March 11, 2024

Five Things to Know, March 11, 2024

By The American Legion
News
Five Things to Know, March 11, 2024
(U.S. Central Command)

U.S. Army vessel on way to Gaza with pier materials, al-Qaida leader of Yemen branch dead, National Guard mourns loss of two soldiers killed in helicopter crash.

1.   A U.S. Army vessel carrying equipment for building a temporary pier in Gaza was on its way to the Mediterranean on Sunday, three days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up aid deliveries by sea to the besieged enclave where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been going hungry. The opening of the sea corridor, along with airdrops by the U.S., Jordan and others, showed increasing alarm over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and a new willingness to bypass Israeli control over land shipments.

2.   The leader of Yemen’s branch of al-Qaida is dead, the militant group announced late Sunday, without giving details. Khalid al-Batarfi had a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government over leading the group, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, through years that saw him imprisoned, freed in a jailbreak, and governing forces in Yemen amid that country’s grinding war.

3.   The New York National Guard on Sunday mourned the loss of two soldiers killed Friday in a helicopter crash in a field near Rio Grande City, Texas, during a mission in support of border security. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Casey Frankoski, 28, of Rensselaer, N.Y., and Chief Warrant Officer 2 John Grassia, 30, of Schenectady, N.Y., were assigned to Detachment 2, A Company of the 1st Battalion, 244th Aviation Regiment, according to a statement from the New York National Guard. Also killed was Border Patrol agent Chris Luna.

4.   The U.S. military flew in Marines to reinforce its embassy in Haiti and evacuate nonessential personnel as heavily armed gangs continue to challenge the country’s tenuous government and turn the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, into a battlefield. The middle-of-the-night operation was conducted via helicopter by the U.S. military at the request of the State Department for embassy security, the U.S. Southern Command said in a statement.

5.  The U.S. and Japanese governments are working on a timeline for resuming tiltrotor flights over Japan, according to officials from both countries. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps lifted a flight ban imposed on V-22 Ospreys after an Air Force tiltrotor crashed off Japan on Nov. 29, killing eight Yokota-based members of Special Operations Command. A timeline for resuming flights in Japan for U.S. and Japanese tiltrotors “continues to be closely coordinated between the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States,” U.S. Forces Japan said in a statement.

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