Roger That: Search continues for 12 missing Marines after helicopters crash off Hawaiian coast

Authorities searching the area where two Marine helicopters crashed off Hawaii have found some life rafts that were carried aboard the aircraft, but still no sign of the 12 crew members who were on board, according to Marine Corps Times.

The Coast Guard said Monday that three of the four life rafts confirmed to have been aboard the helicopters have been recovered and efforts were being made to recover the fourth. Some of the rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they came to be inflated, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said.

The two CH-053 Super Stallion helicopters were taking part in night-time flight training on Jan. 14, about three miles off the northern coast of Oahu when they collided, officials said. A large fireball lit up the night sky, according to witnesses.

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The Pentagon is considering retroactively demoting retired Gen. David Petraeus after he admitted to giving classified information to his biographer and mistress while he was still in uniform, three people with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast.

The decision now rests with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who is said to be willing to consider overruling an earlier recommendation by the Army that Petraeus not have his rank reduced. Such a demotion could cost the storied general hundreds of thousands of dollars — and deal an additional blow to his once-pristine reputation, according to the Daily Beast.

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ISIS fighters aren’t getting any year-end pay raises this January. In fact, in response to mounting military and economic pressure across Syria and Iraq, the terror group is slashing salaries, newly leaked ISIS documents show, according to the website Vocativ.com.

The administrative records reveal that ISIS leaders in Raqqa, the group’s de-facto capital in Syria, reduced the monthly salaries of all fighters by half sometime around November or December of last year, just as the U.S. began to dramatically increase its airstrikes against ISIS-held oil fields and other financial targets.

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Military.com is reporting that at least 18,802 civilians were killed and another 36,245 were wounded in Iraq between the start of 2014 and Oct. 31 of last year as Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State group, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

The report documented a wide range of human rights abuses, including the IS group's conscription of some 3,500 people into slavery, mainly women and children from the Yazidi religious minority captured in the summer of 2014 and forced into sexual slavery.

It said another 800 to 900 children were abducted from Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, for religious and military training. It said a number of IS child soldiers were killed by the extremists when they tried to flee fighting in the western Anbar province.

The reports called the civilian death toll in Iraq “staggering.” It also detailed the various methods the IS group has employed to kill its enemies, including public beheadings, running people over with bulldozers, burning them alive and throwing them off buildings.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Roger That: Search continues for 12 missing Marines after helicopters crash off Hawaiian coast."