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Search resuls for: "Special Forces Unit"


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How El Chapo’s sons built a fentanyl empire poisoning America
  + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +23 min
Headed by Iván, El Chapo’s oldest son, the siblings have emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. and Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacán in a hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The agency in April placed Iván on the list of its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, joining Jesús Alfredo and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel legend and El Chapo’s alleged former business partner. They also kidnapped eight soldiers and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican soldiers lived, Mexican officials said. Despite that blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north.
Russia's Spetsnaz forces are often depicted as a kind of Russian super troops. Osprey PublishingMost countries' special forces emphasize physical fitness, determination and aggression. Special people, for special tasksMembers of the Russian military's 16th Separate Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in 2018. Even so, being better than most of the Soviet army's miserable and recalcitrant conscript forces did not make most of them truly special, special forces. The special operations commandMembers of Russian's 22nd Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade during an exercise in November 2017.
Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine has been ongoing for nearly 14 months. Levy, 74, filmed on battlefields across the country — from Kharkiv in the northeast, Kherson in the south, and the capital city Kyiv. Insider also interviewed Levy this week to discuss his experience while reporting in Ukraine, what he observed on the ground, and his overall thoughts on the war. Courtesy photoQ: Ukraine has sustained huge casualties in defending itself, as you document. Courtesy photoQ: Are you concerned that support for Ukraine is becoming increasingly unfashionable in France and the West more generally?
Aid group says two employees killed in Ethiopia's Amhara region
  + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
NAIROBI, April 10 (Reuters) - Two Catholic Relief Services (CRS) workers were shot and killed on Sunday in Ethiopia's Amhara region, the charity said, amid violent anti-government protests triggered by a federal government decision to disband regional special forces units. Spokespeople for Ethiopia's federal government and for the Amhara regional government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Residents in the town of Dessie reported large protests there on Monday, with young people blocking the roads and burning tyres. Amhara forces fought alongside the federal army in that conflict. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the integration of the regional special forces is needed to ensure national unity in a country with a long history of inter-ethnic conflict.
Israel's Netanyahu buys time, but is still in a fix
  + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Angus Mcdowall | ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +4 min
It shows the dilemma facing Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who managed a comeback last year, brushing aside an ongoing corruption scandal and the political obituaries written after his last coalition collapsed in 2020. Announcing the delay of the judicial law on television, Netanyahu cited the wisdom of Solomon to say he would extend a hand for dialogue. With polls showing his coalition would lose any new election, Netanyahu can meanwhile count on little goodwill from old foes and former allies still sore from previous encounters. Netanyahu describes the cases as politically motivated, denies wrongdoing and says they are not linked to his judicial reforms. His coalition partners include hard-right supporters of Jewish settlers, who have dismayed Israel's foreign allies with harsh statements about Palestinians.
The conflict in Ukraine has emerged as the first major war involving drone use on both sides. By the late 1990s, Predator drones were being used by the US and NATO for reconnaissance missions in the Kosovo War. Ukraine has in many ways emerged as a guinea pig for drone warfare. Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesLater in the war, Russia began launching swarms of Iranian-made Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones, striking targets across Ukraine. Drones have significantly shortened the so-called kill chain, Cancian explained, helping troops swiftly locate targets and provide coordinates for artillery.
"The new government is determined to restore ... quiet and personal security to the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu told parliament on Thursday before his swearing in. For Netanyahu, who described himself in his recent autobiography as "conservative but decidedly not extreme", such allies are likely to provide challenges aplenty in the months ahead as even Israel's closest allies watch with unease. To complicate matters further, Netanyahu is himself fighting corruption charges alleging he unlawfully received gifts and granted regulatory favours in return for positive news coverage. A resumption looks increasingly unlikely, with some members of Religious Zionism talking openly about annexing the West Bank, dashing whatever hope remains of a Palestinian state. The United States, Israel's closest ally, has been circumspect in offering criticism although officials including President Joe Biden have pointedly repeated Washington's support for the two-state solution.
In early December, German police uncovered a plot by far-right conspirators to mount a coup. It is widely acknowledged that the electoral appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to about 10% of German voters is a matter of great concern. This image of political stability, though not unjustified, caused many observers to downplay the revelation in early December that German police had uncovered an organized plot by a network of far-right conspirators to mount a coup. German police and intelligence services had to take the threat this network represented seriously. This complacency gave the East German Stasi and other Soviet-bloc intelligence services opportunities to reach out to emerging radical networks willing to destabilize the Federal Republic at the time.
[1/3] A woman takes part in an initial military training for civilians at the sports and patriotic club "Yaropolk" in Krasnogorsk outside Moscow, Russia December 3, 2022. Russia, Putin says, is defending Russians in Ukraine against a decadent West that ultimately wants to carve up Russia's vast resources and eradicate Russian civilisation. The club's videos show training to a popular song with the lyrics: "Be afraid - we, the Russians, are coming." Directorate "A", known as Alpha Group, is one of Russia's most elite special forces units. Russia presents the conflict in Ukraine as an attempt to root out neo-Nazis who Moscow says have persecuted Russian speakers.
Reuters —Gunfire was heard on Monday from inside a besieged hotel in the Somali capital that was attacked on the weekend, a nearby resident and a police officer said, while parliament said it had postponed a scheduled session. “There is still heavy gunfire inside the hotel, and we hear explosions from time to time … we are still in our houses since last night, when the siege started,” Ismail Haaji, who lives near the hotel, told Reuters. “The fighters who launched the attack are still fighting inside the hotel, and they are fighting with the forces of Haramcad and Gaashaan, and security forces are trying to rescue the people trapped inside the hotel,” the officer added. Government officials in Mogadishu frequently use the Villa Rosa hotel for meetings. Somalia’s parliament said it had postponed a scheduled session for both of its houses.
Some may be the work of Russians opposed to Putin; others show signs of military special operations. In a matter of a days this month, Ukrainian forces managed to liberate more territory than the Russian military captured and held over six months of war. For months now, sensitive sites and important facilities throughout Russia have been hit by mysterious fires and explosions, hinting at a sabotage campaign that is the hallmark of special-operations forces. Smoke and flames rise at a Russian military base in Crimea after explosions there on August 9. Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.
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