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Chinese military conducts live-fire drills, weapons tests

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s military has conducted live-fire drills and weapons tests in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to the Korean peninsula, the country’s defense ministry said on Tuesday.

In a brief statement late on Tuesday, the ministry said the tests of new missiles and weapons were carried out by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force “in recent days” and were designed to raise operational capability so as to effectively deal with national security threats. No further details were provided.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping modernization of the country’s armed forces, with an emphasis on technological innovation and naval capability as it seeks to project greater power in the disputed South China Sea.

While no other country has claims in the busy Bohai Sea, the drills come amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, including Chinese anger at the deployment of the U.S. anti-missile defense system THAAD in South Korea last month.

At a regular news briefing last month, China’s defense ministry responded to questions about the THAAD deployment by foreshadowing the weapons tests, saying they were necessary to safeguard its national security.

(Reporting by Philip Wen; Editing by SImon Cameron-Moore)

U.S. general told Turkey of concerns about Syria/Iraq air strikes

Commander of U.S. Forces in Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti speaks during a news conference in Tallinn, Estonia, March 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

BERLIN (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer in Europe raised concerns about Turkish air strikes in Syria and Iraq during a meeting last week with Ankara’s chief of general staff in Turkey, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

General Curtis Scaparrotti told General Hulusi Akar last Friday that the strikes were not properly coordinated with the United States and its allies in their fight against Islamic States, a spokesman for U.S. European Command told Reuters.

U.S. military officials said last week that Turkey gave the U.S.-led coalition less than an hour of advance notice about the air strikes, an insufficient amount of time to ensure the safety of coalition forces on the ground.

“I can tell you General Scaparrotti did express his concern about recent air strikes conducted by Turkey in northern Syria and northern Iraq without proper coordination with the U.S. and coalition,” Captain Danny Hernandez said. “No more details will be provided in order to keep the discussions private.”

Turkey remains a strategic ally of the United States and a vital partner in the fight against violent extremist organizations, added Hernandez, who is based in Stuttgart, home of the U.S. European Command.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said the partners had been informed through both military and diplomatic channels.

Russia has also criticized the air strikes, which it said violated fundamental principles of intergovernmental relations.

The air strikes are part of Turkey’s widening campaign against groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency against Turkey for Kurdish autonomy and are also fighting in Syria and Iraq.

On Tuesday of last week, Turkish planes bombed Kurdish targets in Iraq’s Sinjar region and northeast Syria, killing about 70 militants, according to a Turkish military statement.

The air strikes in Syria targeted the YPG, a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the United States and have been closing in on the Islamic State bastion of Raqqa.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said after those strikes that Washington had expressed its concerns to the government of Turkey, saying they “were not approved by the coalition and had led to the unfortunate loss of life of our partner forces” in the fight against Islamic State.

Turkish warplanes then hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq the following day, killing six militants, the Turkish military said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

U.S. forces to monitor situation along Syria-Turkey border: YPG commander

A member of U.S forces rides on a military vehicle in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said

DARBASIYA, Syria (Reuters) – A commander of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Friday U.S. forces would begin monitoring the situation along the Syria-Turkey frontier after cross-border fire between the Turkish military and YPG this week.

The monitoring had not yet begun, but the forces would report to senior U.S. commanders, Sharvan Kobani told Reuters after meeting U.S. military officials in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border.

The officials had toured Darbasiya which was hit by Turkish artillery fire earlier in the week.

Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria and Iraq’s Sinjar region on Tuesday in an unprecedented bombardment of groups linked to the PKK, which is fighting an insurgency against Ankara in Turkey’s southeast.

Those attacks killed nearly 30 YPG fighters and officials, a monitoring group reported.

Since Tuesday the YPG and Turkish forces have traded artillery fire along the Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey’s bombardment of YPG positions complicates the U.S.-backed fight against Islamic State in Syria, where the YPG has been a crucial partner on the ground for Washington.

The YPG is a key component of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighting groups involved in a campaign to drive Islamic State out of its Syria stronghold, Raqqa.

U.S. NATO ally Turkey views the YPG and other PKK-affiliated groups as terrorists.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Friday U.S. troops were deployed along the border.

“We continue to urge all the parties involved to focus on the common enemy which is ISIS (Islamic State),” he told reporters.

Hundreds of U.S. troops are deployed on the ground in Syria to support the Raqqa offensive.

(Reporting by Rodi Said; additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by John Davison; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Estonia says Russia may put troops in Belarus to challenge NATO

FILE PHOTO: Estonia’s Defence Minister Margus Tsahkna speaks during the official ceremony welcoming the deployment of a multi-national NATO battalion in Tapa, Estonia, April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

By Robin Emmott

VALETTA (Reuters) – Estonia’s defense minister said on Thursday that Russia may use large-scale military exercises to move thousands of troops permanently into Belarus later this year in a warning to NATO.

Russia and Belarus aim to hold joint war games in September that some North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies believe could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013.

Defence Minister Margus Tsahkna said Estonia and other NATO governments had intelligence suggesting Moscow may leave Russian soldiers in Belarus once the so-called Zapad 2017 exercises are over, also pointing to public data of Russian railway traffic to Belarus.

Tsahkna cited plans to send 4,000 railway carriages to Belarus to transport Russian troops and gear there, possibly to set up a military outpost in its closest ally.

“For Russian troops going to Belarus, it is a one-way ticket,” Tsahkna told Reuters in an interview in Malta.

“This is not my personal opinion, we are analyzing very deeply how Russia is preparing for the Zapad exercises,” he said before a meeting of EU defense ministers.

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on the subject.

Moscow denies any plans to threaten NATO and says it is the U.S.-led alliance that is risking stability in eastern Europe. The Kremlin has not said how many troops will take part in Zapad 2017.

“We see what they are doing on the other side of the EU-NATO border. Troops may remain there after Zapad,” Tsahkna said, saying that Tallinn had shared its concerns with Baltic and NATO allies. He put the number of potential troops in the thousands.

Such a move could see Russian troops on the border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia just as the U.S.-led NATO alliance stations multinational battalions in the Baltic region in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.

“QUESTION OF TRUST”

The scale of this year’s Zapad exercises, which date from Soviet times when they were first used to test new weapon systems, is one of NATO’s most pressing concerns, as diplomats say the war games are no simple military drill.

Previous large-scale exercises in 2013 employed special forces training, longer-range missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that were later used in Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and in its intervention in Syria, NATO diplomats said.

Russia, bridling at NATO’s expansion eastwards into its old Soviet sphere of influence, says its exercises are a response to NATO’s 4,000-strong new deterrent force in the Baltics and Poland that will begin to rotate through the region from June.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in January the scenario for the Zapad 2017 exercises would “take into account the situation linked to increased NATO activity along the borders of the Union state,” Russian media cited, in a reference to the union of Russia and Belarus.

The exercises, to be held simultaneously on military training grounds in Russia and Belarus, aim to focus on joint planning, command tactics and joint troop formations, he said.

“In the future we plan to strengthen the practical nature of such exercises, taking into account the emerging foreign policy realities,” Shoigu added, in an apparent reference to the expansion of NATO, which is soon to include Montenegro.

The U.S. Army’s top European commander has called on Russia to open its exercises to observers to calm Baltic concerns.

Asked about Moscow’s possible motives for leaving troops in Belarus, Tsahkna said it was likely about President Vladimir Putin’s image as a strong leader at home, as well as cementing ties with Belarus, which was alarmed by the Crimea annexation.

“Russia has presidential elections next year and Putin needs to show strength to the Russian people,” Tsahkna said. “It’s also a question of trust with Belarus.”

The West has sought to improve ties with Belarus over the past two years, lifting some sanctions in an overture to the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko, the man the West calls Europe’s “last dictator.”

But Belarus remains Russia’s ally and a member of Putin’s Eurasian trade bloc. Belarus Defence Minister Andrei Ravkov has echoed Russia’s position that NATO is a threat, also accusing Ukraine of raising tensions by aligning itself with the West.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; Editing by Toby Chopra)

China launches first home-built aircraft carrier amid South China Sea tension

China's first domestically built aircraft carrier is seen during its launching ceremony in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

By Michael Martina

BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier on Wednesday amid rising tension over North Korea and worries about Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

State media has quoted military experts as saying the carrier, China’s second and built in the northeastern port of Dalian, is not expected to enter service until 2020, once it has been kitted out and armed.

Foreign military analysts and Chinese media have for months published satellite images, photographs and news stories about the second carrier’s development. China confirmed its existence in late 2015.

The launch “shows our country’s indigenous aircraft carrier design and construction has achieved major step-by-step results”, Xinhua news agency said.

State television showed the carrier, its deck lined in red flags, being pushed by tug boats into its berth.

Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, presided over the ceremony, Xinhua said, during which a bottle of champagne was broken on the bow.

The launch follows China’s celebration on Sunday of the 68th birthday of the founding of the Chinese navy, and comes amid renewed tensions between North Korea and the United States over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

Little is known about China’s aircraft carrier program, which is a state secret.

But the government has said the new carrier’s design draws on experiences from the country’s first carrier, the Liaoning, bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China.

The new conventionally powered carrier will be able to operate China’s Shenyang J-15 fighter jets.

Unlike the U.S. navy’s longer-range nuclear carriers, both of China’s feature Soviet-design ski-jump bows, intended to give fighter jets enough lift to take off from their shorter decks. But they lack the powerful catapult technology for launching aircraft of their U.S. counterparts.

“NO NEED” TO MATCH THE UNITED STATES

China’s navy has been taking an increasingly prominent role in recent months, with a rising star admiral taking command, its first aircraft carrier sailing around self-ruled Taiwan and new Chinese warships popping up in far-flung places.

The Liaoning has taken part in military exercises, including in the South China Sea, but is expected to serve more as a training vessel. State media has said the new carrier will be more dedicated to military and humanitarian operations.

China claims almost all the South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and has been building up military facilities like runways on the islands it controls.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as its own, has said China is actually building two new aircraft carriers, but China has not officially confirmed the existence of another carrier.

Chinese state media has quoted experts as saying that the country needs at least six carriers. The United States operates 10 and plans to build two more.

Major General Chen Zhou, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science, told reporters in March that China would not exceed the United States in carrier groups. “China has no need for this,” he said.

Sam Roggeveen, a senior fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, said that by the time China had half that number, it could go toe-to-toe with the U.S. navy in the Asia-Pacific.

“Given that the Americans have global obligations and responsibilities but China doesn’t, then effectively by that point they would be evenly matched,” Roggeveen said.

Most experts agree that developing such a force will be a decades-long endeavor but the launch of the second carrier holds a certain prestige value for Beijing, seen by many analysts as keen to eventually erode U.S. military prominence in the region.

“With two aircraft carriers you could say without much fear of contradiction that China, other than the United States, is the most powerful maritime force in the Asia-Pacific,” Roggeveen said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Macfie)

Trump-backed Navy expansion would boost costs some $400 billion over 30 years: study

FILE PHOTO - Sailors man the rails of the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, as it departs its home port in San Diego, California August 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Expanding the U.S. Navy to 355 ships as recommended by military leaders and backed by President Donald Trump would cost some $400 billion more over the next 30 years than the currently planned 308-ship fleet, according to a study released on Monday.

The annual cost to build, crew and operate a 355-ship fleet would be about $102 billion, or 13 percent more than the $90 billion needed for the currently planned Navy, according to the study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The $102 billion cost of the 355-ship fleet is 33 percent more than Congress appropriated in 2016 for the current 275-ship Navy, the CBO said.

To achieve the larger force, the Navy would need $26.6 billion annually for ship construction, which is 60 percent more than the average amount that Congress has appropriated for shipbuilding in the past 30 years, the CBO study said.

The Navy’s 2017 shipbuilding plan called for boosting the size of the fleet to 308 ships, which was expected to cost $21.2 billion per year to implement over 30 years.

With Trump pressing for an expansion of the fleet to 350 ships during the presidential campaign last year, the Navy released a new force structure assessment in December seeking a 355-ship Navy.

Taking into consideration older ships being retired, creating a 355-ship fleet would require the Navy to buy about 329 new ships over 30 years, compared with 254 under its previous plan for a 308-ship fleet, the CBO study found. The Navy would have to buy about 12 ships per year under the larger fleet plan, versus about eight per year under the earlier plan.

The larger fleet would require more civilian and uniformed personnel and more aircraft, pushing up overall operating costs, the CBO said.

The increase in shipbuilding would force all seven U.S. shipyards to expand their work forces and improve their infrastructure in order to meet the demand for vessels, the CBO said. The greatest challenge would be building submarines to meet the force structure requirements, the report said.

The study said the earliest the Navy could achieve a 355-ship fleet would be the year 2035, or 18 years from now.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Bill Trott)

North Korea’s show of force

People carry flags in front of statues of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung (L) and late leader Kim Jong Il during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

(Reuters) – North Korea’s latest display of its military hardware at a parade last week focused more on new missiles and less on tanks and artillery, suggesting it was trying to project the image of a country with advanced capabilities in warfare.

The Reuters graphics team has analyzed the weapons shown during the five major parades staged in North Korea under its current leader Kim Jong Un, who took power in 2011 after the death of his father.

Here is a link to the interactive graphic (http://tmsnrt.rs/2ox2IgH)

The analysis shows there has been a gradual decline in tanks and artillery pieces on display since 2012, Kim Jong Un’s first parade as leader, and a move to more long-range missiles.

“This shift might indicate North Korea wants to redefine the outside world’s perception of its military capabilities from masses of troops and tanks to more advanced weapon systems,” said David Schmerler, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation.

Weapons analysts said they believed some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The North has said it has developed and would launch a missile that can strike the mainland United States but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering all the necessary technology.

(Reporting by James Pearson, Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Iraqis celebrate Palm Sunday near Mosul for the first time in three years

Iraqis attend the first Palm Sunday procession in the burnt out main church of the Christian city of Qaraqosh since Iraqi forces retook it from Islamic States militants,

By Ulf Laessing

QARAQOSH, Iraq (Reuters) – Hundreds of Christians flocked to the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh on Sunday to celebrate Palm Sunday for the first time in three years, packing into a church torched by Islamic State to take communion at its ruined altar.

In October, Iraqi forces expelled the Sunni Muslim militants from Qaraqosh as part of a campaign to retake nearby Mosul, the country’s second-largest city seized by the group in June 2014.

Iraqis boys visit the burnt out main church as others attend the first Palm Sunday procession in the Christian city of Qaraqosh since Iraqi forces retook it from from Islamic States militants, Iraq April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Iraq’s biggest Christian settlement until the militants arrived, Qaraqosh has been a ghost town as most residents are still too afraid to come back with the battle for Mosul, located 20 kilometers away, still raging.

But on Sunday church bells rang again across the town.

Hundreds arrived in cars from Erbil, the main city in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan where most Christian had fled when Islamic State gave them an ultimatum to pay special taxes, convert or die.

“We need reconciliation,” Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Butrus Moshe told worshippers in the Immaculate Conception Church guarded by army jeeps.

Islamic State has targeted minority communities in both Iraq and Syria, setting churches on fire.

Scribbled “Islamic State” slogans could be still seen on the church’s walls while torn-up prayer books littered the floor.

Escorted by soldiers carrying rifles, the congregation then walked through Qaraqosh for Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week that culminates on Easter Sunday, holding up a banner saying “In times of war we bring peace.”

Iraqis attend the first Palm Sunday procession in the burnt out main church of the Christian city of Qaraqosh since Iraqi forces retook it from Islamic States militants, Iraq April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Christianity in northern Iraq dates back to the first century AD.

The number of Christians fell sharply during the violence which followed the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and the Islamic State takeover of Mosul purged the city of Christians for the first time in two millennia.

“Almost 75 percent of houses were burnt so if people return where can they live?” said Aziz Yashou, a worshipper. “We call for an international protection in order to live here.”

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Wave of attacks across southern Thailand after new constitution signed

Military personnel stand next to a site of an attack at Yaring district, in the troubled southern province of Pattani, Thailand. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Bomb blasts were among 23 coordinated attacks that rocked Muslim-majority southern Thailand early on Friday, a security officer said, just hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a new constitution as a step towards ending military rule.

Police reported no casualties in the region, site of a recent upsurge in a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency that had voted the most strongly against the new constitution at a referendum last year.

“The incidents are aimed to create disturbances,” Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for regional security forces, told Reuters. “They want to destroy the government’s credibility and create fear among people.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and security forces said they could not yet identify which insurgent group was to blame.

The attacks were scattered across 19 districts in the southern region, grouping the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, and the nearby province of Songkhla, he said.

A large number of co-ordinated attacks in the region is unusual. Complete details were not immediately available, but they ranged from bomb explosions at 52 electricity poles, triggering widespread regional power cuts, to several tire-burning incidents, Pramote added.

On Thursday, Thailand’s king signed into law a military-backed constitution, an essential step towards an election the ruling junta has promised will restore democracy after the 12th successful coup in little over 80 years.

The new constitution is the Southeast Asian country’s 20th since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and critics say it will still give the generals a powerful say over Thai politics for years, if not decades.

Voters in the most heavily Muslim parts of Thailand were among the few to reject the draft constitution in last year’s referendum.

The timing of the attacks just hours after the constitution was proclaimed was curious, said Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, but there was no conclusive evidence it was a motive.

A Malay Muslim separatist insurgency in the three southern provinces has killed more than 6,500 since it escalated in 2004, independent monitoring group Deep South Watch says.

On Monday, police reported what they called the biggest insurgent attack in the south in years, when about 30 people fired more than 500 shots into a police booth.

In February, the government of the Buddhist-majority country struck a deal with MARA Patani, an umbrella group that says it speaks for the insurgents, but other separatists rejected it.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

German military can use ‘offensive measures’ against cyber attacks: minister

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in Berlin, Germany, March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German military has the authority to respond with “offensive measures” if its computer networks are attacked, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, amid growing concerns among German lawmakers about control of such actions.

Von der Leyen, speaking at the opening ceremony for Germany’s new cyber command in Bonn, gave no details of what kind of retaliation she had in mind.

“If the German military’s networks are attacked, then we can defend ourselves. As soon as an attack endangers the functional and operational readiness of combat forces, we can respond with offensive measures,” she said.

She added that the German military could be called in to help in the event of cyber attacks on other governmental institutions. During foreign missions, its actions would be governed and bounded by the underlying parliamentary mandate.

Any legal questions would be addressed by the military in close cooperation with other government agencies, she added.

The new Bonn-based command has an initial staff of 260 that will grow to around 13,500 in July.

Von der Leyen’s decision to sanction offensive cyber actions in principle has caused some concerns among German lawmakers, including Agnieszka Brugger, a member of the pro-environment Greens and member of the defense committee.

Military ombudsman Hans-Peter Bartels, who fields complaints from soldiers for parliament, told the Neue Osnabrueckner Zeitung newspaper on Wednesday that every offensive measure required explicit approval by the parliament since Germany’s military is a so-called “parliamentary army”.

German officials told reporters earlier this week that the government was scrambling to respond to serious and growing cyber threats, but civilian officials said they lacked the legal framework to retaliate with cyber attacks of their own.

However, von der Leyen made clear on Wednesday that she was convinced the authorities were clear in the military realm.

Deputy Defence Minister Katrin Suder told reporters on Monday that existing laws applied, even in cyberspace.

Von der Leyen said Berlin was increasing expenditure to keep up with technical innovations.

Germany’s current military budget included 1.6 billion euros for information technology-related items, ranging from new radios and hardware to service contracts, and spending was slated to increase significantly in 2018, she said.

The military also spent around 1 billion euros a year on personnel.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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