Japan and the U.S. have cooperated in supporting the PCG's capacity building, and the three countries held trilateral Coast Guard exercises for the first time last June
President Joe Biden is set to host Iraq's leader this week for talks that come as tensions across the Middle East have soared over the war in Gaza and Iran's unprecedented weekend attack on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli military strike against an Iranian facility in Syria. The sharp rise in security fears has raised further questions about the viability of the two-decade American military presence in Iraq, through which portions of Iran's Saturday drone and missile attack on Israel flew or were launched from. A U.S. Patriot battery in Irbil, Iraq, knocked down at least one Iranian ballistic missile, according to American officials. In addition, Iranian proxies have initiated attacks against U.S. interests throughout the region from inside Iraq, making Monday's meeting between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani all the more critical. The talks will include a discussion of regional stability and future U.S. troop deployments but will also focus on economic, trade and
President Joe Biden and his national security team monitored Iran's aerial attack against Israel on Saturday as US forces joined efforts to down explosive-laden drones launched by Tehran. With tensions at their highest since the Israel-Hamas war began six months ago, Biden pledged that American support for Israel's defense against attacks by Iran and its proxies is ironclad. US forces shot down some Iran-launched attack drones flying toward Israel, according to a US defense official and two other US officials who spoke Saturday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The US and Israel had been bracing for an attack for days after Iran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including two senior Iranian generals in the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force. The US defense official said the effort to intercept Iran's attack was continuing. Biden cut short a weekend stay at his Delaware
President Joe Biden said Thursday that U.S. defense commitment was ironclad as he gathered Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Thursday in the midst of growing concern about provocative Chinese military action in the Indo-Pacific. The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad. They're ironclad," Biden said as he began three-way talks at the White House with Kishida and Marcos. "As I said before, any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty. The White House summit was called amid growing concern about provocative Chinese action in the Pacific, which will be a large focus of the leaders' talks. The White House sees the summit as countering China's attempts at intimidation and sending a message that China is the outlier in the neighborhood, according to an administration official. President Joe Biden is ..
A Typhon unit consists of a mobile operations centre and it can fire the Standard Missile 6 and the Tomahawk cruise missile
The United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval exercises, including anti-submarine warfare training, in a show of force Sunday in the South China Sea where Beijing's aggressive actions to assert its territorial claims have caused alarm. The four treaty allies and security partners are holding the exercises to safeguard the rule of law that is the foundation for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region and uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, they said in a joint statement issued by their defence chiefs Saturday. China was not mentioned by name in the statement, but the four countries reaffirmed their stance that a 2016 international arbitration ruling, which invalidated China's expansive claims on historical grounds, was final and legally binding. China has refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected the ruling and continues to defy it. The Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration in 2013 aft
The US military has said its forces destroyed one unmanned aerial vehicle in a Houthi rebel-held area of war-ravaged Yemen and another over a crucial shipping route in the Red Sea. It was the latest development in months of tension between the Iran-backed rebels and the US. The drones, which were destroyed Saturday morning, posed a threat to US and coalition forces and merchant vessels in the region, the US Central Command said on Sunday. It said that one done was destroyed over the Red Sea, while the second was destroyed on the ground as it was prepared to launch. These actions are necessary to protect our forces, ensure freedom of navigation, and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels, CENTCOM said. There was no comment from the Houthi rebels, which control much of Yemen's north and west. The rebels launched a campaign of drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in November. They have also fired missiles toward Israel,
Niger's junta said on Saturday the US military presence in the country is no longer justified, making the announcement on state television after holding high-level talks with US diplomatic and military officials this week. Niger plays a central role in the US military's operations in Africa's Sahel region and is home to a major airbase. The US is concerned about the spread of jihadist violence in the region, where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State extremist groups. In reading the statement, the junta's spokesman, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, stopped short of saying US forces should leave. He said Niger was suspending military cooperation with Washington and added that US flights over the country's territory in recent weeks were illegal. The US military in recent years began operating a major airbase in the Niger city of Agadez, some 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital of Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and oth
The Wall Street Journal reported in November that Intel was in talks for between $3 billion and $4 billion in government subsidies from the programme
US military C-130 cargo planes on Saturday dropped food in pallets over Gaza, three US officials said, two days after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops. Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 am EST, according to two of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity before a public announcement. The airdrop is expected to be the first of many announced by President Joe Biden on Friday. The aid will be coordinated with Jordan, which has also conducted airdrops to deliver food to Gaza. At least 115 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Thursday attack as they scrambled for aid, the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said. Israel says many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic crush for the food aid, and its troops fired warning shots after the crowd moved toward them in a threatening way. White Ho
An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick, the US military said on Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel's cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on February 18 while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, US Central Command said. The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertiliser, CENTCOM said in a statement. The vessel suffered significant damage, which led to the slick, said the CENTCOM statement, warning that the ship's cargo could spill into the Red Sea and worsen this environmental disaster. The Houthis continue to demonstrate disregard for the regional impact of their indiscriminate attacks, threatening the
Yemen's Houthi rebels are suspected in an attack that damaged a Belize-flagged ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, authorities said early Monday. The attack on the ship came as the US military acknowledged conducting new airstrikes targeting the rebels, including one that targeted the first Houthi underwater drone seen since the rebels' began launching their attacks on shipping in November. The ship targeted in the Houthi attack Sunday reported sustaining damage after an explosion in close proximity to the vessel, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported. It said that the crew aboard the ship were safe. The private security firm Ambrey reported the British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo ship had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. Ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic.com analysed by The Associated Press identified the vessel targeted as
The US military conducted new airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels, officials said Friday. American forces destroyed four explosive-loaded drone boats and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missile launchers Thursday that could target vessels in the Red Sea, the US military's Central Command said. "They presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region," the Central Command said. "These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels." The Houthis have not acknowledged the losses. Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel's offensive in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Mideast and Europe. In recent weeks, the United States and the United Kingdom, backed by other allies, have launched airstrikes targeting Hout
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One possibility is covert action that would see the US strike Iran without claiming credit for it but sending a clear message regardless
The US military struck three facilities in Iraq on Tuesday, targeting an Iranian-backed militia in retaliation for missile and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria over the past several days, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. The US strikes hit militia facilities in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, US Central Command said. At President Biden's direction, US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq, Austin said in a statement. These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias. The strikes came hours after the US said militants fired two one-way attack drones at the al-Asad Air Base, injuring US service members and damaging infrastructure. And they follow the militia's most serious attack this year on the air base
The US and British militaries bombed multiple sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Monday, the second time the two allies have conducted coordinated retaliatory strikes on an array of the rebels' missile-launching capabilities, several US officials said. According to officials, the US and UK used warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets to take out Houthi missile storage sites and launchers. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing mission. The joint operation comes about 10 days after US and British warships and fighter jets struck more than 60 targets in 28 locations. That what was the first US military response to what has been a persistent campaign of Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
The U.S. military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites Wednesday, U.S. officials said, marking the fourth time in days it has directly targeted the group in Yemen as violence that ignited in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill over in the Middle East. The strikes followed the official announcement that the U.S. has put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public yet. Despite the sanctions and military strikes, including a large-scale operation Friday carried out by U.S. and British warships and warplanes that hit more than 60 targets across Yemen, the Houthis are continuing their harassment campaign of commercial and military ships. The latest incident ...
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Guyana's Attorney General Anil Nandlall said on Thursday that Guyana's government has reassured neighbouring Venezuela there is no plan for the US to establish a military base in the South American country and that it has not made a formal request for one. Nandlall spoke to The Associated Press days after Daniel P. Erikson, US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Western Hemisphere, visited Guyana and one day after Guyanese officials announced they were seeking help from the US to improve its defence capabilities. Nandlall and other officials in Guyana have sought to temper tensions with Venezuela over a disputed region known as Essequibo rich in oil and minerals that represents two-thirds of Guyana and that Venezuela claims as its own. We have not been approached by the United States to establish a military base in Guyana, said Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, adding that the government does not conduct public policy at press conferences. Erikson visited just weeks