U.S. Defense Department

Israeli strikes hit south Gaza and across its border with Lebanon, the army said Monday ahead of a visit by the top U.S. diplomat who is seeking to avert a wider war.

Gaza's health ministry said 73 dead and 99 wounded had arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza's Deir al-Balah city over the previous 24 hours.

North Korea asserted Wednesday that a U.S. soldier who bolted across the heavily armed Korean border last month did so after becoming disillusioned with the inequality of American society and racial discrimination in its Army.

The U.S. and its Western allies on Oct. 27 dismissed Russia's claims that banned biological weapons activities are taking place in Ukraine with American support, calling the allegation disinformation and fabrications.

Hungary will not allow the deployment of additional forces on its territory, because the national army is capable of providing national security in the midst of tensions around Ukraine, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pter Szijjrt.

The U.S. Defense Department said on Oct. 15 that it is committed to offering condolence payments to relatives of the 10 people who were killed in an errant U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August.

The U.S. Defense Department has delivered a report to Congress detailing implications of Turkey receiving 100 F-35 fighter jets, five people familiar with the report said, removing a key hurdle to concluding the deal.

The U.S. Defense Department supports moves by the Commerce Department to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, although it would prefer a system of targeted tariffs rather than a global quota or a global tariff.

A U.S. drone strike has killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in Syria who previously operated in Afghanistan, the U.S. Defense Department announced on Nov. 22.
The Nov. 18 strike near Sarmada in northwestern Syria targeted Abu Afghan al-Masri, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.  

Last week the first breed of Bayraktar* drones began their duty. This was very important for Turkish Intelligence authorities. We have been using American and Israeli drones for our border security. Turkish drones were a very big necessity because drones are the best platforms to gather intelligence. 

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.