Category Archives: Military

MoD claim of one civilian death in Isis raids ridiculed

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RAF says 4,315 Isis fighters were killed or injured in airstrikes and just one civilian

The Ministry of Defence claim that the RAF killed only one civilian in thousands of airstrikes against Isis has been dismissed as ludicrous and “stretching credibility”.

According figures released by the MoD following a freedom of information request by the charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the RAF strikes between 2014 and January this year killed or injured 4,315 of the group’s fighters. It said 90% of those were killed.

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Salisbury officially ruled safe 12 months after Skripal poisoning

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Huge and hazardous military clean-up operation on 12 sites comes to an end

The city of Salisbury has been judged safe almost 12 months after the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok.

The former spy’s house and 11 other potentially infected sites will be officially ruled safe on Friday following a huge and hazardous clean-up.

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Four D-day veterans awarded France’s top honour 75 years on

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Official commemorations of the battle on 6 June to honour the ‘enormous sacrifice’

The defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, has urged veterans to continue to pass their stories on to future generations, as the 100-day countdown to the 75th anniversary of D-day begins.

Related: Parachutists to fill skies over Normandy on 75th anniversary of D-day

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Key army reports ‘hidden’ from new Deepcut inquest

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Evidence on barracks life will not be given at hearing this week into death of Private Geoff Gray, letter claims

An inquest into the death of a teenage army recruit has been plunged into controversy ahead of its opening this week. The Ministry of Defence has been forced to deny claims that key internal reports cataloguing life at Deepcut barracks, where four trainee soldiers died from bullet wounds over a seven-year period, will not be submitted as evidence at the inquest into the death of Private Geoff Gray.

The 17-year-old died from two gunshot wounds to the head sustained while on guard duty in September 2001. As with the three other trainee deaths, the original inquest recorded a verdict of suicide.

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Spanish warship orders Gibraltar boats to leave British waters

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Royal Navy sends boats after threat to commercial vessels anchored off UK territory

A Spanish warship has ordered commercial vessels to leave British waters, Gibraltar’s government said.

The warship’s crew can be heard in an audio recording of a radio exchange on Sunday telling vessels anchored at the Rock to “leave Spanish territorial waters”. Royal Navy boats were deployed in response to the incident.

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Williamson accused of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ over China warship threat

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Philip Hammond’s planned trip to Beijing reportedly scuppered by defence secretary’s remarks

Philip Hammond is not going to China this weekend for trade talks, following reports that Beijing scuppered advanced preparations for a meeting after the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, threatened to deploy a warship in the Pacific.

The UK chancellor was expected to meet the Chinese vice premier, Hu Chunhua, but Treasury sources said the trip was never confirmed. It is believed that there is an internal row brewing between the Treasury and the defence department over Williamson’s remarks, which the former chancellor George Osborne described as a throwback to an era of “gunboat diplomacy”.

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Compensate African second world war veterans, Labour urges

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Government urged to make amends to ex-soldiers, who were underpaid and beaten

Pressure is mounting on the government to compensate and apologise to Britain’s last surviving African veterans of the second world war after three shadow secretaries of state called on their Conservative counterparts to acknowledge the systematic discrimination of colonial-era troops.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry, Nia Griffith and Dan Carden – the shadow foreign, defence and international development secretaries – demanded in a letter that Theresa May’s administration acknowledge the unfair treatment, launch an investigation into the matter, issue a formal apology and pay veterans compensation.

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Africans who fought for British army paid less than white soldiers

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Document reveals more than 500,000 black soldiers were underpaid in second world war

More than half a million black African soldiers who fought in the British army during the second world war were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts, a newly unearthed document has revealed, prompting calls for an investigation and the government to compensate surviving veterans.

The document, buried in Britain’s national archives, reveals how the government systematically discriminated against African soldiers, paying white personnel – even those living in African colonies and serving alongside African soldiers in British colonial units – far more than their black counterparts.

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Parachutists to fill skies over Normandy on 75th anniversary of D-day

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Wartime aircraft will fly in 6 June event commemorating day that turned tide of war

The skies over the UK and Normandy will be filled with wartime Dakota aircraft as hundreds of parachutists take part in a mass airdrop to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in June.

The plans, unveiled by Imperial War Museums (IWM), are part of a programme on an “unprecedented scale” for the commemoration of the greatest seaborne invasion in history, to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, on 6 June 1944.

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SAS member helped secure Nairobi hotel complex

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Soldier, who was reportedly in Kenya to train special forces, took part in operation against attackers

A member of the SAS helped secure a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi after 14 people, including a Briton, were killed in a militant attack.

Another Briton was wounded as gunmen stormed the dusitD2 complex in the Westlands district of the Kenyan capital on Tuesday afternoon, setting off explosions and shooting people.

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France steps up efforts to prevent Channel crossings

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French authorities to improve cooperation with UK and increase coastal surveillance

The French authorities have set out plans to prevent people in small boats risking the dangerous Channel crossing to England.

Measures being taken include improved cooperation between law enforcement agencies and more surveillance and security on beaches along the northern French coastline.

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Naval ship deployed to Channel to intercept refugee vessels

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HMS Mersey’s mission follows request for military assistance from the home secretary, Sajid Javid

The Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Mersey has been deployed to the Channel to help deal with people attempting to cross to the UK from France, ministers have confirmed.

The move came after a formal request for military assistance from the home secretary, Sajid Javid. The deployment will be financed by the Home Office.

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