All seven service members aboard a US helicopter that crashed in Iraq were killed, the Pentagon has said.

The Pentagon scored an important success on Tuesday in a test of its oft-criticised missile defence programme, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean with an interceptor that is key to protecting US territory from a North Korean attack.

A US counter-terrorism air strike in Afghanistan killed an al Qaida leader responsible for a deadly hotel attack in Islamabad in 2008 and the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, the Pentagon has said.

Former general James Mattis looks set to be confirmed as Donald Trump's defence secretary after the Senate voted to grant him an exemption to run the Pentagon as a recently-retired officer.

Retired general James Mattis has said he believes Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to "break" the Nato alliance.

The Pentagon will let transgender individuals serve openly in the US military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.

The US attack on a hospital in Afghanistan which killed 42 people occurred because of human errors, process errors and equipment failures, a top general said.

A fresh round of talks between the US and Russia on air strikes over Syria could take place as soon as this weekend, the Pentagon has said.

The Pentagon said the US Army’s mistaken shipments of live anthrax to research laboratories were more widespread than it initially reported.

US officials are investigating after the Pentagon mistakenly shipped live anthrax spores to government and commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, as well as one overseas.

US officials are investigating after the Pentagon mistakenly shipped live anthrax spores to government and commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, as well as one overseas.