United States Central Command

U.S. troops early Thursday anchored a long-awaited temporary pier, meant to boost aid deliveries into war-ravaged Gaza, to a beach in the besieged Palestinian territory, the U.S. military said.

Ambassador Hakan Tekin, director general for South Asia at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, met Massoum Stanekzai, the Afghan government's top peace broker, in the Qatari capital Doha on June 8. 

According to a statement by the negotiating team in Kabul, Stanekzai and Tekin discussed ways and means to expedite the stalled peace drive.

Romania's Chief of the Defence Staff (SMA), General Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca on Thursday met Commandant of the United States Marine Corps David H. Berger, according to a press statement released by SMA on Friday. According to SMA, the meeting, which took place at the Washington Command, also x-rayed the security context in the Black Sea region.

U.S. troops will not withdraw from Manbij, a strategically important city in northern Syria, Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of the United States Central Command, told CNN International on Jan. 28. 

Iran's defense minister, Hossein Dehqan, has advised the US military to leave the Persian Gulf and stop causing trouble there, local media report. The Minister was firing back at a US general who accused Iran of being a destabilizing force in its own region.

A Democratic lawmaker is introducing a bill to block additional U.S. forces from being sent into Syria after an amphibious task force of Marines landed in Syria for the first time.

More US troops may be needed in Syria to speed up the campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), the top commander for the Middle East has stated, specifically referring to the push to liberate Raqqa.

"I am very concerned about maintaining momentum," General Joseph L. Votel, the head of the United States Central Command, told reporters, as quoted by CBS News.

A Turkish military base being built in Qatar will be ready within two years, Defense minister ?smet Y?lmaz said in Doha on March 30.

It will be the first Turkish military facility in the region, ?smet Y?lmaz told journalists on the sidelines of three-day Dimdex defense and security fair in Qatar.

Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq's north, received a warm welcome in Ankara for key talks as Turkish jets bombed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in the neighboring country. 

The United States carried out new air strikes and aid drops Aug. 10, as President Barack Obama vowed to help rescue thousands of civilians besieged by jihadists on an Iraqi mountain.