North Korea has made fresh threats to attack the U.S. territory of Guam with a 'salvo of missiles' after a recent aviation exercise over the peninsula.
Kim Jong-Un's government warned that a joint exercise with Japan and South Koreahas 'hardened our determination that the U.S. should be tamed with fire'.
In a statement published in North Korean state media, Pyongyang said the military drills 'lets us take our hand closer to the 'trigger' for taking the toughest countermeasure'.
It came in response to two US Air Force supersonic heavy bombers being flown over the Korean peninsula in a show of force against Pyongyang on Tuesday night.
Two B-1B Lancers based in Guam flew a mission in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan, staging the first night-time joint aviation exercises with Japan and South Korea the US Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.
In August, North Korea threatened to fire a salvo of intermediate range missiles toward the U.S. Pacific island territory.
Guam is a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers that periodically fly missions over the divided Korean Peninsula.
Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said there's 'great concern' about Americans who live in Guam.
Speaking at a White House news conference he said: 'right now we think the threat is manageable,' but added the situation would become more problematic over time if North Korea's capability 'grows beyond where it is today.'
'Let's hope that diplomacy works,' he said.
Today's fresh threat was published in North Korean state media, according to CNN's Will Ripley who shared the statement on Twitter.
It also said that North Korea has 'already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defence including a salvo of missiles into waters near the US territory of Guam'.
It is unlikely to have any effect on next week's planned major joint-navy drill between Sourth Korea and the U.S.
Just one week after uttering his now-infamous "this is the calm before the storm" statement to the press ahead of a dinner with military leaders, we now learn that President Trump has dispatched a second nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, filled with 7,500 marines, to the Korean Peninsula. Of course, this comes after rumors swirled earlier this week that North Korea is preparing to fire multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18th.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, is en route to the western Pacific after leaving San Diego port last week.
The Roosevelt will focus on maritime security operations in the Pacific and Middle East, the US military announced.
But the £3.4billion ($4.5billion) warship, known as “the Big Stick”, has been sent to boost US defence on the Korean peninsula, according to South Korean media.
It is expected to arrive in region in the coming weeks amid fears North Korea is about to test another missile or nuclear weapon.
Per the following map from Stratfor, the USS Theodore Roosevelt will join the USS Ronald Reagan which is already operating in the region.
According to a statement from Admiral Steve Koehler, a strike group commander on the ship, the Roosevelt is carrying some 7,500 sailors and marines that are “ready as a war fighting force”.
“The US Navy carrier strike group is the most versatile, capable force at sea,” he said in a statement before the ship’s launch.
“After nearly a year of training and integration exercises, the entire team is ready as a warfighting force and ready to carry out the nation’s tasking.”
Of course, as we noted above, this buildup of naval forces in the Pacific follows an ominous warning from the President last week that preceded a dinner with military leaders: "You guys know what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm," he said: "It could be the calm... before... the storm."
A reporter quickly asked what the storm might be -"Is it Iran, ISIS, what's the storm?" to which he replied... "...you'll find out."
Last November Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “won’t allow Islamic State figures or other enemy actors, under the cover of the war in Syria, to set up next to our borders,” but it appears this has already happened, to the point that a sizable ISIS training camp has been set up just across the Golan Heights border with Israel.
Though Syrian al-Qaeda has long been a mainstay in southern Syria along Israel's border, this constitutes the first widespread public acknowledgement and confirmation of a significant ISIS base of operations in the Golan region.
Israeli media this week is reporting news of the base camp after Israel's Channel 2 aired an extensive report with video and photographic evidence of what's being described as a training and recruitment center which has already attracted hundreds of new terror recruits. Channel 2 is one of Israel's most visible and established news broadcast channels and operates under "The Second Authority for Television and Radio" licensed by the Knesset and the Ministry of Communications. According to the Times of Israel:
The Channel 2 exposé further notes the presence of multiple senior Islamic State commanders at the camp, which suggests the terror group could be attempting to relocate its assets to Syria's south as it appears to be crumbling with the onset of SDF, Syrian Army, and Russian forces in the eastern part of the country.
The Times of Israel acknowledges another shocking fact, which has itself become an open secret of sorts among Israeli defense and policy officials: what it calls the long lasting "live and let live" relationship with al-Qaeda in the region. The Times of Israel explains:
Both the IS-affiliated Khalid ibn al-Walid Army and the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly the al-Nusra Front, which is linked to al-Qaeda, have been set up on Israel’s borders for years.
Despite a relatively long-lasting “live and let live” relationship with these groups, the IDF has warned of a potential — some say inevitable — conflict with them and has been preparing to respond to cross-border attacks.
Though the IDF has "warned" of some "potential" direct action against the most notorious terrorist groups in the world which seem to be comfortably ensconced within eyesight of Israeli border posts, it has never taken significant direct action against these groups, instead routinely targeting the Syrian army, Iranian-linked militias, and Hezbollah with airstrikes. This is a general reflection of the Israeli strategy of regime change in Syria, which has resulted in a well-documented history of assistance to al-Qaeda affiliated rebel groups.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that this relationship involved weapons transfers, salary payments to anti-Assad fighters, and treatment of wounded jihadists in Israeli hospitals, the latter which was widely promoted in photo ops picturing Netanyahu himself greeting militants. As even former Acting Director of the CIA Michael Morell once directly told the Israeli public, Israel's "dangerous game" in Syria consists in getting in bed with al-Qaeda in order to fight Shia Iran.
Channel 2 News and the The Times of Israel also featured an image from a prior video of a lone ISIS militant holding an Islamic State flag with the Israeli side of the Golan border in clear view.
With Israeli media now widely reporting the Islamic State's presence along Israel's border we wonder why such a clear and documented fact isn't cause for bigger outrage. Though Israel's Channel 2 bombshell report aired earlier this week, there's been resounding silence in international press. ISIS is camping out along Israel's border, yet all we hear about is the supposed "Iranian threat" to Israel's existence.
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