Michael Cessna

Michael Cessna is a former Active Duty United States Marine, a long-time personal protection specialist, security and defense analyst, military subjects instructor, general information researcher and amateur historian. He has been contributing security and defense writing since 2015.

Welcome to the World Situation Report For March 23rd, 2022

Welcome to the World Situation Report For March 23rd, 2022

Michael Cessna March 23, 2022

The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.

This column will cover the preceding week of news.

North America

Beginning in North America, a wide array of bomb threats continue to spread across the country, mostly targeting schools, but also businesses and shopping centers. While various individuals with certain mental or emotional issues are typically responsible for these events, the possibility exists that these are efforts to monitor emergency response procedures by law enforcement and other emergency services.

As well, a bomb, threat was made against a synagogue in Highland Park, Illinois, some 25 miles north of Chicago on the 18th, while the next day, worshipers at a mosque in Montreal Canada were attacked by an assailant identified as as 24-year-old Mohammad Moiz Omar, who walked into the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, about 15 miles from Toronto, and began spraying “bear mace” at the congregation. Worshipers subdued the assailant, who was arrested by Canadian police, was also armed with a hand ax. Authorities are claiming that the attack was a case of “Islamophobia“.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9]

Africa

Turning to Africa, the Algerian Army arrested seven suspected “militants” in its ongoing, low-level guerilla war against the remnants of Al Qaeda [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda]-aligned groups in the North African nation, following the end of its civil war in 2002.

Meanwhile, thirteen soldiers were killed in the eastern region of Burkina Faso, in an ambush by unidentified gunmen, while eight more soldiers were wounded. This comes a week after over a dozen police officers were killed in a similar ambush in the landlocked nation’s central-north region, as we reported last week.

In Nigeria, gunmen abducted over sixty people during the week. Most of these abductees are usually released after ransoms are paid, but many are either sold into human trafficking rings or forced to join armed groups, such as Boko Haram.

Speaking of Boko Haram, demining and cleanup operations continue in the Shiroro Local Government region, in the country’s central region, where the terrorist group laid numerous IED’s to deny residents access to their homes as a part of the group’s ongoing guerilla war throughout the region.

In the nation’s far northeastern Borno State, an airstrike by Nigerian Air Force Super Tucano light strike aircraft has reportedly killed Sani Shuwaram, the “Commander In Chief” of the “Islamic State – West Africa Province” (ISWAP). Details remain sketchy, although intelligence reports indicate that he may have been replaced by one Mallam Bako Gorgore, although few details of this individual are available at this writing.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]

In the Central African nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), horrific levels of violence continues in the Ituri region of the country’s northeast, as fourteen people were hacked to death in a “displaced persons camp” in the province. According to local officials the attack was carried out by an armed faction of the “CODECO” group, a formerly peaceful agricultural cooperative organization, which returned to violence in 2017 after a ceasefire following the Ituri Conflict of 1999-2003.

[Source 1]
[Source 2]

In Sudan, continuing protests against the military junta of General Abdel Fattah Burhan, which has been ruling the country since its October, 2021 coup d’état have killed a thirteen year-old boy in the city of Omdurman, bringing the reported death toll to 88.

In the continually strife-torn nation of Somalia, the Somali National Army reportedly killed seven terrorists belonging to the Al Shabaab terror group, while two other militants surrendered in the central region of the county.

At the same time, three persons were reportedly injured by a car bomb in the Hodan district of the capital city of Mogadishu. Accoding to police sources, the attack was aimed at Turkish engineers working in the country. Turkey has been quietly expanding into the African state since 2010, opening a basic military training facility in their own encampment to train a new army for the country, as well as a formal school for officer training.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]

The Arabian Peninsula

In the Arabian Peninsula, the seemingly never-ending, multi-sided war between various Yemeni factions, and a Saudi-led Coalition grinds onward, with Houthi forces continuing a relentless campaign against Saudi oil facilities, further destabilizing world oil prices.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]

The Middle East

Elsewhere in the Middle East, four Israeli civilians were killed in the town of Be’er Sheva/Beersheba and one remains in critial condition, following a ram-and-stab attack by an attacker identified as 34-year-old Muhammad Aleb Ahmad Abu Alkyan, a Bedoiun Israeli who was previously convicted and served three years in prison for supporting and promoting ISIS. This comes at the same time as continued protests on the West Bank, and threats by Iran’s IRGC commander to launch a missile attack on the Jewish state.

In Syria, a US base near the Deir Ez-Zor oil field was reportedly struck by several missiles, and reportedly by drones. No casualties were reported, but independent confirmation is not available at press time.

Elsewhere in Deir ez-Zor, a tribal elder was assassinated by IS, while in the north of the country, Russian Air Force jets struck reported IS targets on the 20th.

In the northern town of Ayn Issa, two children were wouded by Turkish artillery, while Turkish artillery struck targets near Tell Tamer, and four Syrian Army soldiers were reportedly killed in an IS attack near Resafa.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8]

South Asia

In the South Asian nation of Pakistan, the driver of a water tanker truck was killed when his truck struck a landmine. The deceased, identified as Mohammad Bahadur Khan Pathan, was delivering water to a the Notal-Gandhwah road construction project in the southern part of the country, when his vehicle struck the landmine. No word was available on which group may have planted the device at press time.

In the northwestern city of Sari Naurang, a police officer was assasinated in a driveby shooting by members of an unidentified terrorist group, while a shootout in the Bajur District killed two soldiers, three civilians and four insurgents from an undentified group. Additionally, five people associated with “Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)” and the “Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)” were arrested by Pakistani police in Punjab Province.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4]

In India, Jammu & Kashmir saw three terror attacks in 24 hours, while a member of the “Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)” terror group – responsible for the terror attack on Mumbai, India in 2008 – was arrested in the region’s Baramulla district. In the Shopian district, meanwhile, a grenade attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) station injured one police officer.

In the central state of Odisha, a man was arrested for “providing logistical support” to Maoist insurgents, in the town of Kalahandi. In the neighboring state of Chhattisgarh, Maoist’s attacked a CRPF camp in the Sukma district, injuring three police officers.

Finally, in India’s far northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, police and units of the Assam Rifles killed two insurgents from the “National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM)” in a raid on a safe house in the Tirap district, recovering military weapons (including a US M4A1 rifle), ammunition and other military-type equipment. The presence of a late-model M4A1 in far eastern India may indicate a case of fallout from the collapse of the US and Coalition efforts in Afghanistan, in August of 2021, potentially confirming the fears of analysts that the equipment left behind may be making its way into the wider terrorist community.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]

World Situation Report – March 18th, 2022

World Situation Report – March 18th, 2022

Michael Cessna March 18, 2022

Welcome to the World Situation Report For March 18th, 2022

The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.

This column will cover the preceding week of news.

North America

Starting off in the United States, a wave of bomb threats were called in across the country, to everything from junior and high schools, to grocery stores, a YMCA, a comedy club and even to facilitate a back robbery. Just a short sample of stories are under the links below:

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]

Meanwhile, 21 year/old Elvin Hunter Bgorn Williams pleaded guilty to attempting to join the Islamic State in May of 2021. Williams was arrested by FBI agents as he attempted to board a flight bound for Cairo, Egypt. Williams had come to the attention of Federal law enforcement some five years ago, when he was reportedly kicked off of social media for expressing his opinion that the 2017 suicide attack on the Manchester, England Arena following a concert headlined by singer Ariana Grande was justified because of how she dressed on stage. The Seattle-area mosque Williams attended attempted to de-radicalize him, even obtaining a laptop and cellphone for him, to help him find a job; however, after finding him using the devices to view extremist content online, the mosque demanded the devices be returned and contacted the FBI. The mosque was not named in court documents. Williams was arrested after contacting what he believed to be Islamic State recruiters.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]

Finally, the US Consulate in Nueva Laredo, in Mexico’s Tamaulipas State, announced that it will be temporarily closed to the public, after being hit by gunfire from suspected gangs on the night of March 13-14, following the arrest of Juan Gerardo Trevino, or “El Huevo,” the purported leader of the Cartel of the Northeast, a breakaway group that calved off of the Los Zetas criminal syndicate.

There was no word on when full operations at the consulate might resume.

[Source 1] – [Source 2]

Europe

Turning to Europe, in a disturbing possible expansion of the current war in the Ukraine, a pair of drone aircraft, reported to be a Tu-141 dating from the Soviet era, in current use by Ukrainian forces, crashed near the outskirts of the capital city of Zagreb, Croatia, while a current-model Orlan-10 scouting drone, believed to be in exclusive use by Russian forces, was discovered crashed in a field northern Romania, signalling a possible spill-over in the on-going fighting.

Both vehicles were reported to have contained traces of explosive material, although investigations by local authorities continue.

NATO officials confirmed that NATO air defense units had tracked the Tu-141 as it flew through the airspace of member-states Hungary and Croatia, but made no effort to intercept the drone. Croatia and Hungary have both raised protests with NATO, as well as launching investigations within their own air defense forces as to why the six-ton, forty-seven foot long was not intercepted before crashing near a large dormitory of an unnamed university, reportedly damaging some 40 vehicles.

The Tu-141 was long ago replaced in the Russian inventory by newer designs, but numerous examples are known to be operated by Ukraine, leading to speculation that some may have been armed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces as long-range strike weapons

Although the Orlan-10 is normally unarmed, the small Russian drones are known to be capable of carrying small ordnance of c.15lbs.

[Source 1] – [Source 2]

In the southern port city of Marseilles, France, meanwhile one police officer was hospitalized and two others injured after a man attacked the officers with a knife, according to reports, on March 12. The reason for the attack remains unclear. The perpetrator, who apparently was unknown to police for any prior offenses, was killed by other offices after “warning shots” were fired. An investigation is underway in an attempt to determine if the attack has any terrorist connections.

[Source 1] – [Source 2]

Africa

Turning to Africa, Moroccan police arrested five suspects on the 16th, on suspicion of being affiliated with the Islamic State, and plotting attacks throughout Morocco.

[Source 1] – [Source 2]

Further south, the West Africa region, thirteen gendarmes were killed by unidentified gunmen in the northern region of Burkina Faso.

In northwestern Nigeria, meanwhile, a wave of kidnappings is sparking fears of a return to “forced recruitment” by terror groups such as Boko Haram, although the kidnappings could be related to “forced labor human-trafficking groups” (i.e., slavers).

In Central Africa, the so-called “Allied Democratic Forces”, an Islamist terror group operating in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with ties to ISCAP, continued their offensive in the northeastern DRC province of Ituri, killing as many as fifty-two civilians in attacks on four villages. This comes as one of the ADF’s main leaders, Kabanda Abdulla Musa, was arrested by Ugandan authorities following a series of surprise raids in that country’s border region with the DRC.

In the nation of Sudan, at least 133 pro-democracy demonstrators were injured in crackdowns against protests against the October 25, 2021 coup d’état in the African nation that placed General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at the head of a military junta.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9]

Arabia

Moving to the Arabian Peninsula, the war in Yemen grinds on, with near-continuous air strikes by Saudi-led coalition jets being countered by Houthi strikes against oil refineries by bomb-carrying drones attacking the vulnerable facilities. The confusing, multi-sided conflict – part of the 40+ year-old Saudi-Iranian Proxy War – is now in its seventh year, with no end in sight.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6]

Middle East

In the Middle East, proper, Israeli government websites were targeted in a large-scale cyber attack on the 14th, as Palestinian confrontations with Israeli security forces in the West Bank killed two, with three more being arrested.

Throughout Iraq and Syria, sporadic, low-level fighting continues, including attacks on US logistics convoys rolling north into Iraq from Kuwait, as well as attacks on Iraqi Army commanders by numerous groups.

This comes as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a series of twelve ballistic missiles into the Kurdish city of Erbil on the 13th. The IRGC claimed the attacks were in response to purported attacks on an Iranian drone factory by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, in February and March of this year.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] -[Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10]

South Asia

In South Asia, Pakistani security forces reportedly killed one of the architects of the March 4th attack on a Peshawar mosque that killed 64 and wounded 190.

To the south, in Balochistan, 4 gendarmes of the Frontier Corps (FC) were killed and eight wounded in an IED attack on an FC convoy on the 15th. Elsewhere, in North Waziristan, security forces killed four suspected terrorists in a pair of gun battles, after acting on tips.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]

Turning to India, Indian security forces have reportedly killed 39 terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir, so far this year, although continual skirmishing with Islamic terror groups continues.

Meanwhile, four terrorists from Bangladesh, from the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group, were captured in the northern city of Bhopal, along with laptops and explosives.

Finally, in Central India’s “Red Corridor”, several Communist guerilla’s were killed in encounters with various security forces, while others planted a crude IED at a train station in the northern city of Bihar. The device was discovered and disarmed by police, disrupting rail operations for over three hours.

[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9]

World Situation Report — March 10th, 2022

Michael Cessna March 9, 2022

Welcome to the World Situation Report For March 10th, 2022

This is a new column for the Freedomist. I am delighted to be able to join the Freedomist team, and to once again work with William Collier, my long-time friend and editor. For those who may have followed my work at the Military Gazette, this column is a version of MilitaryGazette’s “World SITREP” column. The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that I do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as an introductory launch-pad for further study, in addition to being free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.

This column will cover the preceding week of news.

That said, let’s move on to the news…

Japan Moves Ahead with Plans to Deploy Automated Cargo Vessels

Japan has decided to proceed with automating sea-going cargo vessels, as falling numbers of skilled crews and the dream of increased profits tempt executives to give automation a chance.

The falling numbers of people willing to take the very real risks of a life working the sea is real. Despite the comparatively low crew requirements of modern ships, compared to older vessels, increasing traffic from more and more hulls in the water have balanced out the numbers. However, for some decades, fewer and fewer people sign up with merchant shipping academies, making qualified crew hires a priority. In such an environment, the allure of a completely automated cargo vessel, requiring no crew to pay or insure, is very real.

The problems, of course, are legion: many ports have strict rules concerning pilots coming aboard to conn ships, not least because channel conditions change, sometimes frequently; ships also require underway maintenance – engines are reliable, but issues frequently occur. The number of things that can go wrong on any seagoing ship are too numerous to go into in any detail here, but having crew aboard to address the problem as it occurs is a problem Japan will need to address, before most ports – and shipping companies – are going to accept completely robotic cargo ships…

…And that’s before we address pirates, and hacking.

TFI Global – Japan moving ahead with automating cargo vessels:

—————–

Merchant Ships Attacked In Ukrainian Waters, France Seizes Russian Freighter

As the war in Ukraine intensifies, cargo vessels are suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a deadly crossfire. As of 2/26/2022, the Moldovan-flagged chemical tanker “Millennial Spirit”, carrying 600 tonnes of diesel fuel (with a Russian crew), was apparently shelled by a Russian warship, seriously injuring two of the crew; the Turkish owned “Yasa Jupiter” was struck by a bomb (with no reported casualties, thankfully), and is limping towards Romanian waters; and the Panamanian-flagged bulk freighter “Namura Queen”, loaded with wheat, was struck by a rocket on her stern; she is currently underway, making for a safe port near Istanbul, Turkey.

A large number of non-combatant vessels remain tied to docks in harbors and estuaries as fighting continues to rage around them. These vessels will be hard-pressed to leave on their own, as Ukrainian harbor pilots are obviously occupied elsewhere.

Meanwhile, France has seized the Russian-owned vessel “Baltic Leader” in the English Channel, on suspicion of being on the list of sanctioned Russian companies black-listed by the European Union (EU), NATO and the United States.

Contrary to popular belief, wars are not “good” for business – preparing for war is good for business, not actually fighting it. With the world logistics system still reeling from Covid-related delays and the Ever Given accident that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a full week, delaying schedules and causing knock-on effects throughout the fragile global logistics network, it is hard to detail specifically what effects Putin’s War will have on the global shipping industry, but it is unlikely to be good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFPAOgCfGM

—————–

Turning to US national news…..

Bomb Threat Disrupts Ferry Operation

A bomb threat against the Bainbridge Island – Bremerton disrupted ferry service on March 6th. Police explosive-sniffing K-9’s cleared the ferry “Tacoma” to return to service by 1pmPST…

Also on the 6th, two persons attempted to rush the main gate at Joint Base Andrews (JBA) – home of the Presidential transport squadrons – at approximately 9pm, but were stopped by alert guards and automated barricades. One of the individuals (a 17-year old male) was captured, and the other is being sought. Although reports remain foggy, at least one of the persons (the individual captured by security) was armed. No shots were fired, despite initial reports of an “active shooter”.

As of this writing, the other individual remains at large. No information has been released on either individual involved in the incident, although the 316th Security Forces Group and local authorities have stated that the at-large individual is not on the base.

Vice President Harris and various other members of the cabinet had been aboard JBS earlier in the evening, boarding a flight to Selma, Alabama, but were not present at the time of the incident.

—————–

While, in international news….

Europe & Australia

Proving that some people just want to act out, thus making martyrs where they don’t need to, a makeshift “bomb” was thrown onto the ground of the Russian diplomatic mission to The Hague, in the Netherlands, while an envelop containing an unspecified “white powder” was mailed to the Russian embassy in Canberra, the Australian capitol, this week….

In Sweden, meanwhile, it seems that the so-called “Islamic State” – still extant – will take anyone, as a 49-year old woman was convicted of not preventing her then 12-year old son from being recruited to fight for the terror group in 2013. The child, along with his father and an older brother, were all subsequently killed fighting for the IS. The mother denied any wrongdoing, saying that she had been “lured” to Syria in 2013 by her husband…no word on what she thought was happening in Syria at that time.

In Turkey, riot police celebrated International Women’s Day by firing tear gas at demonstrators attempting to join a women’s march. The demonstrators are engaged in protests against the Erdogan government’s withdrawal from a European treaty on combating violence against women last year.

Meanwhile, Turkey has also arrested or is seeking to arrest over one hundred individuals that the government claims were involved in the attempted coups-de-tat against the Erdogan government in July of 2016.

Turning to Africa…

Major fighting continues in the West African nations of Mali, Niger and Nigeria, as local security forces battle on against the Boko Haram, the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” and the “Islamic State/West Africa Province (ISWAP)” terror groups.

Malian Army (FAMa) forces beat back an attack by ISWAP on an outpost in Mondoro, in the central part of the country, on March 4th, reportedly killing at least 70 terrorists, while suffering at least 27 troops dead, 33 injured, and 7 missing. The attack was described as “complex”, and involved the use of “vehicle bombs”.

To understand the scale of this fighting, the numbers being reported by FAMa are essentially two full platoons of infantry, or about two-fifths of an infantry company (generally, about 180 personnel). And this is not the first action of its kind, in this country of barely 20million people; actions on this scale have happened more than a few times. This kind of loss rate in action is rather rare, these days; to give an idea of scale, the United States lost a total of 258 personnel in the Gulf War of 1990-1991, and in the entirety of what is known as the “War on Terror“, from 2001 to today (March, 2022), the US has lost a total of 7,074 dead.

In neighboring Niger’s southwestern Torodi region, five soldiers were killed and three more were wounded on March 6th, when their vehicle rolled over an “improvised explosive device” (IED) laid by the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara”. Niger has approximately 12,000 troops deployed full-time in its interior, trying to fend off terror groups that have been operating in earnest in the region since early 2017.

Niger was also the scene of the October, 2017 ambush of a US Army Special Forces team and their Niger partner-forces at the village of Tongo-Tongo which killed four of the ten-man US team, and four Niger troops.

In Nigeria’s far-northeastern region, Boko Haram terrorists attacked a Nigerian Army Forward Operating Base (FOB) near the town of Damasak, and were repelled with the loss of seventeen dead and three captured, along with several vehicles and weapons.

Boko Haram made its name when it appeared several years ago, by kidnapping hundreds of elementary- and middle-school children to use as either child-soldier “recruits” (for the boys) or as “wives” (for the girls) for their “troops”.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s “Department of State Services” (DSS) security service has reported that the “Islamic State/West Africa Province (ISWAP)” has been training suicide-bombers in the northeast of the country, as well.

In the Middle East…

The “Middle East” remains unstable in the extreme. A small sample of the past week:

*The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide-bomb attack in Pakistan, that killed five security force troops when the attacker detonated their vest as a convoy rolled past in the Pakistani state of Baluchistan. This comes on the heels of the suicide attack on March 4th, in Peshawar that killed 63 and wounded nearly 200.

*In Syria, Russian air force planes launched a series of attacks on March 4 and 5, targeting Islamic State forces in the central Resafa region of Syria’s Raqqa Governate, scene of the Islamic State’s Pyrrhic defeat and loss of their “capital” in October of 2017. While cheered at the time as signalling the “end of ISIS”, intense fighting has continued in Syria ever since, with Russian air forces launching over 900 sorties in February, alone.

*Elsewhere in Syria, 13 Syrian Army troops were killed and 18 wounded, when the bus they were traveling in was ambushed near the ancient city of Palmyra on March 6th.

India, for a change, was largely quiet this week. Aside from security forces being on “high alert” following the Peshawar attack, police in Assam arrested five people linked to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), while arresting a Maoist leader in the city of Gaya, in the northern state of Bihar, the country was largely quiet, this week. Given the normal news cycle in India, this is a welcome change.

Finally, the South Korean Navy fired warning shots to ward off a North Korean patrol boat that strayed too close to Baekryeong Island, near the Northern Limit Line on the 8th. The North Korean craft was chasing an unarmed North Korean vessel, whose crew is being questioned by South Korean authorities.