The United States is giving Ukraine 16 Mi-17 helicopters that Washington had procured for Afghanistan, a U.S. government agency charged with monitoring Afghan events said Wednesday.The Department of Defense (DOD) notified Congress in January that it intended to give the Ukrainian government five of the Russian-built helicopters, which had been …
Read More »Gunfight in Somalia: Attack From al-Shabaab
By SoF correspondent Gatimu Juma Early morning gunfire was the first sign of a deadly assault at a military base about 100 miles from Mogadishu, alerting local residents to the Tuesday attack by al-Shabaab. Officials and residents near the base said that many dozen Burundi soldiers were killed, and others …
Read More »Woman Convicted For Funneling Money to Somalia’s Al-Shabaab Terrorist Group
A federal jury convicted a Dutch woman on charges stemming from her participation in a terrorist financing ring in support of the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab. According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Farhia Hassan, 38, was involved with a group of women from more than a dozen …
Read More »Civilians Cross Russian Lines Out of Mariupol, While New Attacks Launched Against Azovstal Steel Plant
By SoF correspondent Owen Thorne Bus loads of civilians arrived in Zaporizhzhia today after being evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where a new wave of Russian attacks have been reported. The civilians traveled in a convoy for more than 24 hours, crossing out of Donbas through …
Read More »Coups in Africa: Less Frequent, More Deadly
By Megan Duzor and Brian Williamson | VOA News The African continent saw a significant increase in coups in the last year-and-a-half, with military figures carrying out takeovers in Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea, Chad and Mali. After Sudan’s coup in October 2021, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke of “an epidemic” of coups, including the events in Africa …
Read More »Clearing the Ground in Ukraine, One Bomb at a Time: A Briton at Work in the War Zone
Of all the lethal munitions strewn across towns north of the Ukrainian capital, Chris Garrett says perhaps the nastiest are the Bouncing Betty-type mines designed to spring out of the ground and explode at waist-height. Speaking by telephone from the north of Kyiv, the British explosives expert describes the leaping Soviet-designed …
Read More »Russia Sent Nuclear Specialists to Captured Reactor in Ukraine
Russia has sent nuclear specialists to help monitor the Zaporizhzhya power plant in Ukraine’s southeast, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency said that Kyiv reported the information to IAEA. The nuclear plant, which is under Russian control but still operated by Ukrainian staff amid heavy fighting between …
Read More »‘Filtration Camps’ Hold Captured Ukrainians Before They Disappear, Ambassador Says
The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says there is credible evidence that Russian forces have been rounding up people in areas of Ukraine’s south and east and detaining them in “filtration camps,” where they are interrogated. Ambassador Michael Carpenter told the Permanent Council …
Read More »Former Marine Killed, British Citizens Detained in Ukraine
A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces as Russia launched new attacks in eastern Ukraine, shortly after two British citizens were detained at a checkpoint inside the country. Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was working with a private military contracting company when he was killed on Monday, …
Read More »DOJ’s Garland Wants to Use ‘KleptoCapture’ Proceeds to Send Oligarch Assets to Ukraine
The U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said this week that the Biden administration supports legislation that calls for some of the proceeds being seized from Russian oligarchs to go directly to Ukraine. “That’s not the current circumstance,” Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee as lawmakers questioned him about the property …
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