Category Archives: US Military

Iran parliament brands US troops in Middle East as terrorist

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  • Bill authorises Iran to respond to ‘terrorist actions’ by US forces
  • US designation of Revolutionary Guards as terrorist takes effect

Iran’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill labelling US forces in the Middle East as terrorist, a day after Washington’s terrorism label for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard formally took effect.

The defence minister, Gen Amir Hatami, introduced the bill on Tuesday authorising the government to act firmly in response to “terrorist actions” by US forces. It demands authorities use “legal, political and diplomatic” measures to neutralise the American move, without elaborating.

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US deports husband of soldier killed in Afghanistan – then lets him back in

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José González Carranza was arrested by Ice officers and deported to Mexico, but brought back after an Arizona paper reported on it

US immigration officials deported the husband of a soldier killed in Afghanistan – then reversed course and let him back into the country.

José González Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers last week at his home in Arizona and quickly deported to Mexico, he and his attorney told the Arizona Republic.

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Trans troops return to era of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as Trump policy takes effect

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Openly transgender people now banned from serving in the military as LGBT groups denounce ‘shameful’ rule

The US military is returning to the era of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policies, after new rules that ban transgender people from serving came into effect on Friday.

The new policy bars military members who have transitioned or are openly trans from enlisting after Friday, while troops who come out as trans while serving after that day will be discharged.It forces trans soldiers to hide their identity or lose their job and will result in increased stigma and mental health issues, said troops and LGBT groups.

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The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back

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Jody Williams and Mary Wareham were leading lights in the campaign to ban landmines. Now they have autonomous weapons in their sights

It sounds like something from the outer reaches of science fiction: battlefield robots waging constant war, algorithms that determine who to kill, face-recognition fighting machines that can ID a target and take it out before you have time to say “Geneva conventions”.

This is no film script, however, but an ominous picture of future warfare that is moving ever closer. “Killer robots” is shorthand for a range of tech that has generals salivating and peace campaigners terrified at the ethical ramifications of warfare waged via digital proxies.

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Isis defeated, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announce

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Kurdish-led group says last of militants cleared from stronghold of Baghuz

After almost five years, the battle to dismantle Islamic State’s brutal “caliphate” has ended with an announcement from US-backed forces that the militants have been driven out of their last stronghold of Baghuz.

Isis had held out for months against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the small oasis town on the Euphrates river, clinging on to an area of land less than 700 sq metres wide despite fierce coalition bombing. But on Saturday an SDF spokesperson, Mustafa Bali, tweeted that the town had been liberated.

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Trump is cornered, with violence on his mind. We must be on red alert | Robert Reich

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As investigators close in, the president invokes the support of the military, police and vigilantes. This is a perilous moment

What does a megalomaniacal president of the United States do when he’s cornered? We’ll soon find out.

Related: 'It's a small group of people': Trump again denies white nationalism is rising threat

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US begins work on new cruise missile after pulling out of cold war treaty

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  • US announced withdrawal from INF last month
  • Components for ground-launched missile already being made

The US has begun building parts for a new ground-launched cruise missile in anticipation of the end of a cold war treaty that banned them, the Pentagon has confirmed.

The Trump administration declared on 1 February it was no longer bound by the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and would withdraw completely in August, pointing to the deployment of a new Russian missile which the US has complained for more than six years was a violation of the agreement.

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Fugitive Taliban leader lived short walk from US base, book reveals

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Exclusive: account exposes failures of US intelligence, which put $10m bounty on Mullah Omar

The Taliban’s elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, and American troops once even searched the house where he was hiding but failed to find a secret room built for him, a new biography claims.

The account exposes an embarrassing failure of US intelligence, which put a $10m bounty on Omar’s head after the 9/11 attacks in the US. Officials repeatedly suggested that, like the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, he was hiding in Pakistan and died there.

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‘Alarming’ Burkina Faso unrest threatens west African stability

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Reach of extremist groups could spread to Ghana, Togo and Benin, says US military chief

A rapid and alarming deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso is threatening to spread to its three southern neighbours, a senior US military figure has warned, heralding the potential destabilisation of a vast area of west Africa.

Related: Kidnapped Canadian found dead, Burkina Faso officials say

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‘I was raped by a superior officer’: Senator Martha McSally on serving in air force – video

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Martha McSally, the Arizona Republican senator, revealed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the air force. McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she did not report the assault because she did not trust the system and was ashamed and confused

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Senator Martha McSally says she was raped while serving in air force

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Arizona Republican, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, spoke about her experience during a Senate hearing Wednesday

Senator Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, has said she was raped in the air force by a superior officer.

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on Wednesday on the armed services’ efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur.

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Russian state TV shows map of potential US nuclear targets

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New hypersonic missiles could hit targets including Pentagon in under five minutes, it claims

Russian state television has broadcast a map of the US showing military facilities Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, in a report that was unusual even by its own bellicose standards.

The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. A hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes, it said.

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Okinawa referendum rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on

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Tokyo sees controversial plan for new base at Henoko as key to US security alliance

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum.

Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.

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Germany rebukes Trump over criticism of Nato spending

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Defence minister’s comments at Munich conference reflect deepening transatlantic rift

The Nato alliance is about decency and dependability, not just cash and contributions, Germany’s defence minister has said in a rebuke to Donald Trump over his insistence that European countries rapidly increase their defence spending.

Ursula von der Leyen told a gathering of defence ministers in Munich the alliance was about fairness in collective decision-making, and not just during military missions.

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Former US air force officer charged with spying for Iran

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Monica Witt, who defected in 2013, worked as a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for more than 10 years

A former US air force intelligence officer who defected to Iran in 2013 has been charged with espionage, giving away the identity of a US agent and other secrets.

Monica Witt, aged 39, was a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for the US air force for more than 10 years before working as an intelligence analyst for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for five months in 2008 and doing other private sector work.

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Trump wants out of America’s longest war, but Afghans can’t just walk away

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Hope is real after landmark Taliban talks, but fears remain about what might happen if US troops depart

The start of 2019 has brought for Afghanistan a tantalising hope of peace, fragile but very real, as the Taliban sat down for talks first with Americans in Qatar and this week with senior members of the Afghan elite in Moscow.

These discussions come fraught with fears, that the progress for women and civil rights will be traded away too easily, and that the Taliban may renege on any deal once US troops and their coercive power are gone.

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Donald Trump confirms US withdrawal from INF nuclear treaty

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Announcement gives Russia 180 days to destroy violating missiles and launchers to avoid new arms race

Donald Trump has confirmed that the US is leaving the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, saying “we will move forward with developing our own military response options” to Russia’s suspect missile.

In a written statement, Trump said that the US would be suspending its compliance with the 1987 treaty on Saturday, and would serve formal notice that it would withdraw altogether in six months.

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America’s Kurdish allies risk being wiped out – by Nato | David Graeber

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Turkey is seen as the Kurds’ mortal enemy but it uses German tanks and British helicopters: this is an international outrage

Remember those plucky Kurdish forces who so heroically defended the Syrian city of Kobane from Isis? They risk being wiped out by Nato.

The autonomous Kurdish region of Rojava in Northeast Syria, which includes Kobane, faces invasion. A Nato army is amassing on the border, marshaling all the overwhelming firepower and high-tech equipment that only the most advanced military forces can deploy. The commander in chief of those forces says he wants to return Rojava to its “rightful owners” who, he believes, are Arabs, not Kurds.

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US framework deal with Taliban raises hope of Afghan peace

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US troops would withdraw from Afghanistan within 18 months of full agreement

US and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to the framework of a deal that could pave the way for peace talks in Kabul and ultimately the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the country’s 17-year conflict.

Under the terms of the draft framework, the insurgents would promise to stop Afghan territory being used by terrorists. The US special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, confirmed the existence of the draft in an interview with the New York Times (NYT).

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US-Kurdish patrol attacked in Syria as Erdoğan offers to step in

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Turkish president tells Donald Trump he is ready to send troops into US-overseen areas

The threat of a growing security vacuum in Syria as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops has been underlined by an attack on a joint US-Kurdish patrol, which reportedly killed five people and injured at least two American soldiers.

The attack on Monday, in which a suicide bomber drove a car into a checkpoint, emphasised the vulnerability of American troops since the US president declared he was withdrawing 2,000 soldiers from northern Syria on the grounds that Islamic State has been defeated.

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