Pentagon

Documents received from Ukrainian employees working at the laboratories were studied by Russian experts and have shown that Ukrainian biological projects were directly developed and approved by the Pentagon, the Ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday during a briefing.

The Pentagon announced that masks are no longer required indoors at the building. The decision was made per new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a press release, Xinhua news agency reported. The Pentagon also lowered its health protection level in the building to "Bravo", allowing up to 50 per cent occupancy there as well as "more options for seating in the food court".

US Defense Secretary Austin has approved the provision of 400 District of Columbia National Guard personnel and 50 vehicles to support the Metropolitan Police at designated traffic posts, Xinhua news agency quoted Pentagon press secretary John Kirby as saying on Wednesday. Austin, he said, has also greenlighted provision of up to 300 National Guard personnel from neighboring states to support the US Capitol Police officers.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties," US Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters in a Pentagon briefing, the Xinhua news agency reported. US Central Command initially assessed on Friday that the drone strike, which occurred in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, killed one ISIS-K planner.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement that Austin has ordered the Commander of US Transportation Command "to activate Stage I of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF)", which provides the Pentagon access to commercial air mobility resources to support evacuation from Afghanistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We are certainly concerned by the speed with which the Taliban has been moving," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters on Friday in a press briefing. "It's deeply concerning." He said that the insurgent group is trying to isolate Kabul, while noting the capital city currently is not "in an imminent threat environment", Xinhua news agency reported.

Taliban forces have taken at least five provincial capitals in the country and others are threatened, Kirby said, adding that the fighting in the country "is clearly not going in the right direction". He said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin shares the concerns of other nations about the situation. Still, he believes "that the Afghan forces have the capability, they have the capacity to make a big difference on the battlefield," Kirby said.