Military Base

This is the third of three articles. DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti — Around the clock, about 16 times a day, drones take off or land at a U.S. military base here, the combat hub for the Obama administration's counterterrorism wars in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Some of the unmanned aircraft are bound for Somalia , the collapsed state whose border lies just 10 miles to the southeast. Most of the armed drones, however, veer north across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, another unstable country where they are being...

FRANCE Hopi masks sold off despite U.S. protests In a chaotic auction repeatedly interrupted by protests, dozens of Native American tribal masks were sold Friday for a total tally of $1.2 million after a French court ignored the objections of the Hopi tribe and the U.S. government. Of the 70 masks up for sale, one was bought by an association to give back to the Hopis, the Drouot auction house said. Advocates for the Hopi tribe had argued in court that the masks have...

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels captured a military base in the country's south Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, in the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic border area with Jordan. Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's troops have been chipping away at the regime's hold on the southern region in recent weeks, with the help of an influx of foreign- funded weapons. Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to Damascus in preparation for an eventual assault on the capital.

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels captured a military base in the country's south Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, in the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic border area with Jordan. Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's troops have been chipping away at the regime's hold on the southern region in recent weeks, with the help of an influx of foreign- funded weapons. Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to Damascus in preparation for an eventual assault on the capital.

SYRIA Rebels take air base in southern province Syrian rebels captured a military base in their country's south Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, marking the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic area bordering Jordan. Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's troops have been chipping away at the regime's hold on the south in recent weeks with the help of an influx of foreign-funded weapons. Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to...

MOSCOW, Aug. 12 -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Wednesday and pledged to strengthen Russia's military presence there, defying U.S. and European objections amid simmering tensions in the region. Speaking on the anniversary of his nation's victory over Georgia in a five-day war last year, Putin said the Kremlin planned to spend nearly $500 million to build a base in the separatist enclave and reinforce its de facto border with Georgia.

Timothy A. Chopp flies a C-54 transport plane to air shows around the world. But for Chopp, there was always something special about landing the vintage aircraft at the air show held each year near Camp Springs. "It was something that we all look forward to," said Chopp, president of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation. "This is the president's military base. This is where Air Force One is kept. " Chopp's co-pilot, Thomas J. Munley, added: "It has been a tradition for years.

KABUL — A suicide bomb attack near a key U.S. military base in Afghanistan killed three Afghans on Wednesday, according to officials. At least seven Afghans were wounded in the strike outside Forward Operating Base Chapman, in southeastern Khost province near the border with Pakistan. There were no immediate reports of casualties among foreign troops. A spokesman for the Taliban, the radical Islamist movement fighting to drive foreign forces out of Afghanistan, claimed...

SANAA, Yemen — Armed militants linked to al-Qaeda stormed a Yemeni military base in a restive southern province before dawn Monday, killing at least 20 soldiers and capturing more than two dozen others, according to Yemeni military officials. The assault occurred hours after a U.S. drone strike reportedly killed a top al-Qaeda figure involved in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The attack on the base was the latest indication of an intensifying conflict between...

KABUL, Jan. 26 -- A suicide bomber struck a convoy of armored military vehicles at dusk Tuesday outside an American military base on the outskirts of the capital, wounding eight American service members and at least a half-dozen Afghan civilians. The attack occurred outside Camp Phoenix, the main U.S. base in Kabul, on the Kabul-to-Jalalabad Road heading east out of the capital. The powerful blast could be heard on the grounds of the fortified U.S. Embassy compound several miles away.

SYRIA Rebels take air base in southern province Syrian rebels captured a military base in their country's south Wednesday after days of heavy fighting, activists said, marking the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic area bordering Jordan. Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad's troops have been chipping away at the regime's hold on the south in recent weeks with the help of an influx of foreign-funded weapons. Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to...

There is bipartisanship in Congress! House Republicans and Democrats agree they are not going to let the Obama White House cut defense spending by permitting any more reduction in excess military facilities. Fact: Nine years ago, the Air Force found more than 20 percent of its infrastructure was excess. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) made a cut of less than 1 percent. Since then, Air Force personnel have been cut by about 48,000 and the number of aircraft has dropped by 500. That's similar to...

The Window Rock School District, in the heart of the Navajo nation in Arizona, is proposing the unthinkable: closing three of its seven schools as a result of the federal sequester . The schools are among 1,600 public schools on military bases and Native American reservations that are feeling the impact of federal cuts now, months before the rest of the country's classrooms see the effect of reduced dollars from Washington. "We may have to close those schools — we...

If a case of soap is pilfered from a U.S. military base here or pinched from a NATO shipping container, it will probably, sooner or later, end up for sale in the Bush Market, a sort of thieves' outlet mall in central Kabul. Named after George W. Bush, the U.S. president who launched the war in Afghanistan, the bazaar has flourished for more than eight years, thanks to the long presence of foreign troops that provided war booty aplenty. But in the Obama era, with its steady withdrawal of U.S. forces, the...

The U.S. military is planning a new drone base in Africa that would expand its surveillance of al-Qaeda fighters and other militants in northern Mali, a development that would escalate American involvement in a fast-spreading conflict. Two Obama administration officials said military planners are eyeing the West African country of Niger as a base for unarmed Predator drones, which would greatly boost U.S. spy missions in the region . A U.S. defense official called the plan "preliminary" and said the...

KABUL — A suicide bomb attack near a key U.S. military base in Afghanistan killed three Afghans on Wednesday, according to officials. At least seven Afghans were wounded in the strike outside Forward Operating Base Chapman, in southeastern Khost province near the border with Pakistan. There were no immediate reports of casualties among foreign troops. A spokesman for the Taliban, the radical Islamist movement fighting to drive foreign forces out of Afghanistan, claimed...

KABUL – Two U.S. troops were killed at a NATO-Afghan base on Thursday by up to two Afghan gunmen, one of them apparently a soldier and one a civilian teaching a course on the base, NATO and Afghan officials said. A local official said both of the slain service members were American. The shootings raise to six the number of American troops killed in recent days on military bases or at Afghan government facilities. Two of those troops were shot dead by an Afghan soldier a week ago, when a mob attacked a joint base...

One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp. The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control. After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the...

As Bashar al-Assad's hold on power steadily weakens , U.S. officials are increasingly worried that Syria's weapons of mass destruction could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists, rogue generals or other uncontrollable factions. Last week, fighters from a group that the Obama administration has branded a terrorist organization were among rebels who seized the Sheik Suleiman military base near Aleppo, where research on chemical weapons had been conducted. Rebels are also closing in...

The United Nations' chief nuclear official urged Iran on Thursday to allow inspection of a military base where Iranian scientists are suspected of conducting secret nuclear-weapons research, although he acknowledged that any traces of illicit activity have probably been removed. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano said the nuclear watchdog would try again next week to visit the Parchin military base, a sprawling complex where...