Ethiopian troops have reportedly moved into another town in south-western Somalia, two days after entering the country to protect the weak government.Of course, the situation is fluid.
Eyewitnesses say about 200 Ethiopian soldiers took control of the airstrip outside Waajid early on Saturday.
There is no confirmation from either the Ethiopian or the Somali government.
5. ROMANIA: Bulgarian ferry boarded and robbed 09 Jul, Danube River, Galatz port. During a passport review, when the crew and passengers had to leave the vessel, thieves came aboard and broke the windows of two cars and stole money, cloths, and a dog. The ferry routinely sails from the Bulgarian Ruse to the Ukrainian port of Reni. According to passengers who usually travel that route, such attacks are not rare. The crew speculates the thieves could be listening to their radio channels when they report what the ferry is carrying and stated this was 21st century piracy (LM).I can understand money and maybe the "cloths" - but stealing a dog? Especially one that is obviously not much of a watchdog...
2. INDIAN OCEAN: Bulk carrier reported attempted boarding 13 Jul at 1020 UTC in position 10:12S 112:15E, 105nm south of Java Island, Indonesia. Six boats (two with white hulls and four with black hulls) approached the vessel from the stern. Each boat had five masked persons dressed in black cloths. Boats came close to the stern so alert crew mustered and master altered the vessel'’s course. Small boats then moved away. ONI Comment: The location, distance from shore, time of day, and large number of vessels and persons involved is not typical of piracy and maritime armed crime reporting for this area and warrants further attention (IMB, ONI)."Warrants further attention" -indeed. Map shows approximate location at red blob.
Authorities announced Tuesday that eight Colombian fishermen have pleaded guilty to federal charges of cocaine possession with intent to distribute. The men were arrested in August onboard the fishing vessel Rio Mar I, 90 nautical miles southwest of the Galapagos Islands.Just to keep you up to date...
Days before the interdiction, members of the U.S. Coast Guard onboard the naval ship saw the fishing boat trailing a cable from the stern, appearing to be pulling something. The boat was plying waters known for drug trafficking.
The fishing vessel was interdicted Aug. 19. The wire-towing harness guardsmen had seen and photographed was nowhere to be found, according to court filings.
The day after stopping the boat, guardsmen found a 31-foot-long, submersible vessel about 15 miles away from where the Rio Mar had been boarded. The steel sub was about 4 feet in diameter, contained 5,500 pounds of cocaine and was attached to a 350-foot cable, according to court papers. It had an electronic transmitter in its nose cone.
LTTE terrorist leadership having understood the importance of a separate fleet much emphasis and attention was given to forming of a sizable sea Tiger fleet. Much of the LTTE’s attention at the mid 90’s was to equip the sea Tigers with various types of craft along with weapon out fit to challenge the Sri Lanka Navy. LTTE terrorists being the only organization with an international maritime network were thinking that they are too in equal state with the Sri Lanka Navy.Has a little history, from a certain view.
An investigation into the Hizbullah terrorist attack on an Israeli Navy boat last Friday shows that missile systems were not prepared to intercept the Iranian-made rocket. Four sailors were killed in the incident.I'd say, except for the four dead crew, the Israeli ship was pretty lucky it wasn't worse.
The Israeli warship had only 20 seconds to respond and was lacking intelligence information that would have prepared Naval officers to respond. The missile exploded above the ship but caused a shock wave which resulted in a fire and a hole in the boat.
Some 150 fishermen in Parit Jawa, Muar stopped going to sea, fearing for their safety following rumour of the presence of pirates and criminals in several areas near Malaysian waters.UPDATE: Added maps. Note that Pirat Jawa is on the Malacca Strait.
Parit Jawa Fishermen's Association advisor Chong Chee Seong said that according to the rumour, any fisherman going to sea would face great risk and trouble from the pirates while at sea.
"Widespread rumour of the trouble waiting for the fishermen at sea worries them as it could be real and they are reluctant to take the risk," he told Bernama, here today.
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He said the Parit Jawa fishermen were often exposed to criminal incidents at sea like their fishing nets being stolen or sabotaged and some even had their boats shot by unidentified parties.
He said marine police did carry out patrols in national waters where the fishermen caught their fish but the pirates usually looked for their prey when the authorities were not around.
Chong said almost all the criminal acts faced by the fishermen at sea were committed by foreigners.
The worst incident took place last year when several of the association members while fishing in national waters, were shot at by foreign fishermen using automatic firearms. One of the fishermen was wounded in the incident.
In a separate incident that took place last year, six Parit Jawa fishermen were captured and made hostage by the foreigners. They were released after paying a RM6,000 ransom.
Generally described as an "amphibious operation in reverse", the evacuation of Hungnam encompassed the safe withdrawal of the bulk of UN forces in eastern North Korea. It was the largest sealift since the 1945 Okinawa operation. In barely two weeks, over a hundred-thousand military personnel, 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 measurement tons of cargo were pulled out. In comparison with the retreat in central and western Korea, little was left behind. Even broken-down vehicles were loaded and lifted out. Also departing North Korea through Hungnam were some 91,000 refugees, a large number, but not nearly as many as had gathered to leave.As you might observe from the photos, the conditions for the evacuees were substantially different than those of the current Lebanon effort.
Ships and aircraft transported 1,200 citizens out of Lebanon to Cyprus yesterday. Of these, 161 "special needs" Americans left via choppers, and 1,066 sailed on the Orient Queen. DoD chartered the Greek-owned vessel for the operation.
In addition to the USS Nashville, the Saudi-owned, Panamanian-flagged Rahmah, with a capacity of 1,400 passengers, arrived in the region and will begin ferrying U.S. citizens to Cyprus tomorrow. The Italian ship Vittoria, with a capacity of around 330 passengers, also will begin operations in the next few days.
DoD officials said five more U.S. Navy ships will arrive at the scene in the next few days. The USS Iwo Jima will join the operation July 22. Officials expect to move around 4,000 evacuees tomorrow.
Responding to criticism that the Pentagon has been slow to organize the evacuation of up to 25,000 Americans compared with the evacuation of Europeans by their governments, Whitman said the emphasis has been on security. American citizens are tempting terrorist targets, and the operation -- which got underway Sunday when the State Department requested the insertion of an 18-man planning team -- takes into account safety "first and foremost," he said.Another part is that logistics, especially involving ships, takes time. I'll bet that not all of the Americans being evacuated in arrived in Lebanon on the same day. And the U.S. doesn't keep empty ships bobbing about waiting for refugees...
"The goal here is a safe, orderly organized disciplined evacuation of American citizens," he said.
All Australians will share their relief and hope that the thousands trapped in Lebanon can soon be rescued. Until now, the rescue mission by the Australian Government had been chaotic. A ship that was supposed to be chartered by Australia had been "double-booked". This sequence of events, however, cannot be blamed entirely on the Government. It was after all, as Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, a war zone. But surely, given that acknowledgement, more could have been done earlier.It's my understanding that the Canadians outbid the Aussies for the "double-booked" ship. A relatively clear statement of the situation is set out here:
The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the failure so far to get a chartered ship in shows just how hard it is.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: And it's complicated by a number of factors. First of all, the whole issue of chartering ships is reasonably chaotic, secondly even when you charter a ship it's very hard the ship into the port. And that's partly because the security situation sometimes is bad and the Israelis recommend against using the port at certain times. And secondly the port's facilities have their limitations.
LOUISE YAXLEY: But he's not giving assurances that any of the ships Australia is trying to charter will steam into port.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: We have chartered, we have contracts to charter ships to arrive in Beirut on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and if all of those ships are able to get into Beirut, and that a very big qualification - if they are - we will have enough capacity to take out around 6,000 people. And that will probably be more than we need, but we're not sure that we will get these ships into Beirut.
LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Downer says he understands the frustrations, but says all nations are facing the same problems.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Some nationals have got out, but the same controversy, I'm afraid, has erupted in every country. It's just very, very difficult to get people out. I mean, some people have got out, some haven't.
- Somalia's Islamists threatened on Thursday to wage holy war on Ethiopian troops they said had crossed into the Horn of Africa nation.
"God willing, we will remove the Ethiopians in our country and wage a jihadi war against them," Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a senior Islamist in charge of defence, told reporters.
Malta and Spain have resolved a stand-off over 51 African migrants who have been stranded at sea since Friday.It ain't just the U.S. dealing with illegals, folks...
Valletta agreed to let the migrants disembark after Madrid sent a plane to take most of them to Spain.
From Spain, the migrants - most of them from Eritrea - will be taken to various European and African nations. Malta will accept three migrants.
Malta had refused to allow the ship to dock, saying they were rescued outside its territorial waters.
It had said the men, women and children on board were the responsibility of Spain or Libya's as since the boat was Spanish and the migrants were picked up in Libya's search-and-rescue zone.
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On Tuesday, Mr Frattini said the EU was about to launch a mission to patrol the Mediterranean near Malta, as he announced plans to set up a system for sending rapid reaction border guard teams to countries facing a migration crisis.
Since January almost 1,000 immigrants have landed on Malta, which has a total population of 400,000.
Malta says it has no more capacity to deal with illegal immigrants and has been pressing the EU to help.
Spain, meanwhile, is dealing with its own immigration crisis in the Canary Islands, with some 11,000 African migrants arriving on the island chain so far this year.
Two Sri Lankan army personnel have been killed and at least 12 injured in a landmine attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels, officials say.The Tigers are generally recognized as innovators in their terrorist - er- guerrilla tactics.
"An army bus was hit by a Claymore mine on the Jaffna peninsula," military spokesman Brigadier P Samarasinghe is quoted as saying by Reuters.
The attack comes after one person was killed in a similar attack on Tuesday.
Violence has spiralled in Sri Lanka in recent months, claiming about 700 lives and undermining a 2002 truce.
The conflict has killed about 64,000 people, displaced one million and held back the island's growth and economic development.An earleir post on the Tamil Tiger Maritime force, which many believe could be a model for other terrorist organizations, here.
Some estimates suggest that the government has spent up to 5% of gross domestic product on defence in recent years.
A column of Ethiopian trucks, more than 100-strong and including armoured cars, have crossed into neighbouring Somalia.In case there was any doubt, Somalia is still a mess.
A BBC reporter has seen Ethiopian troops in uniform in Baidoa, the base of the weak interim government.
Ethiopia denies it has sent in troops, but had warned it would crush Islamists who had moved to within 60km of Baidoa.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which control much of southern Somalia, say they never intended to attack Baidoa and have pulled troops back.
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Ethiopia's Information Minister Berhan Hailu told Reuters news agency in Addis Ababa that they would use "all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa".
Mr Bereket told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that "Ethiopia is in a position to defend itself to ensure the stability of the Horn of Africa".
"If the Islamic courts led by the Jihadists are attacking Baidoa, we have told them we will not let them do it.
Hezbollah's ability to use relatively advanced weapons in the last week of fighting against Israel, as well as the variety of its armaments, has surprised U.S. military experts, current and former officials involved in Middle East policy said.
Hezbollah has gained attributes more often associated with a national military — fixed training bases, rocket-launching facilities, well-trained artillerymen — than with a guerrilla or terrorist group, they said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are involved, said Hezbollah fighters, once viewed as a ragtag group of guerrillas, appear to have received training by Iran in sophisticated missile technologies. Some of the training may have taken place in Iran, they said.
"The analysis around here is they have more expertise than the Lebanese military," a senior U.S. military official said.
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One Israeli intelligence official said there was new evidence that Iran had stepped up arms shipments through Camp Zabadani, a longtime base that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard maintains in Syria, near the Lebanese border.
"The order to increase assistance" to Hezbollah fighters came "directly from Tehran with the approval of the bureau of the leader Khamenei," the official said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. He asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
"The assistance mainly includes a large amount of weapons as well as ammunition, cash, field rations," he said.
Iranian assistance could extend Hezbollah's ability to sustain the current fighting. During the last three days, Israel has detected the movement of several shipments of weapons and supplies from Iran to the Revolutionary Guard base as well as to nearby warehouses, where arms have been stockpiled in recent years, Israeli officials said.
An Israeli air raid Tuesday destroyed an arms-laden convoy of trucks that had originated at Camp Zabadani, entered Lebanon and was bound for the militants, the Israeli intelligence official said. He cited a summary of intelligence gathered through surveillance technology and other means.
The shipments from Iran to Lebanon via Syria in the last few days included FL-10 naval missiles, which are based on Chinese technology and have a range of nine to 18 miles, as well as Katyusha short-range artillery rockets and Iranian-made Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 missiles, the Israelis allege.
The strongest evidence of Iranian involvement with Hezbollah involves the missile used to cripple an Israeli ship off the coast of Beirut on Friday. U.S. officials also point to Hezbollah rocket attacks deep inside Israeli territory.
If the missiles that struck the ship and landed in Israeli cities were "fired by Hezbollah themselves, they would have had to have training in these missile technologies," the senior U.S. military official said, noting that such training probably would have come from Iranian military schools.
"If not Iranians, surely they were people trained in Iran," said the Israeli intelligence official, speaking of the personnel who launched the anti-ship missile. That rocket was believed to be a C-802, Iranian-produced and based on Chinese technology.
More than 30 senior defense officers of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Tuesday gathered in Beijing to discuss Asia-Pacific regional security.
"The first-ever workshop between Chinese and ASEAN defense departments aims at probing into the security opportunities and challenges facing China and ASEAN countries in Asia-Pacific region," said Jia Xiaoning, deputy director of Foreign Affairs Office of Chinese Defense Ministry.
The four-day workshop will cover a wide range of topics, ranging from China and ASEAN influences on Asia-Pacific security, east Asian maritime security cooperation to militaries' role in international humanitarian aid, anti-terror and peace-keeping operations.
While hailing enhanced cooperation between the armed forces in China and ASEAN countries, Jia said that "this workshop will particularly explore the prospects and ways to promote military and security cooperation between China and ASEAN countries."
"China and ASEAN have more and more common security interests during the process of the regionalization," said Han Feng, deputy director of Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
As this year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of China-ASEAN dialogue, a series of commemorative events have been planned and launched, including the ongoing security workshop.
Development of China and ASEAN is a parallel rather than running against each other, so cooperation will be more important than "threat", Han said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
A two-day conference on securing international coastlines kicked off on Tuesday in Taipei, with over 90 military officials and experts from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, the Philippines and the United States presiding over discussion panels focusing on maritime security in the Southeast Asian region.That last sentence is an important reminder.
Noting that the theme of this year's conference is "Maintaining the Coastlines of World Peace," the Ministry of National Defense stated in a press release that the participants in "The 24th Annual International Coastline Security Conference" will discuss topics such as the U.S.' global military strategy, the situation in the Indian Ocean, the conflict between North and South Korea, and last but not least, relations between Taiwan and China.
The MND noted that Taiwan's participation in the conference was especially important as the nation is located in the middle of a chain of islands in the West Pacific Ocean and between two of Asia's most important waterways -- the Taiwan Strait and Bashi Channel -- giving it strategic command over the sea lanes in East Asia.
United States and Philippine military officials have lined up a first wide-scale excercise, including a counter-terrorist training, under the recently-established RP-US Security Engagement Board, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said.
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"Kapit Bisig has many components, there are socio- economic, security and security assistance and other support activities that they (US) will give to the AFP to enhance the capability of the AFP for counter-terrorism, transnational crimes, disaster preparedness and even possible pandemic," said Cruz.
Cruz said the exercise might be held nationwide, including Mindanao where terrorist, secessionist and even communist groups are operating. "Of course Mindanao is included when it comes to socio-economic projects," he said.
Nearly doubling the Djiboutian navy and vastly expanding its capabilities, the U.S. government on Thursday handed over four refurbished patrol boats designed to boost security in the region’s most vital waterways.You might note that Djibouti occupies an important spot on a major sea lane.
The 44-foot boats are part of the Foreign Military Financing program, through which the U.S. government equips and arms its allies.
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“But before these new boats, we had no capability to go out in heavy seas. These boats, they give us the capability to spend five days at sea,” said Lt. Ahmed Daher Djama of the 300-man Djiboutian navy.
“They have night vision, GPS (Global Positioning System), all the new naval systems. So they are very useful for patrol.”
