Tom Bowman

Afghan commandos, supported by U.S. special operations forces, launched a raid into a village contested by the Taliban. The raid permitted an aid convoy to make progress after nearly a month.

Over the past 15 years, 1,832 American servicemen and -women have been killed in action in Afghanistan. How do the U.S. forces posted there mark Memorial Day, and how is the conflict going overall?

With fewer U.S. troops, there's less need to treat combat trauma at the Bagram Airfield hospital. But civilian casualties continue. A surgeon at Bagram has been trying to save an injured girl's leg.

U.S. drones killed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour in a remote area of Pakistan over the weekend. The death that was confirmed by President Obama and Afghan intelligence.

An American service member was killed on Tuesday after an ISIS attack broke through Iraqi Kurdish defensive lines north of the city of Mosul. Kurdish Peshmerga troops also were killed and wounded. The U.S. responded with air support to beat back the attack, but fighting continued in an offensive the U.S. says was an attempt by ISIS to "show its teeth."

The Pentagon released its final report into what it called the accidental destruction of a hospital in Afghanistan last year that killed more than 40 people. More than a dozen troops were disciplined, but none are facing courts-martial or other punishment beyond reprimands expected to end their careers.

President Obama announced he will send additional U.S. special operations forces to Syria. The announcement comes at a time when ISIS's foothold on the region is, reportedly, weakening.

The Pentagon has authorized more than 200 additional troops for duty in Iraq to fight ISIS, specifically focused on retaking Mosul. They will be trainers, attack helicopter crews and artillery crews.

For decades, U.S. and international troops have deployed to the Sinai Peninsula as part of a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. The Pentagon wonders whether these deployments make sense anymore.

The U.S. Navy charged an officer who was involved with the surveillance of China with espionage, alleging he divulged secret information that could hurt the security of the U.S. Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin is being held in pre-trail confinement as the Navy and FBI investigate the case.

Donald Trump called for the U.S. to pull back its support of NATO, complaining the allies are not pulling their weight. Trump has raised an issue that has been bubbling for sometime. Defense Secretaries Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel all complained about NATO. NPR talks with analysts about this issue and explores whether NATO is still relevant.

Women can now apply for ground combat positions in the Marines, and training female recruits for those jobs will begin in June. But so far, no women have signed up.

American special operations troops have killed a top ISIS leader, the Pentagon says. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday Haji Iman was just one in a number of leaders who have been killed by American raids or airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. Administration leaders are keen to show the U.S. is leaning forward in its war on ISIS following this week's deadly attacks in Brussels.

Donald Trump's primary successes are bringing new attention to an area on which he has not focused during the campaign: national security.

The Pentagon hopes an ISIS chemical weapons engineer captured in Iraq last month will lead U.S. troops to possible weapons sites and help prevent chemical attacks by the Islamic State.

Defense officials hope that Sleiman Daoud al-Afari will help them find storage sites for chemical munitions including mustard agent, which ...

Perhaps the biggest question about the efforts to bring a pause in the fighting in Syria is: Have Russian air strikes emboldened the Syrian regime so much that it doesn't want to stop fighting?

American warplanes destroyed an ISIS training camp in Libya early Friday after weeks of clandestine observation of how it grew and operated. The attack highlights the expansion of the...

American defense officials said Friday that U.S. planes hit an Islamic State training camp and a senior extremist leader in Libya overnight. As many as 60 people were killed.

The great powers negotiated what they called a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but what has that actually meant for U.S. military operations and the conduct of the wider conflict? ...

The Pentagon is launching a pilot program to freeze troops' sperm or eggs as part of widespread reforms to personnel policies across the force. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he wa...