Rear Admiral John Kirby

New Pentagon chief Ashton Carter will hold talks today in Kuwait with top US commanders and diplomats to discuss the war effort against the Islamic State jihadist group, officials said.

The United States carried out a drone strike in Somalia against a senior leader of militant group Al Shabaab, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, adding his death would represent a major blow to a group already losing ground in the country.

The US military is reviewing several incidents in which civilians may have been killed in coalition air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, officials said Tuesday.

US and Yemeni forces recently tried to rescue an American journalist being held by Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen but he and some other hostages were not there when the team arrived, the Pentagon said Thursday, confirming media reports about the operation.

The US military cannot bomb the Islamic State group into "obscurity," it cautioned on Tuesday, appealing for patience in its escalating attempts to defeat the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

Western militaries have airdropped humanitarian aid to the besieged Iraqi town of Amerli, home to thousands of Shiite Turkmen cut off by jihadists from receiving food, water, and medical supplies.

US military operations against Islamic State in Iraq have cost an average of $7.5 million per day since they began in mid-June, the Pentagon said on Friday, a figure that means the department has spent more than $500 million on the conflict.

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday the Islamist militant siege of Iraq's Mount Sinjar had been broken and most US military personnel sent to assess the situation would be pulled out of Iraq in coming days.

A spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga force said US warplanes on Thursday bombed Islamic State jihadist targets in two areas of northern Iraq.

A US general was killed and more than a dozen people were wounded on Tuesday, including a German general, in the latest insider attack by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, US, German and Afghan officials said.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel will visit New Delhi next week during which he will hold talks with his counterpart Arun Jaitley and other top officials, aimed at "nurturing" ties with India after the formation of the new government, a top Pentagon official has said.

The United States military is grounding its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets as it completes additional engine inspections following a fire aboard an aircraft in Florida last week.

The United States said on Tuesday it had captured a suspected ringleader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, a raid that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador, and ignited a political firestorm in Washington.

The United States has ordered an aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, into the Gulf in response to the crisis in Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised his US counterpart Chuck Hagel in a telephone call on Thursday that Moscow would not assault eastern Ukraine.

New Pentagon chief Ashton Carter will hold talks today in Kuwait with top US commanders and diplomats to discuss the war effort against the Islamic State jihadist group, officials said.

The United States carried out a drone strike in Somalia against a senior leader of militant group Al Shabaab, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, adding his death would represent a major blow to a group already losing ground in the country.

The US military is reviewing several incidents in which civilians may have been killed in coalition air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, officials said Tuesday.

US and Yemeni forces recently tried to rescue an American journalist being held by Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen but he and some other hostages were not there when the team arrived, the Pentagon said Thursday, confirming media reports about the operation.

The US military cannot bomb the Islamic State group into "obscurity," it cautioned on Tuesday, appealing for patience in its escalating attempts to defeat the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

Western militaries have airdropped humanitarian aid to the besieged Iraqi town of Amerli, home to thousands of Shiite Turkmen cut off by jihadists from receiving food, water, and medical supplies.

US military operations against Islamic State in Iraq have cost an average of $7.5 million per day since they began in mid-June, the Pentagon said on Friday, a figure that means the department has spent more than $500 million on the conflict.

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday the Islamist militant siege of Iraq's Mount Sinjar had been broken and most US military personnel sent to assess the situation would be pulled out of Iraq in coming days.

A spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga force said US warplanes on Thursday bombed Islamic State jihadist targets in two areas of northern Iraq.

A US general was killed and more than a dozen people were wounded on Tuesday, including a German general, in the latest insider attack by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, US, German and Afghan officials said.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel will visit New Delhi next week during which he will hold talks with his counterpart Arun Jaitley and other top officials, aimed at "nurturing" ties with India after the formation of the new government, a top Pentagon official has said.

The United States military is grounding its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets as it completes additional engine inspections following a fire aboard an aircraft in Florida last week.

The United States said on Tuesday it had captured a suspected ringleader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, a raid that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador, and ignited a political firestorm in Washington.

The United States has ordered an aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, into the Gulf in response to the crisis in Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised his US counterpart Chuck Hagel in a telephone call on Thursday that Moscow would not assault eastern Ukraine.