JAMMU, 27 June 2021, (TON): Indian Air Force claims that two attacks were witnessed at Jammu Air Force Station with no causalities. Indian Director General Police Dilbagh Singh, said in a statement that the attack was through explosive-laden drones. Describing the attack an act of “terrorism”, Dilbagh Singh said that two attacks were carried out.

The Tweet by Indian Air Force said, “Two low intensity explosions were reported early Sunday morning in the technical area of Jammu Air Force Station. The attack caused minor damage to the roof of a building at the station, while another blast hit an open area.” Air Officer Commanding said in a statement the attack caused minor damage to the roof of a building at the station, while another blast hit an open area. There was no damage to any equipment or aircraft. Investigation is in progress.” Sources at Indian Air Force (IAF) Base said that tthat hree personnel were in the IED dumping area due to own negligence. There are reports that monitoring equipment was slightly damaged.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that US personnel were stationed at the Jammu Air Force Station, however, further details could not be confirmed.

NAIROBI, 27 June 2021, (TON): The United States estimates that up to 900,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region now face famine conditions amid a deadly conflict, even as the prime minister says there is “no hunger” there.

Head of the US Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, said “the hunger crisis in Tigray is the world’s worst in a decade, and the new famine findings are terrifying, millions more people are at risk.”

The new estimate more than doubles the warning issued earlier this month by the United Nations and aid groups that more than 350,000 people face famine conditions in Tigray. Even as scattered reports emerge of people starving to death, the real number of people facing famine conditions is unknown because active fighting and access restrictions keep aid workers from reaching all parts of the region of 6 million people.

New USAID analysis says “Conditions will worsen in the coming months, particularly as Tigray enters the July-to-September lean season, unless humanitarian assistance reaches the populations most in need.”

BAGHDAD, 27 June 2021, (TON):  Thousands of Iraqi paramilitary fighters, including powerful Iran-backed factions, marched at a military base in eastern Iraq on Saturday showcasing tanks and rocket launchers in their biggest formal parade to date.

The event, attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, marked seven years since the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) were formed to fight the ISIS.

“I esteem your sacrifices, and the sacrifices of the Iraqi armed forces” in fighting ISIS, Kadhimi said, warning against any “sedition” within the PMU, but without elaborating.

The PMU’s establishment created a state-sanctioned umbrella organization of mostly Shiite militias backed by Iran.

The Iran-aligned factions, which are the most powerful in the PMU, have since ISIS’s defeat in 2017 expanded their military, political and economic power and attacked bases housing the 2,500 remaining US forces in Iraq.

They have allies in parliament and government and a grip over some state bodies, including security institutions.

GAZA CITY, 27 June 2021, (TON):  Palestinian group Hamas called for escalating “popular resistance” against Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

“The occupation government’s approval of a settlement scheme that includes 31 settlement plans in the West Bank proves the extremism of the [Naftali] Bennett’s government by continuing with the policy of settlement intrusion, land grab, and the uprooting of our people.”

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Al-Qanou said in a Twitter post. Al-Qanou called for “the escalation of the intifada and the expansion of the popular resistance throughout the West Bank to confront the occupation and its settlement projects.”

Israel’s new coalition government approved a scheme for the construction of 31 new buildings in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

MOSCOW, 27 June 2021, (TON): Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said he plans to meet soon with U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan, who returned to Moscow this week after two months away from the post.

Ryabkov told media “Next week, I will hold a meeting with Ambassador Sullivan. Of course, the main issues include normalizing the work of Russian missions in the United States and U.S. missions in Russia.”

Ryabkov also said “the two sides were already following up on recent agreements to cooperate on cybersecurity issues, with the aim of beginning “full-fledged and all-embracing dialogue.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced after their June 16 summit in Geneva that ambassadors who were part of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions in April would return to their missions in a bid to lower tensions.

 TOKYO, 27 June 2021, (TON): Four China Coast Guard vessels sailed into Japanese-controlled waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea morning and stayed there for several hours, the Japan Coast Guard announced.

The service indicated that it warned the Chinese ships to leave the area after they approached four Japanese fishing boats in waters south of Uotsurijima – one of the Senkakus. The incident reportedly began in the early morning hours, with Chinese ships said to have left the area at 11:40 am local time.

Japan’s Coast Guard says it was the 22nd time that Chinese ships have violated Japanese territorial waters around the island chain.

China has not commented on the incident.

WASHINGTON, 27 June 2021, (TON): US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell met with President Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and other Afghan officials who accompany the president in his two-day visit to the United States.

In meeting with President Ghani at the Capital, McConnell said “he hopes President Biden will delay the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.”

McConnel said “President Biden’s decision to withdraw US forces leaves our Afghan partners alone to confront threats that his own top advisors acknowledge are grave and growing worse.”

 He said “The Taliban, emboldened by our retreat, is rolling back years of progress, especially for the rights of Afghan women, on its way to taking Kabul.”

He added “increasing indications that this collapse could come soon after US withdrawal is complete are as tragic as they are avoidable.”

He said that in the Taliban’s wake, al-Qaeda is already preparing for an ambitious resurgence of its own, which the President’s own Defense Secretary warns could lead to direct threats to the US homeland in as little as two years.

He further said “without a reversal of US policy, I suspect this threat will come much more quickly.”

ISLAMABAD, 27 June 2021, (TON): Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan wanted a “civilised relationship” with the United States, post-Afghan drawdown and would like to improve bilateral trade ties.

In an interview with New York Times, the prime minister said that after the US announced the deadline for withdrawal of troops from the war-battered country, Pakistan’s leverage on the Taliban had diminished.

He said “Pakistan would want a civilised relationship, which you have between nations, and we would like to improve our trading relationship with the US. So a relationship which is even-handed.”

During the war against terrorism, Imran noted, the Pakistan-US relations were “a bit lopsided” because the US felt that they were giving aid to Pakistan, therefore Pakistan had to do US bidding. He added that what Pakistan did at the US bidding, actually cost the country a lot in human lives.

Seventy thousand Pakistanis died, and over $150 billion were lost to the economy because there were suicide bombings and bombs going on all over the country. That’s where the problem began. The US kept expecting more from Pakistan. And unfortunately, Pakistani governments tried to deliver what they were not capable of.

In the post-drawdown scenario, Imran opined that Pakistan should have some strategic relevance to the US. “We have one of the biggest markets on one side of Pakistan, and then China on [the] other side. And then the energy corridor, Central Asia, Iran. So Pakistan, in that sense, is strategically placed for the future in terms of economics.”

WASHINGTON, 27 June 2021, (TON):  US President Joe Biden has said that “Afghans are going to have to decide their future as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited the White House.

Mr Biden promised continued support for the country, even though US and Nato troops are set to finish their withdrawal on 11 September.

It comes after Taliban fighters captured dozens of districts in a recent offensive.

Earlier this week the UN expressed alarm at their gains.

The meeting came the day after the US announced plans to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked for the US military ahead of the withdrawal. Many fear reprisals from the Taliban.

US and Nato officials have recently said that the Taliban have so far failed to live up to commitments to reduce violence in Afghanistan.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr Biden said the partnership between the US and Afghanistan would continue.

He said "our troops may be leaving, but support for Afghanistan is not ending."

But he stressed that it was up to Afghans to decide "what they want".

He added "the senseless violence, it has to stop. It's going to be very difficult."

ISLAMABAD, 27 June 2021, (TON):  Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has said “Islamabad is expecting that the Afghan Taliban will not allow terrorists groups like TTP to carry out activities against Pakistan.”

He said while speaking to the media in Islamabad “Prime Minister Imran Khan has categorically said that we [Pakistan] will not give any bases to the United States to use against Afghanistan.”

He said “but we also expect from [Afghan] Taliban that they will not allow TTP [Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistan] and other elements to carry out any activity which causes harm to the lives and property of Pakistani people.”

PM Imran earlier this week had repeated his firm stance of not providing any bases to the US, saying that "Islamabad is ready to be a partner for peace in Afghanistan with Washington because both the countries wanted stability, development and denial of terrorists’ havens there".

Rashid said the 88 per cent fencing across the Pak-Afghan border has been completed and the rest is expected to be finished by next month.