Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days

Blinken, center right, spoke after North Korea conducted its longest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile test. (Reuters)
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Updated 01 November 2024
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Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days

WASHINGTON:The United States expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday as he pressed China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang.
Blinken spoke after North Korea conducted its longest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile test earlier on Thursday and South Korea warned that Pyongyang could get missile technology from Russia in exchange for helping with the war in Ukraine.
The top US diplomat said there were 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces continue to hold territory after fighting their way into the Russian border area in August.
At a press conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts, Blinken said Russia has been training the North Korean soldiers in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, and basic infantry operations, indicating they “fully intend” to use the forces in frontline operations.
They would become legitimate military targets if they enter the battlefield, Blinken said.
“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” he said. During their meeting, the US and South Korea discussed a range of options for responding, Blinken added, saying Moscow’s use of North Korean soldiers in its “meat grinder” war against Ukraine was a “clear sign of weakness.”
Austin said the US would announce new security assistance for Ukraine in coming days.
Blinken and his South Korea and Japanese counterparts condemned the ICBM launch as a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The flight-time of the missile was 87 minutes, according to South Korea, putting nearly all of the United States within range.
The Kremlin on Thursday declined to comment when asked if Russia was helping North Korea to develop its missile and other military technology.
Blinken said Beijing, like Washington, should be very concerned about what Russia might be doing in order to enhance North Korea’s military capacities because it was destabilizing to Asia.


Taliban minister’s killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan

Updated 7 sec ago
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Taliban minister’s killing renews concerns over Daesh threat in Afghanistan

  • Khalil Haqqani was killed by a suicide bomber inside his ministry’s compound
  • He is the most high-profile Taliban casualty since the group’s return to power

KABUL: The killing of Afghanistan’s Refugee Minister Khalil Haqqani, has raised new concerns about a Daesh threat in the country, analysts said on Thursday, as the group claimed responsibility for the suicide blast that killed the Taliban official in Kabul.
Khalil Haqqani was a senior leader of a powerful faction within the Taliban called the Haqqani network. He became a minister when the Taliban returned to power after US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
Haqqani was the brother of the famous guerrilla leader and the Haqqani network’s founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. His nephew, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the current interior minister.
Daesh-run media said on Wednesday evening that the explosion that killed the minister hours earlier at the Ministry of Refugees compound in central Kabul was carried out by its suicide attacker.
The Taliban later confirmed in a statement that Daesh was behind the attack, which killed and injured several others.
“(Haqqani) was a major figure whose politico-military career spanned decades and whose network and contracts transcended not just political divides across the Afghan spectrum but also extended deep into the tribal areas of Pakistan,” Ahmad Waleed Kakar, analyst and founder of The Afghan Eye media platform, told Arab News.
Coming from a tribe inhabiting the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Haqqani’s family has been influential in resolving tribal conflicts and addressing issues at the community level.
After the 2001 US invasion ousted the Taliban from their first stint in power, the faction was responsible for many attacks during the movement’s 20-year insurgency against foreign troops and influence in the country.
In 2011, the US classified Haqqani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, offering a $5 million bounty on his head.
“His killing will be a huge political blow to the Taliban given his history of pragmatic mediation in the movement,” Kakar said.
“Whilst Daesh have been unable to meaningfully consolidate their control over specific geography in Afghanistan or pose a military threat to the Taliban, their limited presence means they remain able to exploit faults in Taliban security and target key figures.”
A regional affiliate of Daesh, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, has been a rival group to the Taliban since it emerged in Afghanistan a decade ago.
Following the Taliban takeover of the country in 2021, ISKP has continued its campaign against the new Taliban regime. While deadly blasts have become rare since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, last year ISKP claimed the explosion that killed the Taliban governor of northern Balkh province. A few months later, the group assassinated the acting governor of Badakhshan in Afghanistan’s northeast.
Haqqani is the most high-profile casualty of an attack in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power.
“The killing of Khalil Rahman Haqqani is a deeply tragic incident, not only for the Taliban but also for Afghans and the international community. Mr. Haqqani was widely regarded as a pragmatic and moderate leader within the Taliban. Following the collapse of the republic, he was seen in Kabul, personally assuring former leaders of the republic about their safety,” Tameem Bahiss, a Kabul-based security analyst, told Arab News.
“While the Taliban have made significant strides in weakening ISKP’s presence in Afghanistan, this attack on Mr. Haqqani will undoubtedly heighten concerns among the Taliban leadership, leaving them more alarmed and cautious.”


Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency

Updated 12 December 2024
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Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency

  • The commutations are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released
  • It is customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.
Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”
The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.
Those pardoned Thursday had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.
The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons. He’s also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former US service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron.
Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into office, it’s likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during the height of the pandemic.
More pardons are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously and has been thinking about it for as much as six months – before the presidential election – but has been concerned about the precedent it would set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who was the chairman of the congressional committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary,” and that the president shouldn’t be spending his waning days in office worrying about this.
A president has the power to both pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms.
Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for everyday Americans. It wasn’t a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.


Russia will ‘definitely’ respond to Ukraine ATACMS strike: Kremlin

Updated 12 December 2024
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Russia will ‘definitely’ respond to Ukraine ATACMS strike: Kremlin

  • Russia’s defense ministry accuses Ukraine of firing the missiles in an overnight attack on an airfield in the port city of Taganrog
  • Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months as Russia’s troops advance on the battlefield

MOSCOW: Russia will “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a southern airfield using US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Kremlin said Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch its new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday accused Ukraine of firing the missiles in an overnight attack on an airfield in the port city of Taganrog in the southern Rostov region.
A response “will follow when, and in a way that is deemed, appropriate. It will definitely follow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He did not provide details of how Russia might retaliate.
Washington only recently gave Kyiv permission to fire ATACMS on Russian territory, following months of requests.
The United States warned Wednesday that Russia could be preparing to fire Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine again.
The US warning was “based on an intelligence assessment that it’s possible that Russia could use this Oreshnik missile in the coming days,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.
Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months as Russia’s troops advance on the battlefield.
Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday its troops had captured the tiny settlement of Zarya in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.


Indian troops kill seven Maoist rebels

Updated 12 December 2024
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Indian troops kill seven Maoist rebels

  • More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement
  • The insurgency has drastically shrunk in recent years and a crackdown by security forces has killed over 200 rebels this year

RAIPUR, India: Indian troops shot dead seven Maoist rebels in a fierce gunbattle on Thursday, as security forces step up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict.
More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement, as the Maoist insurgents are known, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized Indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
The insurgency has drastically shrunk in recent years and a crackdown by security forces has killed over 200 rebels this year, according to government data.
The latest gunbattle took place in a remote forested area of Bastar region in Chhattisgarh state, the heartland of the insurgency.
“So far seven bodies of Maoists, who were in their uniforms, have been recovered during search operations,” police inspector general P. Sunderraj said, adding that the toll was likely to rise.
Indian home minister Amit Shah warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to quash the insurgency by early 2026.
The Naxalites, named after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents, and made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south.
The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”
Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects.


Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island

Updated 12 December 2024
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Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island

  • Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years
  • Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels involved

TAIPEI: Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.
The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the defense ministry’s daily tally.
Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.
Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practicing blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.
There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.
However, a recent Pacific tour by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te that included two stops in US territory drew fury from Beijing, which claims the democratic island as part of China’s territory.
The security official said that China began planning the massive maritime operation in October and aimed to demonstrate it could choke off Taiwan and draw a “red line” ahead of the next US administration.
The sea drills were “significantly larger” than Beijing’s maritime response to then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, the security official said. Those war games were China’s largest-ever around Taiwan.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that China’s increased military activity around the island was evidence that Beijing was a “troublemaker.”
But China’s foreign ministry – whose spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied that drills were taking place – directed blame at Taiwan.
James Char, an expert on China’s military at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said Beijing’s silence “serves as a way of demonstrating that the Taiwan Strait as well as the waters and airspace around the island falls under Chinese sovereignty – hence unnecessary to announce (the drills) to the world.”
“This is another means by the mainland to force its position upon others,” Char said, though he did not rule out Chinese confirmation at a later date.
Taiwan said Monday that Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had reserved airspace off the Chinese coast until Wednesday.
Vietnam-based maritime security analyst Duan Dang said Thursday that aviation data showed the airspace zones had “fully returned to normal.”
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.
Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around the island in recent years, and also opposes any international recognition of self-ruled Taiwan – especially when it comes to official contact between Taipei and Washington.
Lai spoke last week with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson in addition to his two recent stopovers on US soil.
The defense ministry’s tally of Chinese warships on Thursday was the highest since May 25, when 27 navy vessels were detected during Chinese military drills held days after Lai’s inauguration.