Posts

Showing posts with the label Defense

Sudan one month on: Why cease-fires are failing, and what global leaders are missing

Image
[ad_1] KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty Images One month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the country's capital and surrounding regions in recent days, and violence has also spread to the long-embattled Darfur region in the west. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Monday that more than 600 people had been killed and over 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting. The real toll is expected to be far higher. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries . Meanwhile, those who have stayed put often have no access to essentials despite a ...

Israel-Hamas war live updates: Israeli military says next step might not be ground incursion; UN warns against forcible transfers

Image
[ad_1] Next phase of Israeli campaign could be 'something different' from ground incursion: IDF The Israel Defense Forces is advancing its campaign to eliminate the military abilities of Palestinian militant group Hamas, a spokesperson said, but the next step may not be a long-anticipated ground incursion. "We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven't said what they will be. Everybody's talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different," the IDF's Lt Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters, according to Reuters. Expectations have mounted that Israel will launch a ground offensive into the besieged Gaza Strip, which it has sealed off from its electricity, fuel, food and water supplies. Israeli troops have amassed at the border, with the IDF on Friday last week instructing the residents of Gaza City to evacuate south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. But there has been no ground offensive as yet amid widespread warnings from human rig...

U.S. announces Taiwan weapons package worth up to $345 million

Image
[ad_1] Military vehicles queue to launch U.S.-made TOW A2 missiles during a live firing exercise in Pingtung county on July 2023. Sam Yeh | Afp | Getty Images The United States unveiled a Taiwan weapons aid package worth up to $345 million on Friday, a move likely to anger China even as the Biden administration declined to publicly provide details on the arms in the package. Congress authorized up to $1 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority weapons aid for Taiwan, which strongly rejects Chinese sovereignty claims, in the 2023 budget. Beijing has repeatedly demanded the United States, Taiwan's most important arms supplier, halt the sale of weapons to the island. In recent weeks, four sources told Reuters the package was expected to include four unarmed MQ-9A reconnaissance drones, but noted their inclusion could fall through as officials work through details on removing some of the advanced equipment from the drones that only the U.S. Air Force is allowed access to. ...