KABUL: Afghan authorities are tightening security in the central area of Kabul housing foreign embassies and government offices after a string of suicide attacks that have caused hundreds of casualties and hit confidence in the Western-backed government.
Two months after a truck bomb killed at least 150 people on May 31 in the biggest such attack since the US-led campaign to oust the Taliban in 2001, a series of scanners and cameras have appeared at intersections around the heart of the capital.
“In this security plan, our priority is the diplomatic area,” Salem Ehsaas, acting police chief of Kabul, told Reuters. “The highest threat level is in this area and so we need to provide a better security here,“
Underlining the threat, security forces seized a truck in Kabul on Saturday carrying 16.5 tons of ammonium nitrate hidden in chicken feed and intended to be used for making explosives, the National Directorate for Security said.
The new measures, which come as the US administration wrestles with formulating a new strategy for Afghanistan, show how serious the security situation has become since the NATO-led coalition ended its main combat mission in 2014.
Although Kabul has never had a formal “Green Zone” to match the one in Baghdad, over the years the center of the Afghan capital has become an increasingly militarized zone of armed checkpoints and blast walls.
The city is now one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan for civilians, with 209 killed and 777 injured in suicide and complex attacks in the first half of the year, according to United Nations figures.
This year alone, attacks have included the main military hospital near the US Embassy in Kabul, the Supreme Court, the Iraqi embassy, as well as the May 31 truck bomb, just in front of the German embassy.
A number of foreign aid organizations and embassies, including the German mission which was heavily damaged in the attack, have sent some of their international staff home over the raised security fears.
The new measures will see 27 permanent checkpoints installed on the 42 roads through the zone, supported by mobile explosives scanners, sniffer dogs and security cameras. Nine other streets will normally be closed and the remaining six roads will be permanently closed to cars.
Trucks will be searched at a special external checkpoint and enter the central zone via the main road in from the airport, with around 1,200 police on duty in the area, including special motorbike patrols.
The measures will be introduced progressively and should be complete within six months, officials said.
Additional checkpoints are unlikely to be popular with motorists who already have to put up with long delays on Kabul’s notoriously choked roads but at the same time, there has been a growing clamour for more security.
The attacks, added to the thousands of casualties suffered by Afghan troops, have piled pressure on the government of President Ashraf Ghani, leading to street demonstrations and demands by parliamentarians for security officials including the ministers of the interior and defense to be impeached.
Kabul “Green Zone” tightened after attacks in Afghan capital
Kabul “Green Zone” tightened after attacks in Afghan capital
North Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles for second time in a week
Missiles launched from Kaechon, flew about 400 km
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Japan and South Korea condemn launches as provocations
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Follows North Korea’s display of uranium enrichment facility
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Potential test of KN-23 previously given to Russia -Yonhap
(Adds Yoon’s office statement, paragraph 6, Yonhap report, paragraphs 9-10, analyst comment, paragraphs 18-19, more context)
By Hyonhee Shin and Kantaro Komiya
SEOUL/TOKYO, Sept 18 : North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday toward its east coast, South Korea and Japan said, days after Pyongyang unveiled a uranium enrichment facility and vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal.
The missiles lifted off from Kaechon, north of the capital Pyongyang, at around 6:50 a.m. (2150 GMT Tuesday) in a northeast direction and flew about 400 km (249 miles), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, without specifying how many were fired and where they landed.
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s missile launch as a clear provocation that seriously threatens the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula,” the JCS said in a statement, vowing an overwhelming response to any further provocations.
About 30 minutes after its first missile notice, Japan’s coast guard said North Korea had fired another ballistic missile.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said at least one of the missiles fell near the North’s eastern inland coast and that the launches “cannot be tolerated.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office held a meeting to assess the security situation and told Pyongyang to halt all provocations, including its ongoing release of balloons carrying trash into the South.
Nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan and the United States condemned the launch as a violation of UN resolutions during a phone call, vowing to sternly respond to any further provocations, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said on X that it was aware of the launches and was consulting closely with Seoul and Tokyo.
EXPORT TO RUSSIA?
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed sources, said the North could have used the KN-23 or Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missiles, which Ukrainian authorities have identified as weapons likely to have been given to Russia.
When the North tested two of the missiles equipped with what it called a super-large warhead in July, one of them appeared to have
fallen inland
in North Korea, the JCS had said, citing the launch location and trajectory.
The North fired several short-range ballistic missiles last Thursday, the first such launch in more than two months, which it later described as a test of a new 600-mm multiple launch rocket system.
South Korea’s JCS has said the launch might have been to test the weapons for export to Russia, amid intensifying military cooperation between the two countries.
The United States, South Korea and Ukraine, among other countries, have accused Pyongyang of supplying rockets and missiles to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine, in return for economic and military assistance.
Moscow and Pyongyang have denied any illicit arms trade.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who is visiting Russia this week, met her counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday and discussed ways to promote bilateral ties, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s top security official, also visited Pyongyang last week and met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Wednesday’s missile launches came days after Pyongyang for the first time showed images of centrifuges that produce fuel for its nuclear bombs, as Kim inspected a uranium enrichment facility and called for more weapons-grade material to boost the arsenal.
Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, said the launches could be designed to show off Pyongyang’s missile capabilities while ratcheting up tensions ahead of the US elections.
“They might have discussed weapons supplies during the recent exchange of visits in light of the escalation of the Ukraine war, and the launches could also be part of preparations for a seventh nuclear test,” Yang said.
Ukraine amends 2024 budget to channel more funds for defense
- Ukraine spends most of its state revenues on funding the national defense effort
- The government plans to increase a war tax paid by residents to 5% from the current 1.5%
KYIV: Ukraine’s parliament amended the 2024 budget on Wednesday, raising defense spending by an additional 500 billion hryvnias ($12 billion) as the war against Russia rages on after nearly 31 months.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a lawmaker from the Holos party, said total budget spending for this year had been increased to a record 3.73 trillion hryvnias ($90 billion).
As Ukrainian troops defend more than 1,000 km (620 miles)of front lines, demand for ammunition and weapons is growing and more money is required. Ukraine has also increased the pace of mobilization and needs more funds to pay soldiers’ wages.
Ukraine spends most of its state revenues on funding the national defense effort, and relies on financial aid from its Western partners to be able to fund pensions, public sector wages and other social spending. The finance ministry said that total budget spending was up by nearly 11 percent, reaching 2.1 trillion hryvnias in the first eight months of the year.
The spending included about 965.8 billion hryvnias on soldiers’ wages, ammunition, equipment and other military needs, it said in a statement.
To raise additional funds for the army for the rest of the year, the government plans to increase taxes and will borrow more from the domestic debt market, the finance ministry said.
Kyiv has also agreed a deal to restructure over $20 billion of international debt, saving about $11.4 billion over the next three years.
The government plans to increase a war tax paid by residents to 5 percent from the current 1.5 percent, and will introduce additional war-related taxes for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses. It has already increased some import and fuel duties.
Parliament has given its initial approval to the planned tax hikes and is expected to vote for the bill in the final reading later this month or in early October.
Tax changes are expected to bring about 58 billion hryvnias to the budget this year and about 137 billion next year, officials have said.
Beset by wildfires, Portugal gets help from Spain, Morocco
LISBON: Deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal have pushed emergency services to the limit and much-needed reinforcements will arrive on Wednesday from Spain and Morocco, the civil protection authority said.
At least seven people have died due to the blazes in the Aveiro and Viseu districts, with dozens of houses destroyed and tens of thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland consumed. Authorities have mobilized more than 5,000 firefighters.
Duarte Costa told CNN Portugal late on Tuesday that a specialized emergencies team of 230 Spanish military personnel would be deployed in the central Viseu district, where huge blazes are “of great concern at the moment.”
Morocco is sending up to four heavy water-bombing aircraft that should also arrive in Portugal on Wednesday, he added.
Spain, Italy and France have already sent two water-bombing aircraft each after the Portuguese government on Monday requested help under the EU civil protection mechanism.
“We are in a stressful situation, at the limit of our capabilities, and that is why we are asking for help from the European mechanism, Spain and Morocco,” Costa said, adding that the reinforcements would allow for some rotation of exhausted Portuguese firefighters and aircraft maintenance.
The government has declared a state of calamity in all municipalities affected by the wildfires, allowing civil protection agents to access private property.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said a government team would coordinate the provision of “the most immediate and urgent support” to those who have lost their homes and livelihoods.
At least some of the dozens of fires across Portugal have been caused by arsonists, prompted by possible commercial interest, spite or criminal negligence, he said, vowing to “spare no effort in repressive action” against such crimes.
Portugal’s national guard, or GNR, said in a statement they had arrested seven people since Saturday suspected of arson in the districts of Leiria, Castelo Branco, Porto and Braga.
Chinese navy flotilla sails between Japanese islands near Taiwan
TOKYO: A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time, Japan’s military said Wednesday, in the latest move by Beijing to rile the close US ally.
The passage of a flotilla on Tuesday to Wednesday took place near a group of uninhabited islands disputed by Japan and China that have long been a source of friction.
The Liaoning carrier and two Luyang III-class missile destroyers were seen sailing southwards between the islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote, the defense ministry’s joint staff said.
“This is the first time that an aircraft carrier belonging to the Chinese Navy has been confirmed to have sailed through the waters between Yonaguni and Iriomote,” a statement said.
Public broadcaster NHK and other media, citing unnamed defense sources, reported that it was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered Japan’s contiguous waters.
Contiguous waters are a 12-nautical-mile band that extends beyond territorial waters where a country can exert come control according to international maritime law.
The ministry was unable to immediately confirm the news reports.
Taipei’s government said earlier a Chinese naval formation led by the Liaoning sailed through waters northeast of self-ruled Taiwan on Wednesday and continued toward Japan’s Yonaguni Island.
China’s growing economic and military clout in the Asia-Pacific region and its assertiveness in territorial disputes — most recently with the Philippines — has rattled the United States and its allies.
Tense incidents have involved Japanese and Chinese vessels in disputed areas, in particular the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, known by Beijing as the Diaoyus.
Tokyo has reported the presence of Chinese coast guard vessels, a naval ship, and a nuclear-powered submarine around the remote chain of islets.
In August, Japan scrambled fighter jets after the first confirmed incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace, with Tokyo calling it a “serious violation” of its sovereignty.
Japan is ramping up its defense spending with US encouragement, moving to acquire counter-strike capabilities and easing rules on arms exports.
Tokyo is also providing funding and equipment such as patrol vessels to other countries in the region.
In July, Japan agreed on a deal with the Philippines allowing troop deployments on each other’s soil.
Japan last week also scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years.
The Tu-142 planes did not enter Japanese airspace but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, Japan said.
This month Russian and Chinese warships held joint drills in the Sea of Japan, part of a major naval exercise that President Vladimir Putin said was the largest of its kind for three decades.
The Japanese defense ministry said it had observed five Chinese naval ships entering the Sea of Japan and likely on their way to the joint maneuvers.
Japan to formally elect new prime minister on October 1
- Polls indicate that three frontrunners are emerging among the nine candidates to succeed Fumio Kishida as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
TOKYO: Japan’s new prime minister will be formally elected by parliament on October 1 following next week’s leadership contest, a ruling party official said Wednesday.
Polls indicate that three frontrunners are emerging among the nine candidates to succeed Fumio Kishida as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the September 27 internal vote.
They are conservative economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, former LDP secretary general Shigeru Ishiba, 67, and Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, son of former premier Junichiro Koizumi.
The conservative LDP — which has governed almost uninterrupted for decades — holds a majority in parliament, meaning the winner of the party election is essentially guaranteed to become premier.
Yasukazu Hamada, a LDP lawmaker in charge of parliament affairs, told his opposition counterpart that the party “plans to convene a parliament session on October 1” to elect the new prime minister, a LDP official told AFP.
The opposition party accepted the date, which will be formally announced by the government on Monday, media reports said.
Kishida, 67, whose three-year term was tarnished by scandals, voter anger over rising prices and sliding poll ratings, announced last month that he was stepping down.
In the leadership election, each of the LDP’s 367 parliament members cast a vote, and another 367 votes will be determined based on the preferences of rank-and-file party members and supporters.
Polls by different Japanese media have put Takaichi, Ishiba and Koizumi in the lead, although this is no guarantee any of them will emerge as the eventual winner.
Koizumi would be Japan’s youngest-ever premier while Takaichi, a vocal nationalist popular with the LDP’s conservative wing, would be the country’s first woman leader.
As a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine to Japan’s war dead, which includes convicted war criminals — her nomination would likely rile victims of Japan’s wartime aggression such as China and South and North Korea.
