Page 310 - War Conflict
2nd batch of Afghan women officers undergo training at OTA
Head scarf-clad Zuhra Nabizada showed no traces of emotion as she handled the machine gun with the ease of a professional during a training session at the shooting range of the Officers Training Academy here. She is part of a group of 19 women from the Afghanistan Armed forces honing their skills at the Academy. Wiping the sweat off her sunburnt face, Afghan Air Force's Second Lieutenant Nabizada said this is her second visit to India. "The first visit was in 2014 to Dehradun to part in a Taekwondo match," she said. India's only academy to impart training to women cadets and officers, OTA is hosting women officers from the Afghanistan Armed Forces for the second time, the first being last year with 20 women. Afghanistan Army's Liaison Officer Captain Sirajulhaq Safi told PTI that this time officers from the country's Air Force have also joined the programme. "Compared to last year, the team this year comprises many young officers," Safi said, adding that his country sees
China warns US against 'weaponising' space
China said Wednesday it opposed the "weaponisation" of space as it criticised US President Donald Trump's orders to create a new command centre for controlling military space operations. "China has consistently proposed the peaceful usage of space, and opposes the weaponisation of space and a space arms race," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a press briefing. "We oppose even further turning space into the new battleground," she added. On Tuesday, Trump ordered the creation of "Space Command", a new organisational structure within the Pentagon that will have overall control of military space operations. SpaceCom, as it will inevitably come to be known, will be on equal footing with other US military commands, such as Central Command in the Middle East or Indo-Pacific Command in Asia, and will require a new headquarters as well as a commander and deputy commander who will need Senate approval. It is not the first military space entity proposed by the US ...
BSF officer commits suicide near LoC
A Border Security Force (BSF) junior officer shot and killed himself near the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, police said.
Hodeida truce 'dead duck' if rebel breaches persist: coalition
A hard-won truce in the battleground Yemeni city of Hodeida will collapse if rebel violations persist and the United Nations does not intervene, the Saudi-led coalition said on Wednesday. UN observers are due to arrive in the Red Sea port city during the day to chair monitoring teams made up of Yemeni government and rebel representatives tasked with overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday. "A total of 21 violations since ceasefire commencement have come to our notice," a coalition source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "If the UN continues to drag the chain and take too long to get into the (military) theatre, they will lose the opportunity altogether... and the agreement will turn a dead duck," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in English. "We will continue to give them the benefit of the doubt and show restraint but early indicators are not promising." A UN official had told AFP on Tuesday that the observers would deploy ...
Gunmen kill Nigeria's ex-defence chief: official
Gunmen have shot dead a former defence chief on a main road outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, the air force said, in an attack that underscores worsening security in the vast west African nation. "It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce the unfortunate demise of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh", air force spokesman Ibikunle Daramola said in a statement late Tuesday. Badeh, 61, died Tuesday "from gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm along Abuja-Keffi road". The air force did not say if any arrests had been or suggest motives behind the killing. Badeh who served as Nigeria's defence chief under former president Goodluck Jonathan, retired in 2015. He has been on trial since his retirement over allegations of corruption while in office. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is battling a myriad of security problems, from Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the northeast to farmer-herder ...
Army should use water cannons, tear gas instead of bullets: Farooq Abdullah
National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday asserted that the Army should have used water cannons or tear gas instead of bullets. His observations were in the context of seven civilians' deaths following an encounter in Pulwama last week."The Army should have used water cannons or tear gas instead of bullets. People, who died, cannot come back. We hope the Army and police will not carry out such operations in the future," said Abdullah.Three terrorists were killed in an encounter that broke out on Saturday in Pulwama's Monghama area of Sirnoo village. Seven civilians and one security personnel too lost their lives in the gun battle.Abdullah further emphasised that elections should be held in the valley and President's rule must come to an end."There should be elections and people must choose their representatives who can work," he said while speaking to media.On September 8, Abdullah had said that his party will boycott Lok Sabha and Assembly elections if the ...
Children as young as 10 fight, kill and die in Yemen's war
The number etched on the bracelet around Mohammed's wrist gave the 13-year-old soldier comfort as missiles fired from enemy warplanes shook the earth beneath him. For two years Mohammed fought with Yemen's Houthi rebels against a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States. He says he tortured and killed people and didn't care whether he lived or died. But if he died, the bracelet would guarantee his body made it home. "When I become a martyr, they enter my number in the computer, retrieve my picture and my name, then print them with the name 'Martyr' underneath," Mohammed said. It would be pasted to the lid of his coffin for return to his family. Mohammed was among 18 former child soldiers interviewed by The Associated Press who described the Houthis' unrelenting efficiency when it comes to the recruitment, deployment and even battlefield deaths of boys as young as 10. While both sides in the four-year civil war have sent children into combat in violation ..
MQM-exposes-military-establishment
Muttahidda Qaumi Movement's (MQM) Coordination Committee Convener Dr Nadeem Ehsan said that MQM has nothing to do with gangsters from South Africa. The paramilitary Rangers had fraudulently claimed they belong to MQM South Africa chapter. In fact, that notorious scheme was part of ongoing tricky business of the military establishment for maligning the MQM.However, the scheme has badly flopped and the establishment was exposed after real facts and details about the South African gang have been made public by the MQM. The paramilitary Rangers are thus hiding their faces after having been exposed by the MQM.The Convener said this in a press video briefing and was flanked by members of the Coordination Committee.He said that the establishment is constantly placing the MQM under misleading and hate-mongering media trial but has utterly failed in its malicious agenda. The recent activity of the establishment in which it staged a drama of unearthing a large cache of arms and ammunition and ..
Mutual redeployment of forces from Yemen ports to complete in 21 days: UN
A UN spokesman said that the redeployment of forces from the city of Hodeidah and three ports shall be completed within 21 days.
Youths receive minor injuries during Army recruitment rally
Some youths received minor injuries during commotion at an Army recruitment rally in Devlali Camp near here in North Maharashtra, police and Army sources said Tuesday. The incident took place Monday, when a large number of youths gathered to take part in the recruitment rally, said an official of the Devlali Camp police station said. Police rushed to the spot and controlled the situation by resorting to a mild cane-charge, he said. According to Army sources, 15,000 youths had gathered for recruitment of 90 jawans. A stampede-like situation prevailed when the youths moved to take part in the rally, they said. In the process, some youths received minor injuries, the sources said.
Russia to strengthen strategic nuclear forces next year: Putin
Russia's strategic nuclear forces have grown significantly stronger and it is necessary to further strengthen the potential of the country's strategic nuclear forces next year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
IAF airlifts record 463 tonnes of load in 6 hours to airfields, drop zones in Ladakh
To evaluate its own 'Rapid Airlift Capability' and to enhance crew currency in the role, the Western Air Command of the IAF Tuesday in a single wave airlifted a record 463 tonnes of load from its airbase at Chandigarh to airfields and drop zones in Ladakh, a statement said. The effort was accomplished with the aid of a fleet of 16 fixed wing transport aircraft comprising of C-17 Globemaster, the Ilyushin-76 Gajraj and the Medium lift Tactical aircraft, Antonov-32. All aircraft were loaded and took off from Chandigarh airbase early in the morning. The entire wave was accomplished in little less than six hours, the statement said. "Airlift of approximately 500 tonnes, in the achieved time frame, in a single wave, happens to be a record which enhances the assessment of the Command's capability towards rapid and heavy airlift. "The command is entrusted with the air maintenance of the entire northern region of the country and under normal operating circumstances airlifts close to 3000 ...
Trump administration moves to ban bump stocks
The Trump administration moved Tuesday to officially ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms, and has made them illegal to possess beginning in late March. The devices will be banned under a federal law that prohibits machine guns, according to a senior Justice Department official. Bump stocks became a focal point of the national gun control debate after they were used in October 2017 when a man opened fired from his Las Vegas hotel suite into a crowd at a country music concert below, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. The regulation, which was signed by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Tuesday morning, will go into effect 90 days after it is formally published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen on Friday, the Justice Department official said. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly ahead of the regulation's formal ...
Hope Gujarat, Muzaffarnagar violence perpetrators are also punished: Kejriwal
Welcoming the sentencing of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday hoped that those involved in the 2002 Gujarat communal riots and the 2013 Muzaffarnagar violence are also punished.
Trump directs Pentagon to create 'Space Command'
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the creation of "Space Command," a new organisational structure within the Pentagon that will have overall control of military space operations. "I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command," Trump said in a memo to Defense Secretary Defense Jim Mattis. The new command is separate from Trump's goal to build an entirely new branch of the military called "Space Force," but could be a step in that direction.
Russian new military barracks in disputed Kuril islands anger Japan
Russia says it has built four new military barracks in the Kuril islands, angering Tokyo on Tuesday with whom it has been locked in a decades-long row over the archipelago in the Sea of Japan. Moscow and Tokyo are still technically at war, with neither side historically prepared to budge on a dispute over the ownership of the islands seized by the Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II. Soldiers will be able to move into the new dormitories by the end of the year, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Monday. The ministry said 188 families of contracted soldiers can settle in the housing complexes. It added that the new barracks were part of the "development of military and social infrastructure" on the islands. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told a news conference on Tuesday morning that Tokyo would protest the move. Two of the Russian barracks are on Iturup island and the other two are on Kunashir island. Russian television channel Zvezda, run by the ...
SSB creates 72 new border posts to enhance security along Nepal, Bhutan borders
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan border, has operationalised a total of 72 posts during this year to strengthen its defences to guard the two open Indian borders, a top official said on Tuesday. The paramilitary force, as part of the boosting of security infrastructure and enhancing manpower along the borders, has created 18 such posts in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, where a few of its locations are just next to the Doklam plateau where Indian and Chinese forces had a 73 day-long military standoff in the summer of 2016. Asked if the new Border out Posts (BoPs) were being created in the aftermath of the Doklam incident, the SSB Director General (DG) S S Deswal said securing the India-China border was not its mandate and the new posts were established to guard the two open Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan on the eastern flank of the country. Wherever Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan run, the SSB is creating infrastructure and is ...
J-K guv reviews security situation, calls for adherence to SOP to avoid civilian casualties
In the aftermath of the recent killing of seven civilians during an anti-militancy operation, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik Tuesday reviewed the security situation in the state and called for adherence of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to avoid civilian casualties. This was the second security review by the governor following the killing of seven civilians in security forces' action during an encounter at Simoo village in south Kashmir's Pulwama district last Saturday. In the meeting, involving senior officers of the state, police, Army, central police forces, and central intelligence agencies, the governor undertook a detailed review of various security-related issues at the headquarters of Army's northern command in Udhampur, an official spokesman said. Malik reviewed the security scenario in the state, including details of the counter infiltration and counter terrorist operations undertaken recently, he said. The governor reiterated the importance of the laid ..
J&K Governor asks security forces to ensure safety of civilians
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Tuesday directed security forces to ensure safety of civilians during anti-militancy operations.
Nearly 2,000 jailed for life since 2016 coup: Turkey state media
Nearly 2,000 people have been sentenced to life in prison since the July 2016 attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish state media reported Tuesday. State news agency Anadolu said some 1,934 suspects have been told by the courts that they will spend the rest of their life in jail. Of these, 978 people were jailed for life, Anadolu reported, while 956 were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, which has replaced the death penalty in Turkey and carries harsher conditions than normal life imprisonment convictions. A total of 239 out of 289 cases opened after the failed coup have been closed. The remaining 50 include 18 in Ankara and nine in Istanbul, Anadolu added. Ankara accuses the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen of ordering the 2016 coup attempt and refers to his movement as the "Fethullah Terrorist Organisation". Gulen strenuously denies Turkey's claims and followers insist his movement promotes peace and secular education, ridiculing the ...