WASHINGTON (AP) — Military leaders have ordered the National Guard in every state to develop a “quick reaction force” of troops trained to deal with civil disturbances and riots that can be ready to deploy with just hours' notice, the latest indication of longer-term Trump administration plans to more readily dispatch soldiers to U.S. streets.
A set of memos circulated this month directs Guard units in all 50 states and U.S. territories, except for the District of Columbia, to train a contingent of soldiers in a specialized course that includes the proper use of batons, body shields, stun guns and pepper spray.
Signed by Major Gen. Ronald Burkett, operations director for the National Guard, the memos reviewed by The Associated Press give various numbers for each state's force — often 500 each — that total more than 23,000 troops in all. The memos direct Washington, D.C., to maintain a “specialized” military police battalion with 50 National Guard soldiers on active duty orders.
It presses forward with President Donald Trump's broader vision for a muscular role for the U.S. military in targeting illegal immigration and crime. He has already pushed traditional boundaries by sending the National Guard into American cities, often over the objection of Democratic local leaders.
The memos, reported earlier by The Guardian, come after Trump signed an executive order in August that directed the Pentagon to create quick reaction forces that would be “available for rapid nationwide deployment.” The executive order is cited as one of the authorities for the memo, about which the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The National Guard has always had troops that were on standby to deploy at a moment's notice, but they traditionally have been used to quickly react to natural disasters and did not receive special training.
The new, specialized quick reaction forces will be able to deploy a fourth of all their troops within eight hours and all of those assigned to the units within a day, according to the memo.
During a roundtable at the White House last week with homeland security officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about a memo detailing similar plans. Hegseth said he would not comment on the “particulars” but went on to say that there were “multiple layers of National Guard response forces.”
“We’ve got a lot of different ways that, constitutionally and legally, we can employ” Guard troops, and “we will do so when necessary,” Hegseth said.
While Trump has sent the National Guard into cities including Los Angeles and D.C., his efforts to deploy troops in other places have faced swift legal challenges. The Trump administration is blocked from sending troops into the Chicago area until at least the latter half of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order calling on the sides to file additional legal briefs. And a federal trial seeking to block a troop deployment in Portland, Oregon, got underway this week.
The memos, which were sent out to the states early this month, mandate that each state and territory have its quick reaction forces operational by Jan. 1, 2026. To help with that goal, units will be provided 100 sets of crowd control equipment as well as two full-time trainers by the National Guard Bureau.
The units also will be allowed to use an additional five days of training for soldiers to get through the “Interservice Nonlethal Individual Weapons Instructor Course.”
According to one of the memos, the initial portion of the course includes topics like “crowd management techniques,” “domestic civil disturbance training,” and “proper use of baton and body shields.” The intermediate portion focuses on the use of non-lethal weapons like Tasers and pepper spray.
Each National Guard unit is required to update military leaders monthly on its progress in meeting this new mandate.
A member of the National Guard stands watch on Beale Street, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Washington (AP) — U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians, according to a Pentagon review of the attacks, which comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties during military campaigns under the Trump administration.
The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News. A Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce.
Civilian casualties from U.S. military operations have drawn concerns, including from lawmakers in Congress, after a U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war, killing up to 168 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to have slashed the size of an office focused on reducing civilian harm, the AP has reported.
The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.
Those strikes targeted hostile forces in or near Yemen’s rebel-held capital city of Sanaa as well as the Ras Isa port, the report said. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.
The strike on the port was the most deadly, killing 80 people and injuring 171 others. It sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks. The Houthis aired graphic footage of the aftermath on their al-Masirah satellite news channel, showing corpses strewn about the port.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said at the time that the "strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.”
“U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” U.S. Central Command said in its statement in April 2025.
The command determined that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the review said. The information was based on U.S. intelligence sources, imagery and open-source reporting.
It was determined that condolence payments were not appropriate for the three strikes, according to the Pentagon’s review, which did not explain why that was the case.
Such payments may be one of several responses when U.S. military operations injure or kill a civilian, the review stated, adding that they’re not required by law and not an admission of wrongdoing.
Such payments are not unheard of. Following an errant drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 people, seven of them children, in 2021, the Pentagon said it was committed to offering condolence payments to relatives.
The U.S. military first launched attacks against the Houthis in 2023, during the Biden administration, after the militants started launching drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at stopping Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though they occurred as the Houthis tried to strengthen their position in Yemen.
The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II, U.S. military leaders and experts told the AP in 2024. American fighter jets and Navy destroyers shot down Houthi drones and missiles that were launched at commercial vessels and U.S. warships.
The Houthis now are carrying out a growing number of strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.
Fears are growing that the renewed violence could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce and open a new front in the Middle East war.
FILE - This photo taken from video released by Al Masirah TV channel shows medics carrying a wounded man into the hospital after U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels in Hodeida, Yemen, April 18, 2025.( Al Masirah TV via AP, File)
FILE - This photo taken from video released by Al Masirah TV channel shows medics carrying a dead person after U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels in Hodeida, Yemen, April 18, 2025.( Al Masirah TV via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo taken from video released by Al Masirah TV channel shows a burning oil tanker after U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels in Hodeida, Yemen, April 18, 2025.( Al Masirah TV via AP, File)
