Month: October 2022

South Korea, U.S. and Japanese warships launched their first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years Friday, after North Korea renewed missile tests this week in an apparent response to bilateral training by South Korean and U.S. forces.

The North’s recent five missile launches, the first such tests in a month, also came before and after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited South Korea on Thursday and reaffirmed the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the security of its Asian allies.

The one-day three-nation training off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast is meant to cope with a North Korean push to advance its ability to fire missile from submarines, according to a South Korean navy statement.

North Korea has been building bigger submarines including a nuclear-powered one and testing sophisticated missiles that can be fired from them in recent years. That’s an alarming development for its rivals because it’s harder to detect underwater-launched missiles in advance.

South Korean officials said last weekend that they had detected signs that North Korea was preparing to test-fire a missile from a submarine.

Friday’s drills involve the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan as well as U.S., South Korean and Japanese destroyers, the navy statement said. During the training, the navy ships from the three nations were to search and track a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine posing as a North Korean submarine while exchanging related information, according to media reports.

“We will respond and neutralize any forms of North Korean provocations in an overwhelming and decisive manner,” Capt. Cho, Chung-ho, commander of South Korean navy troops who took part in the training, was quoted as saying in the statement.

In addition to its submarine-launched missiles, North Korea has also a variety of nuclear-capable missiles that place both the United States and its allies South Korea and Japan within striking distance. This year, North Korea has performed a record number of missile tests as it refuses to resume long-stalled nuclear diplomacy with the United States.

Friday’s training comes as South Korea and Japan are looking to mend ties frayed over history and trade disputes. The two Asian countries together host a total of 80,000 American troops. Earlier this week, the Reagan took part in joint U.S.-South Korean drills near the peninsula, the first such bilateral involving a U.S. aircraft carrier since 2017.

The North’s most recent missile tests happened Thursday, hours after Harris left South Korea. During her visit to the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, Harris said: “In the South, we see a thriving democracy. In the North, we see a brutal dictatorship.”

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the longest living former U.S. president in American history, marks his 98th birthday on October 1. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, while Carter’s health has prevented him from being publicly active in recent years, he is still engaged with his global nonprofit Carter Center to promote peace and health throughout the world.

A top Somali police official and several of his guards were killed Friday in a roadside bomb blast near the southern town of Balad, according to Somali authorities.

The attack involved a landmine that targeted Mogadishu Police Commissioner Farhan Mohamoud Adan, better known as “Qarole,” near the Balad district, 35 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

“The police commissioner stepped out of his bulletproof vehicle as he was visiting a government military post and then a landmine apparently planted there went off, killing the commissioner and an unidentified number of police officers accompanying him,” a government official who requested anonymity told VOA Somali. “It’s part of the ongoing efforts to eradicate al-Shabab. They will be remembered for their role in Somalia’s anti-al-Shabab operations.”

Somali police Major Sadiq Aden Ali-Doodishe, who spoke to VOA after the blast, confirmed the incident, but he could not provide further details about the nature of the blast or the number of casualties.

Ali-Doodishe said the attack occurred during security operations targeting the Basra village area on the border of the Middle and Lower Shabelle regions.

“The commissioner was in the middle of a successful operation that flushed out terrorists from these areas when he was targeted by a blast,” the police major said. “We ask God to have mercy on the martyrs who died, and may God bless those who were injured.”

Ali-Doodishe added that such attacks would never deter Somali soldiers in their fight against terrorism. “Terrorism is a threat to life. We will never be diverted from our goal of ensuring the security of the country and the elimination of terrorism,” he said.

Authorities blamed the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group al-Shabab for the attack, though no one had yet claimed responsibility.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack in a statement. “Commissioner Aden and [the] other valiant soldiers who have died in the blast dedicated their life for Somalia’s peace,” he said.

Speaking at a government-sponsored youth conference Friday in Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre called on Somali youth to unite in the fight against what he called “a ruthless enemy.” He was referring to al-Shabab, which has been waging a bloody insurgency in the impoverished Horn of Africa nation for more than 15 years.

“Somali religious scholars have made their positions [clear] on our fight against al-Shabab. Al-Shabab does not represent Islam nor Muslims. Therefore, there is a responsibility for Somali youth to participate [in] the efforts to eradicate al-Shabab so that the innocent Somalis suffering under al-Shabab’s enmity and ruthlessness will be freed,” Barre said.

Ethiopia coordination

Analysts say government counterterrorism operations were stepped up after the group’s brazen cross-border attack into eastern Ethiopia in late July.

On Friday, in Addis Ababa, Mohamud concluded his state visit to Ethiopia, where he held talks with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

It was Mohamud’s first visit to neighboring Ethiopia since he was elected in May. The top priority of his agenda was regional support in the fight against al-Shabab in Somalia.

In a joint communique, Mohamud and Ahmed agreed to strengthen ties, reiterating their intention to fight against a common enemy. They also applauded the Somali National Army’s gains in anti-al-Shabab operations, and they called on the U.N. Security Council to consider Somalia’s request to lift the arms embargo.

Middle, Lower Shabelle

The killing of Mogadishu’s police chief followed a government operation Friday that removed militants from multiple villages along the border between the Middle and Lower Shabelle regions.

Somalia Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur told the Somali National News Agency that troops also had razed several al-Shabab barracks in nine villages.

“These gains are achieved following well-coordinated operations in the early hours of this Friday,” Nur said.

In the Hiran region of central Somalia, a counterterrorism military campaign backing a pro-government local clan militia has been making significant gains, Somali National Army officials said Thursday. They said they had secured control of at least 50 villages and al-Shabab strongholds.

The anti-al-Shabab campaign follows the Somali president’s call for all Somalis to fight against al-Shabab.

Falastin Iman contributed to this report from Mogadishu.

Myanmar’s military government accused rebel forces in the eastern state of Kayah of firing at a passenger plane as it was preparing to land Friday, wounding a passenger who was hit by a bullet that penetrated the fuselage. Rebel groups denied the allegation.

State television MRTV said the Myanmar National Airlines plane, carrying 63 passengers, was hit as it was about to land in Loikaw, the capital of the eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni.

It said Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a representative for Myanmar’s ruling military council, said the shooting was carried out by “terrorists” belonging to the Karenni National Progressive Party, an ethnic minority militia battling the government, and their allies in the People’s Defense Force, an armed pro-democracy group.

“I want to say that this kind of attack on the passenger plane is a war crime,” he told MRTV by phone. “People and organizations who want peace need to condemn this issue all round.”

MRTV said the bullet entered the plane’s lower fuselage as it was flying at an altitude of 3,500 feet about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) north of the airport. It said the injured passenger was taken to a hospital.

The state news agency released photos it said were of the bullet hole and the passenger being treated.

Myanmar National Airlines’ office in Loikaw announced that all flights to the city were canceled indefinitely.

Kayah state has experienced intense conflict between the military and local resistance groups since the army seized power last year, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Feb. 1, 2021, takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after the army and police cracked down with lethal force on street demonstrators opposing military rule, thousands of civilians formed militia units as part of a People’s Defense Force to fight back.

The PDF groups are allied with well-established armed ethnic minority groups such as the Karenni, the Karen and the Kachin which have been fighting the central government for more than half a century, seeking greater autonomy in border regions.

Khu Daniel, a leader of the Karenni National Progressive Party, denied the government’s accusation and said his party had not ordered its armed wing, the Karenni Army, to shoot at civilians or passenger planes.

“The military always blames other organizations for the shootings. Our armed wing didn’t shoot the plane this morning,” he told The Associated Press. 

Government representative Zaw Min Tun said it has been providing security around the airport and accused the KNPP and PDF of creating chaos in Loikaw by firing artillery into the city and the area near the airport. 

Since the military seized power, there have been frequent clashes in Kayah between the army and local anti-government guerrillas near a base belonging to the government’s 54th Light Infantry Battalion, located south of the airport. State-run media reported last Christmas that the KNPP and PDF attacked a Myanmar National Airlines passenger plane with four 107mm rockets, which exploded about 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) east of the airport, injuring no one. 

The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, another ethnic rebel group, earlier advised against traveling on Myanmar National Airlines because it is state-owned, so its revenues go to the military, and the army uses it to supply its forces. 

The information officer of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, who spoke on condition of anonymity to safeguard his personal security, called the government’s allegation about Friday’s shooting “nothing more than defamatory propaganda against the revolutionary forces by the Military Council.” 

“The runway and the area of the airfield are surrounded by infantry battalions and high security areas. So to say that PDFs attacked the plane is only an accusation,” he said. 

Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism police have killed a militant who was believed responsible for the killings of Christian farmers on Sulawesi island and was the last remaining member of an organization that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, police said Friday. 

Police said Al Ikhwarisman, also known as Jaid, was a key member of the East Indonesia Mujahideen network. He was killed by the Densus 88 counterterrorism unit in a shootout late Thursday in a mountainous Kawende village in the Poso district, an extremist hotbed in the Central Sulawesi province, provincial police chief Rudy Sufahriadi said. 

The East Indonesia Mujahideen, known by the Indonesian acronym MIT, has claimed responsibility for the killings of police officers and minority Christians, some by beheading. It has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Sufahriadi said Jaid conducted at least 10 of the group’s executions, including the killing of four Christian farmers in May 2021. 

Thursday’s shootout occurred four months after security forces killed the other remaining member of MIT in a jungle shootout, police said. 

“He was the last remaining suspected member of the group,” Sufahriadi said, “We have managed to eliminate a dangerous militant group that has disturbed [the] peace in Poso.” 

Security operations in Central Sulawesi were intensified last year to capture MIT members, particularly Ali Kalora, the group’s leader and Indonesia’s most wanted militant. Kalora was killed in a shootout in July 2021, two months after the group killed the four Christians in the Kalemago village of the Poso district, including one who was beheaded. 

Authorities said the attack was in revenge for the killing in March 2021 of two militants, including the son of the group’s former leader, Abu Wardah Santoso. 

Santoso, Kalora’s predecessor, was killed by security forces in July 2016. Dozens of other leaders and members of the group who escaped to remote mountain jungles of Poso have since been killed or captured. 

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has conducted a crackdown on militants since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly Western and Asian tourists. 

Militant attacks on foreigners in Indonesia have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces, and people militants consider to be infidels, inspired by Islamic State group tactics abroad. 

An anti-Taliban wave is gaining momentum in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, where many fear the Pakistani Taliban will make a comeback. Residents have questioned Pakistan army-sponsored talks with the militants, saying they put the decade-long peace in the region at stake. Fayaz Zafar reports from Swat Valley, Pakistan, in this report narrated by Fawad Lameh.

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