The startling announcement came the same day four Americans were killed during a rocket attack at Bagram Air Field.

Four American troops were killed Tuesday in an attack at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, a defense official said.

The U.S. troops were killed by indirect fire, which typically means weapons like rockets or mortars were fired indiscriminately from outside the perimeter, the official said.

The deaths occurred the same day as U.S. and NATO forces handed off the lead on combat operations to the Afghan security forces. The transition means that NATO troops will primarily play a supporting and advisory role to the Afghan National Security Forces.

Female candidates will also be able to join front-line Army and Marine Corps infantry units as part of the  decision.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) demanded Tuesday that the Pentagon end its contract with Rosoboronexport, a Russian arms dealer, because it is inadvertently harming Syrians.

“American taxpayers should not be indirectly subsidizing the murder of Syrians,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor. “If the Pentagon keeps this contract it will undermine U.S. support to the Syrian people.”

The Topline: The U.S. will soon begin direct peace talks with the Taliban after the Taliban established a new political office in Qatar on Tuesday.

The new peace talks with the U.S. and government of Afghanistan could be a key step in winding down the war on terror, although there’s plenty of skepticism over what the negotiations will accomplish.

President Obama said Tuesday that sitting down for peace talks was an important development, even as he warned that there would be “bumps in the road” in the process.

“This is an important first step towards reconciliation, although it's a very early step,” Obama said at the G8 summit Tuesday. “We anticipate there will be a lot of bumps in the road, but the fact that the parties have an opportunity to talk and discuss Afghanistan's future, I think, is very important.”

Republicans, however, were more pessimistic, and some said it was the wrong time to sit down with the Taliban.

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Sens. Bob Menendez, Carl Levin and John McCain are urging President Obama to take out Syria's air defenses.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) did not sound optimistic Tuesday that the Defense authorization bill would get on the floor soon after the July 4 recess.

“I’m hoping obviously for July, but I’m not sure that’s realistic,” Levin told reporters.

After July, Congress will go on a month-long recess in August, which would then push consideration of the sweeping Pentagon policy bill back until after Labor Day.

Republican senators on Tuesday said they were skeptical that anything would come from of the Taliban’s agreement to start peace talks with the United States and the Afghan government.

Several Republicans said the Obama administration had spoken with them about the agreement on Monday, before it was announced publicly, and they didn’t oppose the notion of talking.

But there was deep pessimism that the Taliban would be willing lay down arms until it’s defeated on the battlefield, and until the U.S. states what size force it will leave behind in Afghanistan after it fully transfers security control to the Afghans in 2014.

The plots included a previously undisclosed plan to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, NSA chief Keith Alexander said.