Operations

Al Qaeda's dangerous Western African cell is looking to gain a foothold in the Northern African country of Tunisia, in an attempt to expand on gains made by the terror cell in Mali and elsewhere on the continent, a top U.S. general said Tuesday. 

North Korea said Wednesday it was shuttering a military hotline with South Korea as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate amid repeated threats from Pyongyang.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said South Korea had been informed Wednesday that the North would no longer use the direct line of communication, after two others were also shut off in recent weeks.

"Under the situation where a war may break out at any moment, there is no need to keep north-south military communications which were laid between the militaries of both sides," KCNA quoted a military spokesman as saying, according to Reuters.

The Navy SEAL who reportedly killed al Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden was dismissed from the Pentagon's elite SEAL Team 6 shortly after the infamous operation and was not actually the sailor who fired the fatal shots during the May 2011 raid. 

North Korea's recent posturing and threats of military action will "achieve nothing" except to further inflame tensions on the peninsula and increasingly isolate the country's regime within the international community, according to the Pentagon. 

An American drone strike late Thursday killed four individuals in western Pakistan's restive tribal regions, an area known as a safe haven for a number of Pakistani-based terror groups, according to recent reports. 

Hackers who carry out cyberattacks as part of a coordinated military campaign can be targeted as legitimate combatants, even if those individuals are civilian, according to a new NATO cyber warfare handbook.

U.S. and coalition forces are focusing their efforts on provinces in eastern Afghanistan, in what will likely be the final fighting season for American troops in the over decade-long conflict. 

An amendment to a $984 billion Senate government funding bill that would have stripped funds from the Defense Department's drop-in biofuels program failed by a 40-59 vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey's (R-Pa.) amendment aimed to shift $60 million from the Defense biofuels effort to the department's operations and management budget.

The measure continued a fight between some defense- and budget-minded conservatives and Democrats and Midwest Republicans whose states host sizable biofuel operations.

A rocket containing chemical materials has reportedly been used in the Syrian conflict for the first time.

Seven Marines were killed and several others were injured during a training exercise Monday night at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, the Marine Corps said in a statement Tuesday.

“We send our prayers and condolences to the families of Marines involved in this tragic incident. We remain focused on ensuring that they are supported through this difficult time,” Marine Expeditionary Force commander Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox said in a statement. “We mourn their loss, and it is with heavy hearts we remember their courage and sacrifice.”