Category Archives: US Military

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin transfers duties to deputy after being hospitalised

Posted on by

Biden’s top military adviser is receiving treatment for an ‘emergent bladder issue’, with deputy Kathleen Hicks taking over his duties

Joe Biden’s top military adviser, Lloyd Austin, has been hospitalized because of an “emergent bladder issue”, and has transferred his duties to deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks.

The defense secretary’s admission to Walter Reed national military medical center was announced early Sunday evening, with the Pentagon outlining his condition in a statement.

Continue reading...

Five US marines confirmed dead in helicopter crash in California mountains

Posted on by

Names of troops not yet released after aircraft went down in stormy weather in mountains near San Diego

Five marines who disappeared in a helicopter crash in the mountains outside San Diego, California, were confirmed dead, the military said on Thursday morning.

The names of the marines were not immediately released. They were first reported missing on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Missing marine helicopter with five onboard found near San Diego

Posted on by

Aircraft located near Pine Valley but snowy conditions hamper rescue teams trying to access it

A Marine Corps helicopter that had been missing with five troops onboard as an historic storm drenched California was found on Wednesday morning in a mountainous area outside San Diego.

The aircraft was located just after 9am local time by civil authorities near the mountain community of Pine Valley, about a 45-mile (72km) drive from San Diego but rescue crews said snowy conditions were making access challenging on the ground.

Continue reading...

Houthis claim fresh attacks on British and US ships in Red Sea

Posted on by

Two vessels not badly damaged but incident casts doubt on success of UK-US strikes on Yemen missile sites

Houthi rebels say they have successfully targeted a British and a US ship in the Red Sea, casting doubt on the effectiveness of three waves of US-UK strikes on missile sites belonging to the group in Yemen.

Neither of the two ships were badly damaged but the incident will underscore the need for commercial ships either to pay higher insurance premiums or take longer, more expensive routes to avoid the threat of Houthi attacks. A third ship was targeted on Tuesday afternoon, but not struck, at least reassuring Britain that the Houthi capabilities may have been degraded by the US-UK airstrikes.

Continue reading...

US says strikes on Iran-linked militias just ‘the beginning’ of its response

Posted on by

National security adviser refuses to rule out targeting Iran after 85 sites were attacked in Iraq and Syria

US airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East were just the beginning of a sustained response, the White House national security adviser warned on Sunday, as he refused to rule out strikes on Iranian soil.

Jake Sullivan said the strikes on Friday night against 85 targets in Iraq and Syria, designed as retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers, “were the beginning, not the end of our response, and … there will be more steps, some seen, some perhaps unseen, all in an effort to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond and we will respond forcefully”.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: US plans more strikes in Middle East against Iran-backed groups, says national security adviser – as it happened

Posted on by

Jake Sullivan says there will be more steps in American response to Jordan drone attack that killed three soldiers

David Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, said the Houthi attacks on international shipping “must stop” after the UK joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.

The former Conservative prime minister said the third wave of joint UK and US airstrikes on Saturday took place after “repeated warnings” for the rebel militant group to cease.

Continue reading...

US and UK hit 30 Houthi targets to further weaken Iran-backed groups

Posted on by

Joint operation to further disable militias follows attacks on US and international interests amid war in Gaza

The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in another wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have attacked US and international interests in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

Ships and fighter jets on Saturday launched strikes against the Houthis. It followed an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday targeting other Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops – William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett – in Jordan last weekend.

Continue reading...

US strikes will have disastrous consequences for region, warns Iraq

Posted on by

Attacks on Friday also described as ‘a strategic mistake’ by Iran, which insisted no Revolutionary Guards were present in areas hit

The US reprisal strikes in Syria and Iraq will have disastrous consequences for the region, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has warned. Maj Gen Yahya Rasool’s response was one of many from inside the Iraqi government that furiously condemned a violation of its sovereignty.

The US military launched airstrikes on Friday against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the militias it backs, in retaliation for last weekend’s drone attack in Jordan that killed three US troops. Iraq’s Anbar Operations Command reported 16 fatalities and 25 injuries, but no official death toll has been issued.

Continue reading...

Houthis face ‘further consequences’, Austin says after latest strikes – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is closed. You can find all our Middle East coverage here

At least 13 Iranian-backed fighters have been killed in strikes in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

The airstrikes destroyed 17 positions sheltering Iranian militias in Al-Mayadeen and Al-Bokamal near the border between Syria and Iraq, in addition to airstrikes targeting positions near Deir ez-Zor city, it said.

Continue reading...

US launches airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for deadly drone attack

Posted on by

President says ‘If you harm an American, we will respond’ as US forces strike in what is expected to be first of multiple attacks

Joe Biden has warned “if you harm an American, we will respond” as US forces attacked more than 80 targets in Iraq and Syria in a wide-ranging air assault on sites belonging to Iran-linked militias and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard.

The US president said the strikes had been launched in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan, adding: “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing.”

Continue reading...

US orders reprisal strikes against Iranian-backed militia

Posted on by

Strikes expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan

The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said.

Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were of Iranian origin. The retaliatory strikes are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location.

Continue reading...

Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

Posted on by

But federal judge in California says lawsuit aimed at stopping US military support for Israel is outside court’s jurisdiction

A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

Continue reading...

US military stockpiling supplies in Australia in readiness for any confrontation with China

Posted on by

American war planners used joint Talisman Sabre exercises to position equipment in northern Victoria

When US and Australian troops practised amphibious landings, ground combat and air operations last year, they drew headlines about the allies deepening defence cooperation to counter China’s growing military ambitions.

But for US war planners preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan, the high-profile Talisman Sabre exercises had a far more discrete value: they helped create new stockpiles of military equipment that were established in Australia after the drills ended in August, US officials said.

Continue reading...

Iran not seeking war with US but ‘not afraid of it’, says military chief

Posted on by

Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guards defiant as US prepares ‘very consequential response’ to drone attack on Jordan base

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has vowed the country is not afraid of war with the US, as the Pentagon weighs how directly to respond to the killing of three US servicemen in a drone attack in Jordan.

The IRGC commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said: “We hear some threats from American officials about targeting Iran. We tell them that you tested us and we know each other. We do not leave any threat unanswered, and we do not look for war, but we are not afraid of it. This is the well-known truth.”

Continue reading...

Biden beware: US must fully consider response to soldiers’ deaths – or risk Iran escalation

Posted on by

President is facing pressure from Republicans after numerous attacks on US bases by Iran’s proxies

The killing of three American soldiers in Jordan and the wounding of dozens more, allegedly by an Iranian-backed group, is a red line that was always likely to be crossed in what is becoming an increasingly dangerous region.

The US had up to this weekend avoided fatalities in more than 150 attacks on its military bases by Iranian proxies since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war after the 7 October attacks, but that luck could not last for ever. The question now is what lies on the far side of that red line.

Continue reading...

Pentagon mulls response to Jordan drone strike amid fears for Gaza ceasefire efforts

Posted on by

Lloyd Austin says president ‘will not tolerate attacks on US forces’, but Qatar warns that reprisal attacks could undermine Israel hostage talks

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US troops and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.

“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” Austin said at the Pentagon on Monday.

Continue reading...

Jordan drone strike: who are Islamic Resistance in Iraq and what is Tower 22?

Posted on by

The group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a US military base in Jordan is a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias

Three US service personnel were killed and 34 wounded on Sunday after a drone hit a residential quarters at a military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22, which lies on the border between Iraq and Syria.

It is the first time US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after an estimated 150 attacks by Iranian-based militias on American bases in Iraq and Syria since 7 October.

Continue reading...

Three US service members killed in ‘despicable’ drone attack in Jordan, Biden says

Posted on by

Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers in battle since start of the Gaza conflict

The spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen have been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the “despicable” attack and vowed revenge.

Responsibility for Saturday’s attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible.

Continue reading...

US navy escorts cargo ships to safety after Houthi missile attack from Yemen

Posted on by

Two vessels forced to turn around as Iran-aligned group continues strikes against Red Sea shipping

Two ships sailing close to the Gulf of Aden were forced to seek the support of the US navy after explosions were heard nearby, as the Houthi group kept up their assault on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen.

The Houthis have said their attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians as Israel bombards Gaza. The ships belonging to the Danish shipping company Maersk came under attack from three anti-ship missiles near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the US central command (Centcom) said. No damage was caused either to the Maersk Detroit or the Maersk Chesapeake.

Continue reading...

Iraq accuses US of ‘reckless escalation’ of regional violence after latest strikes

Posted on by

Pentagon calls overnight attacks ‘necessary and proportionate’, after US personnel were injured in a weekend attack in Iraq

US strikes against militias in Iraq have prompted the most scathing criticism yet from Baghdad, with the prime minister’s office accusing Washington of contributing to a “reckless escalation” of regional violence.

The Pentagon announced earlier on Wednesday that it had carried out overnight retaliatory strikes against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militias in response to its own forces coming under attack at an Iraqi airbase at the weekend.

Continue reading...