AFP - The Pentagon has extended the deployment of 1,250 Marines in Afghanistan for 30 days until November to keep up the momentum of training of Afghan security forces, a spokesman said Tuesday.

AFP - The Pentagon said Monday it has shut down a secretive counter-intelligence outfit that aroused controversy over tracking the activities of anti-war groups.

Reuters - The Pentagon on Monday said it was closing a controversial intelligence office that had raised concerns about domestic spying by the military after the September 11 attacks.

AP - As of Monday, Aug. 4, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures July 26 at 10 a.m. EDT.

AFP - A US brigade commander in what was one of the most violent sectors of Baghdad just months ago said Monday he now believes US and Iraqi forces are "on the cusp of achieving durable security."

AFP - The US Air Force may turn increasingly to a new armed drone, the MQ-9 Reaper, to help keep the peace in Iraq once the conflict shrinks in scale and US ground troops go home, a top US commander says.

AFP - Two American soldiers in Iraq have been charged with murdering an Iraqi prisoner, the US military said on Saturday.

AFP - Two American soldiers in Iraq have been charged with murdering an Iraqi prisoner, the US military said on Saturday.

AP - Iraqi troops captured two suspected insurgents linked to a suicide bombing that killed three U.S. Marines and several Sunni sheiks, the military said Friday.

AFP - The Pentagon said Friday it has notified Congress of proposed military sales to Iraq valued at more than nine billion dollars, including helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles.

AP - As of Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT.

AP - Iraq's central government on Friday stressed its opposition to any unilateral move to change the status of an oil-rich city the Kurds want to annex and warned against efforts to stir ethnic tensions in that area.