Post by merc on Jan 3, 2020 3:10:17 GMT
Taiwan's military chief died in a helicopter crash today along with three major-generals, AFP reports, and "just days before the island goes to the polls to elect a new president" on January 11. The 62-year-old chief of the general staff, Gen. Shen Yi-ming, was one of eight senior officers "who died when their Black Hawk helicopter smashed into mountains near Taipei," AFP writes.
"The UH-60M helicopter carrying 13 people disappeared from radar less than 15 minutes after taking off," according to AFP. Five people survived the crash, including two-star general Tsao Ching-ping. A bit more, here.
An al-Shabab truck bomb killed 85 people in the capital city of Mogadishu on Saturday, CNN reported this week. AP called it "the worst attack in Mogadishu since the devastating 2017 bombing" that killed a staggering 587 people.
A modest number of demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital today in protest against al-Shabab, the BBC reports.
The Taliban have reportedly agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in Afghanistan, but no one knows when it might begin, AP reported on December 29 from Kabul.
Two days later, the Taliban killed 26 more of the country's security forces across northern Kunduz (10), Balkh (9) and Takhar (7) provinces. More from AP, here.
And finally today: A chance to take a few moments to remember the 22 U.S. service members who died in Afghanistan in 2019, via Stars and Stripes, which reminds us "All but four of the military fatalities in Afghanistan in 2019 were combat-related."
For the record, "Roughly 13,000 American troops were deployed to Afghanistan at the start of 2020." Read on, here.
