Month: December 2023

CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands — Yemen’s Houthi rebels show no signs of ending their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the top commander of U.S. naval forces in the Middle East said Saturday. 

Since the U.S. announced Operation Prosperity Guardian about 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have traveled through the Red Sea region, and none has been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said in an Associated Press interview.  

He said additional countries are expected to sign on. Denmark was the latest, announcing Friday it plans to send a frigate to join the multinational security initiative that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on December 18 during a visit to Bahrain, where the Navy’s 5th Fleet is based, saying that “this is an international challenge that demands collective action.” 

The narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and then the Suez Canal. The crucial trade route links markets in Asia and Europe. The seriousness of the attacks, several of which have damaged vessels, led multiple shipping companies to order their vessels to hold in place and not enter the strait until the security situation improved. Some major shippers were sending their ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, adding time and costs to the journeys. 

There are five warships from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom patrolling the waters of the southern Red Sea and the western Gulf of Aden, said Cooper, who heads the 5th Fleet. Since the operation started, the ships have shot down a total of 17 drones and four anti-ship ballistic missiles, he said. 

Two days ago, the USS Mason, a Navy destroyer, shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile that were fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. said the 22nd attack on international shipping by the Houthis since October 19 caused no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or any reported injuries. 

“I expect in the coming weeks we’re going to get additional countries,” Cooper said, noting Denmark’s recent announcement. 

The U.S. has said that more than 20 nations are participating, but a number of those nations have not acknowledged it publicly. 

Cooper said the coalition is in direct communication with commercial ships to provide guidance on “maneuvering and the best practices to avoid being attacked,” and working closely with the shipping industry to coordinate security. 

An international task force was set up in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the region. But Cooper said Operation Prosperity Guardian has more ships and a persistent presence to assist vessels. 

Since the operation started, the Houthis have stepped up their use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, Cooper said. 

“We are clear-eyed that the Houthi reckless attacks will likely continue,” he said. 

The Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war against a Saudi-led coalition that sought to restore the government. The militants have sporadically targeted ships in the region, but the attacks increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. 

The Houthis threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That has escalated, with container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries such as Norway and Liberia being attacked or drawing missile fire. 

The shipping company Maersk had announced earlier that it had decided to re-route its ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea and send them around Africa instead. But on December 25, Maersk announced that it was going to resume sending ships through the strait, citing the operation. Cooper said another shipping company had also resumed using the route. 

“Commerce is definitely flowing,” Cooper said. 

Bamako, Mali — The U.N. mission in Mali ended a decade of deployment in the crisis-wracked country on Sunday, meeting a December 31 deadline agreed after Mali’s military leaders ordered it to leave. 

The U.N. stabilization mission (MINUSMA) had been in place since 2013, and its withdrawal is igniting fears that fighting will intensify between troops and armed factions. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement published Sunday that MINUSMA had completed its agreed withdrawal by December 31, 2023.  

The U.N. chief praised the missions’ “key role” in protecting civilians and supporting the peace process in Mali, which is in the grip of jihadist violence and other crises. 

He also recognized the work of MINUSMA in “ensuring respect for the cease-fire in the context of the 2015 peace and reconciliation agreement” between Bamako and northern rebel groups), as well as its efforts toward restoring state authority.  

Mali’s ruling junta, which seized power in 2020, in June demanded the departure of the mission, which for the past decade has maintained around 15,000 soldiers and police in the country. 

Hundreds of MINUSMA members have been killed in hostile circumstances, mostly blamed on armed groups linked to al-Qaida or the Islamic state group.  

Guterres paid tribute to the “311 MINUSMA personnel who lost their lives and the more than 700 who were injured in the cause of peace.” 

A “liquidation phase” will begin from January 1, involving activities such as handing over equipment to the authorities with smaller teams at sites in Gao and Bamako. 

Violence has swept the fragile and poor country, spilling over into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger and inflaming ethnic tensions along the way.  

Thousands of civilians and fighters have died and millions have been displaced.

Vatican City — Pope Francis said Sunday the city of Rome has to improve its basic services for residents and visitors before the start of the 2025 Holy Year that is expected to draw tens of millions of pilgrims.

Francis made his comments at the Vatican’s traditional year-end vespers of thanksgiving, known as the Te Deum, about six hours before the start of the New Year.

“Are we working, each in his own way, to make this city a sign of hope for those who live here and those who visit?” he asked in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Roberto Gualtieri, the mayor of the city that is plagued by inefficient public transport, overflowing garbage bins and traffic congestion, was sitting in the first row. The pope later shook his hand.

Francis, 87, said the city in particular needs to become more user friendly for the elderly and those with mobility problems.

In most neighborhoods, particularly outside the center, wheelchair users and the elderly must navigate their way around cars parked on sidewalks or blocking mobility ramps, usually with impunity for their owners.

Francis said the city needs “simple decorum and normal functionality” because a “more livable city for its residents is also more welcoming for everyone.”

Rome hosts a Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee Year, at least every 25 years. Pilgrims flock to the city to pray at its many holy sites and receive special blessings.

The city’s notorious traffic has been made even worse recently because of construction sites in preparation for the 2025 Holy Year, including road underpasses and overdue extensions to its small subway system. 

Berlin — Three more people were detained Sunday in connection with a reported threat of an attack on the Cologne Cathedral over the holidays, German authorities said.

The detentions came only days after a 30-year-old Tajik man was detained in relation to an alleged plot to attack the world-famous cathedral by Islamic extremists in the western German city.

The suspects were detained in the western cities of Duisburg, Herne and Dueren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and their apartments were also searched there. No details about their identities were released.

All the detained suspects — including the Tajik who was arrested last week — allegedly belong to a larger network that included people across Germany and in other European countries, according to Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns, German news agency dpa reported.

The attack was supposed to have been carried out with a car loaded with explosives, local media reported.

Cologne police said in a Sunday news conference that the cathedral’s underground parking garage had been searched and that explosives detection dogs had been deployed — but nothing was found. Since the early morning, the entrance and exit of the underground garage had also been checked for suspicious activity.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul called the latest detentions a  

“success — for which I would like to thank the investigators.”

Islamic extremists have always been active, but they are currently more active than usual, and the Catholic cathedral was a prime target for them, Reul said, according to dpa. “The police always try to be a few steps ahead,” he added.

Police had received information about a planned militant attack on Cologne Cathedral shortly before Christmas. The attack was to be carried out on New Year’s Eve.

The city’s world-famous cathedral has been under high protection for a week and the threat led to the closure of the house of worship for tourists since Christmas Eve.

Usually, more than 100,000 tourists visit the cathedral in the last week of the year. In recent days, only worshippers were allowed to enter the building for Mass, but they had to go through thorough security checks involving sniffer dogs.

On Sunday evening, around 1,000 police officers were on duty around the cathedral as revelers began celebrating the end of 2023.

Reul, the state interior minister, encouraged people to celebrate and not stay at home despite the attack threat.

“Islamist terror is still a threat on German streets,” he said. “We have often suppressed that. And whenever there is a one-off event like this, we are all very electrified again.”

However, it would be wrong to panic, said Reul. “I say: Celebrate! Behave yourselves! Take care — and enjoy the transition into the new year.”

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Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — At least four suspected jihadi attacks in Burkina Faso have killed dozens of soldiers and civilians in a week, security and local sources told AFP on Sunday.

They said the attacks have targeted military contingents since last Sunday, leaving “dozens dead” mostly in the restive north of the country.

One local source said, “a large group of heavily armed terrorists attacked the military base at Nouna” in the northwest Saturday, with the clash leaving “several victims,” both military and civilian.  

A security source contacted by AFP confirmed an attack that was repelled and added that “another almost simultaneous attack targeted another northern detachment” but had likewise been beaten back.

The sources said two other attacks on military bases took place on December 24.  

“A large-scale attack targeted the Solle detachment. Several casualties were recorded… but the bravery and response (of troops) made it possible to repel the attackers,” a security source told AFP, adding the jihadis had been targeted by airstrikes as they retreated.  

That attack has been claimed by the GSIM jihadi alliance linked to al-Qaida. The group claimed it killed around 60 soldiers.  

Also on December 24, according to a security source, a gendarmerie base was hit at Gorgadji in the northern Sahel region by a sizeable group of fighters who arrived on motorcycles.

The military government that took power in Burkina Faso following a September 2022 coup rarely comments on tolls from suspected jihadi attacks.

However, state television reported that “more than 30 terrorists were killed,” adding that the army had destroyed three jihadi bases discovered in the northwest.

In a televised New Year’s address Sunday, Captain Ibrahim Traore, head of Burkina’s military rulers, said that in 2024 “we are going to continue our efforts to take back control of [the] territory and step up the fight” against the insurgents.

Burkina has been caught for several years in a spiral of jihadi violence perpetrated by groups affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, which were already hitting neighboring Mali and Niger.

Traore also announced the creation of a new “rapid interaction brigade” in the fight against the jihadis, which since 2015 has seen more than 17,000 soldiers and civilians killed.

On Saturday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it was concerned about “a deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso,” while also urging the “immediate release” of political and civil society leaders detained in recent weeks.

Madrid, Spain — Iran’s embassy in Spain said Sunday that it had released the last Spanish national detained in the country, a tourist who was arrested shortly after he entered the country in October 2022.  

Santiago Sanchez Cogedor was held as protests were roiling Iran after the death in custody of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly violating laws requiring women to cover their heads.  

She fell into a coma after what her family said was mistreatment and died in hospital, sparking the unrest.  

“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is pleased to announce the release of Santiago Sanchez Cogedor, the only Spanish citizen detained in Iran,” the Iranian embassy in Spain posted on X.   

“His release comes amid friendly and historic relations between the two countries and in accordance with the law,” the embassy added.   

Sanchez Cogedor had entered Iran months after the football fan embarked in January 2022 on a long trip by foot toward Qatar to attend the World Cup in November-December.  

His family lost all trace of him some weeks before the tournament started.   

His last message documenting his adventures on Instagram appeared on October 1, when he wrote that he was in a village in northern Iraq and headed for the Iranian border.   

A voice mail to his parents later broadcast by a television station said he was in Tehran headed for the port of Bandar Abbas, in the Strait of Hormuz, from where he intended to take a boat for Qatar.   

Some days later his parents learned via the Spanish foreign ministry of his arrest, his mother Celia Cogedor told AFP in late October.  

Iran is known to be holding more than 10 Western nationals, and governments and NGOs accuse Tehran of using them as bargaining chips for its own nationals.   

Amini’s death became the symbol of a protest movement against enforced wearing of the hijab, and the ensuing repression of protests saw hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.   

Tehran has accused the United States of fomenting the protests and had announced in September 2022 the arrest of nine foreign nationals from several European states including France, Italy and Poland on the alleged grounds they were linked to the protests. 

london — Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, who starred in “The Full Monty” — a movie about a group of unemployed steel workers who launched new careers as strippers — died suddenly on Saturday. 

The British actor’s death was confirmed in a statement released by his agent on behalf of his family. He was 75. 

“It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him.” 

Wilkinson was nominated for Academy Awards for actor in a leading role for “In The Bedroom” in 2001, and for a supporting role in “Michael Clayton” in 2007. 

He most recently reunited with his “Full Monty” co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, in a Disney+ series of the same name. 

The original 1997 smash hit about an unlikely group of men stripping won an Oscar for best original musical or comedy score and was nominated for three others, including best picture and best director. 

Wilkinson played ex-foreman Gerald Cooper who was recruited to help the unemployed men dance. 

The actor also took home the best supporting actor Bafta for the role. 

Wilkinson won a 2009 Golden Globe and 2008 Emmy for his role as American political figure Benjamin Franklin in the HBO series “John Adams,” opposite Paul Giamatti. 

He was also known for his roles in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens novel “Martin Chuzzlewit,” the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” the 2014 Wes Anderson comedy drama “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and 2011 ensemble comedy “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” 

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