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China Warship Starts Live-fire Drills Near Taiwan

A Chinese warship sails during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, April 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A Chinese warship sails during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, April 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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China Warship Starts Live-fire Drills Near Taiwan

A Chinese warship sails during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, April 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A Chinese warship sails during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, April 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

A Chinese warship in seas facing the Taiwan Strait began live-fire drills on Saturday as Beijing began military exercises it calls a warning against what it considers pro-Taiwan independence forces.

The amphibious landing ship - capable of transporting troops, craft and vehicles - fired multiple rounds of artillery on Saturday morning in the Luoyan Bay area on the coast of Fujian province, about 50 km (30 miles) northwest of the Matsu islands near the mainland that are controlled by Taiwan, Reuters reported.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan's government strongly objects to China's claims.

Smoke and muzzle flares were visible from the stern of the warship as shells were fired on targets on land and water.

Fishing boats and huge cargo vessels cruised nearby, avoiding the drill area.

The warship did not sail towards the windswept Matsu islands, controlled by Taiwan since the Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communist forces. The area is considered an early target for Beijing in the event of a military escalation.

China's Eastern Theater Command, one of the five commands of the People's Liberation Army that oversees the East China Sea including the Taiwan Strait, said combat readiness patrols would be conducted around Taiwan for three days as a "serious" warning against pro-Taiwan independence forces and to safeguard China's territorial integrity.

Drills to the north, south and east of the island of Taiwan were also planned, after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States, drawing anger from Beijing.

Taiwan's defense ministry said that 42 Chinese planes and eight ships crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line on Saturday morning.

Despite the drills, Tsai said Taiwan's people love democracy and seek peace, adding that she looked forward to further strengthening security cooperation with the United States.

Tsai made the comments at the start of a lunch with a visiting US lawmaker delegation, led by Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

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Pakistan Says Pausing Military Operations against Afghanistan Temporarily

Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
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Pakistan Says Pausing Military Operations against Afghanistan Temporarily

Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
Taliban security personnel inspect the site after Pakistani airstrikes hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on March 17, 2026. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Pakistan is pausing its military operations against Afghanistan temporarily, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Earlier, Afghanistan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani on Wednesday promised retribution for this week's Pakistani airstrike that killed hundreds at a Kabul drugs rehabilitation center.
"We will take revenge," the Taliban government minister said at the mass burial of some of the victims in the capital, calling those behind Monday night's bombing "criminals".
"We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes," he added.
The Taliban authorities have said that about 400 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the strike, which was the deadliest attack yet in the recent upsurge in violence between the two neighbors.
Not all victims are being buried in Kabul, as some bodies have been sent for burial in their home provinces, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP earlier.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said on Wednesday that "hundreds" were killed and wounded, in the first independent confirmation of the heavy death toll.
Pakistan has denied Taliban government claims that the center was deliberately targeted and said it had carried out precision strikes on "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".
The strike has renewed calls for an end to the conflict, which has seen strikes on both sides of the shared border. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring extremists behind attacks on its territory. Kabul denies doing so.

World

Russia Condemns Killing of Iranian Security Chief Larijani

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns Killing of Iranian Security Chief Larijani

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Iran's then parliament Speaker Ali Larijani as they meet after a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia, October 22, 2015. (Reuters)

Russia on Wednesday condemned the killing of Iranian security chief Ali Larijani, after ally Tehran vowed retaliation for his death in an Israeli airstrike.

Larijani had met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in January, at a time when US navy ships were heading towards Iran ahead of the US-Israeli air campaign launched at the end of February, according to AFP.

"We firmly condemn actions aimed at harming the health and, even more, the killing of the leadership of sovereign and independent Iran. We condemn such actions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.

Moscow is a close ally of Iran and has condemned the US and Israeli attacks, which Tehran has responded to with a barrage of missile and drone strikes on US allies across the Gulf.

Last year, the two countries, both heavily sanctioned by the West, signed a broad cooperation agreement, but it stopped short of a mutual defense pact.

The version of the document made public only vaguely mentioned that Moscow and Tehran agreed to help each other counter common "security threats" and would not provide "assistance to the aggressor" if one side was attacked.

Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has sent humanitarian aid, but otherwise declined to comment publicly on what support it has offered Iran, if any.

The Kremlin last week denied a Washington Post report that Russia had passed sensitive intelligence to Iran, including the locations of US warships and aircraft in the region.

Iran emerged as one of Russia's main allies during the war in Ukraine, supplying it at the start of the conflict with drones for Moscow to fire on Ukrainian cities.

World

Iran Executed Swedish Citizen, Says Sweden FM

File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
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Iran Executed Swedish Citizen, Says Sweden FM

File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)
File photo of the Iranian flag (Reuters)

Sweden's foreign minister on Wednesday confirmed that Iran had executed a Swedish citizen, after Iranian authorities announced the first execution of a man convicted of spying since the start of its war against Israel and the United States.

"It is with dismay that I have received information that a Swedish citizen was executed in Iran earlier today," Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in a statement, AFP reported.

Since the man's arrest during Iran's 12-day war with Israel in June, Sweden has "repeatedly raised the case at various levels with Iranian representatives," she added.