The targeted killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani the head of Iran's Quds Force refocused attention on Soleimani's legacy in Iraq, where sophisticated weapons and tactics he oversaw menaced U.S. troops for years, leaving a trail of dead and wounded service members.

The Pentagon said Friday that the military had transported 11 service members out of Iraq for treatment and assessments. U.S. military officials declined to say on Tuesday how many more are receiving care but said "additional" troops had been sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Nearly half of all Afghans want U.S. and NATO troops to leave Afghanistan once a peace deal to end the country's 18-year war is signed with the Taliban, according to a survey released Thursday.

The bulk of the brigade, which is made up of nearly 4,000 paratroopers, is expected to remain in Kuwait, at least for the time being, defense officials said. The brigade, which is specially trained to deploy on short notice, was rushed into the Middle East during the first week of 2020 as tensions increased with Iran.

Staff Sgt. Ian Paul McLaughlin, 29, of Newport News, Va., and Pfc. Miguel Angel Villalon, 21, of Joliet, Ill., died after an improvised explosive device struck their vehicle, said a news release from the 82nd Airborne Division.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is drafting sanctions legislation to hold Lebanese officials accountable for jailing an American citizen without any charges as his health takes a turn for the worse.

A U.S. drone strike in western Afghanistan earlier this month killed 15 civilians, including three women and three children, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission said in a report released Tuesday.

Over the past eight months, the United States has poured more than 20,000 additional troops into the Middle East to counter the escalating threat from Iran that peaked with the recent missile attack on American forces in Iraq.

“As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care,” said Navy Capt. Bill Urban.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said Thursday his country has become "an oasis of security and stability" under his rule, amid reports of a new clampdown on dissent in the lead-up to the eighth anniversary of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising.

Seventy-five years after Auschwitz was liberated, Maurice Gluck is one of 75 Holocaust survivors featured in a commemorative photo project that Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial produced along with award-winning German portrait photographer Martin Schoeller.

Vice President Mike Pence announced the invitation at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after addressing an international forum on the Holocaust.

The Taliban ambushed and killed an Afghan intelligence official in southern Helmand province as he was walking home from work while a roadside bombing in the country's north killed a military commander and his bodyguard, officials said Thursday.

Speaker by speaker, world leaders on Thursday denounced the rising threat of anti-Semitism and vowed never to forget the lessons of the Holocaust at a solemn ceremony in Jerusalem marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Auschwitz death camp.

Maj. Gen. Brian Mennes, the division’s commander, will lead the deployment. In a statement, Mennes called the 10th Mountain the “most deployed in the Army.”

The Israeli military said its soldiers killed three Palestinians who crossed the Gaza border fence and threw an explosive device at troops on Tuesday.

Ukraine plans to send 20 troops to Iraq to support the NATO training mission once the alliance resumes the work it put on hold as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in recent weeks.

The U.S. and Taliban leaders are close to reaching a peace deal that would see the eventual withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and an end to the conflict that is now in its 19th year, according to the militant group’s spokesman and a person familiar with the talks in Washington.

Lebanon's new government made of appointees nominated by the Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies got down to business Wednesday, a day after it was formed. Questions arose immediately about its ability to halt spiraling violence and economic and financial collapse.

United Nations experts said the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was possibly involved in hacking the cellphone of Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and have called for an investigation.

At least two soldiers were thrown through the window of a meters-high tower, and several dozen U.S. troops were later treated for concussion as a result of the Iranian missile strikes at al Asad Air Base, military officials on the base said.

The Defense Logistics Agency, which oversees the contract, estimated to be worth about $138 million per year, communicated its decision in a series of letters sent to potential bidders shortly before the holidays.

The U.N. envoy to Iraq urged Iraqi political elites to resume pushing for reforms and for protests to remain peaceful.

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. officials have routinely lied to the public during the 18-year war by exaggerating progress reports and inflating statistics to create a false appearance of success.

Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that its armed forces fired two Russian anti-aircraft missiles at a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed after taking off from Tehran's main airport earlier this month, killing all 176 people on board.

U.S. officials had been discussing pulling out of some Iraqi bases to consolidate the American and allied troop presence in the country, but conflict with Iran and calls from Baghdad for foreign troops to withdraw have left those plans in limbo.

Iran's supreme leader lashed out at Western countries as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time in eight years, dismissing “American clowns” who he said pretend to support the Iranian nation but want to stick their "poisoned dagger” into its back.

In a tweet Friday night, President Donald Trump responded to name-calling by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe... He should be very careful with his words!"

Analysis

The Islamic Republic has been reeling from one crisis to another, from the targeted killing by the United States of its top general to the Revolutionary Guard's accidental shootdown of a passenger plane carrying scores of young people, most of them Iranians. U.S. sanctions have crippled its economy as tensions with America have soared.

Lebanese security forces used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets in clashes with hundreds of anti-government demonstrators outside the country’s Parliament on Sunday as violence continued to escalate in a week of rioting in the capital.

Israel destroyed a series of what it said were attack tunnels last year, dug under the border by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The group battled Israel to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006.

Local Afghan officials said the family was accused by the Taliban of working in prostitution. The insurgents sentenced them to death for immoral acts, then stormed the house and opened fire.

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in Beirut Saturday to disperse thousands of protesters amid some of the worst rioting since demonstrations against the country's ruling elite erupted three months ago. More than 150 people were injured.

Iran will send the black box flight recorders from the Ukrainian jetliner that it accidentally shot down last week to Ukraine for further analysis, an Iranian official said Saturday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday his government will give $19,122 to families of each of the 57 citizens and 29 permanent residents of Canada who perished in the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner in Iran last week.

Two protesters were killed and over a dozen wounded in central Baghdad on Friday in renewed violence between anti-government demonstrators and Iraqi security forces, activists and officials said. The deaths followed weeks of calm.

A car bombing has killed three Turkish soldiers in a Turkish-controlled area in northern Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry said.

European countries have troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, where they mainly operate alongside much larger U.S. deployments. Iran is allied with powerful armed groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Taliban and American negotiators are meeting in Qatar.

A senior Hezbollah official warned Friday that Lebanon could fall into chaos and "complete collapse" unless a new government is formed.

The offer is seen as an opportunity to open a window to an eventual peace deal that would allow the United States to bring home its estimated 13,000 troops and end the 18-year war in Afghanistan, America's longest conflict.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed assurances Thursday from Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter that he would stick to a cease-fire as world powers prepare to gather in Berlin for a summit on the North African nation's future.

The U.S. military is resuming operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and is working to soon restart training Iraqi forces, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Iran's top diplomat acknowledged Wednesday that Iranians “were lied to" for days after the Islamic Republic accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner. The admission came as new surveillance footage purported to show two surface-to-air missiles 20 seconds apart shred the airplane and kill all 176 people aboard.

The Israeli military said an attack helicopter struck a Hamas target in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday in response to the launch of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory earlier in the day.

Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group have killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels, an Iraqi army official said Thursday.

Iran's president said Thursday that there is "no limit" to the country's enrichment of uranium following its decision to abandon its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal in response to the killing of its top general in a U.S. airstrike.

Iraq's outgoing prime minister said Wednesday it was up to the next government to see through parliament's decision to oust U.S. troops.

Israeli authorities demolished homes in Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem at a significantly higher rate in 2019 than the previous year, according to an Israeli advocacy group.

In Syria's civil war, girls as young as nine have been raped and forced into sexual slavery. Boys have been tortured, forced into military training and ordered to carry out killings in public. Children have been targeted by sniper fire and used as bargaining chips to extract ransoms.

One official said some joint operations between the U.S. and Iraqi forces have already begun, but there are not yet as many as before. Relations with Iraq were fractured after the U.S. launched a drone strike near Baghdad's international airport on Jan. 3 that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Dozens of people rallied outside the Lebanese Interior Ministry denouncing what they said was the systematic use of force against members of the media. Many raised photos of journalists getting beaten by riot police.

Search teams aided by Pakistani troops pulled out 21 more bodies from homes destroyed by this week's avalanches in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, raising the overall death toll due to severe winter weather to 160 for Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

Egypt’s military says one of its fighter jets crashed in the Sinai Peninsula where the country's forces have been battling militants and that the pilot was killed. The Islamic State group claimed it downed the aircraft.

Israel's military said Wednesday that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four rockets at southern Israel. Two were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Iran has promised severe revenge for the U.S.’s killing of Qassem Soleimani, the country’s powerful military commander. Across the Middle East, these threats of confrontation have put on high alert the bases, ports and other installations where U.S. troops are based or pass through.

A U.S. drone strike killed a regional leader of a breakaway faction of the Taliban in western Afghanistan Wednesday and may have killed several civilians, officials and militants said.

In addition to the trio of Silver Stars — the military’s third-highest personal award for combat bravery — officials also presented seven Bronze Stars for valor and 17 Army Commendation medals.

Two U.S. service members were killed and two U.S. service members were wounded in action Saturday when their vehicle struck an IED in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Twenty-two American service members were killed in Afghanistan in 2019, the highest number since NATO combat operations in the country ended at the end of 2014.

Also up for consideration is whether a board will allow retired Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn to receive a Distinguished Service Cross that had been approved before he came under investigation in the 2010 death of a suspected Taliban bomb maker in Afghanistan.

U.S. troops have curtailed some operations in Iraq in recent months over concerns of a heightened threat of attack from Iranian proxy groups who operate in the country.

The new deployment will include roughly 3,000 82nd Airborne Division soldiers who were placed on prepare-to-deploy orders earlier this week amid growing tensions in Iraq between the United States and Iran.

Iranian police and security forces fired both live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the Islamic Republic's initial denial that it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, online videos purported to show Monday.

Families of almost 150 U.S. service members and civilians who were killed or wounded in terror attacks in Afghanistan sued a group of Western contractors involved in the nation's reconstruction for allegedly bribing the Taliban for protection for years.

The rapid deployment, which adds to the nearly 14,000 troops that have deployed to the region to deter Iranian threats since this summer, comes after mobs waving militia flags stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Analysis

The July 3, 1988 downing of Iran Air flight 655 by the U.S. Navy remains one of the moments the Iranian government points to in its decades-long distrust of America.

The strike targeting Abdul Reza Shahlai, a financier and key commander of Iran's elite Quds Force who has been active in Yemen, did not result in his death, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Iraq’s government has made no formal request that American forces leave its country, despite a nonbinding vote Sunday to expel U.S. and other troops after the Pentagon killed a top Iranian commander in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday.

Taliban suicide bombers blasted an under-construction hospital in a bid to reach nearby Bagram Airfield as insurgents tried to storm the base, triggering a battle throughout the day that left at least two Afghan civilians dead and 80 injured Wednesday.

President Donald Trump said no American troops were injured or killed in an attack Tuesday night by Iran, which launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases hosting American troops in retaliation for the United States killing one of Iran’s top military leaders.

In the darkest of darkness, surrounded by a glass-smooth sea an American voice reads a statement over a VHF radio frequency primarily used for international distress calls. "Sécurité, sécurité, sécurité... If you observe any suspicious or illegal activity, or require assistance, contact the nearest coalition warship."

European politicians on Friday warned of the potential for a violent blowback after the United States killed Iran's top military commander, a move they worried could also further strain a troubled transatlantic relationship and deal a death blow to the ailing Iran nuclear deal.

As leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani bore responsibility for Iran's clandestine operations overseas, quietly extending the military reach of Iran deep into foreign conflicts like those in Syria and Iraq.

“While the Russian ship took action, the initial delay in complying with international rules while it was making an aggressive approach increased the risk of collision,” the U.S. Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

“Heightened military activity and increased political tensions in this region continue to pose serious threats to commercial vessels,” the U.S. said in a maritime warning.

Details about why Iran air defense forces mistook a Ukrainian airliner for a cruise missile remain murky, but one thing is clear: Safeguards for operating surface-to-air missiles are supposed to prevent that kind of mistaken identity and all of them failed.

Analysis

When Iraq's prime minister declared a final victory over Islamic State in December 2017, he paid tribute to the militias that had repelled the jihadists. Many of them had been guided by Qassem Soleimani.

The funeral procession for Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani began Saturday in Baghdad, where he was killed a day earlier by a drone strike. The next stops for his body were the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, sites that Shiite Muslims revere.

Video

The Pentagon on Tuesday sent some 100 Marines to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to bolster security after Iraqi Shiite protesters enraged by American airstrikes on Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria breached the compound, U.S. officials said.

Iran's Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said “some individuals" were arrested after “extensive investigations." His statement on the judiciary's website did not say how many people had been detained or name those arrested.

“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing [Qassem] Soleimani,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”