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☆ The US military isn't ready for the coming drone war
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

The Department of Defense is working on initiatives to face the drone threat, but the US military doesn't yet appear ready to confront this ever-evolving challenge, especially on the scale seen in Ukraine. AdvertisementA US military MQ-9 Reaper drone waits for take-off at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan on March 9, 2018. US military leaders have repeatedly stressed there's no silver bullet to defeat small drones in battle. Shellie HallStudents there spend several weeks learning how to identify, engage, and defeat small drones. The drone threat draws certain parallels to fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, where hidden bombs posed a tremendous threat.

Persons: GENYA SAVILOV, Mick Ryan, hasn't, you've, Franz J, Marty, Samuel Bendett, Paul Scharre, that's, Mike Parent, Mark Schauer, Parent, Paul Butcher, Cpl, Doug Bush, Amber Osei, Moseph Sauda, doesn't, Sauda, America's, Bram Janssen, Scharre, Justin Bronk, Jack Watling, Ryan Organizations: Business, Troops, of Defense, Department of Defense, Getty, Australian Army, Islamic State, Kandahar Air Base, Defense Ministry, Karabakh . Defense Ministry, Azerbaijan, AP, Pentagon, US Army, Aircraft Systems, Solutions, 71st Jaeger Brigade, US Army Yuma, Technology, Army, sUAS University, US Marine Corps, Force, Central Command, Shellie, National Training Center, US Army Air Defense Artillery, Center, New, New American Security, Base, London's Royal United Services Institute Locations: Russian, Ukrainian, Ukraine, prowling, Jordan, Chasiv Yar, Donetsk, AFP, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Nagorno, Karabakh, Avdiivka, Yuma, East, Oklahoma's Fort Sill, California, Fort Sill, China, Luhansk Region, Europe, Iran, New American, Iraq, Washington, Bagram, Kabul, Australian

The Bidens will attend a “dignified transfer” as the remains of the troops killed in the overnight assault Sunday return to U.S. soil. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will join the Bidens for the transfer in Dover, where such events take place when U.S. servicemembers are killed in action. Friday will be the second dignified transfer Biden attends as president. In August 2021, he took part in the ritual for the 13 servicemembers killed during the suicide bombing in Kabul. As vice president, Biden in 2016 attended a dignified transfer for two U.S. soldiers killed in a suicide blast at Bagram Airfield.

Persons: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, servicemembers, Lloyd Austin, William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Sanders, Waycross, Breonna Moffett, Moffett, ” Biden, Biden, Rivers, Sanders, Jerome, Tara Copp Organizations: Dover Air Force Base, U.S, Defense, Sunday, Navy, Capitol, Army, Army Reserves, Army Reserve, Defense Department, Pentagon, Hezbollah, White, Press Locations: WILMINGTON, Del, Jordan, U.S, Dover, Georgia, William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt, Savannah, Sanders, Iran, Israel, Yemen, Moffett, Rivers, Fort Moore, New Jersey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kabul, airport’s, Syria

☆ US Air Force special operators' search for new runways is expanding from highways to beaches
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The growing reach of the Chinese military has the US Air Force worried about its bases. Air Force special operators are widening the search, seeking more roads and even beaches to land on. AdvertisementAdvertisementA Royal Air Force Atlas A400M lands on a beach during at Pembrey Sands in Wales in June 2023. Royal Air ForceNew technology and eventually new aircraft are also helping to expand Air Force Special Operations Command's "runway-agnostic options." Air Force officials say that capability allows the MQ-9s to go to more bases and reduces the number of airmen needed for support.

Persons: Tony Bauernfeind, Bauernfeind, Al Udeid, Kenneth Wilsbach, we're, Command Bauernfeind, We're Organizations: US Air Force, Air Force, Service, Force Special, Command, The Air Force, Agile, Employment, Pacific, Air Force Special Operations Command, Operations Command, Air and Space Forces Association, Christopher Quail, US Air Forces, Royal Air Force Atlas, Royal Air Force, US Air Force Special, DARPA Locations: Wall, Silicon, Europe, Washington, Bagram, Kandahar, Balad, Al, Tinian, Palau, Michigan, Wyoming, Texas, Pembrey Sands, Wales

☆ Biden says he's 'forever grateful' to forces in Afghanistan on two-year anniversary of exit
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"We also remember the hundreds of service members from allied and partner countries who lost their lives during this 20-year war. The conflict, which spanned over four administrations, claimed the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. service members and more than 100,000 Afghan troops, police personnel and civilians. In April 2021, Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of that year. Taliban forces stand guard in front of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2, 2021. Evacuees crowd the interior of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, carrying some 640 Afghans to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2021.

Persons: WASHINGTON —, Biden, Defense Lloyd Austin, servicemembers, Austin, George W, Bush, Hamid Karzai, Stringer, Ashraf Ghani, Antony Blinken Organizations: Forward Operating Base, Department of Defense, WASHINGTON, Taliban, NATO, Defense, World Trade, Pentagon, Bagram Air Base, U.S, Afghan National Security and Defense Force, Reuters, Western, U.S . Air Force, Handout Locations: Forward Operating Base Salerno, Khost province, Afghanistan, U.S, Kabul's, New York City, Bagram, Kabul, Doha, Qatar, United States

CNN —The US State Department on Friday released its long-awaited Afghanistan After Action Review report, which found that both the Trump and Biden administrations’ decisions to pull all US troops from Afghanistan had detrimental consequences, and details damning shortcomings by the current administration that led to the deadly and chaotic US withdrawal from that country after nearly two decades on the ground. Sharper criticism of Biden admin actions than earlier White House documentThe State Department’s report contains much sharper criticism around the Biden administration’s actions than the White House summary document released in April. That added significantly to the challenges the Department and DoD faced during the evacuation,” the report said. The report noted that in the chaos, the State Department received an “overwhelming volume of incoming calls and messages to the Department from other government agencies, Congress, and the public inquiring about individual cases mostly with regard to at-risk Afghans,” which created an immense challenge. The report detailed 11 recommendations, mostly related to the Department’s crisis response and preparedness.

Persons: Donald, Trump, Joe, Biden, ”, Afghanistan “, “, Hamid, State Department “, ” “, Antony Blinken, I’ll, ” Blinken Organizations: CNN, US State Department, Trump, Biden, State Department, White, Department, Bagram Air Base, Hamid Karzai International Airport, US, “, DoD, United States, Task Force Locations: Afghanistan, United, United States, Kabul, Washington

☆ The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh Ehsan Popalzai Antonio Jarne Lou Robinson | Eliza Mackintosh | Ehsan Popalzai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“Currently we don’t have security in Afghanistan at all, whenever we go out we don’t know if we will come home alive or not,” he added. Taliban security forces guard a checkpoint near the foreign ministry in Kabul on March 27, after an ISIS-K suicide bomber struck the site. The data, which is available in a live map, includes 367 pieces of open-source evidence — largely videos and images shared on social media — about 70 ISIS-K attacks since August 2021. As the Taliban try to minimize the threat ISIS-K poses, attacks on civilians continue. Taliban security forces have been waging ongoing operations and night raids against ISIS-K.

☆ U.S. Arms Warplanes With ‘Bunker Busting’ Bombs in Message to Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Dion Nissenbaum | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An A-10 Warthog warplane at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. Photo: reuters photographer/ReutersThe U.S. military is for the first time putting 250-pound “bunker busting” bombs on attack aircraft recently sent to the Middle East, American officials said, in the latest move to deter Iran. The decision to put more powerful weapons on a squadron of A-10 Warthogs was designed to give pilots a greater chance of success in destroying ammunition bunkers and other entrenched targets in Iraq and Syria, where U.S. forces have been repeatedly targeted by Iran-backed fighters, the officials said.

☆ Even with F-16s, Ukraine's pilots still wouldn't be 'out of the woods' against Russia's air force, US officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Polish and Slovakian MiG-29s would add to Ukraine's fleet and be familiar to Ukrainian pilots but won't bring much more capability than Ukraine's current MiG-29s. 'The hard work'A pilot exits a Polish Air Force F-16 at an airbase in Poznan in November 2006. If the US or another NATO country elected to supply Ukraine with F-16s, Kelly said his first question would be "what sustainment depot are they going to use? "Again, that's just for the short-term of being able to launch or recover aircraft," Baum said. Ukraine's new jets would also be flying against Russian air-defense weapons that have claimed dozens of Ukrainian aircraft and continue to contest the airspace around the front lines.

☆ Watchdog Report on Afghan Collapse Points to Abrupt Withdrawal, Lack of Planning
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ben Kesling | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, whose Western-backed government collapsed in 2021 and the Taliban took over the country. A government watchdog said an abrupt, uncoordinated withdrawal from Afghanistan and years of problems with planning and oversight of U.S. assistance contributed to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban takeover of the country soon after American forces departed, according to a forthcoming report. Poor accountability on weapons and equipment provided to Afghanistan and a lack of systemic planning were also important factors in the military collapse there, according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The report, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, also calls out the Department of Defense for delaying answering official inquiries, missing deadlines and providing incomplete answers to questions.

☆ Taliban plans to turn former foreign bases into special economic zones
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mohammad IsmailKABUL, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The Taliban administration will move ahead with plans to turn former foreign military bases into special economic zones for businesses, the acting deputy prime minister for economic affairs said in a statement on Sunday. "Following a thorough discussion, it was decided that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should progressively take control of the remaining military bases of the foreign forces with the intention of converting them into special economic zones," Mullah Baradar said in the statement. He added a pilot plan would begin to convert bases in the capital Kabul and in northern Balkh province. Afghanistan's economy has struggled and aid agencies are warning of a severe humanitarian crisis since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign troops withdrew after 20 years of war. The Taliban have said they are focused on boosting economic self-sufficiency through trade and investment.

☆ Fact Check-Video purporting to show plane crash in Nepal on Jan. 15, 2023, dates to at least 2013
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A decade-old video of a plane crash has been shared by social media users who appear to believe it shows the 2023 Yeti Airlines crash in Nepal. At least 71 people, including small children, died in the Jan. 15 crash in Nepal, the country’s worst air disaster in 30 years (here ). Reuters reported on the crash, which happened on April 29, 2013 and involved a U.S.-run cargo plane. The video does not show the 2023 plane crash in Nepal. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center was released and “reunited with his family” in Pakistan, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday. “We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family,” the statement said. The Pentagon said in a statement Saturday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had “notified Congress of his intent to repatriate Saifullah Paracha to Pakistan” last month. Following Paracha’s release, 35 detainees remain in Guantanamo Bay and 18 have been cleared for release, according to Amnesty International. The most high-profile prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay prison is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

☆ Pakistani returns home after 18 years of U.S. detention in Guantanamo prison camp
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct 29 (Reuters) - A Pakistani national held by the United States for 18 years in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp without trial on suspicion of links to al Qaeda returned home to Pakistan on Saturday, Pakistan and the United States said. "We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement. At 75, he was the oldest inmate at the camp, according to Reprieve, a London-based human rights group that worked on his case. It said in a statement that Paracha's continued detention was no longer necessary to protect against a "significant threat" to the security of the United States. The Defense Department said 35 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, of whom 20 are eligible for transfer and three for a Periodic Review Board.

☆ Afganii acuză SUA că au părăsit fortăreața Bagram în timpul nopții, fără să anunțe. 5.000 de deținuți talibani, lăsați în bază
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-06 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +2 min

Baza Bagram conține și o închisoare, iar înăuntru ei s-ar afla aproximativ 5.000 de deținuți talibani. Însă încercăm să facem tot ce putem pentru a proteja oamenii cu ce avem la dispoziție", a spus generalul Kohistani. După retragerea pe timp de noapte, baza Bagram a trecut în posesia unei forțe militare inferioare, care ar putea avea dificultăți în a o apăra în cazul unui atac taliban. Baza Bagram a fost avut diferiți proprietari de-a lungul timpului. Ulterior, baza a fost ocupată de guvernul afgan susținut de Moscova, apoi de mujahedini, înainte să ajungă în mâinile talibanilor la mijlocul anilor '90, când insurgenții au ajuns la putere.

Persons: Asadullah Kohistani, Talibanii, Kohistani, Joe Biden, Ea Organizations: Armata Roșie Locations: SUA, Afganistan, Tadjikistan, Moscova, Afganistanul

☆ Armata Statelor Unite a părăsit aerodromul Bagram, de lângă Kabul
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-06 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

Armata Statelor Unite a părăsit aerodromul Bagram, de lângă Kabul. Joe Biden anunțase recent că forțele Statelor Unite se vor retrage complet din Afganistan până la 11 septembrie. „După ce am primit câteva zvonuri care spuneau că americanii au părăsit Bagram, ne-am documentat și în timp ce căutam informații noi, în cele din urmă, până la ora șapte dimineața, ni s-a confirmat că au părăsit deja Bagram”, a spus Mir Asadullah Kohistani, noul comandant al Aerodromului Bagram. Statele Unite vor acum să pună capăt celui mai lung război în care a fost implicată armata americană. Armata americană a oprit curentul și s-a retras fără să-l anunțe pe noul comandant al bazei.

Persons: Joe Biden, Hamid Karzai, Abdul Organizations: Armata Statelor, Bagram, Armata, Aeroportul Locations: Armata Statelor Unite, Kabul, Afganistan, Statelor Unite, Statele Unite

☆ Talibanii au preluat controlul asupra unui district cheie din Kandahar
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-04 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +2 min

Sursa foto: ProfimediaTalibanii au preluat controlul asupra unui district cheie din KandaharTalibanii au preluat controlul asupra districtului-cheie Panjwai, din provincia Kandahar, după lupte în timpul nopţii împotriva forţelor afgane. Ultimii 100 de militari români au părăsit baza NATO Kandahar la jumătatea lunii mai. Talibanii au preluat controlul asupra sediului poliţiei din district şi asupra clădirii guvernamentale, transmite Digi24. În prezent, în jur de 50 de districte (conform ONU) sau 90 (conform talibanilor) din totalul celor 370 ale ţării au căzut sub controlul forţelor talibane. Trimisul special al ONU pentru Afganistan a transmis Consiliului de Securitate că „se teme” că ce e mai rău abia urmează.

Persons: Panjwai, Washingtonul, Mohammad Organizations: Kandahar Talibanii, NATO, Pentagonului, Talibanii, ONU, Securitate Locations: Kandahar, NATO Kandahar, Afganistan, SUA, Bagram, Kabul, Panjwai, afgane

☆ Ultimele forțe americane și NATO au părăsit Bagram, baza cheie a forțelor aliate în Afganistan
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-02 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +5 min

Sursa foto: Profimedia ImagesUltimele forțe americane și NATO au părăsit Bagram, baza cheie a forțelor aliate în AfganistanOficialii americani din domeniul apărării au anunțat că ultimele forțe americane și NATO au părăsit baza aeriană Bagram din Afganistan, centrul războiului împotriva militanților de aproximativ 20 de ani. În urma atacurilor teroriste din New York, o coaliție condusă de SUA a invadat Afganistanul, mai târziu în acel an, pentru a neutraliza ambele grupări anti-democratice. „Toate forţele coaliţiei au părăsit Bagram”, a declarat un oficialul american, sub rezerva anonimatului, fără să specifice momentul precis al retragerii din această bază, transmite Agerpres. În schimb, Reuters menţionează că Bagram, una dintre cele mai mari baze militare din Afganistan, a fost evacuată vineri. Un responsabil de la Kabul a declarat că baza Bagram va fi predată oficial sub controlul guvernului afgan în cadrul unei ceremonii care va avea loc sâmbătă.

Persons: Președintele Joe Biden, Biden, Qaeda, coaliţiei, Reuters, George W . Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, CNN, Generalul Austin Miller, îşi, american Joe Biden, Ashraf, Ghani Organizations: NATO, BBC News, World Trade Center, SUA, CNN Locations: Afganistan, SUA, Bagram, Kabul, Manhattan, New York, Afganistanul, afgan, american, Statelor Unite, americană

☆ Official says US, Taliban reach Afghan truce agreement
▼ + stars: | 2020-02-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to U.S. troops in an unannounced visit to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Tom BrennerA senior U.S.official said Friday the United States and the Taliban have reached a truce agreement that will take effect "very soon" and could lead to withdrawals of American troops from Afghanistan. The official said the agreement for a seven-day "reduction in violence" to be followed by the start of all-Afghan peace talks within 10 days is "very specific" and covers the entire country including Afghan forces. The final details were hammered out in recent days by U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar. U.S. officials have brushed aside claims that a Taliban ultimatum forced their hand.

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