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Russia Affirms Drills with Algeria Not Directed Against 3rd Parties

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Saturday, September 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Saturday, September 24, 2022. (Reuters)
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Russia Affirms Drills with Algeria Not Directed Against 3rd Parties

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Saturday, September 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on Saturday, September 24, 2022. (Reuters)

The upcoming Russian-Algerian anti-terrorist exercises, Desert Shield 2022’, is a routine activity that’s not directed against third parties, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday.

The diplomat pointed out that the Russian-Algerian ground-force drills will take place in Algeria between November 16 and 28.

“These counterterrorism drills are a routine activity based on the approved program of our military partnership with Algeria,” she noted, emphasizing that “just like any other military exercise that Russia takes part in, they are not directed against third parties.”

The exercise will be held at a testing ground in Bechar Province.

Russia’s Southern Military District announced earlier that the drills were expected to involve about 80 troops from motorized infantry units stationed in the North Caucasus, as well as about 80 Algerian service members.

During the exercise, the two countries’ troops will practice searching for, detecting, and eliminating terrorist groups in desert areas.

Algeria’s specialized website Mena Defense said the type of exercises conducted by the Algerian and Russian paratroopers are “tactical.”

The website, run by Algerian security affairs expert Akram Kharief, reported that a military delegation visited the Caucasus in July 2021 to discuss the exercises in North Ossetia.

The first planning conference was held in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz in April to prepare for the upcoming military exercises.

Both sides coordinated the scenarios of the drill and the logistics.

The first joint Russian-Algerian tactical drills, held in Russia’s North Ossetia region in October 2021, involved about 200 Russian and Algerian troops, as well as some 40 pieces of military and special equipment.

The Southern Military District’s 2022 combat training plan includes the participation of the district’s troops in joint drills with the armed forces of Algeria, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan, TASS reported.

Algeria has not issued any official statement about the drills.

However, sources interested in the Algerian-Russian military partnership said the objectives and outlines of the drills were discussed during a March 25 visit to Algeria by the Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Army Gen. Dmitry Shugaev.

Shugaev held talks with the Chief of Staff of the Algerian army Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha and discussed bilateral military cooperation, the Algerian defense ministry said in a statement, adding that they exchanged views on issues of common interest.

Observers said Algeria’s choice of the location has a political and strategic significance.

According to some observers, the exercises are a response to the “African Lion” military drills, which took place in Morocco in June and caused uproar in Algeria due to Israel’s participation.

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Arab World

UN Probe: RSF Actions in Sudan's el-Fasher Point to Genocide

Forces affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, Darfur region (AFP)
Forces affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, Darfur region (AFP)
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UN Probe: RSF Actions in Sudan's el-Fasher Point to Genocide

Forces affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, Darfur region (AFP)
Forces affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces in the city of el-Fasher, Darfur region (AFP)

Mass killings of non-Arab communities when the Rapid Support Forces captured the Sudanese city of el-Fasher bears hallmarks that point to genocide, an independent UN probe said in a new report on Thursday.

At the end of October last year, the RSF took over the city - which had been the last remaining stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the Darfur region in the west of the country - with thousands of people killed and raped during three days of horror, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan said.

It followed an 18-month siege where the RSF imposed conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of non-Arab communities, in particular the Zaghawa and the Fur, ‌the report stated.

The ‌UN mission said it found evidence that the RSF carried out a pattern ‌of ⁠coordinated and repeated ⁠targeting of individuals based on ethnicity, gender and perceived political affiliation, including mass killings, rape and torture, as well as inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction - core elements of the crime of genocide under international law.

The final draft of the report was shared with the Government of Sudan but no response was received, while the RSF did not respond to the UN mission's request to meet with its leadership, the report stated. The RSF and SAF did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.

In the past, the RSF has ⁠denied such abuses - saying the accounts have been manufactured by its enemies and ‌making counter-accusations against them.

"The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation ‌by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around el-Fasher were not random excesses of war" said Mohamad ‌Chande Othman, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan.

"They formed part of a planned and organized operation ‌that bears the defining characteristics of genocide," he added.

Before its takeover el-Fasher's population mainly consisted of the Zaghawa, a non-Arab community, while displacement camps around the area were comprised of the Fur community, as well as Berti, Masalit and Tama, the report said.

"Survivors describe explicit threats to 'clean' the city," the report stated. Alongside attacking displacement camps, communal kitchens and medical centers ‌with drones and heavy weapons, the RSF also carried out killings, looting, beatings and sexual violence in el-Fasher, the report stated.

The RSF's "exterminatory rhetoric" and other violations indicated ⁠its intent to destroy ⁠the Zaghawa and Fur communities in whole or in part, the report said.

"Witnesses heard the Rapid Support Forces saying, 'Is there anyone Zaghawa among you? If we find Zaghawa, we will kill them all'," the report said.

Survivors recounted point-blank executions of civilians, as well as bodies of men, women and children filling roads, the report stated.

Women and girls aged 7 to 70 years old from non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa were raped and subject to other acts of sexual violence, including whipping and forced nudity, the report stated.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the international response to the report and the situation in Sudan had to be emphatic and urged for a ceasefire.

"The findings of this UN report are truly horrific - atrocities including systematic starvation, torture, killings, rape and deliberate ethnic targeting used on the most horrendous scale during the Rapid Support Forces siege of el-Fasher," she said in a statement.

The UN mission was mandated by members of the Human Rights Council, following backing from countries that included Britain, to urgently investigate violations and abuses under international law in and around el-Fasher.

World

Karachi Building Collapse after Blast Kills 16

Rescue workers and people gather at the site of a residential compound following a suspected gas leakage blast in Karachi, Pakistan, 19 February 2026. EPA/REHAN KHAN
Rescue workers and people gather at the site of a residential compound following a suspected gas leakage blast in Karachi, Pakistan, 19 February 2026. EPA/REHAN KHAN
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Karachi Building Collapse after Blast Kills 16

Rescue workers and people gather at the site of a residential compound following a suspected gas leakage blast in Karachi, Pakistan, 19 February 2026. EPA/REHAN KHAN
Rescue workers and people gather at the site of a residential compound following a suspected gas leakage blast in Karachi, Pakistan, 19 February 2026. EPA/REHAN KHAN

A building collapse caused by an explosion in Pakistan's southern megacity of Karachi killed at least 16 people on Thursday, including children, officials said.

More than a dozen people were injured in the incident in the Soldier Bazaar neighborhood of Karachi at around 4:00 am, when Muslim families start preparing Sehri, the pre-sunrise meal eaten during Ramadan.

World

Australian Police Investigate Threatening Letter to Country's Largest Mosque

FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands outside the Lakemba Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque as people arrive for Friday prayers in Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands outside the Lakemba Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque as people arrive for Friday prayers in Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo
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Australian Police Investigate Threatening Letter to Country's Largest Mosque

FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands outside the Lakemba Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque as people arrive for Friday prayers in Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A security guard stands outside the Lakemba Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque as people arrive for Friday prayers in Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo

Australian police said on Thursday they had launched an investigation after a threatening letter was sent to the country’s largest mosque, the third such incident in the lead-up to the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The letter sent to Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s west on Wednesday contained a drawing of a pig and a threat to kill the "Muslim race", local media reported. Police said they had taken the letter for forensic testing, and would continue to patrol ‌religious sites including ‌the mosque, as well as community events.

The latest letter ‌comes ⁠weeks after a ⁠similar message was mailed to the mosque, depicting Muslim people inside a mosque on fire.

Police have also arrested and charged a 70-year-old man in connection with a third threatening letter sent to Lakemba Mosque's staff in January.

The Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the mosque, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) it had written to the government to request more funding for additional security guards and ⁠CCTV cameras.

Some 5,000 people are expected to attend ‌the mosque each night during Ramadan. More ‌than 60% of residents in the suburb of Lakemba identify as Muslim, according to ‌the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Bilal El-Hayek, mayor of Canterbury-Bankstown council, where Lakemba ‌is located, said the community was feeling "very anxious".

"I've heard first-hand from people saying that they won't be sending their kids to practice this Ramadan because they're very concerned about things that might happen in local mosques," AFP quoted him as saying.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ‌condemned the recent string of threats.

"It is outrageous that people just going about commemorating their faith, particularly during the ⁠holy month ⁠for Muslims of Ramadan, are subject to this sort of intimidation," he told ABC radio.

"I have said repeatedly we need to turn down the temperature of political discourse in this country, and we certainly need to do that."

Anti-Muslim sentiment has been growing in Australia since the war in Gaza War in late 2023, according to a recent report commissioned by the government.

The Islamophobia Register Australia has also documented a 740% rise in reports following the Bondi mass shooting on December 14, where authorities allege two gunmen inspired by ISIS killed 15 people attending a Jewish holiday celebration.

"There's been a massive increase post-Bondi," Mayor El-Hayek said. "Without a doubt, this is the worst I have ever seen it. There's a lot of tension out there."