military – The Milli Chronicle https://millichronicle.com Factual Version of a Story Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:14:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://media.millichronicle.com/2018/11/12122950/logo-m-01-150x150.png military – The Milli Chronicle https://millichronicle.com 32 32 Philippines Vows Defiance After China Sanctions Defense Chief https://millichronicle.com/2026/06/68746.html Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:14:55 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=68746 Manila-Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Friday he would continue carrying out his duties after China imposed sanctions on him, as tensions between Manila and Beijing continue over disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Teodoro said the sanctions were aimed at those who speak out against what he described as China’s actions in the region.

“That is truly what they do to those who speak the truth against their deception,” Teodoro said in a statement.

“I will just keep doing my duty and uphold our nation in the face of the wickedness they are committing here and even in our seas,” he added.

China announced sanctions on Thursday against Teodoro and his close relatives, accusing him of repeatedly making remarks that harmed China’s interests and bilateral relations.

Relations between China and the Philippines have deteriorated in recent years, with frequent disputes as Manila has challenged Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea.

China has accused the Philippines of repeated encroachment in waters claimed by Beijing, while Manila has raised concerns over what it calls aggressive Chinese actions.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said the government would seek discussions with Chinese authorities over the sanctions, adding that Manila preferred diplomacy and dialogue.

The Department of Foreign Affairs described the sanctions as an “unfriendly act” that further complicated bilateral relations.

The department said such measures would not help build trust, manage differences or create conditions for constructive engagement between the two countries.

Beijing has previously imposed similar sanctions on foreign officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio over criticism of China and European Union lawmakers who accused Beijing of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

China last week criticised Teodoro after he described Beijing as a threat during remarks linked to regional security concerns. Manila also recently took diplomatic action against China over what it called the illegal presence of a floating structure in a disputed area.

]]> Serbian UN Peacekeeper Killed as Fighting Intensifies in South Lebanon https://millichronicle.com/2026/06/68225.html Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:49:07 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=68225 Beirut-Peacekeeper serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed and two others wounded after mortar shells struck a position in southern Lebanon, the United Nations and Serbian authorities said on Thursday.


UNIFIL said the peacekeeper died from critical injuries sustained during Wednesday night’s attack on a base located near the border area where Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters continue to clash. The mission said an investigation had been launched and called on relevant authorities to examine the incident.


Serbia’s defense ministry identified the deceased soldier as Milovan Jovanovic, a senior sergeant who was evacuated to a medical center in Beirut after receiving emergency treatment at the base but later succumbed to his injuries.


The death raises the number of UNIFIL personnel killed since the latest round of hostilities began in March to seven. Around 170 Serbian troops serve within the 7,500-member UN force deployed along the Blue Line, the de facto border separating Lebanon and Israel.


UNIFIL said it had recorded an increasing number of projectiles and impacts across southern Lebanon and renewed calls for an end to the violence.


The peacekeeping mission has suffered multiple casualties in recent months. In March, two Indonesian peacekeepers were killed in separate incidents, while in April two French peacekeepers died in an ambush that French authorities and the UN attributed to Hezbollah, a claim the group denied.


Earlier this week, Antonio Guterres said UN peacekeepers would continue to be needed in Lebanon beyond the expiration of UNIFIL’s current mandate at the end of the year.

]]> Trump Intervention Sparks Fresh Pressure on Netanyahu https://millichronicle.com/2026/06/68150.html Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:24:45 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=68150 Tel Aviv:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced mounting criticism from political rivals on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on each other, prompting accusations that Washington was dictating Israeli security policy.

The criticism followed Trump’s statement that Israel would suspend planned strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut as part of a new ceasefire arrangement. Lebanon later confirmed an agreement under which Israel would stop attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs while Hezbollah would halt attacks on Israel.

Opposition figures, including former prime minister Naftali Bennett and centrist leader Yair Lapid, accused Netanyahu of yielding to U.S. pressure. Bennett said the government had “lost control of Israeli sovereignty,” while Lapid argued Israel was acting as if it were under American oversight.

Netanyahu rejected the criticism, saying Israel’s policy remained unchanged and warning that any future Hezbollah attacks would trigger strikes on militant targets in Beirut.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel had refrained from attacking Beirut at Washington’s request but warned that renewed Hezbollah attacks would bring a military response.

The dispute highlights growing political tensions ahead of elections expected by October, with Netanyahu facing pressure from rivals who favor a tougher military approach toward Hezbollah.

]]> Indonesia Presses UN for Full Probe into Lebanon Peacekeeper Deaths https://millichronicle.com/2026/04/64983.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:57:44 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=64983 Jakarta— Indonesia on Friday urged the United Nations Security Council to conduct a thorough investigation into deadly incidents in southern Lebanon that killed three Indonesian peacekeepers, backing a joint statement supported by 73 countries and UN observer states.

The statement, submitted by Indonesia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Umar Hadi, called for strengthened protection measures for peacekeeping forces amid escalating security risks. It also urged an end to violence and a return to negotiations to secure a peaceful resolution in Lebanon.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said the safety of UN personnel was “non-negotiable,” stressing the need for the Security Council to use all available mechanisms to safeguard troops deployed in volatile environments.

The appeal follows a series of explosions in southern Lebanon in late March that killed three Indonesian peacekeepers serving under the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and wounded several others, including personnel from France, Ghana, Nepal and Poland.

A separate blast inside a UN facility less than a week later injured three more Indonesian soldiers.The incidents prompted Jakarta to demand accountability and enhanced security guarantees for peacekeeping missions.

The Foreign Ministry described the attacks as “unacceptable” and called for an urgent meeting of troop-contributing countries to review safety protocols and operational conditions within UNIFIL.

President Prabowo Subianto condemned the attacks, saying such acts undermine peace efforts and result in the loss of lives of Indonesian personnel deployed abroad.

The UNIFIL mission, established to monitor hostilities and support stability in southern Lebanon, operates in a region that has seen renewed tensions in recent weeks, raising concerns over the safety of international peacekeepers.

]]> Bandit Raids Kill, Abduct Scores in Escalating Northern Nigeria Violence https://millichronicle.com/2026/04/64971.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:45:11 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=64971 Nigeria— Armed gangs killed at least 12 people and kidnapped dozens in coordinated attacks in northwestern Nigeria, local officials said on Friday, as a broader surge in violence across the region has left more than 100 dead since the start of the week.

The raids, carried out by criminal groups locally known as bandits, targeted villages in Sokoto State on Thursday, following several days of deadly assaults in the country’s predominantly Muslim north.

Ahmad Yahaya, a community leader in Dan Adua village, said at least 12 people were killed and 43 abducted across Isa and Sabon Birni local government areas during the attacks. He said heavily armed gunmen carried out the raids.

Lawmaker Muhammad Saidu Bargaja, who represents the affected areas, confirmed the violence, reporting similar casualty figures and describing the security situation as “highly devastating.”

The districts are believed to be under the influence of Bello Turji, a notorious gang leader whose network imposes levies on communities and conducts retaliatory raids against those who refuse to comply.

The latest violence comes amid a wider escalation of attacks by both criminal gangs and jihadist groups. Earlier in the week, a senior military officer, Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah, was killed along with several troops during an overnight assault on a military base in northeastern Nigeria, according to local officials and intelligence sources.

Separate attacks in the northwestern states of Kebbi and Niger have also left at least 90 people dead since Sunday, based on figures from local authorities, humanitarian groups and church sources.

The surge underscores ongoing security challenges in northern Nigeria, where armed groups continue to target civilians, security forces and infrastructure despite military operations aimed at curbing the violence.

]]> Israel Approves 34 New West Bank Settlements Amid Ongoing Expansion https://millichronicle.com/2026/04/64965.html Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:37:44 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=64965 Ramallah — Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken earlier this month without public announcement.

Peace Now said Israel’s security cabinet approved the move “secretly” in early April, adding that the new settlements come in addition to 68 others authorized since the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu took office in 2022.

The Israeli defense ministry, which oversees settlement activity in the West Bank, declined to comment on the reports.According to Israeli media, including i24News, 10 of the newly approved sites are existing outposts previously considered illegal under Israeli law but now set to be retroactively legalized.

The remaining 24 settlements have yet to be constructed.News outlet Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during a security cabinet meeting on April 1 that increased operational demands, including the protection of additional settlements, could strain military capacity.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and settlements there are widely considered illegal under international law. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the territory, excluding East Jerusalem, alongside approximately three million Palestinians.

Settlement expansion has been a consistent policy across successive Israeli governments, but rights groups say approvals, land seizures and settler-related violence have accelerated since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

]]> Indonesia Demands U.N. Probe into Peacekeeper Deaths in Lebanon Strikes https://millichronicle.com/2026/04/64472.html Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:14:56 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=64472 Yogyakarta — Indonesia called on the United Nations to conduct a direct investigation into the deaths of three of its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, a foreign ministry official said on Wednesday, citing concerns over the safety of U.N. personnel amid escalating regional hostilities.

Indonesia’s U.N. representative, Umar Hadi, made the request during an emergency Security Council meeting on Tuesday, urging an independent inquiry rather than relying on explanations provided by Israel.

The call comes after two separate incidents over the weekend in southern Lebanon that killed Indonesian troops serving under the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).The Indonesian foreign ministry said earlier this week that ongoing Israeli military operations in the region had placed U.N. peacekeepers at significant risk.

The deaths occurred during a period of intensified violence that also saw Lebanese journalists and medical personnel killed in Israeli strikes.One of the victims, Farizal Rhomadhon, 28, died in an attack on Sunday.

Local media reported that he is survived by his wife and child. In his hometown in Yogyakarta, relatives gathered to mourn, with family members saying his body had yet to be returned to Indonesia.

Indonesia’s initial response to the deaths drew criticism domestically, particularly on social media, where users questioned the lack of clarity regarding the cause of the incident. Authorities had initially described the event as resulting from “indirect artillery fire.”

Preliminary findings cited by U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix indicated that a roadside explosion struck a convoy carrying two Indonesian peacekeepers on Monday.

The Israeli military said its internal review found no evidence that its forces had placed explosive devices in the area or conducted operations there at the time.

Indonesia is among the largest contributors to U.N. peacekeeping missions, with more than 2,700 personnel deployed as of 2024. The country has also pledged troops for a potential U.N.-mandated multinational stabilization force in Gaza.

]]> Spectre of ‘tactical’ nuclear attack risks normalising weapons of mass destruction https://millichronicle.com/2022/10/spectre-of-tactical-nuclear-attack-risks-normalising-weapons-of-mass-destruction.html Tue, 11 Oct 2022 20:26:30 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/?p=30714

But tactical weapons are still seen as a last resort on the battlefield – for a military facing a threat conventional weapons cannot neutralise

US President Joe Biden warned last week that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is now the highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis as Russia and North Korea engage in sabre-rattling on the use of “tactical” nuclear weapons. Such weapons are less destructive than “strategic” weapons designed to wipe out entire cities. But analysts worry that this talk of tactical weapons risks normalising weapons of mass destruction.

Nuclear-armed authoritarian states are increasingly invoking the spectre of using “tactical” nuclear weapons. North Korea said on Monday that it had simulated a “tactical” nuclear attack on South Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly hinted at using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine as Moscow suffers heavy losses on the battlefield.

“Until this summer, people talked about nuclear weapons without really specifying what type they were – but then people started using this word ‘tactical’ increasingly often,” said Jean-Marie Collin, spokesman for the French branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Battlefield Weapons

Tactical nuclear weapons differ from the more commonly known “strategic” weapons principally due to the “technicalities” of physics, noted Alexandre Vautravers, a defence analyst and editor of specialist publication the Swiss Military Review.

Whereas a nuclear ballistic missile hits hard on all front –including the force of the blast, thermal impact, radiation and electromagnetic disturbances – a tactical nuclear weapon seeks to “maximise the shock wave while minimising other undesirable effects”, Vautravers said, noting that such a weapon might be preferable if the country deploying it later “needs to get its troops across the affected area”.

Tactical nuclear weapons are also easier to transport on the battlefield than strategic missiles, which are stored in silos or specially designed submarines or planes.

Another key difference between tactical and strategic nuclear devices is the military objective of using the weapon, said Fabian Rene Hoffman, a research fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project at the University of Oslo.

In theory, the purpose of strategic weapons is to “directly target other countries to prevent them attacking, while tactical warheads are supposed to be used to aid specific battlefield objectives”, said Jana Baldus, a nuclear arms control specialist at the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt.

Tactical nuclear weapons are seen as more precise and more limited in their effects: “The explosion takes place on the ground or at a very low altitude; the objective is to destroy infrastructure or a precise target – and the effects can be limited to a radius of a few hundred metres to a few kilometres,” Vautravers explained.

But tactical weapons are still seen as a last resort on the battlefield – for a military facing a threat conventional weapons cannot neutralise, or a target too big for conventional missiles to hit. As such, they could be used to destroy a large military base or a column of tanks advancing towards the front.

Trivialising Nukes?

Nuclear weapons have not been used on the battlefield outside of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and there has since been something of an international taboo against their use.

“There’s a significant chance that people today would think of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as tactical nuclear weapons,” Baldus said.

But the “line between the tactical and strategic is really artificial”, she said. “The US and Russia have had plenty of debates about what’s ‘tactical’ and what’s ‘strategic’ – but they’ve never been able to agree.”

This ambiguity is reflected in NATO’s own definitions of nuclear forces, which vary widely by country. For France, NATO’s definition of a “strategic” nuclear weapon is linked to intention, to the “doctrine of deterrence rather than to technical characteristics”. For Russia, a strategic nuclear weapon is defined by reach – notably, weapons “designed to engage objects in geographically remote strategic regions (over 5500 km)”.   

Some analysts warn that thinking of some nuclear weapons as less catastrophic than others minimises the risks to make the prospect of a “limited” nuclear deployment more tolerable.  

According to Hoffman, the increasing public use of the word “tactical” has a “highly political motive, which is to legitimise the use of nuclear weapons in a conflict”.

The term produces an “unconscious bias by making people think there is a type of nuclear weapon that is more acceptable than others because its use would be limited to military objectives”, Baldus said.  

This is a particularly dangerous argument because it tends to lull people into forgetting that all nuclear weapons – whether tactical or strategic – are “weapons of mass destruction”, said Collin.

And the relative power of nuclear weapons should not be underestimated, he said.

“It’s worth noting that the biggest conventional weapon in the US arsenal, known as MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb), has a destructive power equivalent to 11 tonnes of TNT whereas the least powerful of the supposedly ‘tactical’ Russian nuclear weapons has the destructive power of 300 tonnes of TNT,” Collin said.

Moreover, Russia’s fixation on tactical nuclear weapons risks setting off a new arms race. France currently has only strategic nuclear weapons. The US, meanwhile, has decommissioned its tactical arsenal in favour of conventional weapons.

But if Moscow continues invoking the threat of using tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield in Europe, that could well push other nuclear powers to bolster their own “tactical” stockpiles. And the more weapons of mass destruction are in circulation, the greater the risk that they will eventually be used.

This article was translated from the original in French.

 

]]> Saudi Arabia to invest over $20 bln in domestic military industry over next decade https://millichronicle.com/2021/02/saudi-arabia-to-invest-over-20-bln-in-domestic-military-industry-over-next-decade.html Sat, 20 Feb 2021 08:23:47 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/2021/02/saudi-arabia-to-invest-over-20-bln-in-domestic-military-industry-over-next-decade/ Riyadh (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia will invest more than $20 billion in its domestic military industry over the next decade as part of aggressive plans to boost local military spending, the head of the Kingdom’s military industry regulator said on Saturday.

The Gulf state wants to develop and manufacture more weapons and military systems domestically, aiming to spend 50 percent of the military budget locally by 2030.

“The government has put a plan that we will be investing in excess of $10 billion in the military industry in Saudi Arabia over the next decade and equal amounts on research and development,” Governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Ohali told a defense conference in Abu Dhabi.

He also said the Kingdom plans to increase military research and development (R&D) spending from 0.2 percent to around 4 percent of armaments expenditure by 2030.

]]> China and Iran near secretive political and military partnership https://millichronicle.com/2020/07/china-and-iran-near-secretive-political-and-military-partnership.html Thu, 16 Jul 2020 16:49:16 +0000 https://millichronicle.com/2020/07/china-and-iran-near-secretive-political-and-military-partnership/ by Hassan Mahmoudi

China uses this deal to have privilege on US on its trade agreements with this country.

Sanctions imposing maximum pressure on the clerical regime, backed by internal economic crises, have laid the ground for an explosive society drained by dire livelihood as well as infightings at the top of this regime.

The Iran-China-Russia deal

To find a light at the end of this dark tunnel, the regime intends to tie with China and Russia to take advantage of their international and political potentials to break its economic deadlock and to block any potential uprising.

On July 12, speaking at the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission’s session in Majlis (parliament) Iran regime’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif said, “When Mr. Xi Jinping visited Tehran in 2015 and met with Khamenei, this was the overture of the 25-year cooperation accord.”

Mesbahi Moghadam, a member of the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council shed light on the role of Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in this sell-off deal involving the transfer of Kish Island, along with military and intelligence cooperation between the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with the Chinese government and said, “The 25-year cooperation document with China went through after (Khamenei) sent a special message and a special messenger (to China) and met with the Chinese President”.

He said the deal was to remedy the regime’s turmoil and added, “Today, our situation forces us to inject more hope to the society. If hopelessness prevails, there could be social riots. In this regard having relation with China and Russia can provide paths to new opportunities”.

Tehran also intends to use this concession to China as a tool to block the extension of the UN armed embargo which will be voted on by UNSC in September this year using China and Russia as vetoing countries. On the other hand, China uses this deal to have privilege on US on its trade agreements with this country.

Simon Watkins, a British economic journalist, highlights the security aspect of this document and writes, “another element that will change the entire balance of geopolitical power in the Middle East has been added to the deal.

Last week, the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] agreed to the extension of the existing deal to include new military elements that were proposed by the same senior figures in the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the intelligence services that proposed the original deal, and this will involve complete aerial and naval military co-operation between Iran and China, with Russia also taking a key role,” one of the Iran sources told OilPrice.com last week.

According to the Iranian sources, part of the new military co-operation includes an exchange of personnel between Iran, and China and Russia, with up to 110 senior Iranian IRGC men going for training every year in Beijing and Moscow, and 110 Chinese and Russians going to Tehran for their training.

In this document, China is introduced as “the permanent Iran oil buyer”. The Iranian regime will sell its oil, gas, and petrochemical products to China 12% cheaper than the market price. It grants China a double discount of 6-8% too. Accordingly, China will be buying Iran’s oil products at least 32% cheaper than its true value in global markets.

Prior to an economic deal, this is a military deal to preserve the Islamic Republic from its downfall. The regime is not able to buy military equipment and no country is allowed to sell such equipment to Iran. This document will grant unlimited access to Iran’s bases to Russian and Chinese military forces, they will have the permission to transfer advanced military equipment into Iran.

Iranians please to oppose this deal with protests

A local source from Isfahan said, “To this regime, national interest is not important. It just thinks of its own survival. It is our nation’s duty to rise and act and stop this deal with our protests”.

A citizen from Shiraz said, “This deal with China is much worse than the Turkman Chai Deal in 1828 and the Golestan Deal in 1813 they wanted to impose on Iran in two wars with the Russian tsarism”.

But for the people of Iran this does not come as a surprise, as they have the experience of 41 years of treachery against their anti-monarchy revolution by this regime, suffering from tortures and killings as well as squandering of the countries resources and assets.

It is for years that they had distanced themselves from this regime and expressed their abhorrence of it by street protests and years of uprisings. They do not see their hopes and future in this regime and its agenda.

Amid the coronavirus spread, the mullahs’ regime hoped that the voice of protests would be hushed. But both in Iran and abroad this voice is rising again.

Iranian patriots leaving outside the country intend to stage their annual international conference on July 17 in support of human rights and protests of the Iranian people.

Hundreds of MPs, politicians, and distinguished international dignitaries have expressed their support for this global summit and will participate in it to voice themselves with the desire and will of the people of Iran for a free, secular, and democratic country in peace with the world and its neighbors.

Hassan Mahmoudi is a Sweden-based social analyst, researcher, independent observer and commentator of Middle Eastern and Iranian Politics. He tweets under @hassan_mahmou1. 

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