US military

He tweeted that he had consulted with military experts and cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption".

The Obama administration decided last year to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military.

But in June, Defence Secretary James Mattis agreed to a six-month delay in the recruitment of transgender people.

This happened on Thursday during operations against al-Shabab militants about 64km (40 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu, near the town of Barii, the US military says.

Two other US service members were hurt.

US forces were on an "advise and assist" mission with the Somali National Army, the US military says.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), known as "the mother of all bombs", was first tested in 2003, but had not been used before.

The Pentagon said it was dropped from a US aircraft in Nangarhar province.

The news came hours after the Pentagon admitted an air strike in Syria mistakenly killed 18 rebels.

It said a partnered force had mistakenly identified the target location as an IS position, but the strike on 11 April had killed rebels from the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is backed by Washington.

Six other servicemembers also were wounded, all non-life threatening.

"In a successful raid against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) headquarters, brave US forces were instrumental in killing an estimated 14 AQAP members and capturing important intelligence that will assist the US in preventing terrorism against its citizens and people around the world," Trump said in a statement.

US Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, who commands US air operations across the Middle East, characterized the incident as a "near miss."

Both planes were flying at hundreds of miles an hour with their lights off on the night of October 17. The US military plane came within less than half a mile of the Russian jet, close enough to be in the jet wash of the Russian plane, according to US military officials.

The Russian fighter jet was escorting a Russian spy plane, according to Harrigian.

The first intercepted shipment was in April 2015 and since then, American ships have intercepted an additional four shipments, Donegan said.

The shipments included thousands of AK-47 automatic rifles, as well as anti-tank missiles and sniper rifles.

The US Navy determined that the ships carrying the weapons came from Iran based on an examination of the GPS data on board the five vessels as well as from interrogations of their crews.

American companies are developing laser systems for the aircraft, drones, vehicles and even boats for U.S. troops. And while they may not match the cool beams of light seen from those “Star Wars” laser cannons, they can do plenty of damage.

Here is a look at a few of the systems under development:

The Drone Slaying Laser