Pentagon officials aim to determine in the next few weeks how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, Defense Department press secretary George Little said Monday.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training in the aftermath of high-profile scandals involving senior officers.
Citing a string of ethical lapses by senior military officers, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training and to brainstorm on ways to steer officers away from trouble.
Iran issued a bellicose warning to the U.S. over the weekend, after American officials disclosed last week that the Islamic republic had tried to shoot down a U.S. drone in international airspace near the Iranian coast on Nov. 1.
Lawmakers are working on a set of new and unprecedented sanctions against Iran that could prevent the Islamic republic from doing business with most of the world until it agrees to international constraints on its nuclear program, officials say.
Two Iranian fighter jets pursued and fired at a U.S. predator drone on Nov. 1, but failed to take it down, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday. The unmanned surveillance aircraft returned to base unharmed, a Defense Department spokesman said.
The Pentagon says an Iranian military plane fired upon, but did not hit, an unarmed U.S. drone aircraft a week ago in what a spokesman said was international airspace over the Persian Gulf.
Tuesday's re-election of President Obama triggered immediate speculation about the future of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who will turn 75 in June. Mr. Panetta, defense secretary since June 2011, has had a long career in government and is said by associates to be ready to return to private life in Northern California, where he frequently visits and owns land.
The Obama administration, seeking to tamp down mounting questions over its handling of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, released unprecedented details this week of the CIA's role in efforts to defend the consulate and rescue its inhabitants.
