The pre-dawn raid Thursday by U.S. special operations forces in northeastern Syria was designed to capture the leader of the Islamic State group, who instead blew himself up along with members of his family rather than be taken alive, top Pentagon officials said.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth in a memorandum dated Monday directed commanders to start the process to involuntarily discharge thousands of soldiers “as expeditiously as possible” who have repeatedly declined inoculation.
Top Army leaders are directing service officials to pause enforcement of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccination mandate for civilian workers after a federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to temporarily halt the policy.
Defense Department lawyers believe the injunction ordered by Texas-based U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown on Friday applies only to civilian federal employees, including DOD civilian workers.