American commanders in the Pacific are keeping a close eye on North Korea amid reports that Pyongyang is preparing for a new round missile tests, to "demonstrate to the world" the country's status as a regional nuclear power. 

Afghanistan’s intelligence chief was badly wounded in a suspected suicide bombing assassination attempt in Kabul, according to reports.

Asadullah Khalid, head of National Directorate of Security, was attacked while he was at one of his guest houses in Kabul, the BBC reported.

The Taliban took credit for the attack on Khalid, a Taliban spokesman said, according to The Washington Post.

Crippling international sanctions against Iran spearheaded by the United States are increasingly creating diplomatic headaches for the Obama administration, a panel of national-security experts and former lawmakers and government officials warned in a new report Thursday.

The new report from the Iran Project, “Weighing Benefits and Costs of International Sanctions Against Iran,” comes as lawmakers are considering new sanctions on Iran's energy sector as part of House-Senate negotiations over defense legislation. It comes on the heels of a September report from the same group that weighed the pros and cons of military intervention to stop Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, which concluded that a U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities could have unintended consequences that would lead to all-out war.

“Differences with Russia, China and other countries — including India, Turkey and South Korea — have widened as more comprehensive sanctions take effect that aim to pressure Iran’s leaders by harming the civilian economy,” the report concludes. “Sanctions-related tensions among the United States and Russia and China have complicated U.S. efforts to achieve Security Council unity on international action in Libya and Syria.”

Any base there “will be an Afghan base with a U.S. component,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said.

The Topline: The defense industry does not know yet how much more the Pentagon budget will be cut when all is said and done on "the fiscal cliff."

But that didn’t stop the Aerospace Industries Association from projecting growth in 2013, despite the Pentagon budget cuts already on the books and the threat of the across-the-board cuts.

AIA CEO Marion Blakey said at the group’s annual year-end gathering Wednesday that she remained “optimistic” sequestration would still be averted, even as the AIA’s big red countdown clock flashed “27 days” behind her.

“Yes, I’m sure some of you are wondering, 'Did she factor in sequestration?' ” Blakey said. “No, guys, I didn’t. I’m an optimist, and we have to prevail.”

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The Obama administration is considering placing certain extremist factions of Syria's rebel fighters onto the State Department's official list of terrorist organizations, putting those factions on par with groups like al Qaeda and the Pakistani-based Haqqani Network. 

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Crippling sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector are a bonanza for Russia's oil and gas industries, a key lawmaker warned Wednesday.

Many countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are heavily reliant on imports for their energy needs. In the wake of U.S.-led sanctions aimed at Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, Russia has been filling the gap, the outgoing chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel on Europe and Eurasia said Wednesday.

“Sanctions are an essential tool in our continued attempts to isolate the Iranian regime,” Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) said at a hearing on the Iranian threat to the South Caucasus and surrounding region. “However, we must recognize that for many countries in this subcommittee's jurisdiction, decreasing consumption of Iranian energy means increasing consumption of Russian energy.

“Such a chain reaction is not in the national interest of the United States.”

“There’s good news for 2013 — yes, that may surprise you,” AIA CEO Marion Blakey said Wednesday.

The White House has ordered officials at the Pentagon to begin planning for the budget cuts from sequestration, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.