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Good Tuesday Morning. May 19, 2020

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This day in Naval History May 19



1813 During the War of 1812, the frigate Congress, commanded by John Smith, captures and burns the British merchant brig, Jean, in the Atlantic.

1855 The screw ship Powhatan lands her Marine guard at Shanghai, China, to protect the lives and property of Americans during a period of unrest.

1882 Commodore Robert W. Shufeldt, onboard USS Swatara, arrives in Korea to negotiate the first commerce treaty between Korea and a Western power. The treaty is signed on May 22, opening Korea to United States trade.

1944 USS England (DE 635) sinks Japanese submarine I 16, the first of five submarines the destroyer sinks in a weeks time.



CHINFO

Executive Summary:

• The FBI announced that a Saudi aviation student who killed three Sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola had extensive ties to al Qaeda, multiple outlets report.

• The Associated Press reports that USS Theodore Roosevelt will return to sea later this week with a scaled-back crew of about 3,000 after being sidelined for nearly two months.

• U.S. 7th Fleet announced in a statement that the Navy and Marine Corps have been conducting integrated operations in the Pacific.





Today in History: May 19

0715 St. Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

1535 French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.

1536 Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, is beheaded on Tower Green.

1568 Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisons her.

1588 The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal.

1608 The Protestant states form the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

1635 Cardinal Richelieu of France intervenes in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain.

1643 The French army defeats a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

1780 Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found.

1856 Senator Charles Sumner speaks out against slavery.

1858 A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hamilton executes unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.

1863 Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg is repulsed.

1864 The Union and Confederate armies launch their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania, Virginia.

1921 Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system.

1935 The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

1964 U.S. diplomats find at least 40 microphones planted in the American embassy in Moscow.

1967 U.S. planes bomb Hanoi for the first time.



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Thanks to Dr. Rich

How SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission will work in 13 steps

On May 27, SpaceX will launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in the first-ever crewed test flight of its Crew Dragon astronaut taxi. The mission, called Demo-2, will lift off …

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-demo-2-step-by-step.html



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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS For May 19

FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR MAY 16

THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY



1908: Lt Thomas E. Selfridge, the first US Army officer to fly an airplane, flew the White Wing at Hammondsport. It was Dr. Alexander Graham Bell's second Aerial Experiment Associationplane, and it had hinged ailerons. (20) (21)

1917: A General Order described a distinguished insignia for all US government aircraft and directed it be placed on all naval aircraft. The insignia was a red disc within a white star on a blue circular field, and would be placed on the wings with red, white, and blue vertical bands on the rudder, with the blue forward.

1918: Raoul G. Lufbery, who posted 17 aerial victories with Lafayette Escadrille before joining the American Expeditionary forces, died in aerial combat. (21)

1919: DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS. MSgt Ralph W. Bottriell became the first American military person to jump from an aircraft using a manually-operated backpack parachute. He later received the DFC for this feat. (4)

1949: The Navy's flying boat, the JRM-1 Marshall Mars, broke the record for number of people carried on a single flight when 301 passengers and a crew of seven were flown from Alameda to San Diego. (24)

1951: KOREAN WAR. An H-5 helicopter rescued a downed F-51 pilot southwest of Chorwon, sustaining damage from small arms fire during the pickup. (28) 1961: First Titan I arrived at Lowry AFB. (6)

1963: On a nonstop Washington DC to Moscow flight, the US presidential aircraft, a Boeing 707-320B (VC-137C), with Col James B. Swindal at the controls, set 15 nonstop FAI records in flying the 5,004-mile route in 8 hours 39 minutes 2 seconds. On the 20-21 May return flight, Colonel Swindal and his crew set another 15 FAI records on the Moscow to Washington trip, flying the distance in 9 hours 54 minutes 48.5 seconds, or an average speed of 490.96 MPH. (9)

1965: The USAF used a single Thor-Agena rocket to launch simultaneously eight separate satellite vehicles from Vandenberg AFB. This was the greatest number of satellites the US had ever launched on a single vehicle. 1966: Pioneer VI, launched on 16 December

1965, reached its perihelion, some 75.7 millions miles from the sun. During 154 days in solar orbit, the spacecraft transmitted 340 million readings of 3,000 separate scientific measurements and 3 million readings of 100 individual engineering measurements to earth.

1967: Douglas Aircraft Company received a contract to design and build the MOL. (16)

1970: HARMON TROPHY. The Apollo XI crew (Astronauts Michael Collins, Neil A. Armstrong, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.) received the trophy for outstanding scientific and technological accomplishment in achieving the first landing of man on the moon. (16)

1977: MACKAY TROPHY. Capt James W. Yule, a B-52 instructor pilot, received the Mackay Trophy for gallantry and unusual presence of mind during an in-flight emergency. (21)

1980: The Air Force launched its first Tomahawk GLCM at the Utah Test and Training Range. (3)

1987: Exercise HAMMER 87-1. USAFE units participated in the largest multiwing, multinational, composite force exercise conducted in Europe since World War II to date. (16)

2000: After one test flight at the White Sands Missile Range, the USAF delivered the Boeing X-40A to the Dryden Flight Research Facility. It was an 80 percent scale version of the proposed X-37 Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV), an unmanned autonomous spacecraft able to deliver small satellites into orbit, conduct on-orbit reconnaissance, and perform other space chores. (3)

2001: The Boeing X-40A completed its seventh and last flight. Released from a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter from 15,000 feet, the X-40A attained 304 mph in its unpowered two-minute descent to a safe landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB. (3)



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These are always entertaining



Thanks to Mike

Do You Read

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could find the time and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Chicago Tribune is read by people who are in prison, who used to run the state, & would like to do so again, as would their constituents who are currently free on bail.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.

11. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are gay, handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, and those who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.

12. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

13. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.



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Thanks to Dr. Rich….Click below to read the entire item



https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/05/19/fort-detrick-bioweapons-lab-scientist-murdered.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2HL&cid=20200519Z1&et_cid=DM540618&et_rid=875256181



Why a Fort Detrick Bioweapons Lab Scientist Was Murdered

by Dr. Joseph Mercola May 19, 2020



STORY AT-A-GLANCE

One of the first scientists assigned to Fort Detrick's secret biological warfare laboratory during WWII was bioweapons expert Frank Olson

In 1953, Frank Olson died after plummeting to the ground from a high-rise hotel room window in Manhattan

Days earlier, he had been secretly drugged by the Central Intelligence Agency, which claimed Olson's death was a suicide

Decades later, it was revealed that Olson didn't jump from the window — he was deliberately murdered after the CIA became concerned that he might reveal disturbing top-secret operations





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UPDATED ON FEB 22, 2019

1965

The FBI Laboratory weighs in on the "dirty" lyrics of "Louie Louie"

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· Based on outcry from parents who bought into what may have started as an idle rumor, the FBI launched a formal investigation in 1964 into the supposedly pornographic lyrics of the song "Louie, Louie." That investigation finally neared its conclusion on this day in 1965, when the FBI Laboratory declared the lyrics of "Louie Louie" to be officially unintelligible.

· No one will ever know who started the rumor that "Louie Louie" was dirty. As written by Richard Berry in 1955, the lyrics revolve around a sailor from the Caribbean lamenting to a bartender named Louie about missing his far-away love. As recorded in crummy conditions and in a single take by the Kingsmen in 1963, lyrics like "A fine little girl, she wait for me…" came out sounding like "A phlg mlmrl hlurl, duh vvvr me" Perhaps it was some clever middle-schooler who started the rumor by trying to convince a classmate that those lyrics contained some words that are as unprintable today as they were back in 1963. Whatever the case, the story spread like wildfire, until the United States Department of Justice began receiving letters like the one addressed to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and dated January 30, 1964. "Who do you turn to when your teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold…in every City, Village and Record shop in this Nation?" that letter began, before going on to make the specific assertion that the lyrics of "Louie Louie" were "so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter."

· Over the course of the next two years, the FBI gathered many versions of the putative lyrics to Louie Louie. They interviewed the man who wrote the song and officials of the record label that released the Kingsmen's smash-hit single. They turned the record over to the audio experts in the FBI laboratory, who played and re-played "Louie Louie" at 78 rpm, 45 rpm, 33 1/3 rpm and even slower speeds in an effort to determine whether it was pornographic and, therefore, whether its sale was a violation of the federal Interstate Transportation of Obscene Material law. "Unintelligible at any speed" was the conclusion the FBI Laboratory relayed to the investigators in charge on this day in 1965, not quite exonerating "Louie Louie," but also not damning the tune that would go on to become one of the most-covered songs in rock-and-roll history.



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This Day in American Military History

1864 – A dozen days of fighting around Spotsylvania ends with a Confederate attack against the Union forces. The epic campaign between the Army of the Potomac, under the effective direction of Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began at the beginning of May when Union forces crossed the Rapidan River. After a bloody two-day battle in the Wilderness forest, Grant moved his army further south toward Spotsylvania Court House. This move was a departure from the tactics of the previous three years in the eastern theater of the Civil War. Since 1861, the Army of the Potomac had been coming down to Virginia under different commanders only to be defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia, usually under Lee's direction, and had always returned northward. But Grant was different than the other Union generals. He knew that by this time Lee could not sustain constant combat. The numerical superiority of the Yankees would eventually wear Lee down. When Grant ordered his troops to move south, a surge of enthusiasm swept the Union veterans; they knew that in Grant they had an aggressive leader who would not allow the Confederates time to breathe. Nevertheless, the next stop proved to be more costly than the first. After the battle in the Wilderness, Grant and Lee waged a footrace for the strategic crossroads at Spotsylvania. Lee won the race, and his men dug in. On May 8, Grant attacked Lee, initiating a battle that raged for 12 awful days. The climax came on May 12, when the two armies struggled for nearly 20 hours over an area that became known as the Bloody Angle. The fighting continued sporadically for the next week as the Yankees tried to eject the Rebels from their breastworks. Finally, when the Confederates attacked on May 19, Grant prepared to pull out of Spotsylvania. Convinced he could never dislodge the Confederates from their positions, he elected to try to circumvent Lee's army to the south. The Army of the Potomac moved, leaving behind 18,000 casualties at Spotsylvania to the Confederates' 12,000. In less than three weeks Grant had lost 33,000 men, with some of the worst fighting yet to come.



1918 – Raoul Lufbery, one of the top-scoring US fighter pilots of the war with 17 victories, is killed during air combat. He had served with other American volunteers in the French Escadrille Lafayette (originally the Escadrille Americaine and credited with 38 air victories) before the United States' entry into the war. Lufbery was the commander of the famed 94th "Hat in the Ring" Aero Squadron at the time of his death.



1927 – The 11th Marine Regiment arrived at Esteli, Nicaragua, for garrison duty.
1941 – Viet Minh, a communist coalition, formed at Cao Bằng Province, Vietnam.
1942 – In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor.
1943 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
1943 – On Attu, American forces advance along Clevesy Pass toward Chicagof.
1944 – Allied forces of US 5th Army continue to make advances. The US 2nd Corps captures Gasta Itri and Monte Grande. The French Expeditionary Corps nearly reaches Pico and battle for Campodimele. Meanwhile, British armor and infantry overrun the Aquino airfield, in the Liri Valley but German antitank guns repulse an attempt to seize the town.
1944 – American aircraft the carriers of Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) conduct a raid on Marcus Island.
1945 – On Luzon, in the Ipoh dam area north of Manila, where the US 43rd Division of US 11th Corps is operating, Japanese resistance ends. The US 152nd Division is holding its positions near Woodpecker Ridge. The US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, begins mopping up in the area north and west of Santa Fe.
1945 – On Okinawa, the US 77th Division suffers heavy casualties while fighting for the Ishimmi ridge and withdraws.
1945 – Some 272 American B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Hamamatsu, 120 miles (192 km) from Tokyo. Bombs are dropped through the clouds from medium altitude.

1972 – Units of South Vietnam's 9th and 21st Divisions, along with several South Vietnamese airborne battalions, open new stretches of road south of An Loc and come within two miles of the besieged city. In the Central Highlands, North Vietnamese troops, preceded by heavy shelling, tried to break through the lines of South Vietnam's 23rd Division defending Kontum, but the South Vietnamese troops held firm. These actions were part of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the "Easter Offensive"), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces on March 30 to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north and Kontum in the Central Highlands, included An Loc farther to the south. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the defenders suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.



Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BROWN, JOHN H.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company A, 47th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 19 May 1863. Entered service at: Cincinnati, Ohio. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 24 August 1896. Citation: Voluntarily carried a verbal message from Col. A. C. Parry to Gen. Hugh Ewing through a terrific fire and in plain view of the enemy.

HOWE, ORION P.
Rank and organization: Musician, Company C, 55th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 19 May 1863. Entered service at: Woken, Ill. Birth: Portage County, Ohio. Date of issue: 2 3 April 1896. Citation: A drummer boy, 14 years of age, and severely wounded and exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy, he persistently remained upon the field of battle until he had reported to Gen. W. T. Sherman the necessity of supplying cartridges for the use of troops under command of Colonel Malmborg.

KEPHART, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 13th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 19 May 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Venango County, Pa. Date of issue: 13 May 1899. Citation: Voluntarily and at the risk of his life, under a severe fire of the enemy, aided and assisted to the rear an officer who had been severely wounded and left on the field.





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Daily News from Military Periscope for 19 May



USA—Pentagon Seeks To Reduce Dependence On China For Rare Earth Minerals Defense News | 05/19/2020 The Pentagon has proposed legislation to cut its dependence on China for rare earth minerals vital for the production of military equipment, reports Defense News. The proposal calls for raising spending caps under the Defense Production Act, enabling the government to spend up to $1.75 billion on rare earth elements for missiles and munitions, $350 million for microelectronics and eliminating them entirely for hypersonic weapons. Defense officials have proposed the changes as part of the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Current rules require the Defense Dept. to notify Congress before it invests more than $50 million in DPA funds. Raising the cap to $350 million would enable the department to invest in multiple projects. The Pentagon has recently approved small pilot products to boost domestic refinement of rare earth minerals, but more is needed, experts said. China produces an estimated 71 percent of global rare earth minerals and is the single largest supplier to the U.S.



USA—Saudi Pilot In NAS Pensacola Attack Linked To AQAP Cbs News | 05/19/2020 A Saudi pilot who killed three American personnel in a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., had "significant ties" to Al-Qaida, reports CBS News. An analysis of iPhones belonging to Saudi 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani revealed deep ties to Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is based in Yemen, Attorney General William Barr said on Monday. Those ties stretch back to at least 2015, reported Agence France-Presse. Information gained from the phones did not indicate any current threats to U.S. national security, said FBI Director Christopher Wray. The FBI chief said that Alshamrani was sharing plans and tactics with AQAP, coordinating with the group and providing opportunity for it to take credit for the attack, reported NPR News. AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack in February. The leaders also reiterated calls for backdoors that would permit government officials to access encrypted information on iPhones and other devices, arguing that their investigation was hampered by lack of access, reported the Wall Street Journal. They did not indicate how they were able to access the information in the phone, saying only that Apple did not assist in the process, a charge Apple denied. Apple said in January that it had turned over "gigabytes" of data to authorities, who had waited until a month after the attack to contact the company about the existence of a second phone and the FBI's inability to access either device. Apple maintains that there is no backdoor that could be created for law enforcement that could not be exploited by bad actors.



USA—Dozen Sailors On Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Retest Positive For COVID-19 Navy Times | 05/19/2020 More than a dozen sailors from the carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for a second time, reports the Navy Times. As of Saturday, 13 sailors who had previously tested positive for the virus and completed a 14-day quarantine on Guam tested positive again. The sailors tested negative twice before being allowed back on the ship, reported Business Insider. The cases were discovered after the sailors self-reported for a medical evaluation after developing flu-like symptoms. The sailors were then removed from the carrier and placed in quarantine. Several others who were in close contact with the sailors who retested positive were also removed from the ship. The Navy is unsure of the cause of the new positive tests. It is investigating whether the sailors were re-infected or were still infected with COVID-19 despite the negative test results. The latest cases came just before the Roosevelt conducted a "fast cruise" simulation to emulate operating conditions at sea while remaining moored at Naval Base Guam, reported CNN. The exercise is one of the final milestones before the ship can return to sea.



USA—Raptor Fighter Destroyed In Crash; Pilot Ejects Safely Air Force Magazine | 05/19/2020 An F-22 Raptor stealth fighter has gone down during a training mission over northwestern Florida, reports Air Force magazine. On May 15, the Raptor was operating from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., when it encountered an unspecified problem and crashed 12 miles (19 km) northeast of the base on the test and training range. The pilot ejected safely and was taken to the hospital, where he was in stable condition. The F-22 was assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron, 325th Fighter Wing, based at Eglin AFB. The crash forced the cancellation of a planned flyover from aircraft stationed at Eglin. That flyover included F-22, F-35 Lightning II and T-38 Talon aircraft, reported the Air Force Times. This is the fifth F-22 to be lost in a crash, and the first since 2013.



China—Final Luda-Class Destroyer Heads Into Sunset China Military Online | 05/19/2020 The Chinese navy is preparing to retire its final Luda-class destroyer, reports China Military Online. The Zhuhai will be turned into a floating museum in the city of Zhuhai in the Guangdong province upon her retirement. Work on the handover is currently underway. The ship was commissioned in 1992 as the sole Type 051G2-class destroyer, also known as the Luda III class. She frequently conducted diplomatic missions and was part of the first circumnavigation of the globe by a Chinese warship since the establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy.



Japan—Initial Space Unit Begins Work Asahi Shimbun | 05/19/2020 The Japan Self-Defense Force has activated its first space unit at an air base outside Tokyo, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo). The Space Operations Squadron, part of the Air Self-Defense Force, was activated on Monday at the Fuchu air base. The unit will monitor space debris and potential attacks against Japanese military satellites. Other duties include providing satellite-based navigation and communication for troops in the field. The squadron currently consists of 20 personnel. It is expected to reach an operational strength of 100 by 2023. The unit will not become fully operational until 2023 once radar and other equipment necessary for space surveillance is made available, officials said.



Pakistan—7 Paramilitaries Die In Baluchistan Attacks Dawn | 05/19/2020 At least seven security personnel have been killed in two attacks in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan region, reports the Dawn (Karachi). On Monday, six troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps were killed in Pir Ghaib, about 34 miles (55 km) southeast of Quetta, when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, reported Al Jazeera (Qatar). The paramilitaries were returning to their base after completing a patrol, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). A civilian driver was also killed in the blast, reported the Express Tribune (Pakistan). Separately, a soldier was killed in fighting with militants near Mand in the Kech district of Baluchistan, said the ISPR. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Six soldiers were killed earlier this month in a similar improvised explosive device attack claimed by the Baluchistan Liberation Army. Afghanistan—



Ghani, Abdullah Finally Agree To Power-Sharing Deal Al Jazeera | 05/19/2020 President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah have reached a power-sharing agreement to resolve a dispute over last year's presidential election in Afghanistan, reports Al Jazeera (Qatar). Ghani and Abdullah both declared victory in September's vote. Abdullah rejected the independent election commission's declaration of Ghani as the winner, citing unspecified claims of fraud, reported the Washington Post. Abdullah held his own swearing-in ceremony on March 9, the same day that Ghani was sworn in. On Sunday, the two signed a power-sharing agreement wherein Ghani will remain president while Abdullah becomes his de facto number two and will be able to nominate candidates for 50 percent of the Cabinet, including important ministries, and help devise a mechanism for the appointment of governors, reported the Voice of America News. Abdullah will also lead the new High Council of National Reconciliation, taking charge of the peace process and future negotiations with the Taliban. Former Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, now an ally of Abdullah, will be appointed marshal of the armed forces and given a seat on the national security council. Dostum has been accused of ordering the torture and rape of a political rival in 2016.



Afghanistan—Security Forces Repel Taliban Assault On Kunduz Agence France-Presse | 05/19/2020 Afghan officials say that security forces have defeated a coordinated Taliban attack in the northern Kunduz province, reports Agence France-Presse. On Tuesday, militants assaulted several security outposts on the outskirts of the city of Kunduz, said the defense ministry. Militants briefly took over an Afghan army outpost, killing a soldier, said an army spokesman. Afghan troops repelled the assault with support from the air force, the ministry said. Eleven militants were killed and eight injured in the fighting, according to the ministry. Kunduz previously fell to Taliban forces in September 2015 and September 2016.



Iran—Israel Blamed For Cyberattack On Bandar Abbas Port Facility Washington Post | 05/19/2020 Israel is believed to have conducted a cyberattack on a major Iranian port facility earlier this month, reports the Washington Post. On May 9, the Shahid Rajaee terminal, the newest of two port facilities in Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, experienced a cyberattack that knocked its computers offline and caused traffic to back up on waterways and roads. A day after the attack, Iranian officials acknowledged only that an unknown hacker had briefly taken down the port's computer systems. The attack was believed to have been conducted by Israeli operatives, intelligence and cybersecurity officials told the newspaper. It may have been in retaliation for last month's cyberattack on water distribution systems in rural Israel that was attributed to Iran. Unnamed foreign security officials called the attack "highly accurate" and said it was more damaging than Iran admitted.



Iraq—Rocket Hits House In Green Zone Anadolu News Agency | 05/19/2020 Militants have launched another rocket into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, reports Turkey's Anadolu Agency. Early Tuesday, a Katyusha rocket struck an empty residence in the zone, reported the state-run Security Media Network (Iraq). There were no reports of casualties. The rocket was believed to be launched from Baghdad's al-Idrisi neighborhood, reported Kurdistan 24. An Iraqi lawmaker said that the damaged house belonged to him and that the rocket targeted the British Embassy. The rocket landed far from both the American and British embassies, a source said. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Previous attacks have been claimed by and attributed to Iran-backed paramilitary groups.



Egypt—Work Underway On Su-35 Fighters Ordered From Russia Tass | 05/19/2020 Construction has started on Su-35 fighter jets ordered by Egypt in 2018, reports Russia's Tass news agency. Work on the Su-35s has begun at the Gagarin Aircraft Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, an unnamed military diplomatic source told the news agency on May 16. The deal was first disclosed in 2019, when Kommersant (Russia) reported that it covered around two dozen Su-35s and was worth about US$2 billion. At the time, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation denied that any such agreement had been signed. A delivery date has not been established due to difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the source said.



Libya—GNA Recaptures Airbase From Haftar's Forces Libya Observer | 05/19/2020 Forces from the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have captured a key airbase from forces loyal to eastern militia leader Khalifa Haftar, reports the Libya Observer. The GNA forces regained control of Al-Watiya airbase, located about 16 miles (25 km) from the border with Tunisia, and captured all military equipment within it, including a Pantsyr air defense system supplied to Haftar's forces by the United Arab Emirates, a GNA spokesman said on Monday. GNA forces conducted strikes against the base for several weeks and over the weekend destroyed the Pantsyr air defense system there, reported the Guardian (U.K.). The base is the latest Libyan National Army (LNA) position to be retaken by the GNA as part of a month-long offensive to remove LNA forces from the region. Al-Watiya was the last remaining LNA stronghold in western Libya. Haftar's forces had used it for numerous attacks targeting Tripoli, noted analysts cited by Al Jazeera (Qatar). With the capture of the airbase, GNA forces can now focus rolling back the LNA from the southern approaches to Tripoli, the spokesman said.



Nigeria—At Least 20 Killed In Assault On Borno Village Premium Times | 05/19/2020 At least 20 people have been killed and 24 injured in a terrorist attack in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, reports the Premium Times (Abuja). On Sunday evening as the villagers were preparing to break their Ramadan fast, gunmen in trucks drove into the village and began firing indiscriminately. Unnamed sources told Agence France-Presse said that the terrorists fired rocket-propelled grenades into homes. Several buildings were destroyed in the attack. The militants came from the west, the opposite side of the village from a military outpost, preventing the troops from responding rapidly to the attack, said a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force militia. When the soldiers arrived, fighting lasted into the night, he said. Nineteen of the injured were reportedly in critical condition, with five others suffering minor wounds. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Boko Haram is active in the region and has claimed similar attacks in the past.



Somalia—Regional Governor Dies In Suicide Attack In Galkayo Dalsan Radio | 05/19/2020 A Somali regional governor and his body guards have been killed in a suicide bombing in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, reports Dalsan Radio (Mogadishu). On Sunday, a suicide bomber drove a rickshaw into a car carrying Ahmed Muse Nur, the governor of the Mudug region in Puntland, as he was traveling through the city of Galkayo. Five people, including Nur and three of his bodyguards, were killed in the explosion, reported the Voice of America News. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. Nur's death is the second assassination of a governor in the Puntland region by Al-Shabaab in recent months. The governor of the Nugal region was killed in a suicide bombing on March 29.



Botswana—Images Confirm Deliveries Of Air Defense, Armored Vehicles Defence Web | 05/19/2020 Photos have recently appeared on social media showing a variety of military equipment passing through Namibia and South Africa on its way to Botswana, reports Defence Web (South Africa). The photos are apparently from two different convoys: one that took place several months ago and another from at least a year ago, the website said. The images show a Mistral coordination post on a Unimog chassis; a Panhard VBL armored vehicle fitted with a Mistral surface-to-air missile launcher; a VL MICA missile transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) truck and a VL MICA truck-mounted radar or command-post vehicle. Separate images show Swiss MOWAG Piranha wheeled armored vehicles being delivered to Botswana. In 2016, Botswana ordered 50 MICA missiles for a single VL MICA system and 50 Mistral missiles from MBDA in France for 304.2 million euros (US$329 million). Botswana already operates Piranha vehicles and ordered 45 more in 2016, which have been delivered in small batches since, analysts said.