DefenceTalkDefenceTalkThe Taliban on Friday rejected Washington’s accusations that it had not lived up to its promises in Afghanistan, in turn claiming the US was ‘bombarding civilians’. The US signed a landmark deal with the insurgents last year, agreeing to withdraw all of its troops from the country in return for security guarantees after a stalemate […]https://www.defencetalk.com/taliban-says-us-bombarding-civilians-houses-in-violation-of-afghan-deal-76713/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkA top Iranian official Wednesday said arch-foe Israel was waging a “psychological war” after the Jewish state’s army said new “offensive options” were being drawn up in case they were needed against the Islamic republic. Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff, also vowed his country was ready and willing to defend itself. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iran-says-israel-waging-psychological-war-76695/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkOne week into the job, US President Joe Biden has sent a clear warning to Beijing against any expansionist intentions in East and Southeast Asia. In multiple calls and statements, he and his top security officials have underscored support for allies Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, signalling Washington’s rejection of China’s disputed territorial claims in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/in-multiple-messsages-biden-warns-beijing-over-expansionism-76698/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalk The United States’ commitment to Taiwan is “rock-solid”, the State Department said late Saturday, as it warned that China’s “attempts to intimidate” the island are a threat to regional peace. The comments are the first from Washington on relations with Taiwan since President Joe Biden’s inauguration last week, and came on the same day […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-says-support-for-taiwan-rock-solid-as-chinese-jets-buzz-island-76688/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkAfghan authorities said Monday they are investigating an air strike at the weekend which local officials say killed more than a dozen civilians, including children. Provincial officials said 15 people died on Saturday night when a rocket struck a house in Khashrod district of Nimroz province. “We are aware of claims of civilian casualties in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/afghanistan-probes-air-strike-that-killed-civilians-76662/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkChinese jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan’s defence zone last year, a defence official said Tuesday, as a military-linked think-tank warned tensions were now at their highest since the mid-1990s. Democratic and self-ruled Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its own territory and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/taiwan-says-chinese-fighter-jets-made-record-380-incursions-in-2020-76644/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkThe US reversed a decision to bring an aircraft carrier home from the Gulf Sunday, with the Pentagon saying that due to “recent threats” by Iran the USS Nimitz would stay in position. The Nimitz has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November, but in a statement issued on December 31, acting US defense secretary […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-aircraft-carrier-to-stay-in-gulf-pentagon-76632/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkA “champion of peace” doesn’t normally threaten to show no mercy before carrying out an attack that sparks a humanitarian crisis. Yet Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is not the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to go to war. Officially, the guns in Tigray have been silenced: On November 28, Abiy, who won the 2019 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/drones-wars-genocide-tainted-legacy-of-nobel-peace-laureates-76598/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkA satellite-controlled machine gun with “artificial intelligence” was used in last week’s assassination of a top nuclear scientist in Iran, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards told local media Sunday. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving on a highway outside Iran’s capital Tehran with a security detail of 11 Guards on November 27, when the machine […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iran-says-scientist-killed-by-satellite-controlled-machine-gun-76584/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkIran said that Israel and an exiled opposition group used new and “complex” methods to assassinate its leading nuclear scientist, as it buried him Monday in a funeral befitting a top “martyr”. As it laid Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — seen by Israel as the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme — to rest, the Islamic republic […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iran-says-israel-exiled-group-killed-scientist-in-complex-operation-76569/