An Afghan-international security force killed a couple of militants in Wardak province today while pursuing a small group of Taliban. The joint security force searched a compound near the village of Andar in the Nerkh District after intelligence sources determined the location of militant activities. During the operation the security force came under fire, returned fire and killed the militants. In another operation today, a joint force detained a small group of militants, including a Taliban weapons facilitator, in Helmand province.

Constables of an Emergency Response Battalion, partnered with U.S. forces, arrested Ali Hussein Hassan Farhat in northern Iraq, Dec.

On a rugged mountaintop bordering Pakistan, three kilometers from Northern Waziristan, sits Afghan Combat Outpost Chergotah in Khost province, Afghanistan. Here, U.S.

Military Sealift Command combat stores ship USNS San Jose (T-AFS 7) marked the close of 39 years of service to the Navy fleet in a shipboard ceremony Dec. 18 in Pearl Harbor. The event paid tribute to the ship and the hundreds of sailors and civil service mariners who have served as its crew over the past three decades, ensuring that San Jose played its part in keeping the U.S.

The Army wants to decrease the weight Soldiers carry on missions, and Fort Benning's Maneuver Battle Lab is part of the effort. Last week, 10 Soldiers evaluated a lightweight base plate being developed for the M224 Lightweight Company Mortar System during a series of live-fire, static and movement exercises at McKenna Urban Operations Complex, Fergusson and Buckner ranges. The current M8 base plate limits the direction and distance a mortar can be fired, said Rusty Schulten, a project officer for MBL's Soldier Team, and Soldiers still have to carry the M7 base plate - weighing more than

Cambodia's U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal has charged the Khmer Rouge's former head of state with genocide, the third such charge this week against a former leader of the brutal regime. A court spokesman says Khieu Samphan was brought before investigating judges of the U.N.-assisted tribunal Friday and charged. On Wednesday, the tribunal charged two other defendants with genocide for the first time: Nuon Chea, the group's top ideologist and former foreign minister Ieng Sary. All three have been charged with involvement in the deaths of members of the country's ethnic Cham and Vietnam

U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States and Russia are 'quite close' to agreeing on a new arms control treaty. Mr. Obama discussed the issue with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in a private meeting Friday while both were attending the Copenhagen climate conference. Mr. Medvedev said some work is still needed on the technical details. Delegates from both countries have also been holding negotiations on the treaty in Geneva, Switzerland. U.S.

In early December, crowds gathered outside the police station in Khartoum to protest the detention of senior Southern party officials. The South's ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, had organized a political rally with Northern opposition groups.

ISAF is sending a team who will assess, with Afghan officials, reports of civilian casualties as a result of an ISAF operation in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar yesterday. Initial operational reports indicate that men were emplacing an IED next to the road.