Department of Defense

The United Sates is weighing potential military options in Libya as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists expand their influence in the north African nation roiled by political instability, a Pentagon official said Jan. 27.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter used a personal email account for some work-related business earlier this year at the Pentagon, although he has since stopped such use of his personal email, the Pentagon said on Dec. 17.

U.S. Air Force has deployed 12 A-10 attack aircraft in Turkey?s south to support the coalition?s fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Department of Defense (DoD) confirmed on Oct. 22. 

U.S. military personnel rammed into the gate of a medical aid group's hospital in Afghanistan last week to enter the grounds of the building hit in a U.S. air strike earlier this month, a Pentagon spokesman said on Oct. 19.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces  before a suspected U.S. air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the Islamist insurgents from an Afghan city. 

Patriot missiles deployed in Turkey since 2013 to guard against rockets from Syria will be removed for planned upgrades in October, despite the ongoing crisis across the border, the Pentagon said on Oct.1.

According to American journalist and author Annie Jacobsen, US soldiers had been ‘chipped’ after completing their rounds in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Turkey is now ready to fully participate in coalition strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and may do so within days, the Pentagon said on Aug. 25.

The U.S. military is expanding its combat role in Syria in defense of coalition-backed rebels, conducting armed drone missions into Syria from the ?ncirlik air base in Turkey. 

The first armed drone missions out of Turkey began last weekend, and the military is planning to add manned aircraft flights from there, U.S. officials have said.

The U.S. Navy is investigating a complaint that seeks the evacuation of civilian and military lawyers from parts of the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following reports of cancer cases among personnel working on the trials of detainees there.