Operations

The unemployment rate for post-Sept. 11 veterans increased to 12.1 percent last year, up from 11.5 percent in 2010, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The 2011 unemployment rate for all veterans, however, declined to 8.3 percent from 8.7 percent in 2010, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Al Qaeda's Yemeni cell has claimed responsibility for the murder of an U.S citizen over the weekend, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and CNN. 

President Obama on Monday officially announced his picks to fill two key policy posts inside the Pentagon. 

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan will try to assuage lawmakers’ concerns this week after a rocky period for American and coalition forces in the country.

Gen. John Allen and Defense Department policy Undersecretary James Allen will appear before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, and its Senate counterpart on Thursday.

Allen and Central Command chief Gen. James Mattis will testify Wednesday before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Defense.

The Navy will double the number of mine-hunting ships patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway near Iran.

U.S. intelligence forces found information about the assassination plot in papers recovered after bin Laden's death.

An Afghan man stole a vehicle, drove it onto a runway and apparently set himself on fire at Camp Bastion Airfield.

A House Democrat is pressing the Pentagon to provide details on whether the Army soldier accused of killing unarmed Afghan civilians earlier this week suffered from traumatic brain injury. 

The GOP senator told reporters the administration's plan to possibly withdraw troops before 2014 "discourages our friends and encourages our enemies."

The president said he's taking the deaths "as seriously as if it was our own citizens ... who were murdered."