Militants Attack Air Force Base in Central Pakistan

A police officer talks on his wireless set as a rescue worker moves towards a victim at the site of bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Irfan Mughal)
A police officer talks on his wireless set as a rescue worker moves towards a victim at the site of bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Irfan Mughal)
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Militants Attack Air Force Base in Central Pakistan

A police officer talks on his wireless set as a rescue worker moves towards a victim at the site of bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Irfan Mughal)
A police officer talks on his wireless set as a rescue worker moves towards a victim at the site of bomb blast in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Irfan Mughal)

Nine militants attacked an air force training base in the central Pakistani area of Mianwali on Saturday damaging three "non-operational" aircraft, the military said, adding that all assailants had been killed by security forces.
Three militants were killed before they entered the base while the others had been cornered before the clearance operation began, the military said in a statement. It did not mention any casualties amongst security personnel.
The early Saturday attack startled residents living close by when volleys of gunfire broke the morning silence.
"I woke up at around 3 a.m. after I heard massive gun shots which continued till around 7 a.m.," Zeeshan Niazi, a resident of Mianwali, told Reuters.
The military said nine militants had been killed in the attack on the Pakistan Air Force Training Airbase Mianwali. An earlier statement said that six militants were involved in the attack.
"No damage has been done to any of the Pakistan Air Force's functional operational assets, while only some damage was done to three already phased out non-operational aircraft during the attack," the military statement said. It earlier said a fuel tanker had also been damaged in the attack.
"Due to the swift and effective response by the troops, (the attack) has been foiled and thwarted, ensuring the safety and security of personnel and assets," the statement said.
Islamist militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to journalists by its spokesperson.
TJP came to the fore only this year and little is known about the group, which has carried out a string of high-profile attacks in the country, including killing 12 soldiers at a Pakistani military base in the southwestern province of Balochistan in July.



Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently deployed to help Russia in the war with its neighbor, Ukraine's defense minister said Tuesday.

Another Kyiv official said Ukraine's army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk border region.

The comments were the first official reports that Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in combat, following a deployment that has given the war a new complexion as it approaches its 1,000-day milestone.

Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian and North Korean troops engaged in “small-scale” fighting that amounted to the start of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview.

North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying by KBS. That makes it hard to say whether there were any North Korean casualties, he said.

Umerov reportedly said he expects that five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 soldiers, will be deployed to the Kursk area.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, said “the first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.”

He provided no further details.

Western governments had expected that the North Korean soldiers would be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region, where a three-month-old incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II and has embarrassed the Kremlin.

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.

The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border.

More troops from North Korea’s 1.3-million-strong army may be slated for deployment in Russia, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.

The ramifications extend far beyond Europe, it said.

“Despite integration challenges — including communication barriers and differing military doctrines — the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant shift in European and Asian security relations,” the analysis said. “For the first time in generations, troops from East Asia are actively engaging in a European conflict.”

The North Korean troops, whose fighting quality and battle experience is unknown, are adding to Ukraine’s worsening situation on the battlefield.

Ukrainian defenses, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, are buckling under the strain of Russia’s costly but relentless monthslong onslaught.

Russian advances have recently accelerated, with battlefield gains of up to 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) in some parts of Donetsk, the UK Defense Ministry said Tuesday on the social platform X.

It said Russia has superior troop numbers, and despite heavy casualties the Kremlin’s recruitment drive is providing enough new troops to keep up the pressure.

Russia has held the battlefield initiative in Ukraine for the past year. Ukrainian officials have long complained that Western military support takes too long to arrive in the country.

In early October, Russian forces drove Ukrainian troops out of Vuhledar, a town perched atop a tactically significant hill in eastern Ukraine.

It was part of a key belt of Ukrainian defenses in the east. Russia’s next targets likely are the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar.

In the meantime, Russia has kept up its long-range aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine, authorities say.

A Tuesday morning attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed six people and injured 23 others, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said the Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong action.”

“A stronger position by (Ukraine’s Western) allies is needed,” he wrote on Telegram.