Venezuela says it foiled an attempted maritime “invasion” from its Caribbean coast, killing eight people. A former Venezuelan military official and a former U.S. Green Beret released a video claiming responsibility for the offensive, which they said was not backed by the U.S. military nor the Venezuelan opposition (Washington Post).
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces negotiated an end to an hours-long uprising of inmates from the Islamic State in a northeastern Syrian prison. A two-day riot at the same prison in March led to the escape of four prisoners, who were later recaptured (Associated Press). Separately, Syria’s richest man, Rami Makhlouf, released a social media video accusing President Bashar al-Assad, his cousin, of attempting to take over his business. Makhlouf has bankrolled Assad’s regime and much of its efforts in Syria’s war (Guardian).
Seoul said Pyongyang has yet to respond to its call for an explanation of four bullets that hit a South Korean guard post in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two countries. It was the nations’ first gunfire exchange in years. South Korea responded to the North’s gunfire with twenty rounds of warning shots and called for de-escalation via a hotline (Yonhap). The shots came a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made his first public appearance in three weeks, according to North Korean media. A South Korean presidential official said that contrary to rumors, Kim did not appear to have undergone surgery (Yonhap).
Venezuelan officials sent $500 million worth of gold bars to Iran in April in exchange for assistance with operations at Venezuelan oil refineries, according to a new report. This leaves Venezuela with $6.3 billion in hard-currency assets, a three-decade low (Bloomberg).
A missile attack in southern Syria and an explosion near the city of Homs are suspected to have been carried out by Israel, according to Syrian state media and a war monitor (Haaretz). Israel’s defense minister said this week that Israel “moved from blocking Iran’s entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of there” (Newsweek).
Pakistan’s nuclear program has at least 46 more suppliers than previously listed by export controllers in Japan and the United States, while 222 companies do business with Indian nuclear facilities that are not monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to a new open-source report by the Center For Advanced Defense Studies (Reuters).
The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan failed to provide data on Taliban attacks in the first quarter of 2020 to a U.S. military inspector general, saying the information is a critical part of ongoing deliberations with the Taliban (Voice of America).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo stated yesterday that it would begin disarmament procedures for the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front, a militia group based in the country’s northeastern Ituri province, on May 5. The militia ratified a peace agreement with the government in late February but could not immediately disarm due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Anadolu).
Amnesty International called for the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo in South Sudan after the organization’s observers reported that both government and opposition forces had illegally bought new weapons in direct contravention of restrictions (Amnesty International).