US shifting Afghan combat ops outside its borders

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is telling Congress that the U.S. military has already begun conducting combat operations and surveillance in Afghanistan from outside the country's borders, as the troop withdrawal continues.

Austin declined to specifically address whether the U.S. will provide combat air support to the Afghan forces to prevent them or their major cities from being overrun by the Taliban after the pullout is complete.

Austin said he would not "speculate on potential actions" but noted that once troops are fully withdrawn from Afghanistan it will be very difficult to provide such support to the Afghans.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, also said at a Senate hearing Thursday he is "very open minded to some significant and fundamental change in the area of sexual assault and sexual harassment."

Momentum in Congress for taking sexual assault prosecution powers away from military commanders, combined with a more flexible view by some military leaders, is pointing to a historic shift in the way the military addresses those crimes.