Military Official reported tensions with Naval in Nampo [10 sources]
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Russian troops are inching towards the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, trying to establish a foothold close to a heavily defended area, Ukraine’s top army official said on Saturday. Kostiantynivka, along with other cities, forms a so-called fortress belt in the country’s east – an area well-fortified by the Ukrainian military. “We are repelling the Russian occupiers’ persistent attempts to gain a foothold in the outskirts of Kostiantynivka using infiltration...
By "Karamazov" for Borderland Beat On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, a major military operation took place in El Durazno, Tamazula, Durango—an area heavily contested by drug trafficking organizations within the so-called Golden Triangle. Initial reports claimed that Aureliano Guzmán Loera (“El Guano”) had been captured, but authorities later clarified he was not detained, although several others were arrested. According to the official report released by authorities, those detained include Abel “N,” identified as a right-hand man of “El Guano’s”; Eber Israel “N,” a financial and logistics operator responsible for procuring weapons, drones, and explosives; and Etzair Lugo “N,” the group’s security chief, tasked with confronting rival organizations. Seven additional individuals were also detained, although no specific charges have been disclosed.
More than two months into a conflict that has failed to deliver a decisive military or diplomatic win, United States President Donald Trump faces the risk that a standoff with Iran will drag on indefinitely and leave an even bigger problem for the US and the world than before he launched the war. With both sides outwardly confident they hold the upper hand and their positions far apart, there is no obvious off-ramp in sight, even as Iran submitted a fresh proposal to restart negotiations. Trump quickly rejected it on Friday. For the US president and his Republican Party, the implications of a continued impasse are grim. An unresolved conflict would likely mean the global economic fallout , including high US gasoline prices, will persist, putting further pressure on Trump, whose poll numbers are falling, and darkening Republican candidates’ prospects ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections. Unmet goals Those costs highlight a deeper problem: the war has failed to achieve many of Trump’s stated goals. While there is little doubt that waves of US and Israeli strikes heavily degraded Iran’s military capabilities, many of Trump’s often-shifting war objectives — from regime change to shutting Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon — remain unfulfilled. Fears for a more protracted deadlock have grown since Trump called off a trip by his negotiators to Islamabad last weekend and then dismissed an Iranian offer to halt the war, suspended since April 8 under a ceasefire agreement. Tehran proposed setting aside discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict is formally ended and a deal is reached on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. That was a non-starter for Trump, who has demanded the nuclear issue be dealt with at the outset. There was a glimmer of hope on Friday when state news agency IRNA reported Tehran had sent a revised proposal through Pakistani mediators, causing a drop in global oil prices that had risen sharply since Iran effectively closed the strait. Trump told reporters he was “not satisfied” with the offer, though he said there were ongoing contacts by phone. A failure to wrest the vital oil-shipping waterway from Iranian control at the conclusion of the conflict would be a major blow to Trump’s legacy. He’d be remembered as the US president who made the world less safe, said Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Iran’s “desperation” is increasing due to military and economic pressure, and Trump “holds all the cards and has all the time he needs to make the best deal”. Resumption of hostilities? With his next steps uncertain and no clear endgame, Trump has, in private meetings, raised the prospect of a prolonged naval blockade of Iran, possibly for months more, aimed at further squeezing off its oil exports and forcing it to reach a denuclearisation agreement, a White House official said on condition of anonymity. At the same time, he has left the door open to resuming military action.
Hezbollah’s cheap fibre-optic drones are creating new challenges for Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, forcing the military to adapt its tactics against an increasingly lethal threat. The Israeli military — considered one of the most advanced in the world — has confirmed two soldiers and one civilian contractor killed in explosive drone attacks in under a week, with several others wounded despite a ceasefire in place since mid-April. The devices are small, cheap and readily available, like “children’s toys”, explained Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). The military “does not have nowadays any response for that, because they didn’t prepare themselves for such low-tech explosives”, she told AFP. Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since early March, invading the neighbouring country’s south to confront the group. Since then, violence has continued, with both sides accusing each other of breaching the ceasefire. Israel has continued its airstrikes since the ceasefire came into effect. Unlike conventional drones guided by GPS or radio, which can therefore be jammed, Hezbollah is using devices linked to their launch site by a thin fibre-optic cable that can stretch for dozens of kilometres. Operators pilot the drones in first-person view (FPV) using screens or virtual reality goggles that require limited training. “Since the drone does not transmit the image via radio broadcast and does not receive guidance commands via radio receiver, it cannot be detected by electronic intelligence means or blocked through electronic warfare,” said Arie Aviram, an expert who has written on the subject for the INSS. The drones’ speed and precision mean they can cause considerable damage to Israeli targets, and their lack of electronic traces leaves troops reliant on radar or visual detection, which often comes too late. Asymmetrical warfare Hezbollah’s use of these drones is characteristic of asymmetrical warfare, explained INSS researcher Mizrahi. In recent days, Hezbollah has relied more on these drones, a notable shift from the barrages of rockets it unleashed in the weeks after the war broke out. Experts say the cost of assembling the fibre-optic drones can range from just a few hundred dollars to around $4,000, depending on the quality and type of components, which can be bought on online platforms such as AliExpress. On Friday, the group’s media chief Youssef al Zein confirmed the group was using the drones and said they were being manufactured in Lebanon. “We are aware of the enemy’s superiority, but at the same time we are exploiting its weak points,” he said. For Israel, shooting down cheap drones using sophisticated air defences and fighter jets is unsustainable and costly. Aviram said that lasers, like those used by Israel’s Iron Beam air defence system, could be a suitable solution “provided they were widely deployed”, which is not the case. Indicating the challenge posed by these devices, the Israeli defence ministry put out a public call on April 11 for “proposals to identify additional capabilities to address the threat of fibre-optic-controlled FPV drones”. Nets and barriers A video shared on social media by prominent Israeli journalist Amit Segal on Wednesday appeared to show military vehicles draped in netting to protect against drones. AFP was unable to verify the footage. A senior military official told journalists on Tuesday that “so far, we’re using force protection technologies and other protections that we learned from other places, from our own experience with nets, with barriers”. “But it’s a threat that we’re still adapting to, there’s nothing that is foolproof,” the official added, noting that the military was “learning” from the war in Ukraine , where fibre-optic drones are now common. Israeli news website Mako reported in 2024 that Ukraine — which has become a world-leading drone expert since Russia’s invasion — offered its expertise to Israel several years ago but was rebuffed. “There was no concrete response,” Ukraine’s former defence minister Oleksii Reznikov told Mako at the time. Asked by AFP about the challenges posed by fibre-optic explosive drones, the Israeli military said troops had in recent weeks “conducted an in-depth analysis of how this threat operates and how Hezbollah employs it”. “The IDF is monitoring the drone threat and developing operational methods to address it,” it said, adding that troops on the ground were “continuously working to improve and adapt their systems in order to deal with the evolving threat”.