US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to lift the military ban on women serving in combat, news media reported late Wednesday. This measure will allow American women to be on the frontline in war zones and to serve in commando units. Pentagon officials were quoted in US media saying that this move would open hundreds of thousands of military positions to women. Panetta and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Martin Dempsey are expected to formally announce this decision on Thursday, a decision that will overturn a 1994 measure banning women from combat roles. The US army will have until January 16 to implement this new measure. Pentagon record shows that around 290,000 women have served in combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq out of 2.5 million soldiers serving in those two countries. (end) jm.asa KUNA 240910 Jan 13NNNN