Pentagon

The U.S. defense chief admitted on April 28 that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its militia force, the People's Protection Units (YPG), were linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

During testimony before a Senate panel, Ashton Carter said "yes" when asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham whether the PYD and YPG were aligned with the PKK.

The Pentagon did not expect "a major design problem" coming from the in-testing stealth F-35 aircraft, an American defense official said on April 27, noting that some 90 percent of the program was complete.        

"The F-35 is no longer a program that keeps me up at night," said Frank Kendall III, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. 

The United Nations began evacuating hundreds of people from besieged Syrian towns in a rare sign of humanitarian progress, as the U.S. Air Force for the first time deployed a B-52 bomber against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
 

A delegation to Israel and Palestine from Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has said the Fatah party in Palestine resents being "ignored" by the Turkish government.

Russian Defense Ministry denied April 17 that a Russian jet that intercepted a U.S. Air Force plane earlier this week had acted unsafely, dismissing the Pentagon's criticism, a second incident in the region between the Cold War-era foes in the past week.  

The Saudi Arabian government has threatened to sell of hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of American assets should the U.S. Congress pass a bill that could hold the kingdom responsible for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the New York Times reported on April 15.

In the wake of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, during a visit to the U.S. capital late last month, Ankara and Washington have intensified their contacts to revitalize a program for training "moderate" Syrian rebels in favor of ramping up support for established and proven forces.

The U.S.-led coalition campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria has successfully completed its first "phase" of operations, Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said April 13.  

The coalition is working through three main steps as it wages its 20-month-old fight against ISIL, Warren said. 

The United States on April 14 revealed for the first time that American ships have started conducting joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a somewhat rare move not done with many other partners in the region.
     

The families of U.S. troops and civilian personnel stationed at ?ncirlik Air Base in Adana left the base on April 2 and 3, after an order by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department to leave several areas of Turkey for their security.