Pentagon

The State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel on March 29 to leave posts in southern Turkey due to security fears.

The two agencies said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana, the Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suffered a double setback in Syria on March 25 as army troops recaptured the ancient citadel in Palmyra and the Pentagon said the jihadists' second-in-command was killed in a U.S. raid.

The Pentagon has forecast a 3 percent drop in acquisition costs for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet, but said plans to use the jets six more years would add about $45 billion to the projected operating costs through 2070.

A F-35 stealth fighter jet program that involves the United States, Turkey and others will be delayed for one year due to several technical shortfalls, including problems with radar software, a Pentagon tester said March 23.

The Pentagon has assigned a detachment of U.S. marines on the ground in Iraq to support international coalition efforts against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), it announced on March 20, one day after one U.S. marine was killed in an ISIL attack in northern Iraq. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on March 10 that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) military commander was badly wounded but still alive, appearing to contradict U.S. officials who said he was "likely killed" in a U.S. air strike. 

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) battle-tested equivalent of a defense minister is believed to have been killed in a US air strike in northeastern Syria, a US official said March 8.

A top U.S. general has asked for permission to resurrect an effort to train Syrian opposition fighters for battles against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, but on a smaller scale than a previous program that failed and was scrapped last year.

The Pentagon has approved a deal to sell $682.9 million worth of an unspecified quantity of smart bombs to Turkey through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) scheme, defensenews.com has reported.

The Pentagon awarded the contract to Ellwood National Forge and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems for the sale of BLU-109 bunker-busting bombs and components.

A Pentagon spokesman's statement about the deaths of two Serbian embassy staffers in Libya "does not reflect the official position of the U.S. administration."

This is what U.S. Ambassador Kyle Scott told Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic as they met in Belgrade on Saturday.