Tom Bowman

The White House is sending mixed messages about how to handle Syria's president. And, a U.S. Navy group is moving toward the Korean peninsula as concerns mount over the north's missile program.

President Trump ordered airstrikes against an air base in Syria Thursday. It could alter relations with Bashar Assad's backer, Russia.

The U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military air base in what President Trump called a response to a chemical attack on civilians by the regime of Bashar Assad.

U.S. officials said that more than 50 Tomahawk missile strikes were carried out against a single Syrian air base from the USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A roundup of news: President Trump condemns the apparent chemical attack in Syria, China's president will visit Trump Thursday and Friday at his Florida resort, and Beyonce releases a new video.

Russia has begun supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan against U.S. forces and the government in Kabul. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned in London that the U.S. is "concerned" about this support, first revealed earlier this year, as it weighs the next phase of its approach to the longest-running war in American history.

NPR's Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman explains U.S. and coalition efforts to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa and the ongoing fight for the Iraqi city of Mosul. Recent airstrikes in Mosul may have led to the deaths of more than one hundred civilians, including women and children.

The U.S. considers deploying hundreds more American troops to Syria in the final phase of the war against ISIS — one that could reshape borders and relationships in the Middle East.

Senators excoriated Navy Department witnesses, including the commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps, over an online ring in which service members shared explicit photos of their female colleagues. The Pentagon is investigating a scandal that now appears to go beyond just the Marine Corps as first believed.

After the resignation of retired Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump has picked three-star Army Gen. H.R. McMaster to be national security adviser. He's known as an intellectual military strategist.

The Silver Star recipient is a three-star Army general known as a military intellectual. The president called him "a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience."

President Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has resigned amid allegations he inappropriately talked about U.S. sanctions in December with a Russian official.

President Trump tweeted criticism of Sen. John McCain, who called the Yemen raid a "failure." Trump said McCain "doesn't know how to win anymore" and called it a "winning mission." But is that true?

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, tells the Senate that the U.S.-led mission is in a "stalemate." He says the Taliban gained 15 percent more ground in 2016 and that "a few thousand" more NATO trainers are needed.

Witnesses tell NPR about the raid, the military's first under President Trump. It resulted in deaths of a Navy SEAL and civilians. A CENTCOM investigation is underway, but similar raids could follow.

The U.S. military has acknowledged that civilians were killed in last weekend's special operations raid in Yemen. Other questions continue to swirl, however, including whether American forces' surprise was blown and whether their target was indeed an al-Qaida terrorist as they believed.

A U.S. serviceman was killed in the raid that also killed some 14 al-Qaida terrorists. News of the raid followed orders from the White House, including one that changed the National Security Council.

President Trump visited the Pentagon for the first time on Friday. He conducted a formal swearing-in for Defense Secretary Mattis and met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

President Trump has revived discussion about implementing military "safe zones" in Syria, an idea from the early days of the civil war. But fencing off areas in Syria might not make sense given the current reality of the conflict, and it would be a challenge for the U.S. and its allies to put them into place.

President Obama convened his final press conference in office on Wednesday less than a day after commuting the prison sentence of convicted leaker Chelsea Manning. Obama was expected to face questions about his decision to grant clemency to Manning, who gave hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic files to WikiLeaks.