Category Archives: Military

Sonic boom: loud bang that shook London caused by supersonic fighter jets

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Typhoon jets scrambled in response to plane that was not answering air traffic control

A huge bang heard across London and in Hertfordshire just after 4am on Sunday was caused by RAF jets going supersonic, the Met and the MoD said.

“Two Typhoon fighter aircraft from RAF Coningsby were scrambled at 0409 this morning, as part of the UK’s Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) procedures, after an aircraft lost communications in UK airspace,” said the Ministry of Defence. “The aircraft was intercepted and its communications were subsequently re-established. The Typhoons are returning to their base.”

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British government and army accused of covering up war crimes

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Alleged evidence implicates UK troops in murder of children in Afghanistan and Iraq

The UK government and the British army have been accused of covering up the killing of children in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Leaked documents allegedly contain evidence implicating troops in killing children and the torture of civilians.

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The US and Britain face no existential threat. So why do their wars go on? | Simon Jenkins

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Endless conflicts in the Middle East have cost us dear, yet all we hear are absurdities about ‘keeping our streets safe from terror’

Why does no one mention the war? The most militaristic, belligerent and chauvinist country I know – and also love – is the US. People fly flags from every post and see “bad guys” under every bed. When the president, Donald Trump, vows to leave the Middle East he is condemned as a traitor even by his fans.

The second most belligerent is Britain, albeit less so. With America, it is continuing to fight the so-called “wars of 9/11”, 18 years after they began – battling in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, in Britain’s case covertly. There is not the remotest sign of “victory” in sight. Somehow they are not seen as wars, just the licensed killing of foreigners.

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Field Marshal Lord Bramall obituary

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Former chief of the defence staff who served at D-day and was later embroiled in the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Midland

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, who has died aged 95, was chief of the defence staff from 1982 until 1985, the pinnacle of a long military career that began just in time to land him on the beaches of Normandy as a freshly minted second lieutenant in the D-day invasion of June 1944.

But in March 2015 he was drawn into the saga of claims of historical paedophilia and child abuse in high places that began with the unmasking of Jimmy Savile in 2012. Bramall’s cottage in a village near Farnham, Surrey, was raided by police as part of a co-ordinated initiative that also included the homes of Lord (Leon) Brittan, the former home secretary, who died in January 2015. All this was part of Operation Midland, set up by the Metropolitan police in response to allegations against a number of notable public figures.

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Public invited to 100-year-old Jamaican war veteran’s funeral

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Oswald Dixon served in RAF in second world war and died at care home in Salford

A care home is inviting members of the public to attend the funeral of a second world war veteran from Jamaica with no family in the UK.

Oswald Dixon died on 25 September aged 100 after living his last four years at a home for retired service personnel in Salford, Greater Manchester.

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What is the Stakeknife scandal, and what happens next?

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More than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members may be considered for prosecution

The agent code named “Stakeknife” was one of British military intelligence’s most valued assets, operating inside the Provisional IRA. Recruited in the late 1970s, the spy rose through the IRA’s ranks in Belfast to become head of the paramilitary group’s informer-hunting unit known as “the nutting squad”. He had the power of life and death over IRA members accused of being informers for the security forces during the Troubles. His unit used torture methods to extract admissions from those in the IRA accused of treachery. Often their so-called “confessions” were taped and on occasion played to their close relatives to convince them that the victim had been “guilty” of treachery.

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British spy in IRA and 20 others could be charged with Troubles-era crimes

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Belfast prosecutors considering action against ‘Stakeknife’ and his British army handlers

A police inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in the history of British intelligence has recommended that more than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members be considered for prosecution, the Guardian has learned.

Operation Kenova, the multimillion-pound investigation into “Stakeknife” – the army agent at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles – has now sent files identifying military commanders and at least one IRA veteran with a so-called “get-out-of-jail” card to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast.

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Army investigates soldier who sent death threat to Angela Rayner

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Labour MP received tweet as MPs urged Boris Johnson to tone down his language

The army and police are investigating after a soldier sent a death threat to the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, defence officials have said.

The commander of the British field army, Lt Gen Ivan Jones, and the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, denounced the message, which was posted on Twitter on Wednesday, as MPs pleaded with the prime minister to tone down his Brexit rhetoric, saying they feared it would incite violence against them.

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Ex-Google worker fears ‘killer robots’ could cause mass atrocities

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Engineer who quit over military drone project warns AI might also accidentally start a war

A new generation of autonomous weapons or “killer robots” could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned.

Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned.

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Royal Navy ship shadows Russian vessel through Channel

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HMS Forth deployed to accompany the Vasily Bykov navy patrol ship through UK waters

A Royal Navy patrol ship has been deployed to shadow a Russian ship through the Channel.

Portsmouth-based HMS Forth had just returned to UK waters from her first foreign port visit when it was scrambled to monitor the Russian patrol ship Vasily Bykov.

A Navy spokesman said: “Forth had departed Gibraltar on 31 July, before heading north at speed and conducting heavy weather trials before a quick logistics stop in Devonport.

“She then sailed and positioned herself ready to meet the Vasily Bykov as the vessel sailed from the North Sea having taken part in Russia’s Navy Days celebration in St Petersburg.”

HMS Forth’s executive officer Lt Samuel Fields said: “It has been a particularly busy time for HMS Forth as we generate for deployed operations and continue to test our ship’s capabilities.

“I am proud of the ship’s company for rising to this additional challenge.”

The Vasily Bykov was previously shadowed by HMS Forth through the UK’s area of interest last month.

Frigate HMS Westminster was also deployed during the weekend to shadow the Chinese warship Xian up the Channel.

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UK joins US in mission to protect oil tankers in Gulf

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No other European countries have signed up to US-led mission to ‘uphold international navigation’

Britain is to join a mission with the US to protect oil tankers in the Gulf from seizure by Iran, but London has said no other European countries have so far been persuaded to sign up.

The UK will supply two Royal Navy ships in the Gulf alongside two US warships while British ministers urge other countries to join in as the operation is finalised.

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‘Do not put your life in danger’: Iran reveals exchange with UK warship – audio

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards have released audio of an exchange in which a UK warship is told not to intervene in the capture of a British-flagged tanker on 19 July. Iranian commandos seized the Stena Impero near the strait of Hormuz two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar over concerns it was defying EU sanctions by transporting oil to Syria

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British troops to join force countering Mali militants

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Defence minister agrees to help in one of most dangerous missions undertaken by the UN

British troops will be deployed in Mali next year to join in the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

The 250-strong force will provide a long-range reconnaissance capability for the United Nations deployment in the troubled African country which has struggled to decisively counter Islamic militants, armed separatists and traffickers.

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Iran releases footage of seized oil tanker crew – video

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The country's state TV has shown video of the crew onboard the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero. The Revolutionary Guards captured the ship, with its 23-strong crew, and took it to Bandar Abbas, one of Iran’s main military ports

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Gulf crisis: story began with UK’s seizure of Iranian-flagged ship in Gibraltar

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Grace 1 was impounded over claim it was bound for Syria – but diplomats knew there might be consequences

The morning after a group of 30 Royal Marines helped seize the Iranian-flagged Grace 1 in Gibraltar, tired Foreign Office officials did not look exactly jubilant. There was not exactly a sense of foreboding, but diplomats were aware of the wider bilateral consequences for British-Iranian relations.

Related: Hunt 'extremely concerned' as Iran seizes two British-linked oil tankers

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Iran claims to have seized British oil tanker in strait of Hormuz

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UK government urgently seeking information after Stena Impero veered into Iranian waters

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed on Friday evening to have seized a British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, which suddenly veered off course and headed into Iranian waters.

The ship’s owners issued a statement saying that at 3pm GMT (7pm local time), the ship had been “approached by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter during transit of the strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters”.

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UK to send a second warship to the Gulf amid crisis with Iran

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MoD says destroyer will be deployed within days to protect British commercial oil tankers

The UK is stepping up its military presence in the Gulf by sending a second warship to the region to protect British commercial oil tankers, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The HMS Duncan, a Type 45 destroyer, will be deployed within days after it completed a course of Nato exercises in the Baltic Sea with the aim to be in the Gulf region by next week.

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UK ships in Gulf on high alert after Royal Navy trains guns on Iranian vessels

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Fears commercial vessels at risk from gunboats following HMS Montrose’s intervention

British ships operating in the Gulf have been put on the highest state of alert amid fears that UK-flagged commercial vessels are vulnerable to attack by Iranian gunboats.

The change in guidance from the British government, changing the alert to level 3, was made on Tuesday, a day before a Royal Navy warship trained its guns on Iranian gunboats that tried to disrupt the passage of an Isle of Man-flagged vessel. Level 3 is described as equivalent to the domestic security classification of critical in which there is an imminent risk of an incident.

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African war veterans paid less than white peers will not get UK payout

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Minister says full investigation into the matter would require ‘extensive resources’

The government has quietly ruled out compensating black African veterans of the second world war who were paid a third as much as their white counterparts.

Following months of silence since the Guardian and al-Jazeera first revealed the discriminatory policy, the defence minister Tobias Ellwood has privately told MPs there were “no current plans to take forward any further investigations of this matter”.

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Universal credit is failing military veterans, study finds

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Veterans with complex needs report overwhelmingly negative experiences of benefits system

Ex-service personnel with physical and mental health issues have described how they felt ignored and let down by their country after falling foul of a social security system that failed to offer adequate support when they fell on hard times.

Research has found that many armed forces veterans with complex needs report overwhelmingly negative experiences of universal credit, fit-for-work tests used to gauge eligibility for disability benefits, and benefit sanctions.

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