Category Archives: US Military

CIA officer killed in Somali raid on suspected al-Shabaab bomb-maker

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Unnamed American died alongside four Somali officers when extremists detonated a car bomb

A CIA officer died during a raid in Somalia last month targeting a key extremist thought to be responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier in Kenya last year, local intelligence officials have told the Guardian.

The officer was deployed alongside Somali and US special forces during the operation at Gendershe, a coastal village about 30 miles south-west of Mogadishu, and died when fighters from the al-Shabaab extremist movement detonated a car bomb minutes after the raid began on 6 November, the official said.

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Russian warship ‘threatens to ram’ US destroyer

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Russia says Admiral Vinogradov threatened the USS John S McCain in the Pacific for ‘operating illegally’

A Russian warship has allegedly threatened to ram a US destroyer during a rare naval standoff between the two countries in the waters off Russia’s Pacific coast.

Russia said on Tuesday that the Admiral Vinogradov, a destroyer, threatened the USS John S McCain, a US navy guided-missile destroyer, for “operating illegally” in its territorial waters in the Sea of Japan.

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Fears of foreign policy chaos in Trump’s final days fueled by Iran bombing report

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The outgoing president reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran as administration eyes last chance to achieve objectives

Fears that Donald Trump might try to wreak havoc on the world stage in his final, desperate, weeks in office appear to have been well-founded, after he reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran.

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Trump under growing pressure to accept election defeat – US politics live

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Some of Donald Trump’s advisers now say he will likely never concede that he lost the presidential race, according to NBC News.

NBC reports:

‘Do not expect him to concede,’ one top aide said. More likely, the aide said, ‘he’ll say something like, ‘We can’t trust the results, but I’m not contesting them.’’

Another adviser said that after the legal battles and recounts, the closest the president is likely to get to a concession is, ‘he’ll acknowledge the results and that we’ll never know how accurate they are.’

Joe Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania has now surpassed 50,000, after the latest batch of ballots from Allegheny county were posted.

As of this afternoon, Biden leads Donald Trump in Pennsylvania by 50,483, or 0.7% of the total vote in the state.

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Donald Trump fires defense secretary Mark Esper – US politics live

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Another adviser to Donald Trump has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, amid an apparent outbreak among the president’s team.

According to Bloomberg News, David Bossie has now tested positive for the virus.

BREAKING: Trump outside adviser David Bossie tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, sources tell me.

Susan Collins has become one of the few Republican lawmakers to congratulate Joe Biden on his victory in the presidential election.

“First, I would offer my congratulations to President-elect Biden on his apparent victory – he loves this country, and I wish him every success. Presidential transitions are important, and the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect should be given every opportunity to ensure that they are ready to govern on January 20th,” Collins said in a new statement.

My statement on the 2020 Presidential election results: pic.twitter.com/8NY1WpaJpC

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US special forces rescue abducted American in Nigeria, officials say

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Operation believed to have killed several captors of Philip Walton, 27, taken captive on Tuesday in Niger

US special forces rescued an American citizen in an operation on Saturday in northern Nigeria that is believed to have killed several of his captors, US officials said.

Forces including US navy Seals rescued Philip Walton, 27, who was abducted on Tuesday from his home in neighboring southern Niger, two US officials said on condition of anonymity, adding that no US troops were hurt. A diplomatic source in Niger said Walton was now at the US ambassador’s residence in Niamey.

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Why the US military would welcome a decisive 2020 election win

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Military chiefs keen to stay out of the way – a decisive result lowers risk of prolonged crisis and the protests it could generate

Federal laws and longstanding custom generally leave the US military out of the election process.

Related: US election 2020: Trump and Biden both head to crucial swing states Minnesota and Wisconsin - live updates

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Plane crash of US navy trainer kills crew and burns home

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Two dead on board T-6B Texan II aircraft with a house and cars on fire in ‘heavily populated’ area outside Foley, Alabama

A US navy training plane that took off from Florida crashed on Friday in an Alabama residential neighbourhood near the Gulf Coast, killing both crew on board, authorities said.

Zach Harrell, a naval air forces spokesperson, said both people in the T-6B Texan II training plane died. No injuries were reported on the ground.

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Trump’s Afghanistan withdrawal announcement takes US officials by surprise

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Tweet calling for troops’ return by Christmas puts peace negotiations in jeopardy and was greeted enthusiastically by the Taliban

Donald Trump has announced on Twitter that he wants to bring all US troops home from Afghanistan by Christmas – a plan that came as a surprise to administration officials and which puts complicated peace negotiations in jeopardy.

Multiple officials told the Associated Press they had not been informed of any such deadline and military experts said it would be impossible to withdraw all 5,000 US troops in Afghanistan and dismantle the US military headquarters by the end of the year.

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US military chiefs in quarantine as Trump Covid chaos spreads

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  • Mark Milley, chairman of joint chiefs of staff, in isolation
  • Military leaders attended event with president last week

The top general in the US military, Mark Milley, and several other members of the US joint chiefs of staff who advise Donald Trump entered quarantine on Tuesday, as the president, infected with the coronavirus himself, continued to recuperate at the White House.

While the number of White House staff and aides who have tested positive is unknown, given the administration’s cloak of secrecy around the outbreak, total cases appeared to number in the dozens, making the White House one of the hottest active zones for virus circulation in the entire US.

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US military increasingly using drone missile with flying blades in Syria

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‘Ninja bomb’, which uses 100lb of dense material and six attached blades, has been deployed in targeted assassinations

The US military is making increasing use in Syria of a gruesome and secretive non-explosive drone missile that deploys flying blades to kill its targets.

Described as less likely to kill non-combatants, the so-called ninja bomb – whose development was first disclosed last year – has been used a number of times in the last year to kill militants in Syria, including those linked to aal-Qaida, most recently earlier this month.

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US plans big expansion of navy fleet to challenge growing Chinese sea power

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Defence secretary promises future fleet including unmanned ships that will focus on Indo-Pacific region

The US secretary of defence, Mark Esper, has announced an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.

The Pentagon chief said a sweeping review of US naval power dubbed “Future Forward” had laid out a “game-changer” plan that would expand the US sea fleet to more than 355 ships, from the current 293.

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Conflicts since start of US ‘war on terror’ have displaced 37m people – report

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Study focuses on post-9/11 wars in which US initiated combat or took part in military operations

Conflicts with US military involvement have displaced at least 37 million people since the beginning of the “war on terror” nearly two decades ago, a report has estimated.

The invasion of Iraq and the decades of instability that have followed in the country have uprooted at least 9.2 million so far, the costliest of the eight US military operations that were included in the report by Brown University’s Costs of War Project.

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US veterans and soldiers divided over Trump calling war dead ‘suckers’

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Some service members expressed skepticism after bombshell report prompted an outpouring of condemnation

Donald Trump was struggling to retain support of active US service members, according to polls, even before last week’s bombshell report that the commander-in-chief referred to fallen and captured US service members as “losers” and “suckers”. But some veterans and military family members remain conflicted.

Related: Trump called American war dead ‘suckers’ and ‘losers', report claims

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Duterte pardons US marine jailed for killing transgender woman Jennifer Laude – video

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The Philippine president pardoned a US marine on Monday in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman. Rodrigo Duterte said he had decided to pardon L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton because the marine was not treated fairly after opponents blocked his early release for good conduct in detention. The case had led to calls from some in the Philippines to end the US military presence in the country, a former US colony with which Washington has a mutual defence treaty

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Philippines pardons US Marine for killing transgender woman

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President’s move to free Joseph Scott Pemberton condemned as ‘shameless mockery of justice’

The Philippine president has pardoned a US Marine in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman that sparked anger in the former American colony.

Teodoro Locsin Jr, the Philippine foreign secretary, tweeted that Rodrigo Duterte had “granted an absolute pardon” to L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton “to do justice”, but did not elaborate. Duterte was to deliver televised remarks on Monday night where he would discuss Pemberton’s case, a presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, said.

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Trump denounced over reported war dead comments: ‘He doesn’t understand bravery’ – live

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Jennifer Griffin, a national security correspondent for Fox News, said she has confirmed reporting by The Atlantic with two former senior Trump administration officials.

One former official told her: “When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.’”

This former official heard the President say about American veterans: "What's in it for them? They don't make any money." Source: "It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it."

Regarding McCain, "The President just hated John McCain. He always asked, 'Why do you see him as a hero?" Two sources confirmed the President did not want flags lowered but others in the White House ordered them at half mast. There was a stand off and then the President relented.

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‘He is a coward’: Trump condemned for reportedly calling US war dead ‘suckers’

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Trump claims accusations, confirmed by two former DHS officials, are ‘totally false’ as Biden criticizes president

Current and former members of the military, elected officials and the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, have reacted with outrage and sadness as former members of the Donald Trump administration confirmed key details of a bombshell report in which Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers”.

Related: Khizr Khan: 'Trump may damage American democracy permanently'

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‘Bombs can’t kill viruses’: Hawaii faces backlash as international war games approach

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As coronavirus case numbers soar, the state prepares to host Rimpac, the world’s largest international maritime military exercise

In a year when the coronavirus has caused multinational war games to be conducted virtually or canceled, the world’s largest international maritime military exercise begins in Hawaii next week.

The Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) war games, which run through the end of August, come as Hawaii struggles to contain community spread of the coronavirus amid what has become the highest reproduction rate in the country.

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How a rural US sheriff’s department was able to obtain a military-grade vehicle

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Trump’s 2017 reversal of Obama’s order allowed county sheriff to acquire vehicle by answering questionnaire, documents show

A sheriff’s department in a remote rural California county with only 18,000 people, no incorporated cities, few sworn officers and almost no crime, was able to obtain a second military-grade MRAP armored vehicle in 2017 by giving brief answers to a simple questionnaire, according to documents obtained under freedom of information requests.

MRAP stands for mine-resistant ambush protected, though the prospect of encountering mines or being ambushed would seem to be unlikely in even the toughest US police precincts.

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