US troops will be commencing Tuesday a training exercise in Brazil's Eastern Amazon area, Agencia Brasil reported. Operation Core (Combined Operation and Rotation Exercise) 23, which stems from a bilateral defense deal signed in 2015, will bring together 294 US military personnel with the Brazilian Army from Oct. 24 to Nov. 20 in Belém, the capital of the Northern state of Pará, as well as in the municipalities of Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque, and Macapá, in Amapá state.
The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday in retaliation for its missile attack on US forces in Iraq this week and vowed to tighten the economic screws if Tehran continued terrorist acts or pursued a nuclear bomb.
Hours after Iran’s attacks on two bases in Iraq that houses United States troops, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed his nation considering the firing of 22 ballistic missiles as a “slap in the face” and that military action were “not sufficient” to end the American presence in the region. However, Iran’s authorities said they did “not seek escalation or war.”
The US is to send an additional 2,000 troops to its border with Mexico, the Pentagon has announced. It will bring the total number of troops stationed on the southern border to about 4,300. The Pentagon said the soldiers would help border-patrol agents, carry out surveillance work and install miles of razor wire.
United States defense Secretary Jim Mattis is stepping down from his post, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, after the retired Marine general clashed with the president over a troop drawdown in Syria and Trump's go-it-alone stance in world affairs.
The Trump administration says US troops are being withdrawn from Syria, after the president said the Islamic State (IS) group had been “defeated”. The Pentagon said it was transitioning to the “next phase of the campaign” but did not give details.
The US will seek to wind down combat operations in Afghanistan during 2013, more than a year before a deadline for withdrawal, the defence secretary says. Speaking while travelling to a Nato summit, Leon Panetta said the US hoped to switch to a role training and supporting Afghan forces.