The US drone strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safe house in downtown Kabul points to the use of secret Hellfire missiles by the CIA as there was no explosion and, according to American President Joe Biden, "no civilian casualties" either.
The nation celebrated the 71st Republic Day on Sunday with a grand military parade and exhibition of its history, cultural diversity and strategic weaponry at the Rajpath.
'The simultaneous fire from so many guns rained down on the enemy and pulverised them, a sight I can never forget till my last breath.'
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said complete disengagement requires re-deployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) and this can be done only through mutually agreed actions.
Intermittent blasts and exchange of fire to neutralise two more terrorists continued on Sunday night at Air Force Station in Pathankot, Punjab where four terrorists were killed, seven security men lost their lives and 17 persons were injured in the over 40-hour-long operation.
India's cumbersome arms procurement procedures and a plodding Ministry of Defence bureaucracy have long been blamed for shortfalls in combat capability. Now there is another, more worrying, reason - a growing crisis of funds, magnified by the lack of tri-service coordination.
The parade began after President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Ashoka Chakra -- India's highest peacetime gallantry award -- to Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, a militant-turned-soldier who laid down his life fighting a group of terrorists in Shopian in Kashmir in November.
The massive combing operation at the sprawling Air Force station in Pathankot ended on Friday, seven days after six terrorists struck.
'It is a game of patience. We have to stand firm and tire them out, which we are doing.'
'The Chinese fault lines are tremendous and we need to exploit them.'
On a mission to visit the families of soldiers who have died in action, Vikas Manhas has met over 1,000 families whose loved ones made the supreme sacrifice for the country.
Here are highlights of the 68th Republic Day parade.
The 70-year-old ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal from Haryana's Bhiwani district had allegedly consumed poison.
The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to stay the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces and asked the Centre to file a reply on a batch of petitions challenging it.
'The COVID-19 pandemic must push the military into a long-term reconsideration of its primary challenges.' 'There must be greater emphasis on humanitarian aid and disaster relief including the management of contagious illnesses and impending crises caused by climate change,' notes Ajai Shukla.
In a statement, the Indian Army said the face-off was resolved by local commanders as per established protocols. The incident at Naku La became public on Monday hours after senior commanders of both the armies concluded a nearly 16-hour-long meeting in an attempt to defuse tension in eastern Ladakh.
Pliot error is understood to have been found as the reason behind the crash of Indian Air Force's C-130J Super Hercules aircraft in March in which five service personnel, including four officers, were killed near Gwalior.
Subedar Fateh Singh, a 51-year-old Army man who lost his life during combing operations at the Indian Air Force base near Punjab's Pathankot town on Saturday, had won a gold and a silver medal at the first Commonwealth Shooting Championships held in Delhi in 1995.
They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars, and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army rangers and green berets, Navy SEALS, Marine Corps infantry and Air Force para jumpers.
Flight Lieutenant Srikant Sharma said that getting into the armed forces was a dream come true and this opportunity is an "icing on the cake".
As the low-pressure area in the south-eastern Arabian Sea intensified into a severe depression on Friday, heavy rains lashed many parts of Kerala and huge tidal waves started hitting low-lying coastal areas.
India celebrates 17th Kargil Vijay Diwas on Tuesday, pays homage to martyrs of 1999 war.
The failure to restructure our armed forces in line with contemporary needs 14 years after the Kargil war will impose strategic costs beyond just delays and scandals, says Nitin Pai
Should we be exposing our women volunteers to the barbarity of actual combat?
'That the terrorists could still kill three security personnel, including men of the Defence Service Corps, indicates highly trained men are being sent across the border,' says national security expert Nitin A Gokhale, founder, BharatShakti.in
The National Democratic Alliance government has adopted half measures instead of moving decisively on defence.
'I chose the army over glamour,' says Major Sheena, who feels no other profession elicits the kind of respect like the army does.
'An expanding army, rising salaries due to the 7th pay commission, and raised pensions due to OROP are consuming money at the cost of badly needed bulletproof jackets, rifles, artillery, submarines, warships and fighter aircraft,' notes Ajai Shukla.
The IAF has lost seven of the 240 Sukhoi-30MKI jets inducted till now.
The armed forces have rescued over 76,500 people in the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir where around 30,000 troops along with 80 transport aircraft and helicopters including the world's biggest Mi-26T chopper have been deployed for the relief operations.
Veteran Indian trap shooter, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, has condoled the death of Subedar Major Fateh Singh, a former Commonwealth champion shooter who was martyred while fighting the terrorists at the Pathankot Air Force Station base.
Amid snow-capped mountains and on board warships, India's armed forces demonstrated their impressive yoga skills. Let's take a bow!
'At this point, neither the army or the IAF has that immediate, punitive deterrent power against Pakistan.' 'Forget a three-week war; on the LoC, where the action is, Pakistan has until now fielded better infantry weapons, body armour, sniper rifles, and matching artillery' points out Shekhar Gupta.
As India's international role expands, so must our capabilities, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'China is unwilling to restore the status quo ante of April 2020.' 'India will have to weigh its options based on this premise.'
The authorities urged the people to maintain peace and tranquility and do not allow the miscreants to create any trouble in their respective areas.
The focus of the deliberations was on finalising modalities for disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh.
The intensity of fire and explosions at central ammunition depot at Pulgaon in Wardha district was such that seven of the victims were blown to pieces, a top police official said.
The Chinese have just one commander for all the forces confronting India. Commanders of all these forces answer to one man, and one headquarter. India, on the other hand, offers a diversity of options that is a military embarrassment in the 21st century. In Arunachal and Sikkim-Bhutan, the Eastern Army Commander is in charge. In the Uttarakhand (central) sector, it will be the Central Army Commander. The Himachal-Tibet border is the domain of the Western Army Commander. And all of Kashmir and Ladakh further on, the Northern Army's. Effectively, an array of at least eight 'three-star' commanders will be arrayed against one Chinese, says Shekhar Gupta.
A US RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft on Wednesday flew near the ongoing Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) drills in the South China Sea, a day after another US spy plane, a U-2, trespassed into another PLA exercise restricted zone, state-run Global Times reported.
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