Pentagon

U.S. Defense Secretary offers condolences to families of Nov. 21 helicopter crash victims

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel offered condolences to the families of the eight Romanian service members killed in a helicopter crash on Nov. 21, while en route to a joint exercise with U.S. forces, informs a release of the Pentagon.

US sends five Guantanamo inmates to Georgia, Slovakia

The United States has transferred five Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe as part of efforts to empty and close the controversial U.S. military detention center in Cuba, officials said Nov. 20.

Three Yemeni prisoners were sent to Georgia, while a fourth Yemeni and a Tunisian were transferred to Slovakia, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins said.

Hagel says US military accelerating mission to train Iraqi troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Nov. 16 the Pentagon will accelerate its mission to train Iraqi forces to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, using troops already in Iraq to start the effort while funding is sought for a broader initiative.
  

Hagel unveils plan to boost military 'innovation'

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Nov. 15 a technological innovation plan to ensure America's military superiority in the 21st century.
      
"It will put resources behind innovations," Hagel said at a national defense conference at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in Simi Valley, California.
      

Iraqi officials say coalition airstrike wounds ISIL leader al-Baghdadi

Iraqi officials said Nov. 9 that an airstrike wounded the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such a strike or al-Baghdadi being wounded.

Iraq’s Defense and Interior Ministries issued statements saying al-Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating.

Washington dismisses Erdoğan’s ‘cacophony’ complaint

Washington has dismissed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks suggesting there is a “cacophony” of different views among the United States authorities.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she did not agree with Erdoğan’s complaint, suggesting that the differences in responses could be “due to the differences in questions.”

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