WASHINGTON — The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A suspected U.S. missile strike in northwestern Pakistan killed nine people Friday, two Pakistani military sources said.
The strike happened about 12:10 p.m. in a village in North Waziristan, a region near the Afghan border that is rife with Islamic extremism, the sources said.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s military says U.S. helicopters have been flying too close to its border with Iraq and may even have crossed the frontier.
The statement, carried by the state news agency Wednesday, says the helicopters were seen in Iraq and are “likely to violate Iranian airspace”.

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied on Friday claims by the U.S. defense secretary that large amounts of Russian nuclear weapons had been stolen or misplaced.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Robert Gates expressed concern that some Russian nuclear weapons from the former Soviet arsenal may not be fully accounted for.
“I have fairly high confidence that no strategic or modern tactical nuclear weapons have leaked beyond Russian borders,” Gates said.

Michael V. Hayden became the 18th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

The 38-year-old farmer was watering his maize in the scrubby vastness of eastern Syria when four Black Hawk helicopters swooped in low over the palm trees, heading from the border with Iraq formed by the Euphrates River.
It was late afternoon. The light was fading and the chill of the desert winter night was setting in. The helicopters, following their leader in a disciplined arc, hovered just above the one-storey concrete and mud homes of the village of Sukariyeh before the attack began.

General David Howell Petraeus, USA is the current Commander, U.S. Central Command.

US General David Petraeus has taken control of US military operations throughout the Middle East and much of Asia as head of US Central Command.
His responsibilities include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
At a change-of-command ceremony at Central Command headquarters, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he was “precisely the man we need”.

Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says.
The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.
The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200

DENVER (AP) — A fire caused $1 million worth of damage at an unmanned underground nuclear launch site last spring, but the Air Force didn’t find out about it until five days later, an Air Force official said Thursday.
The May 23 fire burned itself out after an hour or two, and multiple safety systems prevented any threat of an accidental launch of the Minuteman III missile, Maj. Laurie Arellano said. She said she was not allowed to say whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time …