Pentagon - Page 33

The U.S. military, due to a shortage of Air Force pilots and other personnel to operate drones, is relying more on private contractors for reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, reports The New York Times (NYT).

DOHA/BERLIN The United States is poised to sell $7 billion worth of Boeing Co fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait after years of delays, and it may start notifying US lawmakers as early as next week, four US- and Gulf-based sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Provocative clashes between Iranian ships and the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf have nearly doubled in the first half of 2016 to 19 from 10 during the same period last year, Fox News reports, citing new Pentagon data obtained from a U.S. defense official on condition of anonymity.

Intensifying clashes in northern Syria between Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels, who have received military assistance from America, and the U.S.-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), are a testament to the quagmire of perpetual chaos the Obama administration has worked itself into in the Middle East.

One American service member was killed and another injured in southern Afghanistan’s Taliban stronghold of Helmand province a day after the U.S. military announced it was deploying nearly 100 troops to the same region in response to recent “tactical victories” by the jihadist group.

The Central Intelligence Agency was able to censor at least one U.S. military commission proceeding involving detainees held at the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reports The Intercept, citing documents it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

The Obama administration on Monday evening announced the transfer of 12 Yemenis and three Afghans from the U.S. military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), dramatically bringing down the overall prison population to 61.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford awarded IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot with the Legion of Merit for “exceptionally meritorious service,” outside the Pentagon on Thursday, an army spokesperson said.

On Monday, American warplanes hit Islamic State targets in Libya at the request of Libya’s “unity government,” also known as the Government of National Accord (GNA).

The cost of the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) has reached $8 billion, which translates to an average of $11.8 million a day or about $354 million monthly, Pentagon figures show.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The top U.S. commander is employing a special authority recently granted by President Barack Obama to bring in additional troops into Afghanistan for an offensive against the Islamic State in their stronghold located in the eastern part of the country along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Complaints from news organizations have prompted the Pentagon to remove a Law of War manual clause that suggests journalists could be considered combatants.

The Russian military on June 16 bombed a “secret base” near the Jordanian border in Syria used by “elite American and British forces” as part of efforts to strong arm the Obama administration into agreeing to cooperate with Moscow, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

A 25-year-old U.S. Air Force lieutenant died Monday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from a “non-combat related injury” sustained while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria, according to the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration has transferred three prisoners out of the U.S. military detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in the last few days — one was taken to Italy and two were sent to Serbia, bringing the prison population down to 76, according to the Pentagon.

The father of Tyrone Woods, one of the four Americans killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel at Benghazi, Libya, told Breitbart News the report by the House Select Committee on Benghazi answered many questions, but not the two he asked.

TEL AVIV – Murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens had originally planned to arrive in Benghazi with Pentagon assistance and attempted to coordinate with the Defense Department in order to be housed on a protected coalition naval vessel for a period of time.

The Obama administration has killed from 64 to 116 civilians, as well as between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants in drone and other lethal airstrikes targeting terrorists outside principal war zones like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, according to a much-anticipated report from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), released Friday.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated to the point where the United States is considering a ban against family members accompanying both military and civilian deployments.

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer reacted to the day’s announcement that the Pentagon would be ending its transgender ban policy. Krauthammer criticized the “out of whack” priorities of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s Pentagon in a

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Defense Ash Carter officially announced that transgender individuals can now openly serve in the U.S. military.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that transgender people will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.

TEL AVIV – The Pentagon provided incomplete maps of assets it says were located in areas of responsibility for the regions in and near Benghazi during and in the days following the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks at the U.S. Special Mission and nearby CIA Annex.

A platoon of US Marines assigned to the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team at Rota, Spain, was held on the base’s airstrip for six hours as administration officials debated whether to send them to Benghazi in uniform or in civilian clothes, one of the Republicans serving on the House Select Committee on Benghazi told Breitbart News Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. general who has been nominated to lead the American military’s Africa Command told lawmakers he does not know if the Obama administration has a “grand strategy” in war-ravaged Libya, where U.S.-backed armed groups are fighting Islamic State jihadists.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Defense (DOD) is expected to lift the ban on transgender people openly serving in the U.S. military on July 1, reports USA Today, citing unnamed defense officials.

The number of CIA drone strikes have plummeted to a low single digit so far in 2016, President Barack Obama’s last full year in office, reports The Washington Post (WaPo), citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials.

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has arrived in the United States amid strained U.S.-Saudi relations.

TEL AVIV – According to an unconfirmed report in the respected Turkish daily Yenis Safak newspaper, Islamic State Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in a US air strike in Raqqa.

The U.S. Ambassador to Qatar has apologized, on Twitter and in person, for a video that showed two American soldiers laughing, with the Qatari flag in the background.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Defense (DOD) is expected to intensify its already heavy reliance on U.S. special operations forces as part of an effort to overhaul the modus operandi of America’s war against Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists and other terrorists, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

A proposal tucked deep inside the Senate’s draft of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), currently being debated on Capitol Hill, seeks to radically reform the U.S. troops’ Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), arguing that “the benefit now far exceeds the actual cost.”

The Obama administration reports that at least 12 terrorists from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — all released under George W. Bush — have killed an estimated half-dozen Americans, the Washington Post (WaPo) has learned from current and former U.S. officials on condition of anonymity.

A new health report from the Pentagon revealed that at least 11 U.S. military personnel have been infected with the Zika virus, along with four dependents (spouses or children) of military members and two military retirees.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. military is confronting an “extremist Islamist movement” in the Americas that has been linked to the use of illicit trafficking networks by criminals and terrorists, likely working together, revealed U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) chief Navy Adm. Kurt W. Tidd during a roundtable discussion with reporters.

Islamic State jihadists wounded one U.S. service member in the vicinity of the Kurdish capital of Erbil in northern Iraq and another north of the terrorist group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria last weekend, according to the Pentagon.