Pentagon

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency, which sent out a lockdown alert following the "shooting event," said at the noon time that the facility reopened and the "scene of the incident is secure" though remains an active crime scene. The gunman was shot by a Pentagon police officer and did not get inside the Pentagon building, the agency's official told POLITICO.

Ina statement on Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that "in the last several days, we have acted, through airstrikes, to support the ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces)", without providing further details, reports Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, an unidentified defence official told the media that the US military conducted more than four airstrikes supporting Afghan forces.

With the Taliban claiming to have taken control of 85 per cent of Afghanistan, which the US government officials dispute, Kirby told Fox News on Sunday that the Pentagon was "not unmindful" of the situation. "We're certainly watching with deep concern, the deteriorating security situation and the violence which is of course way too high, and the advances and the momentum that the Taliban seems to have right now," he said.

The US will provide Ukraine with counter-artillery radars, counter-unmanned aerial systems, secure communications gear, electronic warfare and military medical evacuation equipment, and training and equipment to improve the operational safety and capacity of Ukrainian Air Force bases, according to a Pentagon statement, Xinhua reported.

The Newsweek magazine's exclusive report, titled "Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army", said that after a two-year investigation, it found "some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called 'signature reduction'". "What emerges is a window into not just a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice," it said.

Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, Pakistan foreign office spokesperson, said in a statement on Monday: "There was no US military or air base in Pakistan, nor was any such proposal envisaged," adding that any speculation on the topic was "baseless, irresponsible and should be avoided".

Austin spoke last month with India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and "emphasised the Department's commitment to the US-India Major Defence Partnership, observing that it is built upon shared values and a common interest in ensuring the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open", the Pentagon said.