Russia casts a long shadow nowadays, especially if you’re a neighbor. Armed with heavy tanks, jet fighters, long-range missiles, and the world’s slickest state-sponsored cyber-criminals, Russia is a very different threat from the so-called Islamic State, the Taliban, or even China. So how must the US and its NATO allies change gears, mindset and tactics to cope? Last week, I ... Read More »
Well-wishers mill around the entrances of the two main hospitals in this city in east-central Ukraine — men who greet friends with hugs and backslaps or share a cigarette, women who arrive to visit the wounded, sorting food parcels and pouring cups of sweet tea. Inside the two hospitals, one civilian-run and one military, the medical staffs are busy treating ... Read More »
Ukrainians have been promised sweeping change in the seven months since their collective anger chased the last president out of his mansion. The low-grade war against Russia and its proxies in the east would be brought to a close, with Ukraine kept whole. A new chapter in political and economic relations would be opened with Europe. A concerted effort to ... Read More »
A 22-centimeter-long crack discovered in a German Sea Lynx Mk88 helicopter has grounded 21 of the Navy’s 22-strong Sea Lynx fleet, according to the Defense Ministry. The crack appeared on the hoist arm of a Sea Lynx onboard the frigate Lübeck, currently at sea, in the region of the tail rotor, a ministry spokesman said. As other Sea Lynx have ... Read More »
In a stunning sweep of the Yemeni capital, the country’s Shiite rebels seized homes, offices and military bases of their Sunni foes on Monday, forcing many into hiding and triggering an exodus of civilians from the city after a week of fighting that left 340 people dead. It was the latest development in the Hawthi blitz, which has plunged volatile ... Read More »
President Barack Obama will meet with top leaders of Iraq and Egypt on the sidelines of a United Nations gathering in New York this week as he tries to solidify a global coalition to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the White House announced Monday afternoon. Obama’s meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Thursday is expected ... Read More »
Israeli special forces stormed a West Bank hideout early on Tuesday and killed two Palestinians suspected in the June abduction and slaying of three Israeli teenagers, a gruesome attack that had triggered a chain of events that led to the war in Gaza this summer. The deaths of the two suspects, identified by the Israeli military as well-known Hamas militants, ... Read More »
The Israeli military said Tuesday morning that it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had “infiltrated into Israeli airspace,” the first such incident in at least a quarter of a century. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the Patriot air-defense system had intercepted a Russian-made Sukhoi warplane over the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights around 9:15 a.m. Brig. ... Read More »
Over this past weekend, Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group that is headquartered in Lebanon, reportedly used drones to bomb a building used by the al Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front, along Lebanon’s border with Syria. The armed drones, combined with fire from Hezbollah ground troops, killed 23 Nusra Front militants and wounded some 10 others, according to a report by an ... Read More »
A Chinese surveillance ship has been detected observing the Valiant Shield military exercise from within the United States’ exclusive economic zone — a move the U.S. actually doesn’t mind. One Chinese auxiliary general intelligence vessel has been watching most of Valiant Shield since it began Sept. 15 in and around Guam, military officials said Monday. The exercise, which ends Tuesday, ... Read More »
Australia has to choose its defense technology programs carefully. While the country expects to field advanced armed forces, with a population of 24 million it lacks the money and depth of engineering expertise for much domestic development. But for decades Australia has tirelessly pursued one particularly difficult program: Jindalee, an over-the-horizon radar system that answers the national problem of how ... Read More »
A university professor who has become the most visible symbol of peaceful resistance by ethnic Uighurs to Chinese policies was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of separatism by court officials in the western region of Xinjiang, which Uighurs consider their homeland. The punishment handed down to Ilham Tohti was the harshest that Chinese officials ... Read More »
If the world doesn’t get the Ebola outbreak in West Africa under control quickly, the disease could become a permanent fixture in the region, spreading as routinely as malaria or the flu, the World Health Organization warns today in a new report. Although some experts dispute that dire scenario, many agree that the virus could circulate for years if it’s ... Read More »
The number of Ebola cases in West Africa could quadruple to more than 20,000 by early November in the absence of monumental efforts to slow the rate of transmission, according to a team of researchers working for the World Health Organization. The report, outlined Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also argues that if the disease isn’t adequately ... Read More »
The gravedigger hacked at the cemetery’s dense undergrowth, clearing space for the day’s Ebola victims. A burial team, in protective suits torn with gaping holes, arrived with fresh bodies. The backs of the battered secondhand vans carrying the dead were closed with twisted, rusting wire. Bodies were dumped in new graves, and a worker in a short-sleeve shirt carried away ... Read More »
SOFX The Crossroads of Special Operations