Tom Bowman

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is in Afghanistan, behaving not at all like a temporary official. He is putting his own senior staff in place and appears ready to serve for the foreseeable future.

The chief U.S. negotiator for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been in talks with the Taliban. He discussed the state of negotiations before a Washington, D.C., think tank audience.

Orders were signed for an additional 3,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. The Pentagon is fulfilling a Department of Homeland Security request to assist Customs and Border Protection.

Author David Treuer calls his new book a "counternarrative" to Dee Brown's 1970 classic. "I have tried to catch us not in the act of dying but, rather, in the radical act of living," he writes.

ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the Syrian city of Manbij that targeted coalition troops. The Pentagon says U.S. service members suffered multiple deaths and injuries.

An attack in northern Syria has killed U.S. service members. The Defense Department says they were on a routine patrol. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pentagon announced Friday it's beginning to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria. So far the withdrawal is limited to equipment rather than troops, but the effects are rippling through the region.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to identify projects that could be canceled or delayed so that funds could be redirected to build a border wall, congressional and Pentagon sources say.

The timetable for U.S. military leaving Syria has changed. National Security Adviser John Bolton says troops will remain until ISIS is fully defeated and Iran's ambitions in the region are checked.

The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Pentagon to provide additional active-duty troops to work on barriers in Arizona and California.

Thousands of civilians, soldiers and police were killed this year in suicide attacks, bombings and airstrikes. The lives and deaths of three Afghan men shed light on the challenges the country faces.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is a systems management guy, not a policy guy. It's not clear how he will guide the Pentagon but it is clear it will be different from the leadership of former secretary Jim Mattis.

President Trump is ordering the withdrawal of 7,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, about half the number now deployed there. The effects of this action on military operations are not yet clear.

Once again, President Trump has made a national security decision in opposition to the advice of his secretary of defense, Jim Mattis. This time it was to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

President Trump has decided it's time for the U.S. forces to leave Syria. But the move goes against statements by top American military officials, who have consistently said it would be wise to stay.

The U.S. is withdrawing its forces from Syria on orders from the White House. This is a reversal of U.S. policy and had been opposed by the Pentagon.

Green Beret Maj. Mathew Golsteyn is under investigation in the death of a suspected Taliban bomb-maker in U.S. custody in 2010. President Trump tweeted that he will review the case himself.

The Army general has a voracious appetite for history — and Boston sports teams. If approved by the Senate, the 60-year-old Massachusetts native will take the helm next summer.

The request comes as the overall size of the military force at the border will be cut from around 5,900 personnel to 4,000, Pentagon officials tell NPR. The deployment may be extended through January.

The move would extend the rare deployment of active-duty troops at the U.S.-Mexico border, rather than only National Guard soldiers and personnel.