Fox News | Women in all branches of the military soon will have unprecedented opportunities to serve on the front lines of the nation's wars. Leon Panetta, in one of his last acts as President Obama's defense secretary, is preparing to announce the policy change, which would open hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.

Drone Watch | List of children killed in Yemen and Pakistan, all reports are compiled from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports of death by drone strikes.

AntiWar.com | Iraq’s, so far, deadliest day of 2013 left at least 55 Iraqis killed and 288 more wounded. In northern Iraq, attacks focused on Kurdish targets in Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato. These two cities lie in an oil-rich region contested by Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan. Last month, they came under attack during a pair of 2012′s bloodiest days. However, on those two days, Shi’ites locations were targeted. Meanwhile, Turkey continued its military operations against Kurdish rebel sites in sparsely populated areas.

Washington Post | The Obama administration is considering significant military backing for France’s drive against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, but its support for a major ally could test U.S. legal boundaries and stretch counterterrorism resources in a murky new conflict.

AP | A Marine who pleaded guilty Wednesday to urinating on the corpse of a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan will likely be demoted one rank under a plea agreement, although a military judge called for a much harsher sentence. Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola pleaded guilty to multiple charges at court-martial, including that of violating orders by desecrating remains and posing for photographs with the corpses; and dereliction of duty by failing to properly supervise junior Marines.

Wired | The Syrian military used an exotic chemical weapon on rebels during an attack in the city of Homs, some U.S. officials now believe.The conclusion — first reported by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin and laid out in a secret cable from the U.S. consul general in Istanbul — contradicts preliminary estimates made by American officials in the hours after the December 23 strike. But after interviews with Syrian activists, doctors, and defectors, American diplomats in Turkey have apparently rendered a different verdict. It’s important to note, however, that this was the conclusion of a single consulate within the State Department, and there is still wide disagreement within the U.S. government over whether the Homs attack should be characterized as a chemical weapons incident.

ProPublica.org | You might have heard about the “kill list.” You’ve certainly heard about drones. But the details of the U.S. campaign against militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia -- a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s national security approach – remain shrouded in secrecy. Here’s our guide to what we know—and what we don’t know.

Press TV  | New videos have surfaced online showing foreign-sponsored militants committing more terrorist acts in Syria.One of the videos, posted on the internet recently, shows heavily armed men shooting down a civilian airliner in the city of Dayr al-Zawr in eastern Syria.

CBC | Despite repeated government denials, CBC News has confirmed that some of Canada’s new Hercules military transport planes have counterfeit Chinese parts in their cockpits that could leave pilots with blank instrument panels in mid-flight.Documents show the Canadian military has known about the bogus electronic chips in the giant Hercules C-130J aircraft since at least July 2012, but continued to hide the fact during a CBC News investigation months later.

Rian.eu | The Philippine Navy said a US-made BQM-74E drone was found floating off the Ticao island in the eastern Philippines, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported on Monday. Capt. Rommel Jason Galang, deputy commander of the Naval Forces in Southern Luzon, said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was discovered by fishermen, who initially mistook it for a bomb.

The Atlantic | Science fiction, or actual U.S. military project? Half a world away from the battlefield, a soldier controls his avatar-robot that does the actual fighting on the ground. Another one wears a sticky fabric that enables her to climb a wall like a gecko or spider would. Returning from a traumatic mission, a pilot takes a memory-erasing drug to help ward off post-traumatic stress disorder. Mimicking the physiology of dolphins and sled-dogs, a sailor is able to work his post all week without sleep and only a few meals.

Wired.com | It’s barely three days into 2013, and the Obama administration’s lethal campaign of drone strikes has resumed in earnest. Missiles fired by remotely piloted planes struck targets in Pakistan and Yemen three times in the past several hours, killing several people, including two prominent militant commanders.

WND | Israeli special forces continue to operate inside Syria to track the country’s nonconventional weapons as well as any such weapons that may be in possession of the rebels, according to informed Middle Eastern intelligence sources.The sources confirmed a London Sunday Times report from last month that also noted Israeli special forces were on the ground in Syria working as spotters to track the regime’s stocks of chemical and biological weapons.

Infowars.com | A shocking video shows Obama-backed Syrian rebels attempting to shoot down a civilian airliner over the Idlib province in another disturbing example of how taxpayer money is being used to support terrorists. he footage shows members of the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) manning an anti-aircraft gun and debating whether or not they should target what is clearly a non-military plane.

Mondoweise.net | The right-wing Middle East Forum has the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) in its sights for one reason: it wants a war on Iran, and NIAC is trying to stop that from happening. Details of the smear campaign against NIAC were revealed in a piece by The American Independent’s Eli Clifton. Clifton reports that the Middle East Forum’s Legal Project is “increasingly the go-to funder” for anti-Muslim activists like Geert Wilders who find themselves in legal trouble. The group is headed by leading Islamophobe and neoconservative Daniel Pipes.