August 4, 2021
The Pentagon has not ruled out playing a role in the “collective response” promised by the Biden administration to a drone attack on an Israeli-owned shipping vessel last week in the Gulf of Oman.
The attack, which US, UK and Israeli officials have blamed on Iran, killed two people: the ship’s Romanian captain and a British crew member.
“A coordinated response doesn’t have to be a military response,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday, before adding, “Certainly we’ll do what we need to do to protect our forces and our interests.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday called Thursday s strike on the MV Mercer Street “a direct threat to freedom of navigation and commerce” and said Iran’s government continues to show “tremendous irresponsibility” by pursuing such attacks.
August 4, 2021
Maritime tensions involving Iran, Israel and Western states escalated further Tuesday when the British military reported a bitumen tanker may have been hijacked. Iran promptly denied involvement.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported the “incident” off the coast of the Emirati city of Fujairah. The operations center later said the event was a “potential hijack” without providing further details, The Associated Press reported. Reuters, quoting maritime security sources, later said the Panamanian-flagged tanker Asphalt Princess had been seized by Iranian-backed forces.
The ship was in the Gulf of Oman between Oman and Iran late Tuesday night, according to the maritime tracking website MarineTraffic. The tanker set sail from Khor Fakkan in the the United Arab Emirates and was en route to the Omani city of Sohar, per the website.
Multiple blasts, gunfire rock Kabul as conflict with Taliban intensifies ahead of U.S. withdrawal
Multiple blasts, gunfire rock Kabul.
KABUL - Several explosions and gunfights rocked Kabul on Tuesday night as the conflict between the Taliban and Afghan government forces is intensifying elsewhere in the country ahead of the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces this month.
The attack began with a car bomb followed by gunmen on foot targeting the guesthouse of a senior Afghan security official in downtown Kabul, one of the largest assaults on the city in months, according to two Afghan officials.
A vehicle laden with explosives detonated at a checkpoint in the center of the city and was followed by a barrage of gunfire, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
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August 2, 2021
The American commander of the US-led military coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS) reaffirmed international support for Syria’s Kurdish-led fighters on Sunday, announcing new aid to help secure prisons holding IS detainees.
Speaking at a conference in the Syrian city of Hasakah, Lt. Gen. Paul Calvert highlighted additional assistance to upgrade detention centers run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Shadadi and Suwwar.
Calvert also noted recent international support for the People s Protection Units (YPG) annex at the notorious al-Hol internment camp, which houses tens of thousands of family members of IS fighters in conditions UN-appointed rights experts have described as “squalid.”