Washington DC, Aug. 22 -- In what critics are calling a return to heavy-handed US Department of War suppression tactics, the Pentagon fired the publisher, editor-in-chief, and a Middle East correspondent of Stars and Stripes on Friday, the New York Times reported, citing senior Pentagon official and the dismissed journalists.

The purge marks the latest effort by the Defence Department to curb the government-funded military newspaper's statutory editorial independence amid the ongoing war in Iran.

The terminations follow a series of investigative reports by the outlet highlighting severe hardships among service members, including an extended nine-month deployment for Navy sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the New Y...