Foreign / Military / News

Former army sniper kills 4, including infant, in Florida shooting spree

A former sniper in the US military went on a shooting spree in central Florida, killing four people, including an infant boy in his mother’s arms, officials said Sunday.

The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Bryan Riley, shot and killed a 40-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman and her three-month-old son in a residential area in Polk County, Florida, said County Sheriff Grady Judd. The fourth victim was the child’s 62-year-old grandmother.

Riley, who was wearing full body armor, also wounded an 11-year-old girl before surrendering himself to the police following an intense gunfight, Judd said.

Riley, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the police he was a “survivalist” and that he had been taking methamphetamine.

The suspect also told the police, without elaborating, “You know why I did this,” according to a statement from Judd published on social media.

Riley was wounded in the gunfight and was rushed to a local hospital, where he again tried to attack police officers and had to be sedated.

After he received medical help, the suspect was transferred to a local jail.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the attack, Judd said. An investigation is underway.…

Uncategorized

Biden declares end to ‘forever wars’ in Afghan exit

President Joe Biden made a forceful defense Tuesday of his “wise” decision to leave Afghanistan, telling Americans he refuses to send another generation to fight in a “forever war.”

 

The traumatic departure from Afghanistan, completed Monday after 20 years of war against the Taliban, was “a wise decision and the best decision for America,” Biden said in an address to the nation.

After coming under fire from Republican opponents over the chaotic nature of the rush to the exits in Afghanistan, Biden said he did what should have been done years ago.

“I was not going to extend this forever war and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said.

Speaking in the ornate State Dining Room of the White House, Biden thumped the lectern as he detailed the extraordinary costs of a war more than 2,400 US military deaths and up to $2.3 trillion spent that ended with the Taliban guerrillas back in power.

“I take responsibility for the decision,” he said.

“I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today, I honored that commitment. It was time to be honest,” he said.

“After 20 years in Afghanistan I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war.”

Biden takes heat

Following two weeks of evacuation flights a titanic effort marred by a suicide bombing that killed 13 US service members and scores of Afghans Biden faces a chorus of criticism that could yet hurt him domestically.

Getting out of the last big post-9/11 war was one of Biden’s campaign promises coming into office. The idea was overwhelmingly popular.

But the US departure, culminating with a solitary airplane lifting at midnight from Kabul with the last troops and diplomats, brought home for many that the so-called “drawdown” or “retrograde” really amounted to jarring defeat.

Republicans, led by Biden’s bitter predecessor Donald Trump, paint the exit as a humiliating failure, a defeat that outdoes even the 1975 evacuation from Saigon, and a signal to the world that …

Crime / Foreign / News

Taliban faction leaders meet former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul

After their sweeping victory in Afghanistan, Taliban now plan to form a government in the country. They vowed that they would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law. One of the group officials also said the leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban will show themselves to the world and will not stay in the “shadow of secrecy”. Meanwhile, the White House acknowledged that the Taliban had amassed a significant amount of US military equipment after seizing control of Afghanistan following two decades of war with American forces. Since the Taliban’s lightning seizure of Kabul, horrific visuals have emerged from the Afghan capital showing thousands of desperate Afghans rushing to the Kabul airport. While the French government evacuated several dozen people from Kabul in a military plane overnight, a US official said its military evacuated more than 3,200 people from Afghanistan so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone. Follow LIVE updates on Afghanistan and the Taliban resurgence here.
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