Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla took command of U.S. Central Command on April 1, formally succeeding Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. in a ceremony in Tampa, Fla. In the first few moments after taking command, he argued that the U.S. “must remain fiercely ...
While much of the Pentagon’s stated focus in the past few months has been about pivoting away from the Middle East to strategic competition with Russia and China, “the most immediate and credible threats to the American homeland” are still coming from the Middle East, ...
The U.S. and NATO are concerned about the reemergence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the need to rely on the Taliban to fight ISIS-Khorasan as talks with the Taliban restart and regional basing agreements are slow to come. Special Representative for Afghanistan Ambassador Thomas West ...
Three days after 13 Americans were killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, a U.S. Central Command strike cell in Qatar made a series of assumptions over the course of eight hours based on the intelligence available at the time, leading to the death ...
More than 53,000 Afghan evacuees remain at eight military bases throughout the continental U.S., but despite the resources needed to support that population, the military’s readiness has not been adversely affected, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said Oct. 25. Kirby did acknowledge the time ...
Afghans fleeing the Taliban in August concealed medical conditions ranging from battlefield wounds to high-risk pregnancies out of fear that doing so might cause U.S. military members to bar them from escaping Kabul. In response, Air Mobility Command provided medics and nurses, turning transports into ...
Constantly shifting strategies, an Afghan military built in the “mirror image” of U.S. forces, and poor intelligence are all lessons that American military leaders can take from 20 years of the Afghanistan War, top Pentagon officials said Sept. 28. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, ...
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall has ordered an investigation into the facts and circumstances related to the erroneous Kabul drone strike Aug. 29 that killed 10 civilians. The effort will be led by Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, who ...
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 13 and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Sept. 14, testifying for nearly a combined nine hours about the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended with scenes of chaos in ...
The building shook for only an instant and the soot from the smoke was clean within 48 hours, retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula recalled two decades after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. But America’s national security priorities had been lost in the fog ...
Capping his Gulf state tour in Kuwait, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III visited Marines present during the Aug. 26 Kabul airport attack and warned that Al-Qaida may emerge in the chaos now enveloping Afghanistan. “The whole community is kind of watching to see what ...
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken joined their counterparts in Qatar on Sept. 7 to acknowledge the transit and care of 58,000 evacuees from Afghanistan and to give a nod to the country’s strategic role in countering Iran ...