraine battlefields.

    Beijing maintains strict control over the export of drones in keeping with international standards preventing them from being used for nonpeaceful purposes, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

    China, which has repeatedly criticized the U.S. and other countries’ support for Ukraine as “adding fuel to the fire” of the war, has an “objective and fair stance” and seeks peace, the statement insisted.

    The Patriot can target aircraft, cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles. Russia has used that weaponry to bombard Ukraine, including residential areas and civilian infrastructure, especially the power supply over the winter.

    Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said late Tuesday that delivery of the system would be a landmark event, allowing Ukrainians to knock out Russian targets at a greater distance.

    Reznikov thanked the people of the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, without saying how many systems had been delivered nor when.

    Germany’s federal government website on Tuesday listed a Patriot system as among the military items delivered within the past week to Ukraine, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed that to lawmakers in Berlin on Wednesday.

    Baerbock also said Germany has delivered the second of four medium-range IRIS-T air defense systems that it pledged last year.

    Reznikov said he had first asked for Patriot systems when he visited the U.S. in August 2021, five months before the full-scale invasion by the Kremlin’s forces and seven years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. He described possessing the system as “a dream” but said he was told in the U.S. at the time that it was “impossible.”

    Ukrainian personnel have been trained on the Patriot battery, which can need as many as 90 troops to operate and maintain it.

    “Our air defenders have mastered (the Patriot systems) as far as they could. And our partners have kept their word,” Reznikov wrote.

    Experts have cautioned that the system’s effectiveness is limited, and it may not be a game changer in the war, even though it will add to Ukraine’s arsenal against its bigger enemy.

    The Patriot was first deployed by the U.S. in the 1980s. The system costs approximately $4 million per round and the launchers cost about $10 million each, analysts say. At such a cost, it’s not advantageous to use the Patriot to shoot down the far smaller and cheaper Iranian drones that Russia has been buying and using in Ukraine.

    Kyiv officials have reported daily civilian, but not military, casualties from Russian bombardment.

    At least four civilians were killed and 27 others were injured in Ukraine on Tuesday and overnight, the press office of Ukraine’s defense ministry reported.

    A 50-year-old man and 44-year-old woman were killed in a Russian airstrike on a border town in the northeastern Kharkiv region, its Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in televised remarks.

    Russian forces launched 12 rocket, artillery, mortar, tank and drone attacks on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, its Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said, killing one civilian at a market in the center of Kherson, the region’s namesake capital, and a nearby school.

    A woman was killed and another was wounded in northern Ukraine after Russian forces shelled the border village of Richki from multiple rocket launchers, the local military administration said.

    Russian forces also fired nighttime exploding drones at Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.

    ___ Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, Christopher Bodeen in Beijing, and Geir Moulson in Berlin, contributed to this report.

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

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  • Fighting rages in Sudan hours after cease-fire was to begin

    Fighting rages in Sudan hours after cease-fire was to begin

    KHARTOUM, Sudan — Fighting raged in Sudan on Tuesday hours after an internationally brokered truce was supposed to have come into effect, as forces loyal to dueling generals battled for key locations in the capital and accused each other of violating the cease-fire.

    The humanitarian truce came after days of intense efforts by top diplomats on four continents and had raised hopes of sparing Africa’s third largest country from civil war. But each side still appeared determined to vanquish the other, despite the suffering of millions of civilians trapped by the fighting.

    Residents said they still heard gunfire and explosions in different parts of the capital, Khartoum, particularly around the military’s headquarters and the Republican Palace. They said few people had ventured out, though there were crowds outside some bakeries.

    “The fighting remains underway,” Atiya Abdulla Atiya of the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate told The Associated Press. “We are hearing constant gunfire.”

    Millions of Sudanese in the capital and in other cities have been hiding in their homes, caught in the crossfire as rival forces pounded residential areas with artillery and airstrikes and engaged in gunbattles outside. Residents say dead bodies in the streets are unreachable because of clashes, with the toll likely to be far higher than the 185 dead reported by the U.N. since fighting began Saturday.

    The conflict between the armed forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has once again derailed Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after decades of dictatorship and civil war.

    Pro-democracy groups and political parties had recently reached an agreement with the two generals — who jointly led a 2021 coup — but it was never signed and is now in tatters.

    The RSF immediately accused the military of violating the cease-fire after it came into effect at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT). The army said the “rebellious militia” continued its attacks around the military headquarters and launched a failed attack on a military base to the south.

    The U.S. Embassy said late Tuesday that there has been “ongoing” fighting in Khartoum and surrounding areas, and advised Americans in Sudan to shelter in place. It said there were no immediate plans for a government-coordinated evacuation.

    Over the past day, fighters in Khartoum attacked a U.S. Embassy convoy and stormed the home of the EU envoy to Sudan, though neither attack caused casualties. The convoy of clearly marked U.S. Embassy vehicles was attacked Monday, and preliminary reports link the assailants to the RSF, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters.

    Blinken spoke by phone late Monday separately with both generals, seeking a 24-hour halt in fighting as a foundation for a longer truce and return to negotiations. Egypt, which backs the Sudanese military, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have close ties to the RSF, have also been calling on all sides to stand down.

    Dagalo said in a series of tweets Tuesday that he had approved a 24-hour humanitarian truce after speaking to Blinken. The military initially said the coming hours would bring the “crushing defeat” of the RSF and only publicly committed to the truce after it began.

    Shortly before the start of the cease-fire, a coalition of political parties and pro-democracy groups said it received “positive positions” from leaders of the military and the RSF on the daylong humanitarian pause. It said in a statement that discussions were underway to “solidify that truce.”

    More tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the military rolled into Khartoum early Tuesday, heading toward the military’s headquarters and the Republican Palace, residents said. During the night, fighter jets swooped overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky.

    Each side already has tens of thousands of troops distributed around Khartoum and the city of Omdurman on the opposite bank of the Nile River. Terrified residents trapped in their homes for days have hoped for a halt long enough at least to get supplies or move to safer areas. The fighting erupted suddenly at the start of the last week of the Islamic holy month of fasting, Ramadan.

    “We are trying to take advantage of Ramadan to try to continue our faith and prayer,” said Mohammed Al Faki, one of 89 students and staffers trapped in the engineering building at Khartoum University. “We are trying to help each other stay patient until this crisis is over.”

    One student was killed by a sniper, he said, and they buried his body on the campus. The students and staff have had to go out for supplies occasionally, risking harassment by RSF fighters battling troops nearby, he said.

    “They are attacking us on the streets. They are looting. If you are walking, they will take even your phone from you in the street,” the 19-year-old student said of the RSF.

    U.N. figures have put the toll from fighting at more than 185 dead and 1,800 wounded, without providing a breakdown of civilians and combatants. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said Tuesday that at least 144 civilians were killed and more than 1,400 wounded but that many dead could still not be reached to be counted.

    Videos posted online Tuesday showed Souq al-Bahri, a large outdoor market in northern Khartoum, in flames from nearby clashes. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken Monday showed damage across Khartoum, including to security service buildings. Tanks stood guard at a bridge over the White Nile River and other locations.

    Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC, also taken Monday, showed some 20 damaged civilian and military aircraft at Khartoum International Airport, which has a military section. Some had been completely destroyed, with one still belching smoke. At the El Obeid and Merowe air bases, north and south of Khartoum, several fighter jets were among the destroyed aircraft.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, tweeted Monday that the EU ambassador to Sudan “was assaulted in his own residency,” without providing further details.

    A Western diplomat in Cairo said the residence was ransacked by armed men in RSF uniforms. No one was hurt but the armed men stole several items, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

    Early on Sunday, the Norwegian ambassador’s residence was hit by a shell, causing damage but no injuries, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said.

    The fighting is the latest chapter in Sudan’s turmoil since a popular uprising four years ago helped depose long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

    Burhan and Dagalo jointly orchestrated an October 2021 coup, derailing efforts to enshrine a civilian government. Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses, and their forces have cracked down on pro-democracy activists.

    Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo recently agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups. But the signing was repeatedly delayed as tensions rose over the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and the future chain of command — tensions that exploded into violence Saturday. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Fay Abuelgasim in Beirut, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Matthew Lee in Karuizawa, Japan, contributed to this report.

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  • Putin hails Russian navy’s performance in Pacific drills

    Putin hails Russian navy’s performance in Pacific drills

    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed the military’s performance during massive naval drills that have involved the entire Russian Pacific Fleet — a show of force amid the tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.

    Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise that began Friday involves 167 warships, including 12 submarines, 89 aircraft and 25,000 troops.

    As part of the drills, Russia’s nuclear-capable long-range strategic bombers will “fly over the central part of the Pacific Ocean to imitate strikes against groups of enemy ships,” Shoigu said.

    Speaking during Monday’s meeting with Shoigu, Putin praised the navy’s “high level” performance and said that similar drills should be held in other areas.

    The Defense Ministry has declared that sectors in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan and the Avacha Bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula would be closed to sea and air traffic for the duration of practice torpedo and missile launches and artillery exercises.

    The ministry said that the drills were intended to “test the Pacific Fleet’s readiness to repel aggression.” The ministry described the briefing as a show of Russia’s “voluntary transparency.”

    The Russian military has concentrated the bulk of its forces on the front lines in Ukraine, but has also continued conducting regular drills across Russia to train its forces and demonstrate their readiness.

    The Pacific Fleet drills started just before Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu arrived in Russia on Sunday and met with Putin, who hailed close ties between Moscow and Beijing.

    Li’s talks with Shoigu would focus on “prospects of bilateral defense cooperation and acute issues of global and regional security,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

    On Friday, Shoigu noted that the scenario for the maneuvers envisages a response to an adversary’s attempt to make a landing on Sakhalin Island and the southern Kuril Islands.

    Japan asserts territorial rights to the Kuril Islands, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them in the final days of World War II, and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

    Last year, Russia announced it had suspended peace talks with Japan to protest Tokyo’s sanctions against Moscow over its action in Ukraine.

    Russia has built up its military presence on the islands in recent years, deploying advanced fighter jets, anti-ship missiles and air defense systems there.

    ___

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

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  • N. Korea says it tested new solid-fuel long-range missile

    N. Korea says it tested new solid-fuel long-range missile

    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Friday it has successfully test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile powered by solid propellants, a development that if confirmed could possibly provide the country with a harder-to-detect weapon targeting the continental United States.

    North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency issued the report a day after its neighbors detected the launch from an area near its capital of Pyongyang, which added to a spate of testing that so far involved more than 100 missiles fired into sea since the start of 2022.

    KCNA said the test was supervised on site by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who described the missile — named Hwasong-18 — as the most powerful weapon of his nuclear forces that would enhance counterattack abilities in the face of external threats created by the military activities of the United States and its regional allies.

    Kim pledged to further expand his nuclear arsenal so that his rivals “suffer from extreme anxiety and fear while facing an insurmountable threat, and be plunged into regrets and despair over their decisions.”

    North Korea has justified its weapons demonstrations as a response to the expanding military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which the North condemns as invasion rehearsals while using them as a pretext to push further its own weapons development.

    “Respected comrade Kim Jong Un said speeding up the development of evolving and more advanced and powerful weapons systems is our party and government’s consistent policy to respond to military threats and worsening security situation on the Korean Peninsula,” KCNA said.

    It cited Kim as saying that the Hwasong-18 would rapidly advance North Korea’s nuclear response posture and further support an aggressive military strategy that vows to maintain “nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation” against its rivals.

    “The Hwasong-18 weapons system to be run by the country’s strategic forces would play its mission and role to defend (North Korea), deter invasions and preserve the country’s safety as its most powerful method,” KCNA said.

    North Korea has tested various intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017 that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland, but its previous missiles were powered by liquid-fuel engines that need to be fueled relatively shortly before launch, as they cannot remain fueled for prolonged periods.

    An ICBM with built-in solid propellants would be easier to move and hide and could be fired more quickly, reducing the opportunities for opponents to detect and counter the launch. But it wasn’t immediately clear from Friday’s report how close the North has come to acquiring a functional solid-fuel ICBM that would be capable of reaching and striking the U.S. mainland.

    South Korea’s Defense Ministry maintains that North Korea hasn’t acquired a reentry vehicle technology needed to protect warheads for ICBMs from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry. Last month, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup also told lawmakers that North Korea hasn’t likely yet mastered the technology to place nuclear warheads on its most advanced short-range missiles targeting South Korea, though he acknowledged the country was making considerable progress on it.

    “This is a significant breakthrough for the North Koreans, but not an unexpected one,” Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

    “The primary significance of solid-fuel ICBMs is in terms of what they’ll do for the survivability of North Korea’s overall ICBM force,” he said.

    “Because these missiles are fueled at the time of manufacture and are thus ready to use as needed, they will be much more rapidly useable in a crisis or conflict, depriving South Korea and the United States of valuable time that could be useful to preemptively hunt and destroy such missiles.”

    KCNA described the Hwasong-18 as a three-stage missile but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the third stage was activated during the test. During the test, the missile’s first stage was set to a mode that would support a standard ballistic trajectory but the second and third stages were programmed to fly on higher angles after separations to avoid the territories of neighbors, KCNA said.

    The agency said the test didn’t threaten the security of other countries as the first and second stages fell into waters off the country’s eastern coast but it provided no details about how the test affected the third stage.

    Solid-fuel ICBMs highlighted an extensive wish list Kim announced under a five-year arms development plan in 2021, which also included tactical nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines and spy satellites.

    The North has fired around 30 missiles this year alone over 12 different launch events as both the pace of its weapons development and the U.S.-South Korean military exercises increase in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in years last month and separately held joint naval and air force drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group and nuclear-capable U.S. bombers.

    North Korea claimed the drills simulated an all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership. The United States and South Korea have described their exercises as defensive in nature and said that the expansion of those drills is necessary to cope with the North’s evolving threats.

    Experts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

    Nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear and missile program.

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  • China warns as US, Philippines stage combat drills

    China warns as US, Philippines stage combat drills

    MANILA, Philippines — China warned on Wednesday that a deepening security alliance between the United States and the Philippines should not harm its security and territorial interests and interfere in long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

    When asked to comment on the combat exercises between American and Filipino forces that started on Tuesday in the Philippines, the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Wednesday issued a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, who said that such drills “should not target any third party and should be conducive to regional peace and stability.”

    Wang did not say how China would respond if it concludes that the U.S.-Philippine security cooperation was hurting Beijing’s core interests.

    In Washington, the U.S. and Philippine defense and foreign secretaries met on Tuesday to discuss the development of nine Philippine military camps, where American forces have been allowed to stay indefinitely under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

    “These sites will support combined training exercises and interoperability between our forces to ensure that we’re even better prepared for future crises,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. He added the U.S. was allocating more than $100 million to build infrastructure at the sites, where Americans would be stationed.

    China has strongly opposed that agreement, which would allow American forces to establish military staging grounds and surveillance outposts in the northern Philippines across the sea from the Taiwan Strait and in western Philippine provinces facing the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety on historical grounds. Washington disputes China’s claims.

    Austin said he also discussed with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez, the U.S. delivery of much-needed defense equipment, including radars, unmanned aerial systems, military transport aircraft and coastal and air defense systems to Philippines over the next five to 10 years under a security assistance roadmap.

    This year’s Balikatan exercises between the treaty allies are the largest since the two sides started joint military combat-readiness exercises in the early 1990s. They will run until April 28 and involve more than 17,600 American and Filipino personnel and a small Australian contingent. About a dozen countries including Japan and India but not China were sending observers, organizers said.

    In a live-fire drill the allies will stage for the first time, U.S. and Filipino forces will sink a ship in Philippine territorial waters off western Zambales province on April 26 in a coordinated coastal artillery bombardment and airstrike, Col. Michael Logico, a Philippine spokesman for Balikatan, told reporters on Tuesday.

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been briefed about the live-fire drill and plans to watch it, Logico said.

    In Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, the exercises will involve beach assaults and retaking an island seized by enemy forces, Logico said.

    Marcos, who took office in June last year, has nurtured closer relations with Washington than his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who often lashed out at U.S. security policies while praising China and Russia. Duterte tried to abrogate a key defense pact that would have restrained American forces from entering the Philippines for large-scale war drills but later backpedaled from the effort.

    The drills are the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens an arc of alliances to better counter China, including in a possible confrontation over Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

    That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under Marcos to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea.

    The ongoing drills, which started in the early 1990s, will showcase U.S. warships, fighter jets, Patriot missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers and anti-tank Javelins, according to U.S. and Philippine military officials.

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  • China warns as US, Philippines stage combat drills

    China warns as US, Philippines stage combat drills

    MANILA, Philippines — China warned on Wednesday that a deepening security alliance between the United States and the Philippines should not harm its security and territorial interests and interfere in long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

    When asked to comment on the combat exercises between American and Filipino forces that started on Tuesday in the Philippines, the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Wednesday issued a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, who said that such drills “should not target any third party and should be conducive to regional peace and stability.”

    Wang did not say how China would respond if it concludes that the U.S.-Philippine security cooperation was hurting Beijing’s core interests.

    In Washington, the U.S. and Philippine defense and foreign secretaries met on Tuesday to discuss the development of nine Philippine military camps, where American forces have been allowed to stay indefinitely under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

    “These sites will support combined training exercises and interoperability between our forces to ensure that we’re even better prepared for future crises,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. He added the U.S. was allocating more than $100 million to build infrastructure at the sites, where Americans would be stationed.

    China has strongly opposed that agreement, which would allow American forces to establish military staging grounds and surveillance outposts in the northern Philippines across the sea from the Taiwan Strait and in western Philippine provinces facing the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety on historical grounds. Washington disputes China’s claims.

    Austin said he also discussed with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez, the U.S. delivery of much-needed defense equipment, including radars, unmanned aerial systems, military transport aircraft and coastal and air defense systems to Philippines over the next five to 10 years under a security assistance roadmap.

    This year’s Balikatan exercises between the treaty allies are the largest since the two sides started joint military combat-readiness exercises in the early 1990s. They will run until April 28 and involve more than 17,600 American and Filipino personnel and a small Australian contingent. About a dozen countries including Japan and India but not China were sending observers, organizers said.

    In a live-fire drill the allies will stage for the first time, U.S. and Filipino forces will sink a ship in Philippine territorial waters off western Zambales province on April 26 in a coordinated coastal artillery bombardment and airstrike, Col. Michael Logico, a Philippine spokesman for Balikatan, told reporters on Tuesday.

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been briefed about the live-fire drill and plans to watch it, Logico said.

    In Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, the exercises will involve beach assaults and retaking an island seized by enemy forces, Logico said.

    Marcos, who took office in June last year, has nurtured closer relations with Washington than his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who often lashed out at U.S. security policies while praising China and Russia. Duterte tried to abrogate a key defense pact that would have restrained American forces from entering the Philippines for large-scale war drills but later backpedaled from the effort.

    The drills are the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens an arc of alliances to better counter China, including in a possible confrontation over Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

    That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under Marcos to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea.

    The ongoing drills, which started in the early 1990s, will showcase U.S. warships, fighter jets, Patriot missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers and anti-tank Javelins, according to U.S. and Philippine military officials.

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  • China says Taiwan encirclement drills a ‘serious warning’

    China says Taiwan encirclement drills a ‘serious warning’

    BEIJING — Recent Chinese air and sea drills simulating an encirclement of Taiwan were intended as a “serious warning” to pro-independence politicians on the self-governing island and their foreign supporters, a Chinese spokesperson said Wednesday.

    The three days of large-scale air and sea exercises named Joint Sword that ended Monday were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week during a transit visit to the U.S. China had warned of serious consequences if that meeting went ahead.

    “The People’s Liberation Army recently organized and conducted a series of countermeasures in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding waters, which is a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a biweekly news conference.

    “It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

    China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary and regularly sends ships and warplanes into airspace and waters near the island.

    Such missions have grown more frequent in recent years, accompanied by increasingly bellicose language from the administration of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Any conflict between the sides could draw in the U.S., Taiwan’s closest ally, which is required by law to consider all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”

    China has kept up military pressure against Taiwan despite the formal conclusion of the drills. On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked 35 flights by People’s Liberation Army warplanes within the last 24 hours, and eight navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island.

    The vast majority of Taiwanese favor maintaining their current de-facto independent status, while Tsai has said there is no need for a formal declaration since the island democracy is already an independent nation.

    Despite that, China, which does not recognize Taiwan’s government institutions and has cut off contact with Tsai’s administration, routinely accuses her of plotting formal independence with outside backing — generally seen as referring to the U.S.

    “External forces are intensifying their endeavor of containing China with Taiwan as a tool,” Zhu said.

    Zhu also repeated China’s assertion that its military threats are “targeted at Taiwan’s independence separatist activities and interference from external forces, and by no means at our compatriots in Taiwan.”

    What that means in practical terms isn’t clear, although Beijing has long exploited political divisions within Taiwanese society, which boasts a robust democracy and strong civil liberties.

    “Taiwanese compatriots should clearly recognize the serious harm that the provocation of Taiwan independence forces poses to cross-strait relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, recognize the interests, distinguish right from wrong, and stand on the correct side of history,” Zhu said.

    The Chinese military issued a threat as it concluded the exercises, saying its troops “can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts.”

    In August, after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China conducted missile strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan and sent warships and warplanes over the median line of the Taiwan Strait. It also fired missiles over the island that landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone in a significant escalation.

    The most recent exercises focused more on air strength, with Taiwan reporting more than 200 flights by Chinese warplanes. On Monday alone, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry tracked 91 flights by Chinese warplanes.

    They also featured the use of China’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier, Shandong, which launched dozens of J-15 Flying Shark fighter missions during the exercises, according to Japanese officials.

    That came as the USS Nimitz Carrier group is operating in the South China Sea south of Taiwan and as American and Filipino forces hold their largest combat exercises in decades in Philippine waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

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  • China says Taiwan encirclement drills a ‘serious warning’

    China says Taiwan encirclement drills a ‘serious warning’

    BEIJING — Recent Chinese air and sea drills simulating an encirclement of Taiwan were intended as a “serious warning” to pro-independence politicians on the self-governing island and their foreign supporters, a Chinese spokesperson said Wednesday.

    The three days of large-scale air and sea exercises named Joint Sword that ended Monday were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week during a transit visit to the U.S. China had warned of serious consequences if that meeting went ahead.

    “The People’s Liberation Army recently organized and conducted a series of countermeasures in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding waters, which is a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a biweekly news conference.

    “It is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

    China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary and regularly sends ships and warplanes into airspace and waters near the island.

    Such missions have grown more frequent in recent years, accompanied by increasingly bellicose language from the administration of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Any conflict between the sides could draw in the U.S., Taiwan’s closest ally, which is required by law to consider all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”

    China has kept up military pressure against Taiwan despite the formal conclusion of the drills. On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked 35 flights by People’s Liberation Army warplanes within the last 24 hours, and eight navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island.

    The vast majority of Taiwanese favor maintaining their current de-facto independent status, while Tsai has said there is no need for a formal declaration since the island democracy is already an independent nation.

    Despite that, China, which does not recognize Taiwan’s government institutions and has cut off contact with Tsai’s administration, routinely accuses her of plotting formal independence with outside backing — generally seen as referring to the U.S.

    “External forces are intensifying their endeavor of containing China with Taiwan as a tool,” Zhu said.

    Zhu also repeated China’s assertion that its military threats are “targeted at Taiwan’s independence separatist activities and interference from external forces, and by no means at our compatriots in Taiwan.”

    What that means in practical terms isn’t clear, although Beijing has long exploited political divisions within Taiwanese society, which boasts a robust democracy and strong civil liberties.

    “Taiwanese compatriots should clearly recognize the serious harm that the provocation of Taiwan independence forces poses to cross-strait relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, recognize the interests, distinguish right from wrong, and stand on the correct side of history,” Zhu said.

    The Chinese military issued a threat as it concluded the exercises, saying its troops “can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts.”

    In August, after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China conducted missile strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan and sent warships and warplanes over the median line of the Taiwan Strait. It also fired missiles over the island that landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone in a significant escalation.

    The most recent exercises focused more on air strength, with Taiwan reporting more than 200 flights by Chinese warplanes. On Monday alone, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry tracked 91 flights by Chinese warplanes.

    They also featured the use of China’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier, Shandong, which launched dozens of J-15 Flying Shark fighter missions during the exercises, according to Japanese officials.

    That came as the USS Nimitz Carrier group is operating in the South China Sea south of Taiwan and as American and Filipino forces hold their largest combat exercises in decades in Philippine waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

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  • Taiwan’s Tsai says China not being ‘responsible’ with drills

    Taiwan’s Tsai says China not being ‘responsible’ with drills

    TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has condemned China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait, saying Tuesday that China did not demonstrate the “responsible” behavior of a major Asian nation.

    China’s three-day, large-scale drills that ended Monday were retaliation for Tsai’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week on her tour of Taiwan’s official and unofficial allies.

    “As the president, I represent our country in the world, whether it’s a visit to allied countries or stopping through in the U.S. and interacting with our international friends, and not only has this been going on for years, it’s the Taiwanese people’s shared expectation,” Tsai said in a short statement. “But China used this as a pretext to start military drills, creating instability in the Taiwan Strait and region. This is not the attitude of a responsible major nation in this region.”

    China sees such meetings as encouraging people who formal independence for the island, a step China’s ruling Communist Party says would lead to war. The sides split in 1949 after a civil war, and the government says the island is obliged to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary.

    The People’s Liberation Army issued a threat as it concluded the exercises. “The theater’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts,” the PLA’s eastern command said in a statement.

    In recent years, China has been increasing its military presence in the Taiwan Strait, with warplanes being sent on a near-daily basis and military drills being conducted in the waters and skies near Taiwan.

    Last August, after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China conducted missiles strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan, while also sending warships and war planes over the median line of the Taiwan Strait. It also fired missiles over the island itself which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, in a significant escalation.

    The exercises this time have focused more on air strength, with Taiwan reporting more than 200 flights by Chinese warplanes. On Monday alone, Taiwan’s defense ministry tracked 91 flights by Chinese warplanes.

    Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, citing the PLA, said the exercises simulated sealing off the island and striking important targets in waves.

    Tsai also urged the public to not believe any disinformation about Taiwan’s defenses, saying the military was fulfilling its duties and the public should encourage the forces. “Our nation’s soldiers and national security team will continue to stand fast at their posts to defend our country,” she said.

    As of Tuesday morning, Taiwan’s defense ministry said eight Chinese navy vessels were still in the waters surrounding the island.

    ___

    Find more AP coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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  • North Korean leader vows ‘offensive’ nuclear expansion

    North Korean leader vows ‘offensive’ nuclear expansion

    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to enhance his nuclear arsenal in more “practical and offensive” ways as he met with senior military officials to discuss the country’s war preparations in the face of his rivals’ “frantic” military exercises, state media said Tuesday.

    The meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills have intensified in recent weeks in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the commission’s members discussed unspecified issues related to strengthening defense capacities and perfecting war preparations to counter the threat posed by the allies’ drills, which the North portrays as invasion rehearsals.

    Kim reviewed the country’s frontline attack plans and various combat documents and stressed the need to bolster his nuclear deterrent with “increasing speed on a more practical and offensive” manner, KCNA said.

    The report did not specify the directions the North intended to take. KCNA also published photos of Kim talking to officials while pointing to certain spots on a blurred map that appeared to be of South Korea.

    KCNA said Kim and the military commission members analyzed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula “in which the U.S. imperialists and the (South) Korean puppet traitors are getting ever more undisguised in their moves for a war of aggression” and discussed preparation for proposed military actions that their enemy has no way of counteracting.

    The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in years last month and separately held joint naval and air force drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group and nuclear-capable U.S. bombers. KCNA claimed the drills simulated an all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats to occupy Pyongyang and decapitate its leadership.

    The United States and South Korea have described their exercises as defensive in nature and said that the expansion of those drills are necessary to cope with the North’s evolving threats. South Korea’s government did not immediately respond to Kim’s comments.

    Tensions are likely to be prolonged as the allies continue their drills and North Korea uses them as a pretext to advance weapons development and intensify military training involving its nuclear-capable missiles.

    The North Korean report came as South Korean officials said the North did not respond to South Korean calls placed over inter-Korean liaison and military hotlines for the fifth consecutive day. South Korean officials say North Korea cut off communications after the South last week urged the North to stop using without permission South Korean assets left at a now-shuttered joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

    The paused military hotlines are particularly concerning in a time of heightened tensions as they are intended to prevent accidental clashes along the rivals’ sea borders.

    South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Youngse, Seoul’s point man on the North, in a news conference Tuesday expressed “strong regret” over North Korea’s “unilateral and irresponsible attitude “over the communication lines and also warned of unspecified legal action over its use of the Kaesong assets.

    When asked about Kim’s comments during the military meeting, Kwon said it’s likely that North Korea currently sees the buildup of tensions as favorable to its interests and that Seoul is closely analyzing the North’s intent.

    South Korea pulled its companies out of Kaesong in 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test, removing the last remaining major symbol of cooperation between the rivals. North Korean state media recently showed what appeared to be South Korean commuter buses running in the streets of Kaesong and Pyongyang.

    North Korea in 2023 so far has fired around 30 missiles in 11 different launch events, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

    The North was already coming off a record year in weapons testing, after launching nearly 70 missiles in 2022.

    Experts say Kim’s provocative run in weapons displays is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic concessions from a position of strength.

    Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear weapons program.

    South Korean officials say North Korea may soon up the ante by staging more provocative displays of its military might, including its first nuclear test detonation since 2017.

    North Korea last month unveiled what appeared to be a new nuclear warhead designed to fit on various delivery systems as Kim called for his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on his growing range of weapons.

    North Korea has also issued veiled threats to test fire an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific, which would be seen as a major provocation as its previous long-range tests were conducted on high angles to avoid the territories of neighbors.

    The North also previously said it aims to finish preparations to launch a military spy satellite into space by April, an event its rivals would almost certainly see as a test of ICBM technology banned by international sanctions.

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  • US, Philippines hold largest war drills near disputed waters

    US, Philippines hold largest war drills near disputed waters

    MANILA, Philippines — The United States and the Philippines on Tuesday launch their largest combat exercises in decades that will involve live-fire drills, including a boat-sinking rocket assault in waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait that will likely inflame China.

    The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan — Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, where Washington has repeatedly warned China over its increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed sea channel and against Taiwan.

    The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in a possible confrontation over Taiwan.

    That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea by boosting joint military exercises with the U.S. and allowing rotating batches of American forces to stay in more Philippine military camps under a 2014 defense pact.

    About 12,200 U.S military personnel, 5,400 Filipino forces and 111 Australian counterparts are taking part in the exercises, the largest in Balikatan’s three-decade history. America’s warships, fighter jets as well as its Patriot missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers and anti-tank Javelins, would be showcased, according to U.S. and Philippine military officials.

    “We are not provoking anybody by simply exercising,” Col. Michael Logico, a Philippine spokesman for Balikatan, told reporters ahead of the start of the maneuvers.

    “This is actually a form of deterrence,” Logico said. “Deterrence is when we are discouraging other parties from invading us.”

    In a live-fire drill the allied forces would stage offshore for the first time, Logico said U.S. and Filipino forces would sink a 200-foot (61-meter) target vessel in Philippine territorial waters off the western province of Zambales this month in a coordinated airstrike and artillery bombardment.

    “We will hit it with all the weapons systems that we have, both ground, navy and air,” Logico said.

    That location facing the South China Sea and across the waters from the Taiwan Strait would likely alarm China, but Philippine military officials said the maneuver was aimed at bolstering the country’s coastal defense and was not aimed at any country.

    Such field scenarios would “test the allies’ capabilities in combined arms live-fire, information and intelligence sharing, communications between maneuver units, logistics operations, amphibious operations,” the U.S. Embassy in Manila said.

    Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines and four other governments and Beijing’s goal of annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary.

    China last week warned against the intensifying U.S. military deployment to the region. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a regular news briefing in Beijing that it “would only lead to more tensions and less peace and stability in the region.”

    The Balikatan exercises were opening in the Philippines a day after China concluded three days of combat drills that simulated sealing off Taiwan, following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week in California that infuriated Beijing.

    On Monday, the U.S. 7th Fleet deployed guided-missile destroyer USS Milius within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, a Manila-claimed coral outcrop which China seized in the mid-1990s and turned into one of seven missile-protected island bases in the South China Sea’s hotly contested Spratlys archipelago. The U.S. military has been undertaking such “freedom of navigation” operations for years to challenge China’s expansive territorial claims in the busy seaway.

    “As long as some countries continue to claim and assert limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law, the United States will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the sea guaranteed to all,” the 7th Fleet said. “No member of the international community should be intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms.”

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  • China military displays force toward Taiwan after Tsai trip

    China military displays force toward Taiwan after Tsai trip

    Taiwan’s defense ministry says China’s military sent several dozen warplanes and 11 warships toward the island in a display of force following its president’s trip to the U.S. The Chinese military earlier had announced “combat readiness patrols” as a w…

    ByHUIZHONG WU Associated Press

    TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s military sent several dozen warplanes and 11 warships toward Taiwan in a display of force following its president’s trip to the U.S., the island’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

    The Chinese military earlier had announced three-day “combat readiness patrols” as a warning to Taiwan, a self-ruled island which China claims as its own. The actions follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s delicate diplomatic mission to shore up Taiwan’s dwindling alliances in Central America and boost U.S. support, a trip capped with a sensitive meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. A U.S. congressional delegation also met with Tsai over the weekend in Taiwan after she returned.

    China responded to the McCarthy meeting by imposing a travel ban and financial sanctions against those associated with Tsai’s U.S. trip and with increased military activity.

    Between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, a total of 70 planes were detected and half crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. Among the planes that crossed the median were 8 J-16 fighter jets, 4 J-1 fighters, 8 Su-30 fighters and reconnaissance planes.

    That followed a full day between Friday and Saturday, where eight warships and 71 planes were detected near Taiwan, according to the island’s Defense Ministry. The ministry said in a statement it was approaching the situation from the perspective of “not escalating conflict, and not causing disputes.”

    Taiwan said it monitored the Chinese moves through its land-based missile systems, as well as on its own navy vessels.

    In addition to combat readiness patrols, China’s People’s Liberation Army would hold “live fire training” in Luoyuan Bay in China’s Fujian province opposite Taiwan, the local Maritime Authority announced over the weekend.

    China’s military harassment of Taiwan has intensified in recent years with planes or ships sent toward the island on a near-daily basis, with the numbers rising in reaction to sensitive activities.

    Taiwan split with China in 1949 after a civil war. China’s ruling Communist Party says the island is obliged to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary. Beijing says contact with foreign officials encourages Taiwanese who want formal independence, a step the ruling party says would lead to war.

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  • China military displays force toward Taiwan after Tsai trip

    China military displays force toward Taiwan after Tsai trip

    Taiwan’s defense ministry says China’s military sent several dozen warplanes and 11 warships toward the island in a display of force following its president’s trip to the U.S. The Chinese military earlier had announced “combat readiness patrols” as a w…

    ByHUIZHONG WU Associated Press

    TAIPEI, Taiwan — China’s military sent several dozen warplanes and 11 warships toward Taiwan in a display of force following its president’s trip to the U.S., the island’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

    The Chinese military earlier had announced three-day “combat readiness patrols” as a warning to Taiwan, a self-ruled island which China claims as its own. The actions follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s delicate diplomatic mission to shore up Taiwan’s dwindling alliances in Central America and boost U.S. support, a trip capped with a sensitive meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. A U.S. congressional delegation also met with Tsai over the weekend in Taiwan after she returned.

    China responded to the McCarthy meeting by imposing a travel ban and financial sanctions against those associated with Tsai’s U.S. trip and with increased military activity.

    Between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, a total of 70 planes were detected and half crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. Among the planes that crossed the median were 8 J-16 fighter jets, 4 J-1 fighters, 8 Su-30 fighters and reconnaissance planes.

    That followed a full day between Friday and Saturday, where eight warships and 71 planes were detected near Taiwan, according to the island’s Defense Ministry. The ministry said in a statement it was approaching the situation from the perspective of “not escalating conflict, and not causing disputes.”

    Taiwan said it monitored the Chinese moves through its land-based missile systems, as well as on its own navy vessels.

    In addition to combat readiness patrols, China’s People’s Liberation Army would hold “live fire training” in Luoyuan Bay in China’s Fujian province opposite Taiwan, the local Maritime Authority announced over the weekend.

    China’s military harassment of Taiwan has intensified in recent years with planes or ships sent toward the island on a near-daily basis, with the numbers rising in reaction to sensitive activities.

    Taiwan split with China in 1949 after a civil war. China’s ruling Communist Party says the island is obliged to rejoin the mainland, by force if necessary. Beijing says contact with foreign officials encourages Taiwanese who want formal independence, a step the ruling party says would lead to war.

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  • Blast at north Iraqi airport raises tension in Kurdish area

    Blast at north Iraqi airport raises tension in Kurdish area

    BAGHDAD — An explosion struck next to the Suleimaniyah International Airport in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region Friday, local officials said.

    The blast came days after Turkey closed its airspace to flights to and from the airport, citing an alleged increase in Kurdish militant activity threatening flight safety.

    Turkey has spent years fighting Kurdish militants in its east. Large Kurdish communities also live in neighboring Iraq and Syria where they have a degree of self-rule.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor, and some local media reported that the explosion was a Turkish drone attack on Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force in Syria.

    Officials with the SDF and the Kurdish regional government in northeast Syria denied that Abdi was in Suleimaniyah at the time or had been the target of an attack.

    Fethullah al-Husseini, a representative of the Kurdish self-rule administration in northeast Syria, said Abdi was “carrying on his work and is in northeast Syria.”

    The airport’s security directorate said in a statement that an explosion took place near the fence surrounding the airport at 4:18 p.m. local time, causing a fire but no injuries. It said the cause of the blast was under investigation and the airport was operating normally.

    Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media affairs for the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, said investigations were still underway and that he was unable to confirm whether the explosion had been a drone attack.

    However, a statement from the Iraqi Kurdish regional government appeared to blame local authorities in Suleimaniyah, which it accused of provoking an “attack” on the airport and using “government institutions” for “illegal activities.”

    The regional government, with its seat in Irbil, is primarily controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Party, while Suleimaniyah is a stronghold of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

    Two Kurdish officials in Irbil, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the incident with reporters, said that the explosion was caused by a drone attack. One of them said the attack had targeted Abdi.

    A representative of the Turkish defense ministry said he had no information about the incident.

    Turkey’s foreign ministry announced Wednesday that Turkish airspace was closed to flights taking off from and landing at the Suleimaniyah airport.

    Turkish officials said the closure was a response to an alleged increase in the activities of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the city of Suleimaniyah, including its “infiltration” of the airport.

    The decision came weeks after two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq, killing Kurdish militants who were on board. The incident fueled claims that the PKK was in possession of helicopters, infuriating Turkish authorities.

    The SDF later said it lost nine fighters, including a commander, in the crash, which occurred during bad weather on a flight to Suleimaniyah. The nine included elite fighters who were in Iraq as part of an “exchange of expertise” in the fight against the Islamic State group, the SDF said.

    Officials from the Kurdish Democratic Party, which has maintained largely good relations with Turkey, alleged after the crash that the helicopters had been originally purchased by the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and that they had been flying without permission from the regional government.

    The Kurdish regional government was forced last month to stop exporting nearly half a million barrels of oil through via a pipeline to Turkey. That followed a decision by the International Chamber of Commerce siding with the central Iraqi government in Baghdad in a long-standing dispute over the independent export of oil by the Kurdish region.

    Last week Baghdad and Irbil reached a deal to resume the oil exports.

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    Associated Press writers Hogir Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, Suzan Fraser in Istanbul and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report. Abdul-Zahra reported from Boston.

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