Tom Bowman

The White House announced on Friday that the ISIS territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria.

The Pentagon is investigating the Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan over his ties to Boeing. Before serving as deputy and now acting defense secretary, Shanahan was a Boeing executive.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, with U.S. air support, are carrying out what is hoped to be the final assault on ISIS. This does not mean ISIS will disappear as its ideology remains powerful.

Thousands of military families are suffering from shoddy work or ignored calls for repairs from the private companies that maintain military housing. One senator called the negligence "criminal."

In the 1990s, the Army turned over base housing responsibilities to private contractors. The idea was to reduce costs and respond more quickly to housing needs. It hasn't worked out that way.

Some active-duty transgender troops testified before a House committee to promote inclusion as litigation continues over the Trump administration's policy to exclude trans people from the military.

An internal memo says the embassy has grown to an "extraordinary footprint" and it is time to "ensure our Embassy is right-sized for the long-term."

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.