A military base in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr used by American troops and their allied Takfiri militants has been hit by a series of large explosions, a week after an attack on the al-Tanf base housing US forces in southeastern Syria.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, reported that four blasts were heard at the US base inside the Conoco gas field on Saturday evening.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosions. No American troops stationed at the base were apparently injured or killed.
This is the latest in series of attacks on US-run military bases in the eastern half of Syria.
Month: October 2021
Traveling Vietnam Wall Coming To Tulsa
A smaller replica of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., the touring wall is set to arrive Thursday and will be at Veterans Park, 1109 E. Sixth St., through noon Sunday, Nov. 7.
The memorial, which is engraved with the names of the more than 58,000 Americans killed in the conflict, will be available to visitors 24-7 during its stay, with volunteers staffing it around the clock.
Devastated Arkansas Parents Still Looking For Answers After Basketball Team Sexual Assault Incident
Parents of Huntsville, Arkansas, middle and high school students are still desperate for answers months after younger members of a boys’ basketball team alleged last winter that older boys sexually assaulted them in the locker room.”
I know these boys,” the mother of one victim told Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity to protect her son from further harassment. “They’re having nightmares.”
Rebecca Nelle, a mother of another minor who experienced the abuse, sued the school district in September for allegedly forcing her son, identified as B.N. in the complaint, and “at least” 16 other children who were sexually harassed or assaulted to continue attending class “without any punishment on their abusers causing those that were sexually assaulted to be fearful of retaliation and retribution,” the complaint states.
B.N., after joining the team, “learned that ninth grade members of the boys’ basketball team would engage in forcible sexual assault against multiple boys’ Middle School players by having one or more students holding an eighth-grade member down while one or more Middle School basketball players would engage in what is called ‘baptism’ and ‘bean dipping…””
‘Baptism’…refers to placing one’s genitals on the face or in the mouth of another student. ‘Bean dipping’…refers to placing a student’s rectum and anus on the face and particularly the nose of another student,” the lawsuit states.
Allies Lobby Biden To Prevent Shift To ‘No First Use’ Of Nuclear Arms
The lobbying — by treaty allies including Britain, France and Germany in Europe, and Japan and Australia in the Indo-Pacific — comes as the Biden administration is in the middle of a “nuclear posture review”, a regular inter-agency process that sets US policy on nuclear weapons.
Although some allies believe Biden will refrain from setting a “no first use” policy in the review, most remain concerned he is considering a policy known as “sole purpose”, which would make clear the US would use nuclear weapons only in a narrowly-prescribed set of circumstances — such as to deter a direct attack on the US, or to retaliate after a strike.
“This would be a huge gift to China and Russia,” one European official said.
See also:
–Why NATO Is Practicing Nuclear Strike Missions
–The US Navy Is Going Underground As NATO Increases Its Focus On Its Northern Border With Russia
China’s Submarine Fleet Is Catching Up To The U.S., Causing Partners To Panic
China’s push for mass military modernization includes new, more advanced submarines to add to the world’s largest navy, causing U.S. partners in the region to scramble to acquire new capabilities of their own.
Their answer to the rising underwater threat is a passenger plane-sized submarine killer called the P-8 Poseidon, and orders for the aircraft are pouring in from countries like Australia and India. Both are members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which also includes the U.S. and Japan as part of a quasi-alliance that seeks to enforce a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”
And countries as far away as Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom have also purchased the aircraft.
See also: Are We Facing An ‘Ominous‘ De Facto China-Russia Alliance
U.S. Successfully Tests Hypersonic Booster Motor In Utah
The Pentagon successfully tested a booster rocket motor on Thursday designed to power a launch vehicle carrying a hypersonic weapon aloft, the Navy said.
See also: Pentagon Delayed Hypersonic Test Planned Before Biden-Putin Meet To Avoid Tensions: Report
Pentagon May Not Immediately Fire Vaccine Resisters
Facing criticism that mandates for coronavirus vaccinations could force the Defense Department to fire thousands of civilians, contractors and troops, the Biden administration is signaling that vaccine resisters may get more time to comply.
President Joe Biden and administration officials have previously said Pentagon employees and contractors have to be vaccinated or face termination on a series of upcoming deadlines. This has led to fears that thousands of people responsible for national defense may soon be forced out of their jobs. Virtually every day, Republican lawmakers decry what they describe as a national security crisis in the offing.
The deadlines for vaccination vary, depending on the type of employee. And they have not changed. The first of them arrives next week, on Nov. 2, for active-duty Air Force personnel, and official service figures show that some 4 percent of the active-duty Air Force is still not fully vaccinated.
Three administration officials in the last couple of days have described the deadlines not as the dates when an axe will fall but rather as the start of an education process designed to convince those who are resisting vaccination to reverse course.
See also: Nearly 70 Percent Of The Army Is Fully Vaccinated, Pentagon Says
Pentagon, State Dept. Are Concealing Afghanistan Data, Says U.S. Watchdog
Thomson Reuters Foundation News:
A U.S. government watchdog on Friday accused the State Department and Pentagon of suppressing information that lawmakers and the public need to understand the collapse of Afghanistan’s former government and military and the chaotic U.S. troop pullout.
“The full picture of what happened in August – and all the warning signs that could have predicted the outcome – will only be revealed if the information that the departments of Defense and State have already restricted from public release is made available,” said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR).
Noting that Congress tasked him with investigating the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and military, he said the Pentagon has since 2015 barred from public release a range of data purportedly at the former Ghani government’s request.
Most of that information, including casualty data and unit strengths, was “all you needed to know to determine whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards,” he said.
See also: Former US Soldier Returns To Afghanistan, Rescues Christians From Taliban
Pentagon Will Add A Climate-Policy Czar
While the Defense Department has done a lot to prioritize climate change throughout the organization, including at the service secretary level, Colin Kahl, the defense undersecretary for policy, said that the organization he oversees is “one place where we haven’t done enough frankly.”
“If we’re going to say that this is a national priority and it’s a priority for the department, then it needs to be a priority for my organization too. So we’re going to be making some organizational changes in the coming weeks and months to make sure we have an organization that champions these issues and that it is resourced to champion these issues, to make sure it gets integrated into all the various documents we oversee,” Kahl said at an event hosted by New America.
We totally would have won the Afghan War if we would have had a Pentagon Climate Czar. Going forward, we will be unstoppable.
Arkansas Joins Multi-State Lawsuit Against Repealing Ban On Abortion Referrals
KNWA:
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge joined the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Southern District of Ohio.
The lawsuit seeks to reinstate the Department of Health and Human Services rule made in 2019 that required federally funded family planning clinics to be physically and financially separate from abortion providers and refrain from referring patients to them.
Northern Lights Possible Over Oklahoma This Weekend
The Northern Lights are typically most active around the annual equinox in March and September but this weekend we are lucky enough to see another active forecast possible that will potentially allow some in Oklahoma to view this phenomenon!
Homeless Iraq War Vet’s Service Dog Killed After Arrest for Panhandling
Gastonia, North Carolina police officers encountered veteran Joshua Rohrer and his dog Sunshine, who was trained to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his time in the Army National Guard, after responding to a call about alleged panhandling.
“The officer asked him for his ID,” witness Justyn Huffman said. “He wasn’t moving fast enough so he tried to reach into his pocket to get his ID. They slammed him up against the car. They put cuffs on him.”
Huffman and two other witnesses said that Sunshine sprung to action and bit one of the officer’s boots. An officer allegedly fired a stun gun at Sunshine, striking the dog and causing her to run away with one of the prongs still hanging off her body.
“We’re out here screaming, ‘Don’t shoot the dog! Don’t shoot the dog!'” said Huffman. “[Rohrer] said, ‘My dog! My dog!’…They took him to the back of the police car and slammed him on the pavement.”
Rohrer was charged with panhandling and resisting arrest. Rohrer’s Veterans Affairs advocate Dave Dowell managed to track down Sunshine while her owner was in jail. However, the dog escaped from Dowell soon after, running away a second time.
Rohrer was released from jail the following day and began an extensive search for his service dog. After about two days, he made the horrifying discovery that Sunshine had been struck by a car and killed. Dowell told Military Times that the news made Rohrer despondent and suicidal.
Ukraine Conducts First-Ever Drone Strike In Donbas (VIDEO)
Ukraine’s forces in Donbas have delivered their first ever drone missile strike against Russian-sponsored militants on Oct. 26, using the Bayraktar TB2, an unmanned aerial system purchased from Turkey.
As seen in a video released by the armed forces, the drone targeted an enemy D-30 howitzer from the sky before unleashing a guided projectile that silenced the artillery piece.
According to the Ukrainian military, the assault was launched in retaliation for the shelling that killed a Ukrainian soldier in the area and wounded another.
A squadron of militants was using its 122-millimeter D-30 howitzers to attack Ukrainian lines near the town of Hranitne in Donetsk Oblast, some 630 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
According to the Minsk ceasefire accords signed by the warring parties in September 2014 and February 2015, weapons of this class must be pulled at least 25 kilometers away from the front line.
The day before the attack, the occupying authorities of Donbas had accused the Ukrainian military of attempting to retake Staromariivka, a tiny settlement trapped between the Ukrainian and militant lines, just south of Hranitne.
Don’t Assume The US Will Fight China And Russia One At A Time
China and Russia last week conducted their first-ever joint naval patrol in the western Pacific following a combined exercise in the Sea of Japan, highlighting the deepening defense cooperation between America’s preeminent competitors. While U.S. military planners have long hoped and often assumed that any conflicts with China and Russia might come one at a time, that assumption is increasingly questionable and even dangerous.
If the Biden administration is to develop an effective 2022 National Defense Strategy and build the U.S. defense capacity and capability that American interests require, the administration must jettison outdated assumptions and recognize that the United States could confront Chinese and Russian military forces simultaneously.
See also: US, China, Russia Test New Space War Tactics: Sats Buzzing, Spoofing, Spying
India’s Missile Test Seen As Warning To China After Breakdown In Border Talks
An Indian missile test was seen by security experts as a warning shot to China after military talks between the two countries over a contentious border dispute broke down earlier this month.
India’s Defense Ministry said it successfully launched on Wednesday the Agni-5, the country’s longest-range missile, with the power to hit a target up to 3,100 miles away.
See also: India Deploys U.S. Weapons To Fortify Disputed Border With China
Parts Of Arkansas Could See Their First Freeze Of The Season Next Weekend
KARK:
This weekend will be cooler than average, but not cold enough for a freeze. Long-term forecast models are pointing toward our first freeze to occur not this weekend, but next weekend (11/6 – 11/7). A low-pressure system will sweep through the mid-south late next week. Once the low is to our east, we will see a strong area of high pressure centered over Arkansas next weekend. A strong area of high pressure is exactly what we need this time of the year to get a frost or a freeze. The European (EURO) model has temperatures dropping below freezing the morning of Saturday 11/6.
COVID-19 In Arkansas: Slight Rise In Active Cases For Second Day, Hospitalizations Continue Drop
KARK:
Hospitalizations continue to see a drop of cases of COVID-19 in Arkansas, but active cases are still seeing that slight uptick on Thursday.
New data from the Arkansas Department of Health showed active cases went up by nine to 4,851. There were 517 new cases of the virus also reported Thursday, moving the state’s total during the pandemic to 511,984.
Biggest 24-Hour Temp Drops In Northwest Arkansas, River Valley History
It once went from 80° to 9° in just 24 hours.
Be Prepared: High Winds Continue Through Friday
KFOR:
A HIGH WIND WARNING has been issued for western Oklahoma and a WIND ADVISORY has been issued for the rest of the state. Winds will increase to 30 to 40 mph with gusts over 50 mph! Winds will stay strong overnight with gusts to 40 mph. Lows will drop to the mid 40s. Friday will be sunny, windy and cool with highs in the low 60s. North winds will stay strong at 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph.
China’s Weapon Tests Close To A ‘Sputnik Moment,’ U.S. General Says
China’s testing of a hypersonic missile designed to evade American nuclear defenses was “very close” to a “Sputnik moment” for the United States, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday in the first official confirmation of how Beijing’s demonstration of its weapon capabilities had taken American officials by surprise.
“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” General Milley said, making it clear he and other officials were surprised. The tests, he said, were a “very significant technological event,” and he said “it has all of our attention.”
If General Milley listened to Dan Bongino, then he would not be surprised.