Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the American military’s top officers – hundreds of generals and admirals – to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering of senior commanders of one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico on Tuesday.

It was unclear how many officials would actually attend the event, but it is rare to have so many senior officials in the same room at the same time. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorised to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing

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