By Jennifer Rizzo
The United States has approximately 15,000 troops in Kuwait, according to a Senate report released Tuesday, the first time the number has been disclosed.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report looked at how to best promote U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf region after the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq last year, the ongoing Arab Spring uprisings and the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
It concluded in part that a "lily pad" model of having bases throughout the region to allow for a rapid escalation of military forces is a sound approach.
The Kuwaiti bases "offer the United States major staging hubs, training ranges, and logistical support for regional operations," the report said. "U.S. forces also operate Patriot missile batteries in Kuwait, which are vital to theater missile defense."
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Reports conflicted Wednesday over whether the 84-year-old former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, had died.
The state-run Middle East News Agency, citing medical sources, said he was declared clinically dead shortly after arriving late Tuesday night at a military hospital in Cairo, where he was taken after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest earlier in the day.
But Gen. Mamdouh Shaheen, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, told CNN, "He is not clinically dead as reported, but his health is deteriorating and he is in critical condition."
By Reza Sayah in Islamabad
In a move that could reignite a political crisis in Pakistan, the nation's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is ineligible to hold office.
The seven-member court declared the prime minister disqualified retroactive to April 26, the day he was convicted of contempt charges. Those stemmed from his refusal to call on Swiss authorities to reopen old corruption charges against Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
"Since no appeal was filed against this judgment, the conviction has attained finality. Therefore, Syed Yousuf Gilani has become disqualified from being a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament)," according to the Supreme Court ruling, read in the court by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
By Suzanne Kelly and Pam Benson
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By Jamie Crawford
The United States warned an Iranian dissident group that it may have "over-interpreted" recent events, and should not presume its removal from the U.S. terror list is guaranteed.
The Obama administration has told Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) an orderly departure from its base Camp Ashraf inside Iraq will be a central condition to any decision regarding the group's removal from the list.
From Camp Ashraf, the residents travel by convoy under United Nations and Iraqi government auspices to a former U.S. base in Iraq where they can be processed and eventually re-settled to countries in Europe and elsewhere.
Some 2,000 MEK members have left Camp Ashraf since the process began, but none have moved since May 5. Some 1,200 to 1,400 still remain at Camp Ashraf.
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