On 14 June, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missile strike targeted a vehicle and killed a senior commander of Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Tanzim Huras al-Din (THD), identified as Jordanian national Khaled al-Arouri (alias Abu al-Qassam al-Urduni), and another senior THD militant, identified as Bilal al-Sanani, in the western outskirts of the city of Idlib in Syria’s Idlib governorate. A United States Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson, identified as Navy Commander Zachary Harrell confirmed US responsibility for the airstrike on 15 June. T...

On 14 June, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missile strike targeted a vehicle and killed a senior commander of Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Tanzim Huras al-Din (THD), identified as Jordanian national Khaled al-Arouri (alias Abu al-Qassam al-Urduni), and another senior THD militant, identified as Bilal al-Sanani, in the western outskirts of the city of Idlib in Syria’s Idlib governorate. A United States Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson, identified as Navy Commander Zachary Harrell confirmed US responsibility for the airstrike on 15 June. T...

Thanks to increased Covid-19 testing capacity, the US Navy (USN) has developed a surveillance-testing programme meant to create virus-free deployments and other operations by minimising Covid-19 transmission across the force, USN officials said in a 25 June statement.  The goal, USN officials said, is to ultimately create a virus-free bubble around units prior to their deployments and while they are deployed.  To accomplish this goal, the USN established Sentinel Surveillance Testing (SST) to test asymptomatic service members, which will hel...

Key members of the US Congress and Senate called on 19 June for a further investigation into the response of the US Navy (USN) to the late-March Covid-19 outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier USS   Theodore Roosevelt  (CVN 71). The move followed the release earlier that day of a USN report into those events.   The USN report lays most of the blame for the outbreak response issues at the feet of the ship’s former commanding officer, Captain Brett Crozier, who was relieved of his command at the time. Admiral Michael Gilday,...

Anti-Brexit protesters urge UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to release the Intelligence and Security Committee report examining Russian infiltration in British politics on 18 January 2020 in London. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)  UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under renewed pressure in late June over the government’s refusal to release a potentially damaging report by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) into alleged Russian influence operations in the United Kingdom, including through polit...

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to fresh attention on ‘eco-fascism’, or the blurring of environmentalist politics with extreme right-wing activism. For example, in the United Kingdom at the end of March 2020, images of stickers plastered on lampposts stating ‘CORONA IS THE CURE HUMANS ARE THE DISEASE’, alongside an Extinction Rebellion (XR) logo, went viral on social media after being tweeted by a fake XR East Midlands Twitter account. Extinction Rebellion activists quickly dissociated their left-wing environmentalist campaign from such activis...

JTIC data recorded eight attacks targeting electricity infrastructure across Baghlan, Kabul, and Parwan provinces, all within the first week of May. On 4 May 2020, four workers of state-run utility firm Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) were wounded when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) was detonated in the Chimtala area in the capital Kabul. Two days later, in an unidentified location in Parwan province, a senior worker of the same company was killed in a similar attack. As a consequence of these attacks, for which no...

At least six civilians were killed during an overnight raid by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants targeting the village of Kekele in Ituri province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 17 and 18 May. Local administrative official Njiamoja Sabiti told AFP the next day that four men and two women were among those either killed with an edged weapon or shot by the militants, adding that a search for further victims and survivors was underway, and that the number of fatalities could yet rise further.  The Kek...

The Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division is eyeing stronger mitigation efforts in its Virginia shipyard in the wake of a recent spike of Covid-19 cases, NNS President Jennifer Boykin has announced.  Nearly two-thirds of the total NNS cases thus far have been confirmed over the past two weeks, according to Boykin.  “Today’s Covid-19 update confirms five new cases for June 15,” she said in an online update on 16 June. “Four of those are on a ship located at Outfitting Berth 1 (OB1).”  The Pentagon has a...

While Covid-19 has affected the construction of aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79), the ship is still outpacing its predecessor, carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), when it comes to putting sailors onboard, according to Rear Admiral John Meier, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic.    Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding launched aircraft carrier   John F Kennedy  on 16 December 2019.  (Huntington Ingalls Industries)  “From a construction perspective, we’ve made significant improvement in...

The United Kingdom is to extend operations of three Royal Air Force (RAF) Boeing Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that have been deployed to Mali since July 2018, the government announced on 12 June.  Having supported French operations in North Africa since mid-2018, the three UK Chinooks will remain in-theatre for a while longer. (Crown Copyright)  This second extension to the mission will see the Chinook HC.5 (fat tank) helicopters and almost 100 personnel that have provided intra-theatre air mobility support to French forces engaged in the O...

Dozens of militants attacked a frontier post in Kafolo, northeastern Côte d’Ivoire, on the border with Burkina Faso, on 11 June, from 0300 h onwards. Local reports stated it was a two-pronged attack and included both a military base and the military checkpoint on the border. The post was occupied by soldiers and police. In a communique by the Ivorian Ministry of Defence, 10 security force personnel were killed and six others were wounded, with two police officers reported missing. One militant was reportedly neutralised during the standoff. M...

The US Marine Corp (USMC) is moving ahead with the next phase of its Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) programme after its Force Design 2030 overhaul ‘affirmed’ the need for the platform on the future battlefield.  In late May, the service awarded BAE Systems Land and Armaments with an USD11 million contract for phase two of the design and development for the ACV 30 mm gun variant (ACV-30).    “Force Design [2030] affirmed the need for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle [and] the program is continuing on schedule,” Ashley Calingo, a Program Ex...

After 16 years of relentless violence, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on southern Thailand’s Malay-Muslim separatist insurgency, opening the way for a unilateral militant ceasefire and two months of almost unbroken peace.  As the threat of the virus recedes and the Muslim community emerges from the fasting month of Ramadan – a period which in the past has often resulted in a spike in violence – the Thai state and the insurgent Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), or National Revolutionary Front, are now assessi...

According to a Reuters report published on 3 June, an internal intelligence assessment produced by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and seen by the news agency stated that violence during protests across the US against the death of a black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis on 25 May had mostly been “driven by opportunists”.  United States Park Police push back protesters near the White House in Washington, DC, on 1 June 2020. External influences on the protests appeared to be opportunistic rather than centrally...

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht: BVerfG) ruled on 19 May that mass surveillance conducted by the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst: BND) had breached the constitution. The BVerfG ruled that the current practice of collecting, processing, and transferring telecommunications surveillance on foreign citizens violated their privacy. The judgement highlighted that foreign nationals under BND surveillance were protected under the German constitution, the Basic Law (Grundgesetz).    The revie...

Shipbuilding workforce changes meant to slow or prevent the spread of Covid-19 in shipyards have raised questions about the potential effect of any yard slowdowns on meeting the tight US Navy (USN) schedule for building and deploying the service’s first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN).  “Operations at the submarine shipyards and/or supplier firms could be affected by the Covid-19 situation if workers remain home rather than report to work because they are either positive for the virus, are remaining home as part of an effort...

US Marines and sailors are continuing to train and prepare for their upcoming deployment with a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Southern Command [SPMAGTF-SC] across Central America despite the ongoing global pandemic.  As of 21 May, about 300 US troops were still set to deploy south to work alongside allies and partners during the hurricane season, roughly June through November, according to Captain Jose Negrete, the public affairs director of US Marine Corps (USMC) Forces, South.  “In terms of what countries they deploy to and...

The UK parliament has questioned a United States threat to cancel long-planned deployments of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to the country following the government’s decision to open-up the national 5G network to Chinese development.    Near-term plans for US Air Force and US Marine Corps F-35s to deploy to RAF Lakenheath and aboard HMS  Queen Elizabeth  respectively could be scuppered over British government plans to allow Chinese company Huawei to build its national 5G network....

The United States has stopped the public release of its airstrike numbers in Afghanistan after more than a decade, with the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) citing the importance of such metrics to the ongoing peace process in the country.  AFCENT’s Combined Forces Air Component Commander Airpower Statistics chart weapon releases for all manned and unmanned US and coalition (although not Afghan Air Force) aircraft flying in the Afghanistan area of operations. The monthly figures were not released for March,...