BERLIN: American B-52 Stratofortress bombers were flying over all 30 NATO countries on Friday in an exercise the US military said was meant to demonstrate the alliance’s solidarity, amid growing signs of cracks.
Four of the long-range jet bombers based in Britain were flying over European members of NATO, integrating along the way with several partner nations’ fighters and refueling aircraft. Two other Stratofortresses based in North Dakota were flying over Canada and the United States.
The single-day mission is part of regular flight missions that have been taking place in Europe since 2018, but is meant specifically to “demonstrate NATO solidarity, enhance readiness and provide training opportunities” by involving the airspace of every member nation, the US European Command said.
It comes amid an escalating dispute between NATO nations Greece and Turkey over jurisdiction over waters in the Mediterranean, and strong-arm tactics from US President Donald Trump to press NATO allies to spend more on defense that have left many of them resentful and concerned about America’s commitment.
“US security commitments to the NATO Alliance remain ironclad,” said Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of US European Command, in a statement. “Today’s bomber task force mission is another example of how the Alliance sustains readiness, improves interoperability and demonstrates our ability to deliver on commitments from across the Atlantic.”
He said such operations also served to emphasize the American “commitment to global security and stability.”
“By further enhancing our enduring relationships, we send a clear message to potential adversaries about our readiness to meet any global challenge,” Wolters said.
US flies B-52 bombers over Europe to show NATO solidarity
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US flies B-52 bombers over Europe to show NATO solidarity
- The single-day mission is part of regular flight missions that have been taking place in Europe since 2018
French court slashes jails term for trio over 2020 teacher beheading
- Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years
PARIS, France: A French court on Monday reduced on appeal the jail sentences of three men convicted over the 2020 terrorist beheading of a teacher who showed a class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered in October 2020 by an 18-year-old radical Islamist of Chechen origin in an act that horrified France.
His attacker, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was killed in a shootout with police.
Two friends of Anzorov, French national Naim Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, a Russian of Chechen origin, had their sentences of 16 years in prison reduced to six and seven years respectively by a Paris court of appeal.
Both were accused of having driven Anzorov and helping him to procure weapons before the beheading.
Brahim Chnina, the Moroccan father of a girl who falsely claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to leave his classroom before showing the caricatures, had his 13-year sentence reduced to 10 years.
His daughter, then aged 13, was not actually in the classroom at the time and during the first trial apologized to the teacher’s family.
The court however left the 15-year term for French-Moroccan Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui untouched.
The quartet were among the seven men and one woman found guilty in 2024 of contributing to the climate of hatred that led to the beheading of the history and geography teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris.
Paty, who has become a free-speech icon, used the cartoons as part of an ethics class to discuss freedom of expression laws in France.
