ABOARD AIR FORCE TWO: The war in Afghanistan may be entering its 17th year, but screams of military jet engines in the twinkling skies above Bagram Airfield show no sign of quieting.
This city-scale military base just north of Kabul has — like similar facilities in Kandahar and Jalalabad — become central to Donald Trump’s promise to succeed where his predecessors failed, and end the Afghan war on favorable terms.
Trump concluded a months-long strategy review in August. During that soul searching, the White House came to believe that the Obama administration underutilized America’s total aerial superiority. The skies, they believe, could hold one key to unlocking the conflict.
Trump will likely send a few thousand more troops to the country — a development sure to grab the headlines — but the days of having 100,000 US military personnel in the country are over.
The ground war is likely to fall more and more to Afghan government forces, and early political efforts will be trained, in part, on getting Pakistan to stop providing safe havens for militants across the border.
But the first tangible moves have been a significant increase in the tempo and intensity of airstrikes, an effort to take the war to the Taliban.
The US, which is the only foreign force in Afghanistan carrying out airstrikes, targeted the Taliban and Daesh militants with 751 bombs and missiles in September, the month after the strategy review.
That was up 50 percent from August and the highest since October 2010, according to US Air Force data.
US Air Force personnel on the ground in Afghanistan report a significant shift in how airpower is being used.
Before, jets patrolled for up to four hours waiting to provide air support to ground forces. But they often returned to Bagram without having fired a shot in anger.
Today, according to Capt. Lyndsey Horn, they are much more likely to come back having engaged the Taliban, Daesh or having targeted an opium production facility.
“For a long time here we stagnated,” said a second officer. “The effects so far are positive, the long term effects are harder to tell.”
Vice President Mike Pence, who on Thursday became the most senior member of the Trump administration to visit Afghanistan, says the strategy is starting to make a difference in Taliban morale.
“President Ghani informed me that in 2017 we have eliminated more senior leaders of the Taliban than were eliminated in all the prior years combined,” Pence said after his meeting in Kabul.
“They have begun to see a sea change in the attitudes among the Taliban” he added. The Taliban “are now beginning to question their future, and our hope is, as we take the fight to the enemy ... that eventually the enemy will tire of losing and will be willing to come forward.”
Lofty claims of progress are hard to verify, and the Taliban were able to lift their momentum even after the deaths of their first two chiefs, including Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2015 ordered by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
Afghan forces, beset by desertions and corruption, have seen casualties soar to what a US watchdog has described as “shockingly high” levels since NATO forces officially ended their combat mission in 2014, and the figures are now classified in an effort to save morale.
The Taliban continue to control or contest 45 percent of the country’s territory, according to a September analysis by the respected Long War Journal, and have stepped up raids on security installations across Afghanistan.
No recent arrival at Bagram, and certainly not Trump’s Afghan-savvy former generals who had a hand in the new strategy — namely National Security Adviser HR McMaster and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — believe the Taliban is about to surrender wholesale.
But the White House hopes overwhelming force will exacerbate divisions in the Taliban ranks and help lure more members to the negotiating table, where America’s diplomats will be waiting.
Officials admit the US strategy is not without risk, and the longer it runs the more costs will accrue.
More bombing almost invariably means more civilian casualties, which could further mobilize Afghans against the US.
And while the US recently wiped out 10 Taliban labs used to process opium into heroin, counter-narcotics experts believe three million Afghan farmers make their living from the crop, which has been described as “a low-risk crop in a high-risk environment.”
Trump looks to the sky to force Taliban to the table
Trump looks to the sky to force Taliban to the table
North Korean soldier captured in Russia-Ukraine war: Seoul
- The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army
- Location where he was seized was unknown
SEOUL: South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia’s war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian troops, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.
“Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.
The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army, an intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was seized was unknown.
The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.
The JCS had also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian army.
Seoul’s military believes that North Korea was seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia-Ukraine war.
North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “the bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated after our talks in June in Pyongyang.”
A landmark defense pact went into effect in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.
Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”
Putin says Slovakia offered to host Ukraine peace talks
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Slovakia had offered to be a “platform” for possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, nearly three years since the launch of Moscow’s offensive.
Putin told a televised press conference Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico “said that if there are any negotiations, they would be happy to provide their country as a platform.”
He added that Russia was “not against it,” praising Slovakia’s “neutral position.”
Fico, one of the few European leaders to maintain ties with the Kremlin, met with the Russian president in Moscow on December 22.
His visit came despite Western efforts to isolate Putin and present a united front in support for Kyiv.
Slovakia, an EU and NATO member, has already halted military aid to Ukraine since autumn 2023 under Fico’s government, and called for peace talks.
Fico has accused Kyiv of jeopardizing his country’s supply of Russian natural gas, on which it is heavily dependent.
Ukraine has said it will not renew a contract expiring at the end of this year to allow Russia gas to transit its country toward Europe, and no feasible alternative has yet been found.
Ukrainians “are already punishing Europe by ending the contract to supply our gas,” Putin said, adding that no new contract could be reached “in three or four days.”
But he suggested he was ready to supply gas to the EU, possibly via the Yamal-Europe pipeline that transits Poland.
The prospect of peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine that began in February 2022 has grown since the re-election of Donald Trump to the White House.
Trump has vowed to push for a quick deal to halt the fighting when he takes office in January.
That has sparked fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be pushed to make concessions to Moscow.
Putin reiterated his vow that his country would achieve “all the objectives in Ukraine.”
“This is our number one task,” he said, warning that Moscow was ready to again use its latest-generation Oreshnik missile, first fired in a strike last month.
Putin has repeatedly threatened to strike “decision-making centers” in Kyiv in retaliation for its use of Western-supplied long-range missiles to hit targets in Russia.
He also claimed Thursday that in 2021, US President Joe Biden offered to “push back” Ukraine’s entry into NATO — a move urgently sought by Kyiv but that Putin considers an unacceptable threat.
“In 2021, the current President Biden offered exactly that: push back Ukraine’s NATO membership by 10 to 15 years, because it was not yet ready.”
“I answered reasonably that ‘Yes, today it is not ready. But you will prepare it for it and you will accept it.’“
But for Russia, “What is the difference — today, tomorrow or in 10 years?“
US says kills two Al-Shabab fighters in airstrike
WASHINGTON: The US military said Thursday it had killed two members of the jihadist Al-Shabab group in southern Somalia in an airstrike.
The strike took place on Tuesday about 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of the town of Quyno Barrow, south of Mogadishu, the United States Africa Command (US AFRICOM) said in a statement.
The strike was conducted “in coordination” with Somalia’s federal government, it said.
“The command will continue to assess the results of the operation and provide additional information as appropriate,” the statement said, providing no further details.
The Somalian government issued a statement lauding a “meticulously planned operation” that was conducted alongside “international partners” in the same district.
That statement said the operation “has successfully eliminated the terrorist ring leader Mohamed Mire Jama, also known as Abu Abdirahman, in the Kunyo-Barow district of Lower Shabelle province.”
Somalia is one of the poorest countries on the planet, enduring decades of civil war, a bloody insurgency by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, and frequent climate disasters.
Washington has invested massively for several decades in the fight against the insurgency.
During his first term, US President-elect Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia, a decision reversed by his successor Joe Biden.
Earlier this week, Egypt said it was joining a new African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The mandate of the current African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) ends on December 31, and it will make way for a new force against the Al-Shabab insurgents, the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).
India’s former PM Manmohan Singh dies aged 92
- Singh became a vocal critic of Modi’s economic policies, and more recently warned about the risks that rising communal tensions posed to India’s democracy
NEW DELHI: Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister whose economic reforms made his country a global powerhouse, has died at the age of 92, current leader Narendra Modi said Thursday.
India “mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders,” Modi posted on social media platform X shortly after news broke of Singh’s passing.
“As our Prime Minister, he made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives.”
Singh was taken to a hospital in New Delhi after he lost consciousness at his home on Thursday, but could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at 9:51 p.m. local time, according to a statement by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, is credited with having overseen an economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in his first term, although slowing growth in later years marred his second stint.
“I have lost a mentor and guide,” opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a statement, adding that Singh had “led India with immense wisdom and integrity.”
“Millions of us who admired him will remember him with the utmost pride,” said Gandhi, a scion of India’s powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the most prominent challenger to Modi.
Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in parliament’s upper house, said “India has lost a visionary statesman, a leader of unimpeachable integrity, and an economist of unparalleled stature.”
President Droupadi Murmu wrote on X that Singh will “always be remembered for his service to the nation, his unblemished political life and his utmost humility.”
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in India and never held elected office before taking the vast nation’s top job.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his PhD.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies including the United Nations.
He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
In his first term Singh steered the economy through a period of nine-percent growth, lending India the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
Known as “Mr Clean,” Singh nonetheless saw his image tarnished during his decade-long tenure when a series of corruption cases became public.
Several months before the 2014 elections, Singh said he would retire after the polls, with Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul earmarked to take his place if Congress won.
But Congress crashed to its worst-ever result at that time as the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Modi, won in a landslide.
Singh — who said historians would be kinder to him than contemporary detractors — became a vocal critic of Modi’s economic policies, and more recently warned about the risks that rising communal tensions posed to India’s democracy.
Russia missile suspected in Azerbaijani plane crash, Moscow warns against ‘hypotheses’
- Pro-government Azerbaijani website Caliber cited officials as saying they believed a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defense system downed the plane
ASTANA: Azerbaijani and US officials believe a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the deadly crash of an Azerbaijani passenger jet, media reports and a US official said Thursday, as the Kremlin cautioned against “hypotheses” over the disaster.
The Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub, on Wednesday after going off course for undetermined reasons.
Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, but instead diverted far off course across the Caspian Sea.
An investigation is underway, with pro-government Azerbaijani website Caliber citing unnamed officials as saying they believed a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defense system downed the plane.
The claim was also reported by The New York Times, broadcaster Euronews and the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Some aviation and military experts said the plane might have been accidentally shot by Russian air defense systems because it was flying in an area where Ukrainian drone activity had been reported.
A former expert at France’s BEA air accident investigation agency said there appeared to be “a lot of shrapnel” damage on the wreckage.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the damage was “reminiscent” of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was downed with a surface-to-air missile by Russia-backed rebels over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It would be wrong to make any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions.”
Euronews cited Azerbaijani government sources as saying that “shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said early indications suggested a Russian anti-aircraft system struck the plane.
Kazakhstan news agency Kazinform cited a regional prosecutor as saying that two black-box flight recorders had been recovered.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially said the plane flew through a flock of birds, before withdrawing the statement.
Kazakh officials said 38 people had been killed and there were 29 survivors, including three children.
Jalil Aliyev, the father of flight attendant Hokume Aliyeva, told AFP that this was supposed to have been her last flight before starting a job as a lawyer for the airline.
“Why did her young life have to end so tragically?” the man said in a trembling voice before hanging up the phone.
Eleven of the injured are in intensive care, the Kazakh health ministry said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning and canceled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet nations.
“I extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the crash... and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” Aliyev said in a social media post Wednesday.
The Flight Radar website showed the plane deviating from its normal route, crossing the Caspian Sea and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, on the eastern shore of the sea.
Kazakhstan said the plane was carrying 37 Azerbaijani passengers, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russians.
A Kazakh woman told the local branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) she was near where the plane crashed and rushed to the site to help survivors.
“They were covered in blood. They were crying. They were calling for help,” said the woman, who gave her name as Elmira.
She said they saved some teenagers.
“I’ll never forget their look, full of pain and despair,” said Elmira. “A girl pleaded: ‘Save my mother, my mother is back there’.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev and “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash,” Peskov told a news conference.
