US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday scrapped a plea agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, just two days after the announcement of a deal that reportedly would have taken the death penalty off the table. Agreements with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices announced Wednesday had appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward … Read more
Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder speaks at the Pentagon on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 in Washington. The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said. | Photo Credit: AP The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday, October 27, 2023 … Read more
Pro-Israel counter-protesters wave signs during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Israeli embassy, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in San Francisco. | Photo Credit: AP Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on October 9 he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by … Read more
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with U.S. Secretary of Defence Mr. Lloyd Austin ahead of their bilateral meeting in New Delhi on June 05, 2023. Photo: Special Arrangement India and U.S. on Monday concluded a roadmap for ‘Defence Industrial Cooperation’ which shall guide the policy direction for the next few years towards cooperation in high technology … Read more
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, second from left, and China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, second from right, meet in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on November 22, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Cambodia on Tuesday, with both sides describing the talks as productive without backing … Read more
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that top US officials are deciding soon whether to send a senior official to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine. “We’re making that decision now,” Biden told reporters as he prepared to leave for a trip to North Carolina. A source familiar with the situation said on … Read more
The nine approved so far represent just a tiny fraction of the more than 6,400 requested by Air Force troops, and they come as other service members are challenging the lack of religious exemptions in court cases. The Air Force became the second military service to approve religious exemptions to the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, granting … Read more
Taliban fighters took control of a key district in Afghanistan‘s northern Kunduz province Monday and encircled the provincial capital, police said, as the insurgent group added to its recent battlefield victories while peace talks have stalemated. The Taliban’s gains came as the Pentagon reaffirmed the U.S. troop withdrawal was still on pace to conclude by … Read more
Philippine and U.S. defence chiefs on Sunday expressed hopes to resume the joint “Balikatan” military exercise that was cancelled last year, as they discussed the situation in the South China Sea. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin III also discussed in a telephone conference recent developments in regional security, according … Read more
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that the US will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, stressing that violence must decrease now in the war-torn country and more progress is needed in the Afghan-led negotiations. The US and the Taliban reached an agreement in February 2020 that called for … Read more