The ISIS official known by the pseudonym Abu al-Ward al-Iraqi was killed along with another militant who officials have not yet identified during the raid in Deir al-Zour province on Jan. 14, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said.

The arrest of ISIS mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was announced by the Iraqi government’s security media cell in a statement Thursday.

The 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron’s jets arrived just hours after a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad killed a top Iranian general in early January.

Army Green Beret Master Sgt. Nathan Goodman died Tuesday during military freefall training in Arizona, officials said. The incident occurred during routine training near Eloy, Ariz., U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer said in a statement.

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.

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.

2020 VISION

Marines will likely get greater clarity in the coming months on the commandant’s bold new vision for a leaner and meaner force to fight near-peers like China and Russia in contested waters and on coastlines.

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.

The streets of Irbil, an Iraqi city of more than 1 million people, were noticeably empty throughout the day after the Iranian missiles struck. Residents were staying home out of fear of additional strikes, said a traffic officer in the suburb of Ankawa.

President Donald Trump again threatened to strike Iran in response to any attack on American targets for the second night in a row Sunday as rockets again fell on an area of Baghdad near where the U.S. Embassy is located.

On Twitter, President Donald Trump said 52 Iranian sites 'will be hit very hard and very fast' if the country strikes American personnel or assets in response to the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed Friday by a U.S. airstrike.

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq has suspended training with government security forces and bolstered security at bases in the wake of a deadly strike that killed Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leaders, a military official said Saturday.

Pfc. Patrick Giannone, 19, from Spotsylvania, Va., was an information technology specialist assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

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.

The U.S. military struck five facilities used by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria blamed for a rocket attack that killed an American contractor.

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.

Col. Matthew W. Brown, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division wished troops in Nineveh province happy holidays on Wednesday and Thursday and presented them with awards, handed out coins and gathered feedback.

Donning Santa hats and riding in Chinooks instead of sleighs, a combined military mission delivered holiday cheer to U.S. troops at several austere camps on what one general called the “outside edge” of America’s military footprint in eastern Syria.

The U.S. is temporarily halting a program under which bomb-sniffing dogs were sent to countries in the Middle East after a report released Friday found at least five more of the specially trained dogs had died in Jordan and Egypt following poor care, mistreatment or negligence.

A young Marine once “hacked” then-Maj. Gen. Jim Mattis’s computer and sent an email from the two-star’s account to a female Marine that the private first class had a crush on, the former defense secretary told a crowd at a luncheon Wednesday near his hometown.

Initially given a 30% chance of survival after being injured in Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Ryan Davis has battled through blood clots, infections and amputations. The theft of his family's truck and other belongings threatened to make an already bad year worse — until police recovered everything.

Militants in Bahrain have obtained sophisticated bomb components like those Iran has allegedly been supplying to Houthi rebels in Yemen, researchers have found.

America’s future enlisted leaders will need to couple the ability to bring violence to bear on the country’s enemies with a range of new skills, such as diplomacy and countering disinformation campaigns, the Pentagon’s outgoing top enlisted advisor said.

The United States is offering a $15 million reward for information on Abdul Reza Shahlai, a top Iranian commander who allegedly planned attacks against U.S. and allied forces, including a 2007 raid in Iraq that killed five American soldiers.

With political campaigns ramping up and presidential impeachment efforts underway, the Marine Corps issued a reminder about what political activities its members can engage in legally, including what’s acceptable to tweet, “gram” and otherwise share on social media.

Titled “Brave for My Family,” the book tells the story of the Christmas six years ago that young Davidson Whetstone spent with his father, Dave, who was recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after being wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade blast in Afghanistan.

Spc. Ezra Maes spent four months in intensive care undergoing near daily surgeries and battling an infection. He’s now assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion and undergoing physical and occupational therapy.

The operation, led by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Frank Cocciolillo, was a team-building opportunity for the unit, which supports the Jordan Armed Forces Joint Training Center in Amman.

Brendan Bialy, 18, who helped tackle and disarm a gunman during a school shooting earlier this year, has graduated Marine Corps boot camp, where he distinguished himself as platoon honor man.

The soldiers of Special Operations Task Force 102 received five Silver Star medals, seven Bronze Star medals with Valor devices, 15 Army Commendation medals with Valor devices and 21 Purple Hearts in one deployment.

Soldiers from the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based 432nd Blood Support Detachment jumped out of a CH-47 Chinook with rehydrated, freeze-dried plasma packed in their ruck sacks.

Tech. Sgt. Ken O’Brien has been called "Superman" by some and a hero by others — and, while en-route to receive one of the 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year awards, O'Brien lived up to his reputation when he saved a child's life.

Drop zones at Edwards to be named after parachutist who died in training jump

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Kids high-fived Wookiees, hugged Jawas and posed for photos with Spider-Man at the main exchange on Ramstein Air Base over the weekend, as the mall celebrated its 10th anniversary.

“These uniforms were nonstandard in nature, which demonstrates the uniqueness of U.S. Army Special Forces and their mission,” said Lt. Col. Loren Bymer, U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman.

A U.S. Air Force civilian who died this week in a noncombat incident at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was identified Friday as 32-year-old intelligence analyst Jason P. Zaki.

The 510th Regional Support Group and six subordinate units were activated at Sembach Kaserne.

The name of the servicemember was being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification, per standard procedure, according to a statement released Monday by the U.S.-led Resolute Support mission in Kabul.

Even without the risk of lung disease, vaping may be harmful to soldiers’ health, Army public health officials said. It has been associated with anxiety, increased blood pressure and seizures.

Staff Sgt. Adam K. Erickson, 29, was killed in California during a training accident on a routine military proficiency jump.

Lt. Gen. Pat White, leader of the Army's III Armored Corps, assumed command of Operation Inherent Resolve from Lt. Gen. Paul LaCamera, head of the service’s XVIII Airborne Corps, in a ceremony in Baghdad on Saturday.

Pfc. Josue Valdez Sarmiento is now under investigation following his actions at a California school, where he attempted to break up a fight by tackling two students.

The U.S. government continued to provide dozens of bomb-sniffing dogs to the Kingdom of Jordan, even as the animals were dying of serious health problems and others were so poorly treated that they had “lost the will to work,” a government evaluation found.

Bernard Bartusiak of Chicago earned more than one Distinguished Flying Cross and several Air Medals during the war, but, “for reasons unknown,” didn’t receive them, a Navy spokesman said.

Coalition and Iraqi forces carried out airstrikes Tuesday against an island south of Mosul in the Tigris River believed to be a safe haven for the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Conrad Robinson followed one of his grandfathers into the Army, but what he shared with few colleagues before he died was that his other one was “the Genius" of soul music, Ray Charles.

Officials have been looking for surviving relatives of the 111 Coast Guard and four Navy crewmembers who perished aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa for the past two decades. They’ve found nearly half of them.

A recent Defense Department report found more than 17% of military personnel are considered obese, up from less than 16% four years earlier.

First Lt. Chelsey Hibsch, an Air Force security forces officer, and Second Lt. Marshall Plumlee, a member of Duke University’s 2015 NCAA Championship basketball team and former New York Knicks player, were among the graduates of the Army's most recent Ranger School class.

Sgt. 1st Class Dustin Ard, 31, of Idaho Falls, became the 15th U.S. combat casualty in that country this year.

Staff Sgt. Aaron Metzger was wounded while he treated two severely injured Afghan commandos during a nighttime raid against the Taliban in April 2018.

The Kaiserslautern cafe/bistro/bar Storchenturm has done an on-again, off-again routine both baffling and familiar to me after more than three years living in this town.

Retired Adm. Bill Moran showed poor judgment and broke Pentagon rules by using his personal email account to conduct official communications with a former officer who had been disciplined for sexual misconduct, an investigation has found.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, who was killed in Syria earlier this year, trained at the Defense Language Institute and was a 2005 graduate of the language school’s Arabic course.

High-ranking enlisted troops in Africa aren’t always proud of their rank, one senior noncommissioned officer confessed to a roomful of his peers from nearly 30 African countries and the U.S.

The family of a U.S. soldier killed during an October 2017 ambush in West Africa was presented the country’s third-highest valor award Friday in Florida, the fourth posthumous medal for valor in that incident presented in the past week.

Users will be unable to download material from a popular military file exchange service after Thursday, as the Defense Department transitions to a new site with larger capacity and better security.

Showing “total disregard for his personal safety or life,” Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright crossed open terrain under intense enemy fire to protect and recover two fallen comrades, his medal citation says. The medal was one of three posthumous awards presented in recent days to families of those slain in the attack.

Marine Corps Exchanges are selling off their stocks of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and will end sales of the media in the next few months, an official said.

U.S. Special Operations Command on Monday confirmed that a 2018 blast in Syria that killed two special operations soldiers from the U.S. and the U.K. was caused by coalition explosives, not a roadside bomb.

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Civil affairs soldiers serve as cultural and governance experts who form a key part of the U.S. mission as it competes with other world powers making inroads in East Africa.

The USS Boxer pulled into Bahrain’s Khalifa bin Salman Port on Thursday for a visit, days after the amphibious assault ship made headlines for downing at least one Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz.

The apparent breakdown in discipline among the elite Navy team comes at a time of increased scrutiny of the special operations communities that have borne the strain of a high operational tempo over more than 17 years of war in the Middle East.

The search for Petty Officer 2nd Class Slayton Saldana was called off Friday after “extensive attempts to locate the sailor” involving three ships and aircraft from two patrol squadrons, 5th Fleet said.

A sailor who was reported overboard from a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea earlier this week remains missing after the Navy ended its search-and-rescue efforts, officials said Saturday.

Sgt. William Edward Friese, 30, a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic in the West Virginia Army National Guard, died Thursday at Camp Buehring, the military said. Details of the incident were not released, and a Pentagon statement said it remained under investigation.

Senior Iranian officials said that none of the country’s drones in the region had been destroyed, although a top military spokesman in the country suggested that one had approached the USS Boxer.

The USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, was in international waters traveling into the Strait of Hormuz when a drone “closed within a threatening range," U.S. officials said. Iran denied that it had lost a drone.

About 500 servicemembers are expected to be sent to Prince Sultan Air Base in the desert east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, unnamed Defense Department officials said Wednesday.

Wahlburgers, a fast-casual burger chain founded by a trio of brothers from Boston, is among the eateries slated to open at military exchanges in Europe in the coming months, along with pizza, barbecue and chicken stands.

Word that the Pentagon was set to mandate a low-carbohydrate, high-fat ketogenic diet for servicemembers spread like spilled avocado oil across the internet last week, with some respected outlets repeating the claim. These reports, sources said, were not true.

Last week, Iraqi, U.S. and Italian officials celebrated the completion of a $530-million project to shore-up Iraq's largest dam. But while the work has stabilized the dam, construction flaws that have posed a threat since its completion in 1984 have yet to be permanently fixed, a research paper says.

The RQ-4A Global Hawk maritime surveillance drone was flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz when it was downed by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, U.S. Central Command said in a statement, though Tehran has claimed it was flying in Iranian airspace.

The CENTCOM statement confirmed earlier reports of the incident, which took place earlier this month, and comes as the U.S. has accused Iran of attacking merchant ships in the region amid rising tensions in a standoff between Washington and Tehran.

Obituary

A memorial Monday at an Alaska National Guard armory will celebrate a Special Forces veteran whose role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria was relatively unknown before he died in a climbing accident last month.

Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Turello assumed command of U.S. military efforts in East Africa, where a proposal may shift the mission focus from multinational training and counterterrorism to a permanent presence that seeks to strengthen American influence on the continent.