South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
US Air Force target of ‘propaganda attack’ in Kuwait by Iraqi group
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Air Force said Saturday it was the subject of a “propaganda attack” by a previously unheard-of Iraqi militant group that falsely claimed it had launched a drone attack targeting American troops at an air base in Kuwait.
The statement by the Air Force’s 386th Air Expeditionary Wing came hours after the group calling itself Al-Waretheen, or “The Inheritors,” put out an online statement claiming that on Aug. 12, it targeted Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base. The statement included a video showing a drone being launched from a stand, but offered no evidence of an attack or any damage done at the base.
The statement claimed the alleged attack aimed to avenge the U.S. drone strike that killed prominent Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
The air base is located a few dozen miles from the Iraqi border.
“The misinformation falsely stated an Iranian militia group used (drones) to carry out an attack on base,” the Air Force statement said. “No such attack occurred.”
The statement suggests the U.S. believes that Al-Waretheen is likely an Iranian group, though it described itself as Iraqi.
The Air Force added that the online claim “only aims to deceive their audience in believing a lie” and that the Air Force and Kuwait “continue to project air power throughout the region without disruption.”
Kuwait, a small, oil-rich nation bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia also near Iran, is considered a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
Kuwait and the U.S. have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country.
Some 13,500 American troops are stationed in Kuwait, which also hosts U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters. Those forces have supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later operations against the Islamic State group.
Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper, quoting anonymous “responsible” sources, called the claims about an attack “completely untrue.”
The claim comes as what have been described as the final round of negotiations continue between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
UK port strike: Almost 2,000 workers at the U.K.’s biggest container port will launch an eight-day strike Sunday over a pay dispute, the latest industrial action to hit Britain’s economy.
Workers, including crane drivers and machine operators, will walk off their jobs at Felixstowe port on England’s east coast, which handles around 4 million containers a year.
The strike comes as people across the U.K. faced travel disruptions Saturday for the third day last week as thousands of rail workers continued a summer of strikes to seek better pay and job security amid soaring food and energy price hikes.
Ind. candidate: Indiana Republicans on Saturday picked Rudy Yakym to replace U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski on the November ballot, after Yakym won the endorsement of the late
Indiana congresswoman’s husband.
Walorski, 58, was a passenger in an SUV with two members of her congressional office staff when it crossed the centerline of a northern Indiana state highway and collided with an oncoming vehicle on Aug. 3, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said. The two staff members and the other driver were also killed.
Yakym will be a heavy favorite in the November election against Democrat Paul Steury, a high school science teacher from Goshen, and Libertarian William Henry. He will run both to complete Walorski’s term that ends this year and for a full two-year term. Both elections will be on the November ballot.
Somalia hotel attack: Islamic militants stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital late Friday night, engaging in an hourslong exchange of fire with the security forces that left at least 20 people
dead, according to police and witnesses.
In addition, at least 40 people were wounded in the attack and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel, they said Saturday.
Somali forces were still trying to end the siege of the hotel almost 24 hours after the attack started. Gunfire could still be heard Saturday evening as security forces tried to contain the last gunmen thought to be holed up on the hotel’s top floor.
The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest of its frequent attempts to strike places visited by government officials.
There was no immediate word on the identities of the victims, but many are believed to be civilians.
Missing students: Mexico’s former attorney general was
arrested Friday in connection with the violent abduction and likely massacre of
43 students in 2014, a significant breakthrough in what is considered to be one of the most notorious atrocities in modern Mexican history.
He is the first high-level official to be detained in connection to the case, and authorities said that they had also issued more than
80 arrest warrants related to it, including for military officers, police officers and cartel members.
It was not immediately clear if any of those warrants had led to other arrests, but their sudden announcement came just a day after the Mexican government said an official inquiry had found the disappearance of the students to be a “crime of the state” involving every layer of government.
The former attorney general, Jesus Murillo Karam, oversaw a wide-ranging cover-up of the event, which included testimony obtained through torture, according
to the United Nations.
The Mexican prosecutor’s office said he was charged with “forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice” in the case of the students, young men from a teachers college in the rural town of Ayotzinapa.
Busey charged: Actor Gary Busey has been charged with sexual offenses at a New Jersey fan convention that took place this month.
Busey, 78, was charged Friday with two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, one count of attempted criminal sexual contact and one count of harassment, Cherry Hill police said Saturday.
The charges stem from the annual Monster Mania Convention at the Doubletree Hotel on Aug. 12-14 in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb, police said.
Busey, who lives in Malibu, California, was scheduled as a featured guest for all three days of the event.