Dhaka, March 28 -- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is at the vortex of a mounting crisis within the Pentagon following allegations that he has removed minority and female officers from a promotion list.

A report by the New York Times, based on interviews with 11 current and former military and administration officials, suggests that Hegseth took the unprecedented step of personally striking four names from a roster of army colonels recommended for promotion to one-star brigadier generals.

For months, Hegseth reportedly pressured army Secretary Daniel P Driscoll to purge the four individuals from a list of roughly three dozen candidates.

Despite Driscoll's refusal -- who pointed to the officers' decades of exemplary service -- Hegseth...