U.S. strikes ISIS targets in Syria as Russia grants political asylum to Assad; Chinese naval and coast guard ships enter Taiwan Strait, and only two Pearl Harbor survivors attend remembrance.
1. U.S. Air Force jets including B-52s and F-15 fighter jets struck 75 Islamic State targets Sunday in central Syria on the day the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed, the U.S. Central Command said. A CENTCOM statement said the strikes against ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps “were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS” and to “ensure that ISIS “does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria.” “The operation struck over 75 targets using multiple U.S. Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s,” the statement said. “Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties.
2. The Kremlin said Monday that Russia has granted political asylum to former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally made the decision to offer asylum to Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov wouldn’t comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts. He said that Putin wasn’t planning to meet with Assad.
3. China’s military appears to be preparing for widely anticipated drills in response to a recent visit by Taiwan’s president to Hawaii and Guam. Taiwan’s defense ministry said Monday that it detected Chinese naval and coast guard ships entering the Taiwan Strait and the western Pacific and that China had restricted airspace along its southeast coast through Wednesday. There was no immediate confirmation from the Chinese side. A Taiwan defense ministry statement said it has set up an emergency response center and launched combat readiness exercises. It did not say what those exercises entailed.
4. The United States will provide nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday as the Biden administration rushes to spend all the congressionally approved money it has left to bolster Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month. The latest package will include more drones and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, that the U.S. has provided. While these weapons are critically needed now, they will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term systems to be put on contract.
5. Only two veterans who survived the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor attended the annual commemoration Saturday in Hawaii. Ken Stevens, 102, of Powers, Ore., and Ira Schab, 104, of Beaverton, Ore., sat in the front row facing the harbor waters where Pacific Fleet’s Battleship Row was laid to waste in an attack that brought America into World War II. The ceremony was once attended by scores of surviving Dec. 7 veterans. Fewer than two dozen remain living. The pair were joined by only six other World War II veterans.
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