Category Archives: US Military

Daniel Duggan asks to be released from jail and detained at home as he fights extradition to US

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Australian pilot accused of training Chinese military denies he is a flight risk in letter requesting NSW home detention

An Australian pilot accused of accepting cash to illegally train Chinese military personnel has denied he is a flight risk and described himself as a model prisoner in a formal request to be released into home detention.

Daniel Duggan has written to the acting New South Wales corrections commissioner from Lithgow maximum security prison where he is being held in isolated custody while he fights extradition to the US.

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Judge temporarily bars removal of Confederate memorial in Virginia

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Restraining order issued after a group filed a lawsuit and a letter that was signed by more than 40 Republican congressmen

A Confederate memorial was blocked on Monday from being removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia, with a court order setting back the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities.

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at the nation’s foremost military cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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US to announce expanded protection force for Red Sea shipping

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Response to Houthi attacks from Yemen seeks to reassure commercial shipping companies suspending use of Red Sea

The US is to announce the launch of an expanded maritime protection force involving Arab states to combat the increasingly frequent Houthi attacks being mounted from Yemen’s ports on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The force, provisionally entitled Operation Prosperity Guardian, is due to be announced by the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, when he visits the Middle East, including the fifth fleet stationed in Bahrain. Similar to the Task Force 153 already operating out of Bahrain, the larger protection force is designed to provide reassurance to commercial shipping companies that Houthi attacks will be seen off, and the Red Sea remains safe for commercial shipping.

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Bernie Sanders demands answers on Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ Gaza bombing

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Senator introduces resolution to investigate ‘humanitarian cataclysm … being done with American bombs and money’

The US’s support for Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza is facing new scrutiny in Washington following a resolution by the independent senator Bernie Sanders that could ultimately be used to curtail military assistance.

It is far from clear whether Sanders has the support to pass the resolution, but its introduction in the Senate this week – by an important progressive ally of the US president Joe Biden – highlights mounting human rights and political concerns by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

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Biden bypasses Congress to sell tank shells to Israel amid further fighting in Khan Younis

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Emergency declaration used to sell $106.5m worth of ammo for Israel’s tanks as reports of fierce fighting in southern Gaza city of Khan Younis emerge

The Biden administration has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

The state department on Friday used an Arms Export Control Act emergency declaration for the tank rounds worth $106.5m for immediate delivery to Israel, the Pentagon said in a statement.

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US air force Osprey crash wreckage and remains of five crew found off Japan

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Aircraft crashed last week off south-western Japan carrying eight American personnel on training mission

US and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and remains of five crew members from a US air force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off south-western Japan, the air force announced on Monday.

The CV-22 Osprey carrying eight American personnel crashed last Wednesday off Yakushima island during a training mission. The body of one victim was recovered and identified earlier.

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At least one dead after US military plane crashes off Japanese coast

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Status of five other personnel aboard Osprey aircraft not known after incident off Yakushima island, off southern Kyushu coast

A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a US military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed on Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the five others on the aircraft were not immediately known, a coastguard spokesperson, Kazuo Ogawa, said. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the US military later revised the number to six, he said.

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US army overturns 1917 convictions of 110 Black soldiers charged with mutiny

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Officials announced ceremony honoring the Buffalo Soldiers, 19 of whom were executed, to atone for Jim Crow-era racism

The US army is overturning the convictions of 110 Black soldiers – 19 of whom were executed – for a mutiny at a Houston military camp a century ago, an effort to atone for imposing harsh punishments linked to Jim Crow-era racism.

US army officials announced the historic reversal Monday during a ceremony posthumously honoring the regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who had been sent to Houston in 1917, during the first world war, to guard a military training facility. Clashes arose between the regiment and white police officers and civilians and 19 people were killed.

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US announces fresh strikes on Iran-linked sites in Syria

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Defence secretary says US will defend its personnel and interests in the region amid surge in attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria

The United States carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.

It is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran, which supports armed groups that Washington blames for a spike in attacks on its forces in the Middle East.

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Five US military members killed after aircraft crashes into Mediterranean

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US European command says cause of crash remained under investigation, but there was ‘no indications of hostile activity’

Five US military members were killed in a refueling accident during training that caused an aircraft carrying them to crash into the Mediterranean Sea, the American defense department said in a statement on Sunday.

The US European command said in an initial statement that the cause of the crash remained under investigation, but there had been “no indications of hostile activity”, ABC News reported.

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US forces targeted in broadest Iraq attacks since start of Israel-Hamas war

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Armed drones attack two airbases and explosive device targets patrol in most widespread strikes in a single day

US forces were targeted in three attacks in Iraq on Thursday but suffered no casualties, security sources have said, in the most geographically widespread series of strikes on US assets in a single day since the Israel-Hamas conflict started.

Spokespeople for the US embassy in Baghdad and US-led international forces stationed in Iraq did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks

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Talks expected on Monday would be first since Obama administration and follow visit to Washington by Wang Yi, Chinese foreign minister

China and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration.

The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

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Pentagon to send military advisers and air defense systems to Israel

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Assistance comes ahead of Israel’s anticipated ground assault into Gaza but advisers will not engage in fighting, says US official

The Pentagon is sending military advisers and sophisticated air defense systems to Israel ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza by Israel’s military.

One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt Gen James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and served a high-profile role during intense combat in Falluja, one of the bloodiest and most controversial centers of battle for US forces during the war in Iraq.

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Extradition hearing for Australian accused of training Chinese pilots delayed for secret documents bid

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Daniel Duggan’s lawyer seeks classified government material to prove US request is politically motivated

An Australian former fighter pilot accused of breaking an arms embargo by training Chinese military pilots wants access to classified government documents to demonstrate that a US request to extradite him is politically motivated, his lawyer has said.

Daniel Duggan, who became an Australian citizen in 2012, is accused of breaching US arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots while working at a South African flight school in the early 2010s. Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted.

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Hundreds feared dead after blast at Gaza hospital as Biden set to fly in

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Health ministry run by Hamas says more than 500 were killed, while civil defence official puts figure at above 300

Hundreds of people are reported to have died in a massive explosion at a hospital in Gaza City, on the eve of Joe Biden’s arrival for a visit that was intended to fend off the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and prevent the conflict escalating into a regional war.

The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, claimed that more than 500 people had been killed an Israeli airstrike on the al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital which, if confirmed, would make it the deadliest single bombing of all the five wars Israel and Hamas have fought over Gaza.

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US navy sailor pleads guilty to accepting $15,000 in bribes from China

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In plea deal, Wenheng ‘Thomas’ Zhao admits providing information on exercises, operational orders and blueprints

A US navy sailor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to accepting nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photographs of unclassified private US military information, according to court papers.

Petty Officer Wenheng “Thomas” Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and receiving a bribe, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

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Off-duty US air force officer saves fallen climber on Yosemite’s Half Dome

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Joshua Haveman employed tactical combat casualty care to patch up the wounded hiker’s badly mangled legs and help him to safety

An off-duty US air force flight instructor braved strong winds, hail and slippery conditions to rescue a fellow climber who had fallen about 80ft (24.4 meters) down a slippery slope at Yosemite national park this past Labor Day weekend, according to the military branch.

Joshua Haveman’s valiant actions not only earned him a hero’s praise from his air force colleagues – but they also prevented another hiking tragedy from occurring after the last few months have seen multiple hikers lose their lives amid a range of perilous conditions.

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Donald Trump allegedly shared potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt

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Anthony Pratt, a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, allegedly shared submarine details with former Australian PMs and journalists, according to media reports

Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire, Anthony Pratt, three months after leaving office, according to a new report.

Citing a source with knowledge of the Australian’s account to investigators for the special counsel Jack Smith, US news outlet ABC News reported an “excited” Trump allegedly discussed “the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads [US submarines] routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected”.

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US representative files resolution decrying rightwing calls for invasion of Mexico

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Joaquin Castro urged fellow House members to reject Republican calls for US military action to stem flow of fentanyl from Mexico

A progressive US congressman from Texas has asked his legislative colleagues to join him in condemning some American conservatives’ calls to invade Mexico – ostensibly to do battle with drug cartels there.

Joaquin Castro says he intends to file a resolution in the US House as soon as Friday reaffirming the federal government’s “commitment to respecting the sovereignty of Mexico and condemning calls for military action without Mexico’s consent and congressional authorization”.

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US soldier who fled to North Korea in July lands at Texas military base

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Travis King arrived on US military flight and will undergo medical review and reintegration process

Travis King, the American soldier who fled across the border from South Korea to North Korea in July, has landed at a US military base in Texas after being taken back into US custody.

CNN reported that King arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston on a US military flight in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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