Overnight Defense: Brussels update; Troop count in Iraq tops authorized cap

by Kristina Wong - 03/22/16 8:07 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, which left at least 34 people dead and more than 200 others wounded.

“What we feared has happened — we were hit by blind attacks,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at a news conference.

{mosads}Authorities warned a suspect could still be on the loose. Belgian police released a photograph of a suspect, according to CNN. The man is one of three shown in surveillance video pushing airport luggage carts alongside each other.

Two of them “probably carried out suicide attacks,” while the third “is actively being searched for,” said Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw.

President Obama condemned the attacks during comments Tuesday morning during his visit to Cuba, and offered to help investigate the attacks and apprehend those responsible.

“This is yet another reminder the world must unite. We must be together, regardless of nationality or race or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” he said.

2016 CANDIDATES: The attacks also roiled the 2016 campaign, The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports.

Tuesday morning’s blasts in Brussels escalated fears about violent extremism’s creep into the West, and put new pressure on presidential candidates to prove their ability to serve as the nation’s commander in chief.

Fears mounted in the immediate aftermath of the violence that a similar attack might be carried out in the U.S., prompting renewed attention on national security in a presidential race that has been marked by a string of crises.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump called for the U.S. to “close up our borders.” Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton hit back, calling that proposal “unrealistic.”

Meanwhile, GOP contender Ted Cruz called for the U.S. to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. Cruz’s comments sparked a backlash and the candidate later sought to clarify his remarks, saying he just wanted to prevent radicalization from “happening here.”

For more info on the deadly attacks, click here, and for what the Brussels attacks mean for the 2016 presidential campaign, read here.

Click here for more on Cruz’s remarks and the backlash.

OBAMA TO CUBA: I WANT TO BURY COLD WAR: President Obama on Tuesday delivered a hopeful message in a speech to the Cuban people, telling them he came to their country to open a new chapter in the tangled history between Washington and Havana, reports The Hill’s Jordan Fabian.

“I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas,” he said during a speech in the Great Theatre in Havana that was broadcast across the country on state-controlled television.

With Cuban President Raúl Castro in attendance, Obama called for a new era of peace and friendship between the people and governments of the United States and Cuba.

Obama received a thunderous ovation when he called on Congress to lift the trade embargo on Cuba.

But the applause died down when he called for the Cuban government to make policy changes, including allowing private businesses to hire Cuban citizens, recognizing the rights of freedom of speech and religion and expanding Internet access across the island.

Read the story here.

Obama’s trip, though, was overshadowed by Brussels. Read more from Jordan here.

And Republicans urged Obama to cut his trip short and return home to address ISIS. Read more here.

HOUSE VOTES TO RESTORE BURIALS FOR FEMALE PILOTS: Female World War II pilots are a step closer to burial rights at Arlington National Cemetery after the House unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to grant them full military status.

“This is the right thing to do,” said Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a retired Air Force colonel and the first woman to fly in combat, who introduced the bill with Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.). “The fact that these women were denied this right is unconscionable and, quite frankly, infuriating when we heard about it.”

The House passed the bill 385-0.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, were a group of 1,074 women who flew noncombat missions during World War II. They ferried aircraft across the country, trained combat pilots and towed airborne targets for other aircraft. Thirty-eight were killed in crashes.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more.

NOT ALL TROOPS IN IRAQ COUNTED: Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged Tuesday that the number of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq is higher than the administration’s authorized cap of 3,870.

“People who are temporarily assigned — and this has been true for here and in Afghanistan for some time — they, under the caps, are counted differently, as you well know,” Carter told the House Armed Services Committee.

“There are some people who are subject to the troop caps, and there are some people who rotate in for a short amount of time, that are not subject to the troop caps,” he said.

Focus on the troop levels in Iraq came after a Marine was killed on Saturday in northern Iraq, revealing the quiet deployment of Marines to the country.

Read the story here.

TOMORROW:

Defense and State Department officials testify about the administration’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 9:30 a.m. Rayburn 2172. http://1.usa.gov/1MATSnR

Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan and other F-35 acquisition program officials provide an update to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces at 10:30 a.m. Rayburn 2118. http://1.usa.gov/1MlgMow

ICYMI:

— The Hill: DOD watchdog confirms probes into Afghan spending

— The Hill: US European Command bans troops from travel to Brussels

— The Hill: US service member, family injured in Brussels attack

— Washington Examiner: Military shuts down private email access after cyberthreat

— AP: Defense Secretary Carter says no attack will deter US resolve to defeat ISIS

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Rebecca Kheel, rkheel@digital-staging.thehill.com