Under fire and carrying a badly wounded patient, the Black Hawk helicopter was just lifting off an Afghan battlefield when the crew chief saw an Army Ranger in the landing zone get shot and drop to the ground. The Black Hawk darted back to evacuate the fallen Ranger in the face of enemy fire. There was more danger to come that day.

President Donald Trump's National Security Council asked for military options on striking Iran in response to that country's support of insurgents in Iraq, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

American diplomats are upbeat despite the government shutdown that has left many of them working without pay, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday.

Pompeo said he signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar regarding the expansion and renovation of al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military's Central Command and some 10,000 American troops.

Taliban militants have accelerated attacks across Afghanistan in a show of strength as the U.S. pushes forward with negotiations to end the 17-year-long war.

The United States has begun removing military cargo from Syria, though no American troops have withdrawn yet from the war-torn country, U.S. military officials said Friday, providing few details.

President Donald Trump's warning that if Turkey attacks U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, the United States will "devastate Turkey economically" has drawn a sharp response from Ankara and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman.

On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News before departing from Cairo that an international conference on Iran and the Middle East will take place Feb. 13-14 in Poland.

Thursday's attack by a bomb-laden drone targeted a military parade at the Al-Anad Air Base near Aden, killing at least six people.

Afghanistan, long embroiled in conflict, has focused for the past 18 years on security and reconstruction at the expense of issues affecting the environment, according to current and former environmental officials.

Despite Turkey's vows to the contrary, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday he was confident the two nations can agree on a way to protect U.S.-allied Kurdish rebels in Syria after American troops withdraw from the country.

A Saudi asylum seeker who fled alleged abuse by her family is leaving Bangkok on Friday and will fly to Canada, Thailand's immigration police chief said.

In a statement, Joanne White said her son, Michael White, 46, has medical issues and should be released so he can get help.

Such incidents are common in Afghanistan, especially during the bitterly cold winters.

Gulf Arab nations, once the main backers of rebels trying to oust Assad, are lining up to reopen their embassies in Syria.

Ali Akbar Salehi's comment on state television Sunday increases the pressure on the international community, as 20 percent enrichment would mean Iran has abandoned the terms of the 2015 atomic accord.

Coupled with the announcement that Israel was wrapping up its operation to destroy Hezbollah's tunnel network into Israel, the weekend strike in Syria is widely seen as Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot's "parting shot" as his four-year tenure as military chief ends.

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, no U.S. ambassador was there to welcome him. The post has been vacant for nine months, because the Republican donor President Donald Trump chose for the job hasn't been approved by the Senate.

Artillery shelling by government forces pounded parts of the northwestern Idlib province on Saturday, thwarting an infiltration attempt by militants as tension rises in the region following victories by al-Qaida-linked militants against Turkey-backed opposition fighters, Syria's state news agency reported.

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered Saturday for the funeral of a woman killed by Israeli forces at a protest near the perimeter fence, this year's first fatality from the weekly mass demonstrations.

Gaza's ruling Hamas said Saturday that Israeli undercover forces had attempted to install equipment to monitor the Islamic militant group's landline communications network during a botched mission in November.

Egypt's interior Ministry says security forces have killed six Islamic militants in a raid on their desert hideout south of the capital Cairo.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian woman during mass protests on the Gaza frontier Friday, according to Palestinian medics, and the Israeli military said aircraft struck two Hamas posts in response to the violent demonstrations.

Two Marines and a Navy corpsman deployed to northern Iraq are being investigated in connection with the death of a U.S. contractor last week, according to media reports describing the latest in a series of incidents and allegations of misconduct involving special operations troops.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, said Wednesday they had captured U.S. citizen Soulay Noah Su, 16, who had been going by the alias Abu Souleiman al-Amriki.

Fifteen American servicemembers were killed in Afghanistan in 2018 as the longest war in U.S. history began its 18th year in October.

Afghanistan's national security adviser was in Beijing on Thursday as part of a push by his beleaguered nation for help in ending its 17-year-old war with the Taliban.

State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Tuesday that the Trump administration will continue to pursue the work of Anthony Zinni, a former commander of U.S. Central Command who retired from the Marine Corps in 2000.

Military officials are refuting reports that civilians were harmed in a coalition airstrike on an Islamic State-held village in eastern Syria last week, while observers have warned of diminished transparency in the anti-ISIS campaign.

An attack Thursday by Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels that killed at least six people shows how the Arab world's poorest country has become one of the world's top battlefields for drones.

Afghanistan's new interior minister has started the long process of cleaning up the nation's police force. It's a small step, but one that has resonated with Afghans and is indicative of the moves President Ashraf Ghani has made in an attempt to unify the fractured country.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of the Obama administration's Mideast policies on Thursday, accusing the former president of "misguided" and "wishful" thinking that diminished America's role in the region, harmed its longtime friends and emboldened its main foe: Iran.

An al-Qaida-linked coalition in Syria cemented its hold on the last major rebel stronghold in the country after Turkey-backed opposition groups accepted a surrender deal that effectively gives to the extremists control of the entire region in northwestern Syria, opposition activists and a war monitor said Thursday.

Weeks after shocking Pentagon leaders with plans to leave Syria, the Trump administration still has not forged a clear path for how it intends to withdraw U.S. troops from the country, several senators said Thursday.

After winning nearly a third of the seats in parliamentary elections last year, the Shiite militias, including several ideologically aligned with Iran, are enjoying unprecedented military and political power in Iraq.

Israel has failed to overcome U.S. objections to its plan to sell 12 used fighter jets to Croatia and the $500 million deal will likely be canceled, Croatia's defense minister said Thursday.

It was a cold and gusty day in December when the army came to the Bzeibiz camp and told families displaced by the war against the Islamic State group that it was time to go home.

Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday called U.S. officials "first-class idiots," mocking American leaders as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured the Mideast to promote the White House's tough stance on Iran.

Turkey’s presidential spokesman said Turkey would not seek permission from its allies to conduct a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters but was willing to coordinate operations.

The Dubai-based conglomerate Anham FZCO, is barred from applying for future opportunities with the U.S. government after its former chief executive was charged with fraud in relation to an $8 billion troop supply contract.

The attack at the Al-Anad Air Base, where American special forces once led their fight against Yemen's al-Qaida branch, targeted high-ranking military officials in Yemen's internationally recognized government with what the rebel Houthis described as a new version of one of their drones.

The New York Times reported Monday that Michael R. White was detained while visiting his Iranian girlfriend last summer. His mother, Joanne White, told the newspaper she had filed a missing person report with the State Department in July.

Turkey's foreign minister says a planned Turkish military offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria doesn't depend on whether the United States withdraws its troops from the region.

Iran confirmed Wednesday it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison in the country, making him the first American known to be detained under President Donald Trump's administration.

The U.S. military is drafting plans to withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan while continuing all major missions in the longest war in American history, U.S. officials said, three weeks after President Donald Trump sought options for a more drastic pullout.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought Wednesday to reassure U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria that they will be safe after American troops withdraw from the country.

What to do with hundreds of foreign Islamic State fighters captured in Syria has become a critical and growing problem for the Trump administration as it prepares to pull troops out of the country.

The Afghan president's special peace envoy expressed hope Wednesday that the war that has ravaged this country for over 17 years and cost the United States about $1 trillion will end in 2019.

President Donald Trump's shifting timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Syria has left allies and other players in the region confused and jockeying for influence over a withdrawal strategy that appeared to be a work in progress.

The government's treatment of Saud al-Qahtani is being closely watched in Washington and other foreign capitals as a test of whether Saudi Arabia is sincere about prosecuting everyone found to be involved.

President Donald Trump's national security adviser sought to reassure allies Sunday that the United States would be methodical about withdrawing troops from Syria, promising that the pullout would not occur until the Islamic State was fully eradicated from the country and Turkey could guarantee the safety of Kurdish fighters.

Speaking to The Associated Press from northern Syria on Monday, Badran Ciya Kurd said the Kurds have not been informed of any change in the U.S. position and were in the dark about the latest comments by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and what they indicated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that it would be “unjust” for him to be indicted ahead of early elections called for April 9.

Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun began posting on Twitter late Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan's western Badghis province, the provincial governor's spokesman says eight security force members were killed in two Taliban attacks late Sunday.

Along with those killed, dozens also were injured as a landslide and a flash flood engulfed the river in the morning in Kohistan district, an area about 68 miles from Fayzabad, the capital of Badakhshan.

During his first Cabinet meeting of the year, President Donald Trump said it was "insane" that the government watchdogs tasked with exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the Afghanistan war release their reports to the public.

The sudden American decision to pull out its 2,000 troops has forced a reassessment of old alliances and partnerships.

Comments mark the first public confirmation that the drawdown has been slowed, as Trump faced widespread criticism from allies and the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton are hoping their trips to the Middle East can help shore up support from America's partners amid increasing tensions in the region.

With a stray remark, President Donald Trump snuffed out a plan from his national security adviser, John Bolton, who this fall vowed that the United States would not leave Syria "as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders."

The U.S. Army's chief of staff made a surprise visit to the capital Kabul where he met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to discuss prospects for a peaceful end to the country's 17-year war, the United States' longest.

The GPS device worn by Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Saudi Arabian national living in the United States on a government scholarship and awaiting a trial on a manslaughter charge, had been cut near a sand and gravel facility in town. About a year later, the Saudi government confirmed that Noorah had made it out of the United States and back to Saudi Arabia, despite having no passport.

The Pentagon has denied in a report to Congress that U.S. personnel in Yemen who interrogated Yemeni detainees for information about potential terrorist threats had witnessed or were complicit in torture or other mistreatment of any detainee.

The State Department chief contended Tuesday that the planned withdrawal from Syria would not complicate the administration’s anti-Iran campaign. He said U.S. allies in the region, including Jordan, agree on what they view as the “enormous risk” Iran poses for the region.

A top Syrian Kurdish official said Tuesday his fighters are prepared to confront Turkish forces if they enter northeastern Syria, adding that it's clear from Ankara's latest statements that Turkey has a plan to invade the region.

The talks are likely to be contentious, as Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its borders, and has threatened to mount a campaign against the groups.

Arens was born in Lithuania but grew up in the United States, where he served in the military during World War II.

The exchange marked a brief flare up two months after a massive wave of rocket attacks led to fierce Israeli retaliation and nearly brought the region toward another war.

British special forces are known to be on the ground in northern Syria although the British government does not provide details about their presence.

It came just two days before the Orthodox Coptic Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians, celebrates Christmas.

Her death came shortly after a Palestinian assailant killed two Israelis in a nearby settlement, raising the possibility of a revenge attack.

Egypt's president has told CBS that his country and Israel, with whom it fought four wars, are cooperating against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula, a startling and potentially damaging acknowledgment that could explain the Egyptian government's request that the network not air the interview.

Talks are ongoing between the Syrian government in Damascus and Kurdish officials to reach a deal on how to fill the gap following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, a Syrian Kurdish official said Saturday.

An Afghan official says at least seven border police officers were killed when their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents in southern Kandahar province.

Erasing the U.S. footprint in Syria would be a delicate task. Done haphazardly, it could devolve into chaos, giving the Islamic State jihadis the space, the recruits and the material to rise back up.

Syria's state news agency and activists say an airstrike on a village held by the Islamic State group in the country's east has left at least 10 people dead including four children.

An American airstrike earlier this week targeted an al-Qaida operative accused of involvement in the attack nearly two decades ago on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors, a U.S. military spokesman said Friday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will host the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan for a meeting geared toward bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Two days of fighting in rebel-held parts of northern Syria killed dozens of people as al-Qaida-linked militants press their offensive against Turkey-backed rebels, a war monitor and activists said Wednesday.

Israel's regional cooperation minister said Israel is ready to move ahead with a multibillion dollar project with Jordan to pipe water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, an idea that's been on the drawing board for years.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iran on Thursday to scuttle its plans to launch satellites into space that the United States said could be used to carry intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

A group of about 60 Mississippi Army National Guard soldiers are leaving Jackson to deploy to Afghanistan.

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The challenges in sustaining the country’s police force, underscore some of Afghanistan’s deep dependencies on its foreign backers. Some analysts say it could take decades before the country’s defense and security forces can operate without substantial support from abroad.

A new Justice Ministry regulation taking effect Sunday will make it mandatory for women to be notified by text message when a court issues divorce decrees , Saudi lawyer Nisreen al-Ghamdi said.

Iraq's prime minister is weighing whether to accept the resignation of his education minister after allegations surfaced online that her brother had been a senior figure in the Islamic State's de facto capital of Mosul.

Five Palestinian factions are forming a new political body in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the political duopoly of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and the Islamic movement Hamas.