Iranian-backed terror groups are strengthening their ties to transnational criminal groups in South America and are working to expand their influence in the region, according to a top U.S. general.

“Iran is very engaged in the region,” Southern Command chief Gen. Douglas Fraser told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Iranian terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are involved in a number of “illicit activities” likely tied to the regional drug trade, according to Fraser.

“We do see evidence of international terrorist groups benefitting from ... illicit trafficking and money laundering” in South America, he said in a written statement to the panel. Specifically, both groups regularly look to South America to finance their operations in the Middle East through “licit avenues such as charitable donations, and illicit means, including trafficking in drugs, counterfeit and pirated goods,” according to Fraser.

A new poll shows that U.S. public opinion is divided when it comes to how the United States should react to an Israeli attack on Iran.

The New York Times-CBS News poll released Monday evening found that 47 percent of respondents say the United States should support Israel if it were to attack Iran to prevent it from getting nuclear weapons, while 42 percent say Washington should not get involved.

“He said, ‘Go,’ knowing his presidency was on the line," the vice president said at a fundraiser in Georgetown.

The petition aims to counter efforts by liberal groups to force the controversial talk-radio host off the Armed Forces Network.

Panetta said the Army staff sergeant and alleged killer would face a U.S. military court where execution was an option.

Rep. Jones introduced a resolution making it an impeachable offense for the president to authorize military strikes without congressional approval.

The administration’s renewed commitment to its strategy in Afghanistan comes as the public’s support for the war is deteriorating.

Obama called Sunday's shooting of Afghan civilians "absolutely heartbreaking and tragic" but said troops are fulfilling a mission.

A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Monday urging the Pentagon to end its relationship with a Russian arms firm that provides weapons to Syria.

The 17 senators said the Pentagon should stop doing business with Rosoboronexport, a Russian company that has a Defense contract supplying helicopters to the Afghan army.

They wrote that Russia reportedly sold Syria $1 billion worth of arms in 2011, and continued shipments this year in the midst of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on opposition forces.