A US military investigation has recommended disciplinary actions against culprits involved in the Quran burning incident in Afghanistan early this year, the Pentagon has said.
Biden's authorisation of 5,000 troops in his statement on Saturday included 1,000 who are already on the ground in Afghanistan, according to a defence official. A battalion of 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division were redirected to Kabul, instead of their original standby position in Kuwait.
Dr S Amer Latif, a senior Pentagon policy wonk, on leave as a Visiting Fellow with the Wadhwani Chair in United States-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies -- a leading Washington, DC think tank -- has said the civilian bureaucracy with the Indian ministry of defense "is a significant impediment to close US-India military ties."
The US intends first to cripple the Afghan government financially through sanctions, freezing of assets, denial of access to international banking, etc, and then proceed to do pretty much what it wants to do with scant regard for Afghanistan's sovereignty, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Slated to be in India on December 8, Carter would travel to Japan, Bahrain, Israel, Italy and Great Britain before returning to the US on December 16. This is for the first time that an outgoing American Defence Secretary has included India in his itinerary for the final overseas trip.
The Taliban knows that Washington holds the key, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
United States forces are poised to deploy pint-sized drones, small enough to fit into soldier's rucksack, but packed with tiny explosive warheads enough to blast targets with pinpoint accuracy.
The United States has said it will share with India transparently the results of its probe into the naval ship shooting incident that killed an Indian fisherman in the United Arab Emirates waters, even as the survivors disputed the Pentagon's claim that they were forewarned.
The Pentagon insisted that the United States naval ship had issued several warning to a fishing boat in the Persian Gulf before it fired shots killing an Indian fisherman and injuring three others.
Democratic Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi condemned Trump's reported habit of affecting an Indian accent to imitate Modi.
North Korea on Friday launched an ICBM for the second time in a month.
Top American Senators have asked Pentagon to develop a closer defence relationship with India, while emphasising that it is in the interest of both the US and India to continue building a strategic and military culture of cooperation between the two countries.
'If the Chinese are bringing Pakistan more 'behind the curtain,' in terms of intelligence and military cooperation, it will be tailored to their common interests like confronting India over territorial disputes'
Top Pentagon leaders have warned US lawmakers against including their "pet projects" in the annual defence budget, particularly at a time when it is struggling to save money in view of the tough economic environment.
The growing influence of the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon in shaping relations with Pakistan was a key reason behind United States Ambassador Cameron Munter's decision to quit his post, the media in Islamabad claimed on Wednesday.
In a fresh jolt to United States-Pakistan ties, the Pentagon on Monday said it is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan for a "short period of time", after talks failed to lift the six-month blockade of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes to war-torn Afghanistan.
The US military fired an intercontinental ballistic missile-type weapon on Tuesday from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It then fired a missile to intercept it from Vandenberg air force base in California.
The United States and Afghanistan have completed their joint fact-finding investigation into the incident of desecration of the Quran by US soldiers last month, the Pentagon has said.
The Japanese government warned the people in northern Japan to prepare for a potential incoming missile from Pyongyang.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had shared with Pakistan in recent years the indications of Islamabad's "complicity" with extremist groups, renewing top United States commander Admiral Mike Mullen's allegations that Inter-Services Intelligence was conniving with the Haqqani network in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is refusing to participate in the United States-led probe into North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead along the Afghanistan border last week, the Pentagon has said.
The United States is set to unveil its new defence strategy on Thursday that will guide Pentagon budget cuts in coming years and is expected to end the decade-old policy of maintaining a force capable of fighting two wars at once.
Praising India's "constructive" role in the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, the Pentagon in a report told the United States Congress that New Delhi has now expressed an interest to help strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces.
The debris from China's disintegrating Long March rocket entered the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday and reportedly fell into the Indian Ocean area close to the Maldives, the country's space agency said, ending an anxious week as people and the governments wondered where and when the space junk would fall.
Having lost out on the multi-billion Indian Air Force contract, the Pentagon said American fighter jets -- F16 and F18 -- would have provided India unbeatable platforms with proven technologies at a competitive price.
The United States has announced the end of its 20-year-old war in Afghanistan as the last American military flight flew out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul shortly before the August 31 deadline.
Observing that its relationship with New Delhi and Islamabad is not a zero sum game and that it values ties with both, the Pentagon said safe havens that exist in Pakistan are still an obstacle to ultimate success in Afghanistan.
A high degree of mistrust continues to strain the bilateral relationship between India and China, the Pentagon has informed the United States Congress. New Delhi remains concerned by China's close military ties with Pakistan and its growing footprint in the Indian Ocean, Central Asia and Africa, Pentagon said in its annual report.
'Everybody spies on their friends as well as their enemies. That's the way the world works these days'
The US has deployed its elite counter-terrorism unit Delta Force for covert operations in Iraq to capture or kill high-ranking Islamic State operatives and gather intelligence, according to a media report.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her American counterpart James Mattis reviewed ongoing initiatives to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
The United States has decided to suspend its military aid to Pakistan following Islamabad's request for a "significant cutback" of American military trainers on its soil, the Pentagon said on Sunday. "A series of events over the last eight months have affected our bilateral relations. As a result, the Pakistan Army has requested a significant cutback of US military trainers, and limited our ability to obtain visas," said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan.
The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
Amid growing tension between the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan, United States has said it had not sought or received any assurances from the Pakistani army that it would not stage a coup.
US Special Forces have moved into Syria's Raqqa area and taking the fight to the terror group.
The defence ministry is finalising a decision to allow the FGM-148 Javelin missile, built by US companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, into a contest to supply the Indian Army with anti-tank guided missiles. This is bad news for Israelis
The Pentagon has ruled out media coverage of a ceremony marking the return of 30 US soldiers, including 22 Navy SEALs, who were killed when the helicopter they were travelling in was shot down in Afghanistan.
In a scathing indictment of Pakistan for continuing to host terrorist safe havens within its borders, United States Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, took strong issue with senior Pentagon officials.
The abduction and the subsequent murder of noted Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad might have been approved by the Pakistan government, a top United States military leader said on Friday.
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