U.S. military

Lockheed Martin Corp has won a preliminary contract valued at up to $5.37 billion to build a ninth batch of 55 F-35 jets for the U.S. military and its allies, the U.S. Defense Department said on Nov. 3.

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.

Police and residents said Afghan government forces had regained control of most of the besieged city of Kunduz on Oct.5, and some shops in the centre of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell to Taliban fighters a week ago. 

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. 

U.S.-trained Syrian rebels are still fighting in Syria, a top U.S. general told Congress on Sept.16, a stark admission of setbacks to a fledgling military program that critics have already pronounced a failure. 

Two women have made military history after becoming the first female soldiers to pass the U.S. Army's grueling Ranger Course, the Army said on August 17.

The two, along with 94 men, passed the 62-day leadership course, which teaches students "how to overcome fatigue, hunger, and stress to lead Soldiers during small unit combat operations," it said in a statement. 

The United States launched its first manned air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Aug. 12, the U.S. military said.
   
The U.S.-led coalition had launched flying, unmanned missions against the militants earlier this month, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement.

The military build-up at Turkey?s ?ncirlik airbase, where a U.S.-led coalition is set to boost its operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is growing daily with the arrival of more jets, cargo planes and personnel.

Two cargo planes arrived at ?ncirlik on Aug. 10, Anadolu Agency reported. 

Syria supports any efforts to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) if they are coordinated with Damascus but anything else would "be a breach of Syrian sovereignty", state television quoted the country's foreign minister as saying on Aug. 5.

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.