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/ _Current
Iraq News_ / Archive
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2003
Iraq News
- "S.Korea
to Send 3,000 Troops to Iraq in April." ... "South
Korea is to send 3,000 troops to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late
April to help reconstruction efforts, cabinet and military officials said
Tuesday." ... "South Korea's cabinet approved a motion for the dispatch
of the troops at a special session Tuesday and would now send it to parliament
for ratification, officials said." -Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
- Christmas
News
- "Where
Christmas trees will stay up until April: One Army
town's bittersweet celebration." ... "The past nine months have been difficult
for families of soldiers at Fort Carson, an Army post south of Colorado
Springs. About 11,000 troops were deployed from Fort Carson to Iraq in
April. Most aren't expected to return until spring." ... "In many homes,
Christmas trees will stay up through the spring, with packages underneath
for returning soldiers and their stockings full and dangling from mantles."
-By Jeremy Meyer -CSMonitor
- 
- Time
Magazine's Person of the Year: 2003:
"The
American Soldier: They swept across Iraq and conquered
it in 21 days. They
stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught
Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will,
in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is TIME's Person of the
Year" ... "" -By Nancy Gibbs
-Vol.
162 No. 26 20031229-20040105
-TIME.com
- Christmas
News
- "Spanish
PM Aznar Makes Christmas Trip to Iraq." ... "Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar made a lightning trip to Iraq Saturday to express
his support for Spanish troops just ahead of the Christmas holiday." ...
"Despite strong opposition to the U.S.-led war among the Spanish public,
Spain has 1,300 soldiers in Iraq." -Reuters
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- "Iraq
Debt Relief Backing Rises, Hard Work Remains." ...
"The Paris Club of creditor states can agree a debt relief deal for Iraq
quickly but the agreement can be signed only when the country has an internationally
recognized leadership, the Paris Club's president said on Thursday." ...
"Increasing hopes that a deal will be reached, Britain said during a European
tour by U.S. special envoy James Baker that it backed the idea of a substantial
reduction in debts estimated at $120 billion." ... "The British comment
echoed similar political pledges made this week by France, Germany and
Italy after talks with Baker, who was visiting Britain and Russia on Thursday."
(1, 2)
-By Brian Love -Reuters
- ELECTION
2004 - "As
rivals sense a weak spot, Dean defends his stance on Iraq:
Kerry, Lieberman sharpen attacks." ... "Democrats trailing Howard Dean
in the presidential race said yesterday his statement that America is not
made safer by the capture of Saddam Hussein raises questions about his
political and national security judgment. The former Vermont governor responded
by casting himself as the victim of unjustified attacks and said such criticism
risks alienating the voters their party needs to win the White House in
2004." -By Glen Johnson
-Boston/Globe
- 
- "Explosion
in Baghdad Kills at Least 10: Truck Loaded With Explosives
Rams Into a Small Bus in Baghdad, Killing at Least 10 People." ... "A truck
loaded with explosives rammed into a small bus near a police station Wednesday,
killing at least 10 Iraqis, an Iraqi deputy minister said. He blamed the
attack on Saddam Hussein loyalists angry over the former dictator's capture."
... "The explosion occurred before dawn in al-Bayaa, a poor district in
southwest Baghdad, police said. Two cars nearby were destroyed. U.S. soldiers
and Iraqi police secured the area after the explosion."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Coalition
fears confirmed as blasts kill eight." ... "Iraqi
insurgents confirmed US and British government fears that the arrest of
Saddam could galvanise them by mounting two attacks yesterday on police
stations, killing eight and injuring 22." ... "The fatal explosion occurred
at Husseiniya, north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber sped through a fence
protecting a police station in a four-wheel drive packed with explosives.
It hit another car and detonated after guards opened fire. Six policemen
were killed, as well as the driver; about 20 people were wounded." -By
Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Hussein's
Hovel Hideaway: Desposed Leader Told Captors He Wanted
to 'Negotiate'." ... "When the deposed Iraqi leader was pulled by U.S.
troops from a dank hole adjacent to the farmhouse Saturday, he told them
in English: "My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and
I want to negotiate."" ... "A U.S. Special Forces soldier replied: "Regards
from President Bush."" -By Alexandar Vasovic
-AP via -WashingtonPost
-
- 
- Execution
News - "Analysis:
Putting Saddam on trial: The Iraqi Governing Council
intends to put Saddam Hussein on trial by an Iraqi court." ... "It is determined
to resist calls for an international tribunal. Saddam Hussein could face
the death penalty. It has been suspended by the occupation authorities
but could be reinstated by an Iraqi government." ... "That in itself would
be controversial. Britain, as a coalition partner, objects to execution
on principle. But Iraqis may want it." ... "The British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said that Iraqis would "express a strong preference" for a trial
in Iraq. International law, he said, also called for a domestic trial in
such cases if possible." ... "The United States is firmly behind the Iraqi
desire to try Saddam Hussein themselves" -By Paul
Reynolds -BBC/News
-
- "A
tip, high-tech surveillance and a GI with a shovel nab Saddam."
... "Perhaps a mile from his nearest palace, Saddam spent his final minutes
of freedom in an underground chamber of hard-packed dirt, just wide enough
to permit a man to recline. After decades as self-proclaimed heir to the
iconic 12th-century warrior known in the West as Saladin, Saddam surrendered
meekly without a shot from the pistol he clutched in his lap." ... "The
clues that led to Saddam's capture emerged three weeks ago, officials said,
when intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces shifted the focus
of their hunt from Saddam's innermost circle to the more distant relatives
and tribal allies who they suspected had been sheltering the deposed president."
... "The U.S. military and the CIA had formed a task force devoted exclusively
to finding Saddam and his top allies. Called Task Force 121, it is an interagency
team of CIA paramilitaries and "black," or unacknowledged, Special Operations
forces." -By Barton Gellman and Dana Priest with contributions
from Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Bradley Graham -WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
- 
- "Ace
in the Hole: Saddam Hussein Captured Near Tikrit By U.S. Forces."
... "Saddam was in a six-to-eight-foot-deep "spider hole" that had been
camouflaged with bricks and dirt. The soldiers saw the hole, investigated
and found him inside, armed with a pistol, said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno,
the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that assisted in capturing the
leader." ... "Forces from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special
Forces captured Saddam, the U.S. military said. There were no shots fired
or injuries in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn," said Lt. Gen. Richardo
Sanchez." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-ABCNEWS.com
- "Car
bomb at police station in Iraq kills at least 17, police say."
... "A suspected suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi
police station Sunday near Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding
33 others, hours before the announcement of Saddam Hussein's capture, the
U.S. military said." ... "The car bombing in Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of
Baghdad, killed police officers, city workers and civilian bystanders,
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeff Swisher said." -By Sameer
N. Yacoub -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Saddam
Captured Hiding in Hole Near Tikrit." ... "U.S. troops
captured Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in
a major coup for Washington's beleaguered occupying force in Iraq." ...
"Grubby, bearded and "very disorientated," the 66-year-old fallen dictator
was dug out by troops from a cramped hiding pit during a raid on a farm
in Ad-Dawr village late Saturday, U.S. Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno told a news
conference in Tikrit." (1, 2,
3)
-By Joseph Logan -Reuters
-
- 
- 
- "Bush:
Halliburton Must Pay for Overcharge: Bush Says U.S.
Expects Halliburton to Repay Money if Company Overcharged for Gasoline
in Iraq." ... "President Bush said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney's
former company should repay the government if it overcharged for gasoline
delivered in Iraq under a controversial prewar contract." ... "Pentagon
auditors say the company charged up to $61 million too much for delivering
gasoline to Iraqi citizens under a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's dilapidated
oil industry. Halliburton denies overcharging."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Annan rules
out swift UN redeployment in Iraq." ... "Secretary
General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he had ruled out a swift renewal
of a substantial UN presence in Iraq because of the danger there." ...
""I cannot compromise the security of our international and national staff,"
he said in a 26-page report to the Security Council that found the UN to
be "a high-value, high-impact target for terrorist activity in Iraq for
the foreseeable future."" -By Warren Hoge -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
- "War
Crimes Court Established for Iraq." ... "Iraq's U.S.-appointed
interim government established a war crimes tribunal Wednesday to try former
members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and two U.S. soldiers were killed and
four wounded in a northern city." ... "Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, president of
Iraq's Governing Council, said the new tribunal will cover crimes committed
from July 17, 1968 the day Saddam's Baath Party came to power until May
1, 2003 the day President Bush declared major hostilities over."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Koizumi
commits SDF personnel to Iraq." ... "He says Japan
has a crucial noncombat role to play in Iraq." ... "Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi, emphasizing Japan's responsibility to promote peace, said Tuesday
he will send the Self-Defense Forces to one of the most dangerous nations
on the planet." ... "Prior to the Cabinet's approval of the basic plan,
Koizumi met with Takenori Kanzaki, the head of coalition partner New Komeito
who had raised concerns about sending ground troops to Iraq." ... "The
two leaders agreed that the actual dispatch of Ground SDF to Iraq would
come only after the government sufficiently determines the security situation
in that country." ... "Under the basic plan, a maximum 600 GSDF members
will be sent to Iraq, along with up to 200 vehicles. The Air SDF will dispatch
up to eight transport planes, while the Maritime SDF will send two transport
ships and two escort destroyers." -Asahi
Shimbun>English
-
-
-
-
-
- "Pentagon
Bars Three Nations From Iraq Bids." ... "The Pentagon
has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6
billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying it was acting
to protect "the essential security interests of the United States."" ...
"The directive, issued Friday by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense
secretary, represents the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush
administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to
war in Iraq." ... "Under the guidelines, only companies from the United
States, Iraq and 61 countries designated "coalition partners" will be allowed
to bid on the contracts. France, Germany and Russia are not on the list."
(1, 2)
-By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Car
Bomb Injures 31 U.S. Troops in Iraq." ... "A car
bomb attack on barracks near the northern city of Mosul early Tuesday wounded
31 American soldiers, mainly with flying debris and glass, the military
said. The injuries were not life-threatening." ... "The attack came less
than a day after insurgents shot and killed a soldier from the Army's 101st
Airborne Division as he guarded a gas station in Mosul, 250 miles north
of Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad." ... "A total of 448
U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20.
Of those, 308 died in hostile action." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- 
- "Japan
Cabinet Approves Plan for Iraq Troop Dispatch." ...
"Japan's cabinet approved a plan on Tuesday for the dispatch of non-combat
troops to Iraq, a landmark decision that clears the way for what could
be the biggest and most dangerous overseas mission by its military since
World War II." -Reuters
via -Boston/Globe
-
- "Iraq's
students say, 'Welcome back, professor'." ... "In
recent months, university presidents report that dozens of professors have
returned from exile and are looking to get their jobs back. At the US-led
Ministry of Higher Education, staffed by expatriate professors, hundreds
more have e-mailed from England, the US, and the Netherlands to inquire
about returning. They also want to offer donations and scholarships, and
to start partnerships." -By Christina Asquith
-CSMonitor
-
-
-
- "Iraq
delays hand Cheney firm $1bn: ·Key contract
decisions postponed again. ·Blair drawn into row over lack of 'level
playing fields'." ... "Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run
by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction
work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks
to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition." ... "The
cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended, rather than being fixed
at the outset, because the scope of the damage was unknown. The USACE described
the contract as a 'bridge to competition', but original plans to award
the work competitively in August have repeatedly slipped. So far, $1.7bn
has been made available to Halliburton for the work." -By
Oliver Morgan -Observer.co.uk
via -Guardian.co.uk
- 
- "Tough
New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns."
... "As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American
soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire." ... "In selective
cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by
Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected
guerrillas, in hopes of pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in."
... "The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November,
goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces
in Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose
is beginning to echo the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied
territories." (1, 2)
-By Dexter Filkins -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Iraq
council wishes to stay on; Washington seen likely to grant extension."
... "Most members of Iraq's Governing Council want the U.S.-appointed body
to stay beyond July 1, the date set for a provisional Iraqi government
to take office." ... "The coalition agreement on handing sovereignty back
to Iraqis says the 25-seat interim body must cease to exist. But the Bush
administration, faced with mounting military casualties in Iraq and a re-election
campaign, could consider granting the council members' wishes to stay as
a small price to pay for the implementation of the political plan." -By
Hamza Hendawi -AP
via -Boston/Globe
-
- "Bush
Names Baker Envoy on Iraqi Debt: President Bush Names
Ex-Secretary of State James A. Baker III Envoy on Addressing Iraq Debt."
... "President Bush on Friday called on a longtime family troubleshooter,
former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, to oversee the job of getting
Iraq out from under its crushing $125 billion debt." ... "As the president's
personal envoy on the issue, Baker will tackle a major problem in the rebuilding
of Iraq. Iraq's debt carries annual servicing charges of $7 billion to
$8 billion." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Iraqi
'big fish' eludes US forces." ... "US forces were
conducting a big search and sweep operation last night in the town of Hawija,
30 miles west of Kirkuk. But they denied reports they had captured or killed
Izzat Ibrahim, a longtime Saddam Hussein confidant who is No 6 on the US
list of most wanted. A $10m (£5.78m) reward has been put up for his
capture." ... ""He was definitely not captured in today's mission," said
Major Doug Vincent of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Like Saddam, Ibrahim
disappeared after the US invasion and since has been widely rumoured to
be in hiding in the northern city of Mosul and Sunni areas north of Baghdad,
coordinating guerrilla attacks against American soldiers and Iraqis working
with the coalition authority." -By Michael Howard
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Iraq council
resists powerful cleric: Majority backs U.S.
plan for picking interim government." ... "A majority of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed
Governing Council has decided to support an American plan to select a provisional
government through regional caucuses despite objections from the country’s
most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, according to several council members."
... "The council's stance, the result of intense lobbying over the past
few days by the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, could result
in a dramatic showdown with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has insisted
that a provisional government be chosen through a national election. If
the council persists in supporting the American plan, many in Iraq’s Shiite
majority, who regard the grand ayatollah as their supreme spiritual authority,
may reject the provisional government as illegitimate." -By
Rajiv Chandrasekaran -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
- "U.S.
military: Iraqi rebels displayed greater coordination in Samarra ambushes."
... "One of the bloodiest engagements since the fall of Saddam Hussein
showed a new, deadlier side of the Iraqi insurgency: stepped up, coordinated
assaults by groups of guerrillas bent on battle rather than a hit-and-run
attack, the U.S. military said Monday." ... "''Here it seems they had the
training to stand and fight,'' said Capt. Andy Deponai, whose tank was
hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during the firefight Sunday in Samarra,
north of Baghdad. Residents disputed U.S. assertions that dozens of Iraqi
fighters died, saying fewer than 10 were killed and that most of those
were civilians." -By Sabah Jerges
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- "U.S.
Troops Kill 46 Iraqis But Allies Suffer Losses."
... "U.S. troops killed 46 Iraqis and captured eight they said tried to
ambush U.S. convoys in central Iraq on Sunday, ending a weekend in which
guerrillas killed a dozen people from four nations helping the U.S. military."
... "A U.S. military spokesman said U.S. troops killed the Iraqis when
the 4th Infantry Division repelled several coordinated ambush attacks on
U.S. convoys round Samarra, north of Baghdad." ... "Some attackers wore
the uniform of the Fedayeen, a militia formed by Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein before U.S.-led forces toppled him in April, he [Lieutenant-Colonel
William MacDonald] added." (1, 2,
3)
-By Andrew Marshall with contributions from Luke Baker,
Dean Yates, Emma Graham-Harrison, Lee Suwan, Linda Sieg, and Masayuki Kitano
-Reuters
-
-
-
- 
- "Two
U.S. Soldiers Among 12 Killed in Iraq This Weekend:
Deadly Weekend Ends Deadliest Month Since March." ... "Guerrillas killed
a dozen people from four nations helping the U.S. military in Iraq in weekend
ambushes, sparking new concern among Washington's allies about the risks
of getting involved in stabilizing the country." ... "Two South Koreans
died on Sunday when their car was sprayed with bullets near Saddam Hussein's
hometown, a day after ambushes killed seven Spanish intelligence agents,
two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver, and a Colombian contractor."
(1, 2)
-By Andrew Marshall-Reuters
via -WashingtonPost
-
- Thanksgiving
- "Bush
Makes Secret Thanksgiving Visit to Iraq." ... "President
Bush secretly traveled to Baghdad and paid a surprise Thanksgiving Day
visit to U.S. troops on Thursday in a bid to boost the morale of forces
in Iraq amid mounting casualties." ... "In an elaborate plan to ensure
his security in the tense Iraqi capital, Bush slipped away from his Texas
ranch on Wednesday night, arrived in Iraq on Thursday and spent 2-1/2 hours
with the troops before flying back to the United States." -By
Steve Holland -Reuters
via -Wired
- "Shift
seen in target of Iraqi guerrillas: Attacks on troops
ease;civilians bear the brunt" ... "Guerrillas thought loyal to ousted
dictator Saddam Hussein are shifting away from attacks against American
troops in favor of killing and terrorizing Iraqi civilians who cooperate
with the US-led coalition occupying the country, the chief of US Central
Command said yesterday." ... "General John Abizaid said that the aggressive
American anti-insurgency campaign underway in Baghdad and in the "Sunni
Triangle" region to the north and west has resulted in a sharp decline
in attacks on US soldiers, although the soldiers from four Army divisions
are still very much under the gun." -By Colin Nickerson
-Boston/Globe
- "Many
Iraqis see little to celebrate as Ramadan ends."
... "For the first time in most of their lives, Iraqis celebrated the start
of Eid al-Fitr on Monday without Saddam Hussein and under a U.S. occupation
that some say is little better than the ousted dictator's rule." -By
Joseph Logan -Reuters
via -MSNBC
- "Two
American soldiers pummeled by Iraqi teens; third killed in bombing."
... "Iraqi teenagers dragged two bloodied U.S. soldiers from a wrecked
vehicle [in Mosul] and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses
said, describing the killings as a burst of savagery in a city once safe
for Americans." ... "Another soldier was killed by a bomb and a U.S.-allied
police chief was assassinated." ... "The U.S.-led coalition also said it
grounded commercial flights after the military confirmed that a missile
struck a DHL cargo plane that landed Saturday at Baghdad International
Airport with its wing aflame." -By Mariam Fam
-AP via -Boston/Globe
-
- 
- 
- 
-
- 
- "Al Qaeda’s
terror style spreading: Analysts see a form
of franchising at work around globe." ... "Leaders of the al Qaeda
terrorist network have franchised their organization’s brand of synchronized,
devastating violence to homegrown terrorist groups across the world, posing
a formidable new challenge to counterterrorism forces, according to intelligence
analysts and experts in the United States, Europe and the Arab world."
... "The recent attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Iraq show
that the smaller organizations, most of whose leaders were trained in al
Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, have fanned out, imbued with radical ideology
and the means to create or revitalize local terrorist groups. They also
are expanding the horizons of groups that had focused on regional issues."
-By Douglas Farah and Peter Finn with contributions
from Dana Priest, Dan Eggen, and Margot Williams -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
- "12
Civilians Are Killed in a Car Bomb Attack in Kirkuk."
... "A car bomb killed 12 civilians today in the northern Iraqi city of
Kirkuk in an explosion aimed at the headquarters compound of a leading
Kurdish political party, an American military official said today." ...
"Most of the blast was absorbed by the perimeter wall of the compound,
which houses the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the car bomb was not
able to get close enough to the building to cause significant damage, the
official, from the coalition joint task force, said by telephone from Baghdad."
-By Terence Neilan -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "U.S.
Army stages massive show of force in Saddam's hometown."
... "Hundreds of U.S. troops in tanks and assault vehicles marched through
the crowded downtown area of Saddam Hussein's hometown on Monday in a show
of force intended to deliver a stern warning that armed resistance would
not be tolerated." ... "For nearly two hours, M-1 tanks, Bradley fighting
vehicles and Humvees rumbled through the center of Tikrit, past shops and
public markets, drawing crowds of onlookers and clogging traffic across
the city of 120,000 people." -By Jim Gomez
-AP via -MercuryNews-BayArea
- 
- "17
soldiers die as 2 US helicopters crash in Iraq."
... "Two US Black Hawk helicopters collided in the Iraqi city of Mosul
yesterday, killing at least 17 soldiers and injuring five in in the military's
deadliest disaster since the war began." ... "One US officer at the scene
said that one of the helicopters had been struck in its tail by a rocket-propelled
grenade, and witnesses said they collided and then went down. If that report
is confirmed, the aircraft would be the fourth and fifth US helicopters
to have been shot down in Iraq in three weeks." -By
Robert Schlesinger -Boston/Globe
-
- "U.S. probes
deadly helicopter crash." ... "The U.S. military
on Sunday was investigating whether insurgent groundfire caused the crash
of two U.S. helicopters, killing 17 American soldiers, the worst single
loss of U.S. life since the start of the Iraq war." ... "All the casualties
were from the 101st Airborne Division, which controls northern Iraq. Five
soldiers were injured." -AP
via -MSNBC
- "U.S. to help pen
Iraq constitution." ... "We will write into that
constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam’s
constitution.,” L. Paul Bremer told ABC’s “This Week” from Baghdad, the
Iraqi capital." ... "“We’ll have a bill of rights. We’ll recognize equality
for all citizens. We’ll recognize an independent judiciary. We’ll talk
about a federal government."" ... "“All of these things will be in the
interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time, probably
two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies
those American values.”" ... "Bremer said Americans will work with the
Iraqi Governing Council in writing the interim constitution. There will
also be a side agreement dealing with security and the presence of U.S.
and coalition forces in Iraq, he said." ... "Bremer also said that the
U.S. military presence would remain for some time."
-AP and -Reuters
via -MSNBC
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "U.S.
must catch Saddam and soon, Clark says." ... "Retired
general Wesley Clark warned Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein
was likely to undermine any new Iraqi government. And he said it was important
to capture Saddam alive so he could be tried for war crimes." -By
Susan Page -USATODAY
- "Guerrilla
force could number 5,000." ... ""The force of people
actively armed and operating against us does not exceed 5,000," [Army Gen.
John] Abizaid said at a news conference at his headquarters at MacDill
Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla." ... ""People will say, well, that's a very
small number. But when you understand that they're organized in cellular
structure, that they have a brutal and determined cadre, that they know
how to operate covertly, they have access to a lot of money and a lot of
ammunition, you'll understand how dangerous they are."" -By
Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger -NYTimes
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
-
- "US
Struggles to Determine Who Is the Enemy in Iraq."
... "The Pentagon is struggling to figure out who the enemy is in Iraq,
with officials saying they remain foggy about the leadership and organization
of the insurgency and analysts decrying a huge intelligence lapse." ...
"Military commanders and U.S. intelligence officials describe resistance
forces in Iraq as some combination of loyalists of toppled President Saddam
Hussein's government, criminals paid by those loyalists to carry out attacks,
Islamic militants from outside Iraq, and isolated Shiite radicals." -By
Will Dunham -Reuters
via -Wired
-
- 
-
- "New urgency,
risks in ‘Iraqification’: Some fear handover
could look like abandonment." ... "At least four factors forced the administration
to overhaul its military and political strategy in Iraq, despite the danger
that a new approach might actually diminish U.S. control over the country’s
future." ... "The foremost factor is security — from an Iraqi opposition
that has become more intense, more effective, more sophisticated and more
extensive. The other three are the failure of the Iraqi Governing Council
to act, the looming U.N. deadline of Dec. 15 for an Iraqi plan of action
and the U.S. elections just a year away, according to administration and
congressional officials and U.S. analysts." -By Robin
Wright and Thomas E. Ricks with contributions from Mike Allen
-WashingtonPost via -MSNBC
-
- "Back
to Qatar: Deteriorating Security in Iraq Draws
CENTCOM to Region." ... "The general running the war in Iraq, Gen. John
Abizaid, will move his headquarters back to the region beginning next week,
because of the rise in attacks on U.S., allied and Iraqi targets, military
officials told ABCNEWS." ... "Since taking command of U.S. Central Command,
which covers the Middle East, in July, Abizaid has run the Iraq war from
CENTCOM's permanent base in Tampa, Fla." -Contributions
by Martha Raddatz -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Japan
halts Iraq troop dispatch: The attack on Italian
forces in Iraq will force Japan to postpone its dispatch of troops to that
country until sometime next year, a top government spokesman said Thursday."
-AP via -CNN
-
- "CIA
Report Says U.S. Losing Popular Support in Iraq."
... "A CIA report concludes that ordinary Iraqis increasingly are siding
with the insurgency amid doubts about the U.S. ability to stamp it out,
officials said on Wednesday, while the U.S. administrator in Iraq said
it was hard to figure out where the Iraqi public stands." ... "The report,
warning of possible failure for Bush's efforts to establish Iraq as a democracy
if the situation is not fixed, said aggressive U.S. counter-insurgency
measures were leaving many Iraqis disillusioned and pushing them to support
the insurgency, one U.S. official said." -By Will
Dunham -Reuters
via -Wired
-
- "Explosion
at Italian base in southern Iraq kills at least 14 Italians and eight Iraqis."
... "A truck bomb exploded at the headquarters of Italy's paramilitary
police in this southern city on Wednesday, killing at least 14 Italians
and possibly trapping others in the debris." ... "Italian officials said
Iraqis also died; a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said at least
eight Iraqis were also killed." ... "About 15 people were wounded, Italian
officials said." -By Anja Niedringhaus
-AP via -SFGate.com
-
- -
- "Cheney’s Long
Path to War: The Hard Sell: He sifted intel.
He brooded about threats. And he wanted Saddam gone. The inside story of
how Vice President Cheney bought into shady assumptions and helped persuade
a nation to invade Iraq." ... "Of all the president’s advisers, Cheney
has consistently taken the most dire view of the terrorist threat. On Iraq,
Bush was the decision maker. But more than any adviser, Cheney was the
one to make the case to the president that war against Iraq was an urgent
necessity. Beginning in the late summer of 2002, he persistently warned
that Saddam was stocking up on chemical and biological weapons, and last
March, on the eve of the invasion, he declared that “we believe that he
[Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.” (Cheney later
said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.” He also said, a bit optimistically,
“I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”) After seven
months, investigators are still looking for that arsenal of WMD." (1, 2,
3)
-By Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas
-MSNBC 20031117
-Newsweek
- "Turkey
drops Iraq troops plan: Turkey has decided
not to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, government officials have said."
... "It follows fierce opposition from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council and public opinion in Turkey." ... "Last month, the Turkish parliament
approved a deployment motion, after the United States, a fellow Nato member,
requested more foreign troops."-BBC/News
-
- 
- "POW
Lynch was raped by Iraqi captors, biography says:
Soldier has no memory of attack, but book cites medical records." ... "Jessica
Lynch, the U.S. Army private whose capture and subsequent rescue made her
the most famous soldier of the war in Iraq, was raped by her Iraqi captors,
according to a family spokesman." ... "A new authorized biography of the
soldier accurately cites medical records showing Lynch was sexually assaulted,
said spokesman Stephen Goodwin. He said the 20-year-old former private
had no recollection of the attack. The New York Daily News obtained a copy
of the book, written by Rick Bragg and titled, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The
Jessica Lynch Story." The News published excerpts Thursday ahead of the
scheduled Tuesday release." -By William Branigin-WashingtonPost
via -SFGate.com
-
- "6
Soldiers Die in Helicopter Crash in Iraq: 2
Others Killed in Separate Attacks in Mosul." ... "A U.S. Army UH-60 Black
Hawk helicopter crashed Friday morning near the Tigris River in northern
Iraq after it was apparently struck by ground fire, killing all six soldiers
on board, military officials and witnesses said." ... "It would be the
second U.S. military helicopter shot down by Iraqis in less than a week
and provided another example of the growing sophistication and lethality
of guerrillas, who have escalated their campaign along an arc that stretches
north and west of Baghdad." -By Anthony Shadid
and Vernon Loeb -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "Bush
signs $87B Iraq aid package." ... "President Bush
on Thursday signed an $87.5 billion package approved by Congress for Iraq
and Afghanistan, calling the money a financial commitment by the United
States to the global war to defeat terrorism. "
-USATODAY
- "Insurgents
Attack U.S. Convoys in Iraq." ... "Insurgents attacked
three American military convoys in this northern city with rocket-propelled
grenades and roadside bombs Wednesday, killing three Iraqi civilians and
wounding five Americans, the U.S. military and hospital officials said."
... "The attacks occurred in a city long considered relatively safe for
U.S. troops, compared to Baghdad and the cities and towns in the ``Sunni
Triangle'' to the south." -By Mariam Fam with contributions
from Bassem Mroue -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
- "3
Blasts Seem Aimed at U.S. Compound." ... "Three powerful
explosions in rapid succession shook central Baghdad on Tuesday [20031104]
evening in what apparently was a mortar attack on the headquarters of the
American civilian authorities here." ... "Iraqi witnesses standing near
the gates said the explosions hit the sprawling, walled-in American compound
about 7:45 p.m." ... "The explosions followed the deaths of at least 15
American soldiers on Sunday, when their helicopter was shot down by a surface-to-air
missile over the town of Falluja. (Early reports from the military indicated
that 16 had been killed, but the Department of Defense is now confirming
only 15.) Last week, suicide bombers struck targets across the capital,
killing 34 people." -By
Dexter Filkins -NYTimes via
-Google-News
-
- "Missile
hits U.S. helicopter in Iraq, killing 16 troops."
... "Guerrillas shot down an Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter packed
with soldiers headed for a short-term break on Sunday morning, killing
16 and wounding 20 in the deadliest single attack to date on U.S. forces
in Iraq, military officials and witnesses said." ... "A shoulder-fired
missile streaked from a date palm grove through a clear blue sky and struck
the dual-rotor helicopter in its rear about 9 a.m. as it was ferrying soldiers
from bases in western Iraq to Baghdad's international airport." ... "The
attack took place just southwest of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad
where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has been particularly
intense." -By Theola Labbe and Rajiv Chandrasekaran-WashingtonPost
via -StarTribune.com with contributions
from -AP and -NYTimes
-
-
-
- "White
House Promises to Hand Over Iraq Intelligence Documents."
... "The White House reversed itself and promised the Senate Intelligence
Committee access to all materials requested for its inquiry into prewar
intelligence on Iraq, the committee chairman said Sunday." ... "The committee
is examining the accuracy of intelligence about deposed Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and purported contacts with terrorist
groups. That intelligence served as Bush's main arguments for the U.S.-led
war." -By William C. Mann-WashingtonPost
- "Falluja
bomb attack kills five." ... "Four civilians and
a suspected suicide bomber were today reported killed in Iraq as aid agencies
and non-governmental organisations considered their future in the country."
... "The five died when a small car driven by one man - thought to be the
bomber - exploded 100 metres from the main police station in the town of
Falluja, 40 miles west of Baghdad, the Reuters news agency reported." ...
"The attack comes one day after a strike on the Iraqi headquarters of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and three Baghdad police
stations that killed 35 people and wounded 244 others within an hour, in
the city's bloodiest day since it fell to US forces in April." -By
Simon Jeffery -Guardian.co.uk
and agencies
- "Bombings
Plunge Iraqi Capital Into Chaos at Start of Ramadan."
... "A series of suicide bombings shook Baghdad early today, including
an attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross
and blasts at four Iraqi police stations that punctuated two days of bloody
violence in this capital city." ... "Iraq's police chief and deputy interior
minister, Ahmad Ibrahim, said at a news conference that 34 people had been
killed and 224 had been wounded in the attacks. He said 26 of the dead
were civilians and 8 were police officers; 65 police officers and 159 civilians
were wounded." -By Dexter Filkins and Alex Berenson
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
"FACTBOX-
Contributions to reconstruction in Iraq." ... "International
donors pledged at least $33 billion in aid and loans over the next four
years at a conference to raise funds for Iraqi reconstruction on Friday."
... "The United Nations and World Bank have estimated that Iraq needs about
$56 billion to rebuild over that period."-Reuters
via -Forbes
- "Attacks
on Troops on Rise, Commander Says." ... "Attacks
on U.S. troops in Iraq have increased sharply over the past two weeks,
reaching a high of 35 a day, the commanding American general here said
on Wednesday." ... "Over much of the summer, military officials had said
there were between 10 and 15 attacks on U.S. soldiers most days. Since
early October, however, the number of daily attacks has fluctuated between
20 and 35, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said at a news conference." ... "A
summary provided by the U.S. military to private contractors working in
Iraq listed 30 so-called security incidents on Tuesday, including two mortar
strikes on American bases, nine attacks with roadside bombs and several
drive-by shootings." -By Rajiv Chandrasekaran with
contributions from Anthony Shadid -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Bush threatens
a veto on Iraq aid as a loan." ... "The White House
has threatened to veto its own spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan if
Congress makes reconstruction aid a loan, taking its most forceful stand
yet on the issue even as more lawmakers supported a reimbursement from
Iraq." ... "Having declined to issue a veto threat last week, before the
Senate voted to lend up to $10 billion to Iraq, the White House surprised
many on Capitol Hill with its warning Tuesday. Some congressional officials
said the administration may have been trying to send a signal of its firm
intentions to other countries gathering in Madrid on Thursday for a conference
on providing aid to Iraq." -By David Firestone
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
-
- "Ambush
kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad: Two U.S. soldiers
on a routine patrol in Baghdad's Sadr City were ambushed and killed Thursday
night, according to the Coalition Press Information Center." ... "Since
the Iraq war began in March, 326 U.S. troops have been killed, 209 in hostile
attacks." -CNN
-
-
- "Six
months after Saddam, eight die as bombers prolong violence."
... "A suicide car bomber killed at least eight people at a Baghdad police
station yesterday as Iraq marked six months since the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime with another day of bitterly familiar violence." ... "The latest
attack killed three Iraqi policemen and five civilians who had crowded
into the courtyard of the police station in the poor Shia Muslim district
now known as Sadr City. The driver of the car also died and at least 45
people were injured in the blast." ... "In a separate incident in western
Baghdad a few minutes earlier, a Spanish intelligence officer was assassinated
in front of his house." -By Rory McCarthy and Giles
Tremlett -Guardian.co.uk
-
- 
-
- "White
House stops blocking Syria bill." ... "Rep. Eliot
Engel, D-N.Y., the chief author of the Syria Accountability Act, says he
was told on Friday that the legislation had been put on the calendar for
a vote Wednesday by the House International Relations Committee. The measure
has support from a majority in both the House of Representatives and the
Senate." ... "The legislation had been blocked by the White House in the
run-up to the Iraq war while the administration sought to blunt Syrian
opposition to overturning Saddam Hussein's regime." -By
Barbara Slavin -USATODAY
- "Ex-Iraq
Soldiers Riot in Baghdad, Basra: Ex-Iraq Troops
Riot in Baghdad, Basra Over Pay; Ambush Kills U.S. Soldier in Northern
Iraq." ... "Former Iraqi soldiers angry over rumors their pay would be
cut off clashed Saturday with coalition troops in Baghdad and in the southern
city of Basra in riots that left two Iraqis dead and dozens injured. Elsewhere,
a U.S. soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was killed and another was
wounded in an ambush early Saturday in Sadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad."
... "The death brought to 88 the number of American soldiers killed by
hostile fire since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Bush
Looks to U.N. to Share Burden on Troops in Iraq."
... "President Bush agreed today to begin negotiations in the United Nations
Security Council to authorize a multinational force for Iraq but insisted
that the troops be placed under American command, according to senior administration
officials." ... "The White House acted just as a new Congressional study
showed that the Army lacked the active-duty troops to keep the current
occupation force in Iraq past March, without getting extra help from either
other services and reserves or from other nations, or without spending
tens of billions to vastly expand its size." -By David
E. Sanger -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "Bomb rocks
Baghdad police station: 1 dead in blast; also
U.S. soldier killed in copter crash." ... "A car bomb exploded near the
headquarters of U.S.-trained police in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing one
policeman and wounding many bystanders. Separately, a U.S. soldier was
killed in a helicopter crash, a day after a roadside bomb killed two American
soldiers." ... "The explosion damaged the office of the U.S.-appointed
Baghdad police chief, Hassan al-Obeidi, who was not in the complex at the
time of the attack, Iraqi police said." -AP
& -Reuters via -MSNBC
-
-
- "U.N. to stay
in Iraq despite bombing." ... "U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said Wednesday that U.N. staff would remain in Iraq despite
the devastating bombing of the world body’s headquarters in Baghdad that
killed its top envoy and at least 16 others. In Tikrit, meanwhile, guerrillas
ambushed a U.S. military convoy on Wednesday, killing a contractor with
a U.S. firm and wounding two soldiers, a U.S. military officer said." ...
"In Baghdad, workers continued to dig through the rubble of Tuesday’s explosion,
but the rescue operation appeared to have turned into a grim search for
bodies in the deadliest attack on the United Nations in its history." -Contributed
to by Linda Fasulo, Andrea Mitchell, and Carl Rochelle, Robert Windrem,
-AP & -Reuters
via -MS-NBC
-
- "Oil
prices rise after Iraq pipeline sabotage." ... "World
oil prices came under pressure today after saboteurs blew up a vital oil
pipeline in northern Iraq for a second time." ... "The pipeline, from Iraq's
Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, reopened last Wednesday
for the first time since US and British troops toppled Saddam Hussein.
However, just two days later, it was shut down again after a bomb attack."
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "British open
Iraq war inquiry." ... "The official inquiry into
what was apparently the suicide of a leading British weapons expert [David
Kelly] was told Monday that intelligence officers had registered concern
at the way Prime Minister Tony Blair's government presented the threat
from Iraq's weapons systems before going to war." ... "But senior government
officials on the first full day of testimony at the inquiry denied that
the government knowingly used false information to create a sense of imminent
threat from Baghdad." -By Alan Cowell
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
- "Bomb
attack on Jordan's Iraq embassy: At least 11
people have been killed and more than 50 wounded in a lorry bomb outside
the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad." ... "The force of the explosion sent
a car hurtling onto a rooftop and left body parts and debris strewn across
the street." ... "Jordanian officials said all the identified dead were
Iraqis." ... "The attack comes a week after Jordan granted refuge to two
of Saddam Hussein's daughters and their children, angering some Iraqis."-BBC/News
- "Violence
signifies long stay in Iraq." ... "A truck bombing
that killed at least 11 people and battles that left two American soldiers
dead marked one of the bloodiest 24 hours in this capital [Baghdad] since
it fell to coalition forces on April 9." ... "U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, said Thursday the attacks
underscore why U.S. forces will be in Iraq for two years as an "absolute
minimum" and "probably longer."" ... "The two deaths brought to 56 the
number of U.S. military personnel killed by hostile action since May 1,
when President Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq."
-By Jim Michaels and Donna Leinwand
-USATODAY
-
- "Kurds
block Turkish mission into Iraq." ... "Kurdish leaders
have refused a US request to allow 12,000 Turkish troops through northern
Iraq for a possible peacekeeping assignment in the city of Falluja, a Kurdish
official said on Wednesday." ... "Turkish peacekeepers could be airlifted
into central Iraq, where they could patrol areas dominated by fellow Sunni
Muslims, but it would be expensive." -By Charles Clover
and Semih Idiz with contributions from Peter Spiegel
-FT.com
- -
- "Pressure
mounts for new UN resolution on Iraq." ... "US hopes
of further internationalising the stabilisation effort in Iraq may still
depend on United Nations endorsement, despite signs that agreement is close
on deployment of a large Turkish peacekeeping force there." ... "Abdullah
Gul, Turkey's foreign minister, signalled on Monday, following talks in
Ankara with Sergio de Mello, UN representative for Iraq, that Ankara was
willing to assist in efforts to secure law and order." -By
Semih Idiz, Charles Clover, Mark Turner -FT.com
- "Weapons
expert had slashed wrist: Police have confirmed
that the expert at the centre of the Iraq dossier row bled to death from
a slit wrist, as Tony Blair comes under increasing pressure over the affair."
... "Dr David Kelly, 59, was the suspected mole behind a BBC report that
Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell "sexed up" a dossier
setting out the case for war." ... "Dr Kelly disappeared two days after
being grilled by the Commons foreign affairs select committee as part of
its inquiry into the use of intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq."-BBC/News
- "US
facing guerrilla war, general says: Attacks
claim an Iraqi mayor, American soldier." ... "The new commander of American
forces in Iraq [General John Abizaid] said yesterday that US troops there
are facing a ''classical guerrilla-type campaign,'' the first high-level
acknowledgement that anti-US attacks in Iraq reflect organized resistance
and not just isolated acts of violence." ... "A grenade attack on an American
convoy near Baghdad killed a US soldier and wounded three others. The soldier's
death raised the number of combat fatalities in the Iraq war to 146, one
shy of the combat death toll of US soldiers in the 1991 Gulf War. Also
yesterday, attackers fired a surface-to-air missile at a US C-130 transport
plane as it was landing in Baghdad, but missed their target, and a pro-US
mayor in a northwestern Iraqi town was gunned down in his car." -By
Robert Schlesinger -Boston/Globe
-
- "U.S. military
plane fired at over Iraq: Other attacks kill
U.S. soldier and 3 Iraqis." ... "Suspected pro-Saddam Hussein insurgents
fired a surface-to-air missile at a U.S. military aircraft approaching
Baghdad on Wednesday — a day in which another U.S. soldier was killed,
along with an Iraqi child and a mayor and his son. The missile missed the
C-130 transport plane, but the attack marked a new level of resistance,
which until now had relied largely on ground attacks." ... "The soldier
killed Wednesday was the 33rd to die in hostile action since President
Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1."
-AP and -Reuters
via -MS-NBC
-
- 
- "CIA asked Britain
to drop Iraq claim: Advice on alleged uranium
buywas refused." ... "The CIA tried unsuccessfully in early September 2002
to persuade the British government to drop from an official intelligence
paper a reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa that President
Bush included in his State of the Union address four months later, senior
Bush administration officials said yesterday." ... "“We consulted about
the paper and recommended against using that material,” a senior administration
official familiar with the intelligence program said. The British government
rejected the U.S. suggestion, saying it had separate intelligence unavailable
to the United States." -By Walter Pincus with
contributions by Karen DeYoung-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
- "CIA approved
Bush remarks on Iraq: State of Union speech
referring to nuclear weapons claim was cleared." ... "Amid increasing criticism
and doubts cast on U.S. intelligence that led to the war against Iraq,
the Bush administration Friday continued its defense of President Bush’s
case for ousting Saddam Hussein. U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice said the CIA had cleared Bush’s January State of the Union speech
in its entirety, including a sentence — now labeled false — alleging Iraq
was looking to buy uranium from Africa." ... "If CIA Director George Tenet
had any misgivings about that sentence in the president’s speech, “he did
not make them known” to Bush or his staff, said Rice." -Contributed
to by David Gregory and -AP
via -MSNBC
-
- "CBS:
White House Ignored CIA Over Iraq Uranium Claim."
... "The White House ignored a request by the CIA to remove a statement
in President Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking uranium
from Africa for its nuclear weapons program, CBS Evening News reported
on Thursday." ... "The CIA checked the parts Bush's speech dealing with
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction for accuracy and CIA officials warned
White House National Security Council staff that the intelligence was not
strong enough to flatly state that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa,
CBS News said." -CBSNews-Reuters
-
- "White
House downplays role of faulty report." ... "The
Bush administration defended on Wednesday its decision to go to war against
Iraq and downplayed the role of discredited intelligence in the decision."
... "At a Washington news conference hosted by the Arms Control Association,
a former senior official in the State Department's intelligence bureau
said the problem was not bad information but the tendency of policymakers
to exaggerate intelligence on Iraq." ... ""The administration has had a
faith-based intelligence attitude: 'We know the answers, give us the intelligence
to support those answers,' " said Greg Thielmann, who resigned last September
as chief arms proliferation analyst." -By John Diamond
-USATODAY
-
- "Bush
Defends Iraq War as Nuclear Claims Called Wrong (Update1)."
... "In the United States, Joseph Wilson, the man sent by the Central Intelligence
Agency to Niger to investigate the report of Iraq's effort to buy uranium,
said the administration knew the information was wrong before Bush's speech."
... ""That information was erroneous and they knew about it well ahead''
of the president's Jan. 28 address, Wilson said." ... ""Either the administration
has some information that it has not shared with the public or, yes, they
were using the selective use of facts and intelligence to bolster a decision
in a case that had already been made -- a decision that had been made to
go to war,'' Wilson told NBC's ``Meet the Press'' on Sunday. He made similar
comments on other news shows and in a New York Times op-ed article."
-Bloomberg
-
- "White
House Issues Retraction of Allegations in Bush State of the Union Address."
... "The White House has issued a rare retraction of allegations from the
president's January State of the Union Address. Officials say President
Bush's accusation that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to buy
uranium in Africa, was based on what turned out to be a forged document."
... "Making his case against Saddam Hussein six months ago, President Bush
said British intelligence reported that the then-Iraqi leader had tried
to buy significant quantities of uranium from Niger." ... "The United Nations
later concluded that those documents were forgeries and White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer now admits that the information should not have been included
in the State of the Union." -By Scott Stearns -VOANews.com
-
- "CIA
Calls Hussein Recording Authentic." ... "The Central
Intelligence Agency said yesterday that a taped message broadcast Friday
from Saddam Hussein appears to be authentic, the most definitive indication
that the former Iraqi president survived the war and is seeking to rally
opposition to the U.S. occupation." ... "As anti-American attacks grow
in number and sophistication, inflicting additional U.S. casualties daily,
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reviewing whether troops are needed
beyond the 146,000 in Iraq and 63,000 in neighboring Kuwait or whether
U.S. forces can safely be reduced." ... "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
is urging President Bush to at least keep total U.S. and international
troop levels near the current number until the danger has passed and Iraq
is stable, according to U.S. officials familiar with Powell's thinking.
They added that his preference is to recruit more forces from foreign countries."
-By Thomas E. Ricks and Walter Pincus with contributions
by Peter Slevin -WashingtonPost
-
- "Baghdad
council starts work but can only advise." ... "Delegates
held the inaugural session on Monday of a new Baghdad city council, hailed
by the United States as a major step towards democracy in Iraq even though
it has only an advisory role." ... "Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer
praised the 37 councillors, chosen at neighbourhood meetings across the
city, for taking up their posts when other Iraqis cooperating with the
occupying authorities have come under violent attack." -By
Andrew Gray -Reuters
via -MSNBC
- "British
Panel Clears Blair of Charges of Doctoring Iraq Data."
... "A House of Commons committee cleared the government today of charges
that it doctored evidence of Iraqi weapons, but the committee criticized
the government's handling of intelligence findings, saying it resulted
in Prime Minister Tony Blair's unknowingly misinforming Parliament." ...
"The committee is one of two parliamentary panels looking into allegations
that the government may have exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq before
the war. The other, an intelligence panel, will take its testimony behind
closed doors and submit its report to the prime minister for revisions
before making it public." -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- "Iraq
weapons claims criticised: Claims about Iraq's
weapons were given too much weight by the government, MPs have ruled -
but they have cleared media chief Alastair Campbell of "sexing up" intelligence."
... "The all-party foreign affairs committee says a suggestion that Iraq
could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes should not
have been given such prominence by the government." ... "But in their 54-page
verdict on how ministers made the case for war in Iraq, the MPs - in a
split decision - say Mr Campbell did not make changes to a dossier on Iraq's
weapons, as alleged in a BBC report." ... "In another finding upon which
the committee were divided, the report says ministers did not mislead parliament
over Iraq's weapons."-BBC/News
- "US
soldiers killed in Baghdad: Two American soldiers
and two Iraqis have been killed in three separate attacks on US patrols
in Iraq." ... "The first soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with
two Iraqis in Baghdad, one of whom was shot dead, the US military said."
... "A second soldier was killed by a homemade explosive device in the
north of the Iraqi capital." ... "In the town of Ramadi, 100 kilometres
(60 miles) west of Baghdad, attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at
US vehicles, wounding four soldiers." ... "The Americans responded, killing
one Iraqi and wounding another."-BBC/News
- "Two
U.S. Soldiers Killed in New Attacks in Iraq."-Reuters
-
- "Blair
furious at BBC's attack on integrity." ... "Both
Downing Street and the BBC were standing firm over their interpretation
of the Radio 4 Today programme story by defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan
on May 29, which alleged that intelligence officials were unhappy about
the September 2002 dossier." ... "Downing Street insisted it had been accused
of lying in Mr Gilligan's report by deliberately inserting information
that Saddam Hussein could launch a biological or chemical weapons strike
within 45 minutes." -FT.com
- "Lies
and half truths on Iraqi streets complicate America's mission."
... "Lies and half-truths -- readily believed by a nation of people who
learned long ago to be skeptical of rulers' motives -- are complicating
America's mission in Iraq, fueling anti-U.S. sentiment as troops struggle
to quell a growing uprising." ... "When a newspaper reported that American
night vision equipment can be used to see through women's clothing, U.S.
civil affairs troops visited the editors personally to let them look through
the goggles." ... "Despite these efforts, Iraqis, who grew up on a steady
diet of anti-American rhetoric, are being bombarded by a fresh wave of
disinformation, much of it coming from an explosion of new newspapers.
The country now has about 150 newspapers, up from 14 before the war." -By
Steven Gutkin -AP
via -SFGate.com
- "Violence
in Iraq spreads beyond military targets." ... "The
point-blank shooting of an unarmed British reporter on a Baghdad street
and a grenade attack on a U.N. compound raised concern Sunday that Iraq's
worsening insurgency until now targeting only coalition troops and
Iraqis accused of U.S. collaboration will spread to Westerners in general."
... "On Sunday, an assailant shot and killed a U.S. soldier waiting to
buy a soft drink at Baghdad University, firing once from close range in
the third such assault in nine days. The style was coldly similar to the
killing of the young British freelance cameraman, who was shot in the head
outside a Baghdad museum on Saturday." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
- "Bomb
Kills 7 New Iraqi Policemen: Bremer Says Attackers
Show Panic and 'Disdain'." ... "A bomb exploded on a sidewalk here today
[20030705]
as the first class of U.S.-trained Iraqi police recruits was marching from
its graduation ceremony to a police station, killing seven of the new policemen
and injuring at least 40 other people, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
It was the most lethal attack yet against Iraqis participating in U.S.-sponsored
nation-building efforts." ... "U.S. and British soldiers have been the
targets of increasing numbers of shootings, ambushes and other assaults
in recent days. Iraqi police stations, where American troops are training
new local police forces, have also been attacked, along with Iraqi businesses
that sell products or services to U.S. forces or private contractors."
-By
Souad Mekhennet and Molly Moore -WashingtonPost
-
- "Turkey
Seeks Release of Special Forces: Turkey Demands
Release of 11 Turkish Special Forces Detained by U.S. Troops in Northern
Iraq." ... "Turkey demanded on Saturday the immediate release of 11 Turkish
special forces detained by U.S. troops in northern Iraq over what a newspaper
said was a plot to kill a senior official in the oil-rich Iraqi city of
Kirkuk." ... "It was the second time that U.S. forces detained Turkish
soldiers in northern Iraq." ... "In April, the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne
Brigade caught a dozen Turkish soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes and
trailing an aid convoy. U.S. forces suspected that the Turkish team was
sent in to inflame local ethnic Turks, who already have tense relations
with the city's Kurds and Arabs." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- July
4th News
- "Sombre
celebrations for US Iraq troops: American Independence
Day celebrations have been tinged with sadness for US troops in Iraq."
... "As well as being away from home, the 150,000 troops are having to
deal with the loss of another colleague as the resistance attacks against
them continue." ... "There were some distractions to take minds off the
sombre side of their mission -including a "burger giveaway", a six-mile
(10-kilometre) race, a visit from film star Arnold Schwarzenegger and the
chance to blow up some old Russian tanks." ... "To make up for lack of
a traditional firework display, army soldiers destroyed Soviet-made Iraqi
tanks with missiles fired from their Bradley fighting vehicles."-BBC/News
-
-
-
- 
-
- "Britain
and Russia's tentative warming trend: President
Putin is in London this week in an historic visit by a Russian leader."
... "Having resolutely opposed the war that Britain waged with the United
States in Iraq, Putin is now determined not to be muscled out of the peace.
He insists that pre-war contracts with Iraq signed by oil giant LukOil
be upheld by the provisional authority in the country. He also wants Iraq's
former debts to Moscow, thought to be worth more than $8 billion, to be
repaid." ... "On Iran, where Russia is helping build an atomic power plant,
Putin denies that Russia is helping proliferate dangerous nuclear technology
and is staunchly defending Russia's economic interests." -By
Mark Rice-Oxley -CSMonitor
-
-
- "Nuke
component unearthed in Baghdad back yard: U.S.
officials: Find is not smoking gun." ... "The CIA has in its hands the
critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed
to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad,
CNN has learned." ... "The parts, with accompanying plans, were unearthed
by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them under a rose bush in
his garden 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's
then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel." ... "U.S. officials emphasized this was
not evidence Iraq had a nuclear weapon -- but it was evidence the Iraqis
concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world
was no longer looking." -CNN
-
- "Syrian
guards 'will be returned': The United States
has confirmed that it has been treating five Syrian border guards injured
during a strike by the US military based in neighbouring Iraq." ... "US
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters the return of the five
"will happen", after officials from the two sides had dealt with the issue."
... "But he declined to say whether US forces had entered Syria during
the strike nearly a week ago which was carried out by special forces backed
by aircraft." -BBC/News
-
- "Six
UK soldiers killed in Iraq ambush." ... "Six members
of Britain's Royal Military Police were killed in southern Iraq on Tuesday
and eight soldiers wounded, raising fears that UK and US coalition forces
are meeting growing resistance from Iraqi rebels." ... "The bodies of the
Royal Military Police members were found in the southern Iraqi town of
Al Majar al Kabir, about 125 miles north of Basra." ... "The exact circumstances
of their deaths were still unclear on Tuesday night but, according to British
officials, they may have been connected with an incident at a local police
station." -By Charles Clover, James Blitz, James Politi
-FT.com
- "Six
British Soldiers Killed in Iraq: Six British
Soldiers Killed and Eight Others Injured in Two Separate Attacks in Southern
Iraq." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "U.S.
announces creation of new Iraq army." ... "U.S.-led
civil administrators announced the creation of a new Iraqi army Monday
and said recruitment will begin next week, hoping to contain Iraqi anger
over desperate unemployment and to curb a rash of attacks against U.S.
forces." ... "The civil administration moved to stem an angry movement
among former Iraqi army soldiers who lost their livelihood when the army
was dismantled on May 23. U.S. troops killed two ex-servicemen last Wednesday
when a soldiers' demonstration turned violent." -By
Jim Krane -AP
via -Salon
-
- "U.S.
forces attack convoy; shoot Syrian border guards; trying to identify dead
and captured." ... "U.S. experts are trying to identify
those killed and captured when an attack on a fleeing Iraqi convoy lead
to the shooting of Syrian border guards, three defense officials said Monday."
... "Working partly on information from previously captured Iraqi leaders,
special operations troops attacked the convoy in western Iraq last week
to stop what they believed were fugitives linked to the fallen regime of
Saddam Hussein." ... "It was unclear who shot first, but American forces
engaged in a firefight with Syrian border guards and several guards were
hit, one senior Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity." -By
Pauline Jelinek -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Galloway
seeks inquiry after papers exposed as fakes." ...
"George Galloway yesterday demanded a government inquiry after documents
alleging that he took more than $10m (£6.3m) from Saddam Hussein
were exposed as forgeries." ... "The suspended Labour MP claimed he was
the victim of a conspiracy and rejected an apology from the Christian Science
Monitor, threatening to extend his legal action to British newspapers,
including the Sun, which repeated the Boston-based title's accusations."
... "Paul Van Slambrouck, editor of the internationally circulated Monitor,
published an apology on its website after ink tests found two of the "oldest"
documents, dated 1992 and 1993, on which the paper based its incendiary
allegations in April were in fact written a few months ago." -By
Kevin Maguire -Guardian.co.uk
- "Pipeline
blast 'was sabotage': Second explosion endangers
Iraq's economic recovery and raises fears of lengthy US occupation." ...
"An explosion that ruptured a fuel pipeline 90 miles north-west of Baghdad
was caused by sabotage, Iraqi officials said yesterday." ... "The blast,
the second to hit a pipeline this month, raised fears that opponents of
the US-led occupation are striking at targets vital to Iraq's economic
recovery." ... "An oil pipeline linking the Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey
was badly damaged by a double explosion on June 12. This was initially
blamed on a gas leak, but local officials, together with the Turkish foreign
minister, said it was sabotage." -By Michael Howard
and Brian Whitaker -Guardian.co.uk
- "Bush
forced to defend rising US death toll." ... "George
Bush acted at the weekend to address increasing national disquiet over
the number of US servicemen being killed in Iraq. More than a quarter of
American casualties in Iraq have occurred since the president declared
an end to major military combat at the beginning of May." ... "Another
US soldier was killed yesterday, bringing the toll since May 1 to 56. A
total of 138 American service personnel died during the war itself." ...
"There are still 146,000 US troops stationed in Iraq, only a few thousand
fewer than during the war." -By Duncan Campbell -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "Iraqis
may be given oil profits share-out." ... "Some of
the profits from Iraq's oil sales could be distributed to its citizens
as dividends, Paul Bremer, (pictured) the US civil administrator
for Iraq, said on Sunday as he set out a goal of transforming the country
into a free-market economy." -By Roula Khalaf
-FT.com
- "In
volatile Iraq, US curbs press: US issues an
order against inciting attacks on minorities or US troops." ... "At least
some of the fuel for the anti-American fire, US officials here charge,
is being pumped out by new Iraqi media outlets." ... "L. Paul Bremer, the
top US official here, says a new edict prohibiting the local media from
inciting attacks on other Iraqis - and on the coalition forces - is not
meant to put a stopper on the recently uncorked freedom of speech." -By
Ilene R. Prusher -CSMonitor
- "U.S.
Troops Seize Weapons Across Iraq: U.S. Troops Stage
Operations Across Iraq to Seize Weapons and Diffuse Potential Insurgency."
... "The nationwide campaign, dubbed Operation Desert Scorpion, "is a combat
operation to defeat the remaining pockets of resistance," said Capt. John
Morgan, a spokesman for the Army's V Corps." ... "By the midnight Saturday
close of a two-week nationwide amnesty for surrendering banned arms, only
a fraction of the thousands of heavy weapons, anti-tank rockets and anti-aircraft
missiles had been turned in." ... "Three hours after the deadline, 1,300
troops of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade conducted the first raids,
cordoning off Fallujah, a town of 200,000 about 35 miles west of Baghdad."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "About
100 Iraqi Fighters Die in Clashes." ... "U.S. forces
killed 27 Iraqi fighters in a ground and air pursuit Friday after the Iraqis
attacked an American tank patrol north of Baghdad, bringing the opposition
death toll in four days of skirmishes to about 100, according to the military."
... "In Washington on Friday, a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said about 70 opposition fighters were killed in Thursday's
attack - most apparently non-Iraqis from other countries in the region."
-By Borzou Daragahi -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Biggest
U.S. military assault since war targets Saddam loyalists."
... "U.S. fighter jets bombed a suspected terrorist camp and troops stormed
door-to-door through Sunni Muslim towns Thursday, seeking Saddam Hussein
loyalists in one of the biggest American military assaults since the war."
... "As Operation Peninsula Strike entered day three, Iraqi fighters shot
down a U.S. helicopter gunship -- the first American aircraft downed by
ground fire since Saddam's ouster two months ago -- and a U.S. F-16 fighter-bomber
crashed. The crews of the aircraft were unharmed." -By
Borzou Daragahi-AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "U.S. copter
shot down in Iraq raid." ... "Iraqi forces shot down
a U.S. helicopter gunship in western Iraq on Thursday, just hours after
U.S. fighter jets bombed what they said was “a terrorist training camp”
in central Iraq." ... "Thursday's events marked a sharp escalation of U.S.
military operations in central and western Iraq, where guerrillas have
intensified attacks on U.S. troops in recent weeks. The incidents occurred
as U.S. ground troops wound up a massive sweep of a Sunni Muslim enclave
north of Baghdad aimed at rooting out the organizers of attacks on occupation
forces. “It’s one of the largest operations since the war,” U.S. Central
Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald said."
-AP via -MSNBC
-
- "U.S.
stands by Iraq intelligence." ... "A senior Pentagon
official on Wednesday pointedly dismissed mounting criticism that U.S.
military officials might have manipulated intelligence to bolster an administration
argument for war with Iraq. The reports amounted to "urban legend" based
on a "goulash of inaccuracies," he said. Those strong comments from Douglas
Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, came amid reports that the
Central Intelligence Agency had begun an internal review to see whether
a major, top-secret U.S. intelligence report last autumn had overstated
the threat from Iraqi weapons programs." ... "The agency's prewar analyses
- including the finding in the secret October report that Iraq had biological
and chemical weapons and was working to restart a nuclear program - have
been questioned by some intelligence officials and lawmakers. House and
Senate committees are planning inquiries." -By Brian
Knowlton -IHT.com
-
- "Iraq
ill equipped to exploit oil: Industry is hobbled
by absence of rules for foreign activity." ... "An enormous reservoir of
petroleum almost certainly lies beneath the Majnoon oil field, a blank
expanse of pale sand near the Iranian border. Under Saddam Hussein, Majnoon
was the linchpin of an ambitious plan to
expand Iraq’s oil industry." ... "But even though the United Nations lifted
the sanctions that barred most exports of Iraqi oil for more than a decade,
considerable barriers remain. No government exists to sanction contracts,
develop new fields or determine whether old deals are still valid. No codes
are in place for foreign investment. Data about the Majnoon oil are scarce,
and key export facilities are battered by years of war and neglect." -By
Peter S. Goodman -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "Relief
for U.S. troops lacking." ... "The Pentagon's search
for troops from other nations to replace U.S. soldiers in the force that
is stabilizing postwar Iraq has fallen short of expectations, and U.S.
officials face the prospect of keeping more U.S. forces in Iraq than they
had hoped, diplomats and military officials say." -By
Tom Squitieri -USATODAY
-
- "Rumsfeld
Denies 'False Pretext' for Iraq War." ... "Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied on Thursday that the Iraq war was waged
under a false pretext even though U.S. search teams have failed to find
the chemical and biological weapons cited as justification for the invasion."
... "During a radio interview, Rumsfeld expressed fresh confidence that
such weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq, and offered several
explanations for why they have not been located." -By
Will Dunham -Reuters
- "Iraqi
attacks on US: isolated acts? US forces in
Fallujah were ambushed Tuesday in the deadliest of a series of assaults
this week." ... "At the intersection here where two American soldiers were
attacked and killed Tuesday, a crowd of about 40 Iraqis spoke with a unanimous
voice: This would not be the last deadly assault on the US military in
Iraq." ... ""We are going to do something much bigger than that," warns
Abdul Settar Hamid al-Fellahi, a driver in a long white robe. "Like what
the Palestinians do to Israel, that's what we will do to the Americans.""
... "The violence in Fallujah - which also injured nine US soldiers and
damaged a helicopter - was only the latest in a series of assaults on US
soldiers in Iraq this past week. US officials in Baghdad hope the attacks
represent localized threats to coalition troops occupying Iraq. But military
analysts say there is a danger that the incidents can't be dismissed as
random, vigilante violence." -By Ilene R. Prusher
-CSMonitor
-
- "Report
links Iraqi trailers to weapons." ... "A report from
two US intelligence agencies yesterday said a pair of Iraqi trailers filled
with laboratory equipment was the best evidence that Saddam Hussein's government
had a biological weapons program." ... "Although they still lack solid
evidence of any biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in Iraq, the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded in a
six-page ''white paper'' that each trailer was part of a larger two- or
three-trailer facility for production of the weapons." ... "But the report,
which comes more than six weeks after the Pentagon declared an end to major
combat operations in Iraq, also underscored that US officials have been
unable to prove their assertions that the Hussein regime developed weapons
of mass destruction. Although they have found circumstantial evidence to
suggest a possible program, US officials have not yet uncovered actual
weapons." -By Robert Schlesinger
-Boston/Globe
- "U.S.
troops under fire again in Iraq, two killed." ...
"Gunmen killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded nine on Tuesday in an Iraqi
city [Falluja] where Saddam Hussein still commands loyalty. It was the
bloodiest single attack on American forces since they toppled the Iraqi
leader." ... "[Also] Two American soldiers were killed and four wounded
in two ambushes on Monday, one in Baghdad and one north of the capital."
-By Nadim Ladki -Reuters
via -MSNBC
-
- "Arms teams
seek new information: Frustrated hunters move
away from outdated Iraqi intelligence." ... "Frustrated weapons hunters
are turning away from outdated U.S. intelligence leads, which have failed
to turn up any evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear arms in Iraq
after 10 weeks. Teams are now moving toward their own intelligence gathering,
based on interviews with Iraqi scientists, factory workers and even neighbors
who lived near shadowy operations once run by Saddam Hussein." -AP
via -MSNBC
-
-
-
- "Prewar
Views of Iraq Threat Are Under Review by C.I.A.."
... "The Central Intelligence Agency has begun a review to try to determine
whether the American intelligence community erred in its prewar assessments
of Saddam Hussein's government and Iraq's weapons programs, several officials
say." ... "The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, has named
a team of retired C.I.A. officers to scour the classified intelligence
reports that were circulated inside the government before the war on a
range of issues related to Iraq, including those concerning Bagdhad's links
to terrorism and unconventional weapons, officials said. The team plans
to
compare those reports with what has actually been discovered in Iraq since
the war ended." ... "The review will encompass reports produced by the
Central Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Council, the Defense
Intelligence Agency and other agencies, and is the first internal review
of Iraq-related intelligence since the war ended in April, officials said."
-By James Risen -NYTimes
-
-
- 
- "Iraqi
Documents on Israel Surface on a Cultural Hunt."
... "What began today as a hunt for an ancient Jewish [Talmud] text at
secret police headquarters here wound up unearthing a trove of Iraqi intelligence
documents and maps relating to Israel as well as offers of sales of uranium
and other nuclear material to Iraq." ... "In one huge room in the flooded
basement of the building, American soldiers from MET Alpha, the "mobile
exploitation team" that has been searching for nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons in Iraq for the past three months, found maps featuring
terrorist strikes against Israel dating to 1991." -By
Judith Miller -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
- 
-
-
- "Halliburton
contract goes beyond extinguishing oil fires." ...
"An emergency contract the Bush administration gave to Halliburton Co.
to extinguish Iraqi oil fires also gave the firm a more lucrative role
in getting the country's oil system up and running, documents showed Tuesday."
... "A congressional critic of the Houston company, formerly run by Vice
President Dick Cheney, said the administration was hiding the expanded
role." -AP
via -USATODAY
- -
-
- "Bush
declares victory in Iraq: US President George
W Bush has said the US has prevailed in the Battle of Iraq in a speech
on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln." ... "He explicitly linked
the conflict in the Gulf to the 11 September 2001 terror attacks on the
United States." ... "Earlier, Mr Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer warned
that the president's speech would not mark the end of hostilities "from
a legal point of view"." ... "There are legal implications to declaring
a war officially ended: under the Geneva Conventions, once war is declared
over, the victorious army must release prisoners-of-war and halt operations
targeting specific leaders." ... "The United States never formally declared
war on Iraq." -BBC/News
-
-
-
- "From
Iraq's secret files, a trail of mass murder." ...
"Over the past few days, the US Army has taken custody of hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi secret-police files. The dossiers - an impeccable detailing of
two decades of mass murder reminiscent of the meticulous recordkeeping
of Hitler's Germany or Stalinist Russia - could contain crucial evidence
in any trial that former President Saddam Hussein or his top officials
might face." ... "Already the files have yielded fragments of Iraq's secret
past. The group of former prisoners who gathered the documents have so
far gleaned the names of more than 5,500 prisoners who were executed, according
to the files. The Committee of Free Prisoners has posted them on the walls
of its makeshift headquarters by the Tigris River. Every day, thousands
of ordinary men and women crowd around the rosters, seeking names of missing
relatives." -By Peter Ford
-CSMonitor
-
- 
-
- 
- 
- 
- "U.S. says 7
nations sponsor terror: Iraq still on list;
Syria mentioned ahead of Powell’s visit." ... "The United States again
has branded seven countries — Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria
and Sudan — as sponsors of terrorism. The annual report by the State Department
also says that international terrorist attacks, including anti-U.S. attacks,
declined sharply in 2002. Secretary of State Colin Powell issued the report
on Wednesday, only days before he will visit Syria, which has frequently
protested its designation as a sponsor of terrorism." -Betsy
Steuart with -AP
and -Reuters via -MS-NBC
- "Two
killed in second clash in Fallujah: Reports
conflicting on how violence started." ... "Two demonstrators were killed
and 15 injured Wednesday during a second round of clashes in the central
Iraqi town of Fallujah, hospital officials said."
-CNN
-
- "U.S. to pull
troops from Saudi Arabia: Most will be gone
within 4 months as part of redeployment in Mideast." ... "The United States
said Tuesday that it would withdraw all combat forces in Saudi Arabia by
this summer, ending more than a decade of military operations in this strategic
Middle East nation." ... "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Saudi
counterpart, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, said at a news conference here
that the end of the Iraq war and Saddam Hussein's government meant that
America's military mission here was over. Only a small military training
program will remain." -By Eric Schmitt
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
- 
-
- "Gilgamesh
tomb believed found: Archaeologists in Iraq
believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject
of the oldest "book" in history." ... "The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written
by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated
the life of the ruler of the city of Uruk, from which Iraq gets its name."
... "Now, a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be
the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the
last resting place of its famous King." ... ""I don't want to say definitely
it was the grave of King Gilgamesh, but it looks very similar to that described
in the epic," Jorg Fassbinder, of the Bavarian department of Historical
Monuments in Munich, told the BBC World Service's Science in Action programme."
-BBC/News
 |
- "'Eight
of Clubs' Surrenders in Baghdad." ... "Walid Hamid
Tawfiq al-Tikriti was No. 44 on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted members
of Saddam's administration and the eight of clubs in a deck of cards given
to troops hunting them. He is the 15th Iraqi on the list known to have
been captured." -Reuters
- "U.S.
fires on Iraqi protesters." ... "U.S. paratroopers
fired on anti-American protesters during a nighttime demonstration, and
a hospital reported Tuesday that 13 Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded,
including three young boys. Soldiers said armed men had mixed into the
crowd and fired at them from nearby buildings." ... "U.S. Central Command
said paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division were fired on by about
25 armed civilians mixed within an estimated crowd of 200 protesters outside
a compound troops were occupying." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
- "Last
missing soldier found dead in Iraq: South Texas
family's fears confirmed." ... "The remains of a South Texas soldier who
had been missing in action for more than a month were found in a shallow
battlefield grave in Iraq last week, family members said Monday." ... "Relatives
of Army Spc. Edward John Anguiano, 24, of Los Fresnos, the only U.S. soldier
who had not been accounted for, said they were notified on Sunday that
his death in combat had been confirmed." -By John
W. Gonzalez -HoustonChronicle.com
 |
-
- "US
seizes Saddam's deputy." ... "Tariq Aziz, the most
internationally recognised face of the fallen Iraqi regime after Saddam
Hussein himself, was in US custody last night after surrendering to American
forces, Pentagon officials said." ... "Mr Aziz, the eight of spades in
the Pentagon's deck of cards, is unlikely to possess information about
weapons of mass destruction or Saddam's current whereabouts, intelligence
experts said." ... "However, the fact that Mr Aziz had been found alive
increased the chances that Saddam and his sons were also still alive. He
might also possess explosive information on the extent of past support
for the regime in the west." -By Oliver Burkeman
-Guardian.co.uk
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
 |
 |
|
-
- "Spymaster
among 4 officials arrested." ... "The detentions
of Muzahim Sa'b Hassan Tikriti, who headed Iraq's air defenses, General
Zuhayr Talib Abdul Sattar Naqib, the former military intelligence chief,
and Mohammed Mahdi Salih, the former trade minister, bring to 14 the number
of former officials on the 55-name wanted list who are in custody or believed
killed." ... "A fourth Iraqi captured Wednesday is not on the list but
will be of keen interest to U.S. investigators - Salim Said Khalaf Jumaylia,
former director of American operations for Iraq's intelligence agency.
He is suspected of having knowledge of Iraqi intelligence activities in
the United States, including names of people spying for Iraq, said the
U.S. Central Command spokesman, Jim Wilkinson." ... "As Baghdad struggles
to recover from war, U.S. officials bluntly denied [Mohammed Mohsen] Zubaidi's
claims that he has U.S. military support for his quest to serve as unelected
mayor." -AP,
-Reuters, and -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
- OPINION
- "Shiite power
and Iranian intentions: Weighing the
chances of an Islamic state in Iraq." ... "Soon after the “liberation”
of Iraq, or more correctly, the collapse of organized resistance from the
regime of Saddam Hussein, many in Iraq’s majority Shiite community began
demanding not only their share of power in a new government, but also the
establishment of an Islamic republic. Such developments evoke the specter
of another Iran — an oil-rich, anti-West theocracy. What are the prospects
that this might happen?" -By Rick Francona
-MSNBC
-
- "Iraqi Shiite
strength surprises U.S.: Rise of anti-U.S.,
fundamentalist government a possibility." ... "As Iraqi Shiite demands
for a dominant role in Iraq’s future mount, Bush administration officials
say they underestimated the Shiites’ organizational strength and are unprepared
to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government
in the country." ... "Some U.S. intelligence analysts and Iraq experts
said they warned the Bush administration before the war about vanquishing
Hussein’s government without having anything to replace it. But officials
said the concerns were either not heard or fell too low on the priority
list of postwar planning." -By Glenn Kessler and Dana
Priest -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
- "U.S. warns
Iran about interference: White House alleges
agents operating in Iraq." ... "The White House on Wednesday warned Iran
not to interfere with U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq after the downfall of
Saddam Hussein. “We have concerns about Iranian agents in Iraq,” White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “We have made clear to Iran we oppose
any outside interference in Iraq’s road to democracy.”" ... "Shiites, who
comprise 60 percent of the Iraq population, already have asserted de facto
control over several cities in the south, filling an administrative vacuum
and nimbly moving ahead of the U.S. drive to form a transitional central
government." -By Robert Windrem, Ron Allen with -AP,
-Reuters via -MS-NBC
-
- "Shiite
pilgrims to US: 'Thanks. Please go now.'" ... "Columns
of humanity - hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, on foot and some limping
after days on sticky hot roads - are pouring into Iraq's holy city of Karbala,
to mark one of the most sacred events in the Shiite calendar - and the
end of Saddam Hussein's ruthlessly secular regime." ... "But just as Iraq's
long-repressed Shiite majority enjoy a religious reawakening, the scale
of the event is a show of strength for Shiite clergy who are moving quickly
to fill the vacuum left by Mr. Hussein before American forces do." -By
Scott Peterson -CSMonitor
- "U.S.
Won't Seek Bases in Iraq, Rumsfeld Says." ... "Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the United States is unlikely
to seek any permanent or "long-term" bases in Iraq because U.S. basing
arrangements with other countries in the region are sufficient." ... "While
stressing that discussion of future U.S. military ties with Iraq is premature
in the absence of a new Iraqi government, Rumsfeld appeared intent yesterday
on knocking down the idea of an indefinite U.S. military presence in Iraq.
A newspaper report over the weekend suggested that among the options the
administration is considering is permanent U.S. access to several Iraqi
airfields." -By Bradley Graham-WashingtonPost
-
-
- "Shiites
gaining momentum." ... "After being suppressed for
35 years by Saddam's Baath Party, the leaders and faithful of the Shiite
branch of Islam, who represent perhaps 16 million Iraqis, are asserting
themselves and moving into the power vacuum left by the almost overnight
collapse of Iraq's secular government." ... "The U.S. military may control
the roads, ports and skies of Iraq, but in any neighborhood where Shiites
are in the majority, one is likely to find white-turbaned sheiks and imams
who have begun making the day-to-day decisions and policies." ... "The
Shiites' emerging power will be on display this week, when they converge
in massive numbers on Karbala, where Saddam was martyred in a decisive
7th-century battle that became the symbol for suffering and self-sacrifice
among Shiites for 1,300 years." -By John Daniszewski-LAtimes
via -RegisterGuard
- "OPEC
confronts leaderless Iraq." ... "For the 11 nations
of OPEC, the end of the war in Iraq is the beginning of the new petroleum
order. But when OPEC oil ministers gather Thursday in Vienna to try to
keep oil prices from collapsing, the most talked-about seat at the table
will probably be empty." ... ""Crude oil prices already have come down
from their pre-war high of nearly $38 a barrel. But after falling to $27
after the war began, the price has climbed and was just under $31 in New
York trading Monday. That's higher than the price has been for most of
the last two years." -By Warren Vieth-LAtimes
via -RegisterGuard
-
- "U.N.
Works to Find Compromise on Lifting Iraq Sanctions."
... "The Security Council was set to hold two separate consultations on
Iraq today. Benon Sevan, the director of the Oil For Food program which
has overseen the operation of much of the Iraqi economy for the past seven
years, was to brief the afternoon session." ... "Under the program, which
began in 1996, the Iraqi did the contracting, offering billions of dollars
worth of business to companies from countries it wanted to trade with.
In the seven years since the program began, one Security Council diplomat
said yesterday, Russian companies did twice as much business as any other
country's firms — $7.3 billion worth in both oil purchases and the sale
of other goods since 1996." -By Felicity Barringer
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
-
- "France
wants Iraq sanctions suspended: The French
ambassador to the United Nations has proposed the immediate suspension
of UN sanctions against Iraq, in an unexpected move." ... "The United States
has been pressing for the sanctions to be lifted since US-led forces ousted
Saddam Hussein's regime." ... "The UN embargo was imposed in August 1990,
shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait, and dismantling it would pave the way
for Iraq to sell oil to help pay for post-war reconstruction."
-BBC/News
-
- "Russia
demands UN checks before Iraq sanctions end." ...
"The U.N. Security Council should lift the sanctions on Iraq only when
international weapons inspectors say the country is free of illegal arms,
Russia -- a veto-holding Council member -- said on Tuesday." -Reuters
via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
- "Missing:
5,000 years of history." ... "ABYLON, Iraq -- The
roots of Western law and writing sprang from the Mesopotamian cradle of
civilization here, the site of the resplendent Hanging Gardens of Babylon
-- one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The palace of Hammurabi
and King Nebuchadnezzar -- like antiquities throughout this country --
has met a fate that has devastated Iraqis and archeologists throughout
the world." ... "Armies not of fighters but of looters, capitalizing on
a security vacuum after war, have pillaged Babylon, ancient ruins in the
northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, and worst of all in the eyes
of specialists in Mesopotamian archeology, they ransacked the Iraqi National
Museum, which housed most of the country's important artifacts." -By
Thanassis Cambanis and Charles M. Sennott
-Boston/Globe
-
-
- "Reconstruction
time again: Burned libraries make Iraq's history
a war casualty." ... "According to news reports, the burned libraries (with
contents described by [Islamic art bibliographer for Harvard's Fine Arts
Library, Andras] Riedlmayer) include:" ... "•
The Awqaf Library (Library of the Ministry of Religious Endowments), which
contained 8,500 Islamic manuscript codices (an ancient type of book) in
Arabic, as well as hundreds of manuscripts in Persian and Ottoman Turkish.
It also contained ancient illuminated Korans. Its oldest work was a scriptural
commentary by the ninth-century scholar Ibn Qutayba, copied in 1079." ...
"•
The National Library of Iraq and National Centre for Archives, known as
the House of Wisdom, comparable to the US Library of Congress. It held
417,000 books, 2,618 periodicals from the late Ottoman era and modern times,
and a collection of 4,412 rare books and manuscripts." ... "Also looted,
if not burned, were the University of Mosul library, which had 890,000
volumes, including many rare books and manuscripts, and the University
of Basra library, with 190,000 volumes and 700 manuscripts." -By
David Mehegan -Boston/Globe
-
- "At
home, war leaves many in sober mood." ... "The 1991
war in Iraq drew to a certain close after only four days of ground warfare.
''Iraq's army is defeated,'' President George H.W. Bush declared upon reaching
a cease-fire agreement with Saddam Hussein." ... "This time around, the
results on the battlefield in Iraq seem to have been just as decisive.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of Australia said yesterday that the
US-led coalition will declare victory ''in the next few days,'' but President
George W. Bush still has not uttered the word. And many Americans, far
from celebrating, seem subdued, if not wary. Bush's popularity has risen,
but not nearly as much as his father's did after liberating Kuwait." -By
Anne E. Kornblut with contributions from Bobby Caina Calvan, Eli Sanders,
Lori Rotenberk, Jeff Kass, and Wendy Patterson
-Boston/Globe
|
- "U.S.
arrests senior official of Saddam's regime:
Former prime minister suppressed Shiite uprising in 1991." ... "Muhammad
Hazmaq al-Zubaydi, No. 18 on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqi leaders,
has been taken into custody in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said." ... "He
is the most senior figure from Saddam Hussein's regime arrested so far
and has a reputation as a ruthless and violent enforcer of the former regime's
will. Al-Zubaydi is a former prime minister and deputy prime minister."
... "He is the queen of spades on the deck of cards featuring wanted Iraqi
leaders that was handed out to U.S. troops."
-CNN /World
-
-
- "Illicit
Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert."
... "A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program
for more than a decade has told an American military team that Iraq destroyed
chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the
war began, members of the team said." ... "They said the scientist led
Americans to a supply of material that proved to be the building blocks
of illegal weapons, which he claimed to have buried as evidence of Iraq's
illicit weapons programs." ... "The scientist also told American weapons
experts that Iraq had secretly sent unconventional weapons and technology
to Syria, starting in the mid-1990's, and that more recently Iraq was cooperating
with Al Qaeda, the military officials said." -By Judith
Miller -NYTimes
via -Google-News
 |
|
-
-
- "Two
more Iraqi ‘most-wanted’ held: Saddam son-in-law
surrenders;science minister captured." ... "Two of the 55 Iraqis
on a U.S. list of “most-wanted” will soon be in U.S. hands, U.S. officials
said Sunday. U.S. Central Command said that U.S.-led forces in Iraq had
seized Saddam Hussein’s minister of higher education and scientific research
[Abd al-Khalq Abd al-Gafar - the "Four of Hearts"]. And the exiled Iraqi
National Congress said Saddam’s only surviving son-in-law [Jamal Sultan
al-Tikriti - the "Nine of Clubs] and one of Saddam’s top bodyguards had
returned from Syria and surrendered to them, and would be handed over to
U.S. forces in Baghdad." -MSNBC
- "Ba'athists
slip quietly back into control." ... "They have quietly
removed the pictures of Saddam Hussein from their sitting rooms, and reconfigured
their memories to transform lives of privilege into tales of suffering.
Less than two weeks after the collapse of the regime, thousands of members
of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist party, the all too willing instrument of Saddam,
are resuming their roles as the men and women who run Iraq." ... "It has
become increasingly apparent that Washington cannot restore governance
to Baghdad without resorting to the party which for decades controlled
every aspect of life under the regime." ... "It has equally become apparent
that the Ba'ath party - whose neighbourhood spy cells were as feared as
the state intelligence apparatus - will survive in some form, either through
the appeal of its founding ideals, or through the rank opportunism of its
millions of members." -By Suzanne Goldenberg
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Syria
is getting the message, Bush says." ... "President
Bush ended the three-week escalation of warnings to Syria on Sunday and
praised Iraq's neighbor for new cooperation in the hunt for senior aides
to Saddam Hussein." ... ""It seems like they're beginning to get the message,"
Bush said as he left an Easter service with two Army helicopter pilots
taken prisoner in Iraq. "I'm confident the Syrian government has heard
us, and I believe it when they say they want to cooperate with us."" ...
"A senior administration official said Bush's new stance resulted from
a steady increase in help from Damascus throughout last week, including
efforts to seal the border with Iraq, locate fugitive Saddam aides and
possible war criminals." -By Mike Allen and Daniel
Williams -WashingtonPost
with -AP,-LAtimes
& -NYTimes via -StarTribune.com
-
- "Violence
may plague costly [Iraq] rebuilding, experts warn Afghanistan, Bosnia are
war-torn lessons." ... "Reconstructing Iraq will
take longer and cost more than Americans have been led to expect, say experts
with recent experience in rebuilding such war- torn places as Afghanistan,
the Balkans and East Timor." ... "Although Americans like to recall how
the Marshall Plan helped rebuild nations from the rubble of World War II,
experts say U.S. leaders seem to have forgotten that the U.S. postwar success
back then required a long commitment." ... "Jarat Chopra, a former U.N.
reconstruction official and now a professor at Brown University, said efforts
to reconstruct countries after wars tend to focus on installing new national
governments -- which all too often fall to some strongman --rather than
taking the more time-intensive approach of rebuilding civil authority from
the bottom up, by starting at the town or hamlet level." -By
Tom Abate -SFGate.com
- "Garner
Arrives in Iraq for Reconstruction: Retired
U.S. General Jay Garner Arrives in Baghdad to Oversee Reconstruction of
Iraq." ... "Retired U.S. General Jay Garner, who is overseeing Iraq's reconstruction
after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, arrived Monday in the Iraqi
capital." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Israel
seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil: US discusses
plan to pump fuel to its regional ally and solve energy headache at a stroke."
... "Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq
to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential
future government figures in Baghdad." ... "The plan envisages the reconstruction
of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine
in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was
re-directed to Syria." ... "Now, its resurrection would transform economic
power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting
out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke." -By
Ed Vuillamy -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Self-proclaimed
Baghdad mayor prepares for office amid skepticism."
... "Mohammed al Zubaidi smiled for the television cameras as supporters
carried the self-proclaimed new mayor of Baghdad through a city plaza Sunday,
but bystanders were far from impressed." ... "Al Zubaidi, a former Iraqi
exile, said last week that a local council elected him to lead the Iraqi
capital. The U.S. military says it doesn't recognize anyone as mayor yet.
Al Zubaidi is a close associate of Iraqi National Congress head Ahmed Chalabi,
a pro-American former exile who also has returned to Baghdad, with help
from the Pentagon." -By Carol Rosenberg, Jessica Guynn,
and Ken Moritsugu -Knight Ridder via
-MercuryNews-BayArea
-
- "Freed
POWs return to U.S.." ... "Their ordeal behind them,
the seven American POWs rescued in Iraq returned home to the United States
on Saturday to a joyous reunion with their families and cheers of well-wishers.
As their plane taxied to a halt, two of the people on board waved an American
flag from a hatch on the aircraft’s roof." ... "The plane landed Saturday
at Fort Bliss, where the five members of the 507th Maintenance Support
Company were based. A small jet flew the two Apache crewmen to their home
base of Fort Hood." -MS-NBC
- "Shi'ite
service mixes prayer and politics." ... "One of the
worries of US officials and secular exile leaders is that Iraqis -- particularly
the poorer, more religious Shi'ites who dominate the south -- will choose
an Islamic government, like that of their Shi'ite-dominated neighbor, Iran."
... "They would certainly not be comforted by the words of Sheik Sabah
al-Saady, the cleric who led the prayers and a disciple of the dominant
religious institution in southern Iraq, the al-Hawza al-Ilmiya theological
school in the holy city of Najaf." ... "Al-Hawza is an umbrella group that
includes several rival Shi'ite leaders." ... ""The wish of al-Hawza is
that an ayatollah be the ruler of Iraq," Saady told the crowd." -By
Marcella Bombardieri
-Boston/Globe
-
- "U.S.
Marines start leaving Baghdad, Army takes over."
... "U.S. Marines who seized much of Baghdad earlier this month started
pulling out of the Iraqi capital on Saturday, handing over control to U.S.
Army units as the military's mission moves from combat to policing." -By
Matthew Green -Reuters
via -Boston/Globe
- "Iraqis
slam US presence: Protests reflect Baghdad
tension." ... "At mosques throughout the city, imams issued warnings to
America not to stay too long in Iraq, while throngs of supporters carried
banners declaring: ''Leave our country. We want peace.'' ... "Patience
is in short supply in Baghdad, some parts of which have not had power,
telephone service, or running water since just before the invasion. Shia
and Sunni Muslims have banded together under the leadership of clerics
and are calling for an Islamic state to replace the secular Ba'ath regime."
-By Thanassis Cambanis with contributions by Bryan
Bender -Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- "Pentagon
Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq."
... "The United States is planning a long-term military relationship with
the emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access
to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the
unsettled region, senior Bush administration officials say." ... "American
military officials, in interviews this week, spoke of maintaining perhaps
four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future: one at the international
airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriya in the south;
the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert, along
the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air
field in the Kurdish north." ... "A military foothold in Iraq would be
felt across the border in Syria, and, in combination with the continuing
United States presence in Afghanistan, it would virtually surround Iran
with a new web of American influence." (1, 2)
-By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt
-NYTimes via
-AltaVista-News
-
-
- IRAQ
PLAYING CARDS: Iraq card deck, Gulf War Two. Pentagon's
"Personality Identification Playing Cards," Iraq Playing Card Deck of Saddam's
Iraqi Regime.
 |
-
- "U.S.
Forces Capture Baath Party Official: U.S. forces
took custody of another of their "most wanted" from the former Iraqi regime
Thursday, a Baath leader whom Central Command officials hope will help
them further dismantle what remains of Saddam's regime." ... ""Last night
coalition special operations forces captured another key member of the
regime. Samir Abul Aziz al-Najim, one of the top 55 leaders of the regime,
was handed over to coalition forces by Iraqi Kurds near Mosul in northern
Iraq," Central Command Spokesman General Vincent Brooks said Friday."
-PBS.org (A-Z)
/NewsHour
-
- "Why
Bush Will Go Back to the UN on Iraq: It may
sound like geopolitical Groundhog Day, but cutting a deal with France and
Russia may be the only way to free up Iraq's oil revenues. And the war
has brought a more obliging tone in Paris and Moscow." ... "The UN Security
Council is probably the last place many would expect the Bush administration
to go to discuss the next step in Iraq. But the White House wants international
sanctions against Iraq lifted immediately, in order to free up Iraqi oil
revenue for reconstruction. And the UN Security Council is not only the
sole body legally empowered to lift those sanctions; it is also legally
in control of Iraq's oil revenues right now. That's why the U.S. plans
next week to take its call for lifting sanctions to the same Security Council
that failed to authorize its invasion of Iraq." -By
Tony Karon -TIME.com
-
- "Interpol
team headed to Iraq: Experts see ‘deliberate
planned action’ behind art plunder, and police work could help crack case,
they say." ... " Interpol, the international police organization, announced
Friday it is sending a special team to Iraq to help track down pillaged
art treasures, joining a legion of groups worldwide offering assistance
in the recovery efforts. Some experts say that part of what seemed like
random looting was, in fact, a carefully planned theft, and the stolen
artifacts may already be on the black market." -By
Jim Maceda and Betsy Steuart with -AP
and -Reuters via -MSNBC
- "Analysts
wonder where Iraq's army went." ... "As they cope
with scattered firefights and turn to pressing humanitarian needs, U.S.
and British troops may not have time to ask a key question that has been
puzzling analysts since before the fall of Baghdad:" ... "Where did all
the Iraqi soldiers go?" ... "By all accounts, Iraq's regular army and Republican
Guard have been all but no-shows on the battlefield." -By
Matthew B. Stannaard -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Wary
Baghdad police back on the beat." ... "In this war-battered
city, where looters are now plundering bank vaults and private homes after
sacking virtually every government building, the people's security rests
on the sagging shoulders of Colonel Jassem al-Tamimi." ... "The Iraqi police
official returned to his job yesterday, leading his men on joint patrols
with US Marines in an operation that American officials hope will instill
confidence and nudge this city back to a sense of routine." ... "But if
Tamimi and his officers are a barometer of this city's hesitant steps toward
normalcy, Baghdad residents have a lot to worry about." -By
Thanassis Cambanis -Boston/Globe
-
- "FBI
joins hunt for looted Iraqi treasures." ... "The
FBI announced Thursday that it had sent agents to Iraq to assist in recovering
antiquities stolen from museums by looters." ... "The FBI announcement
followed assertions by experts at an international meeting that some of
the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities had keys to museum vaults and
were able to take pieces from safes. Cultural experts, curators and law
enforcement officials are scrambling to track down the missing antiquities
and prevent further looting of the valuables." -Contributions
by Donna Leinwand and -AP
via -USATODAY
-
-
- "Terror alert
level cut to ‘yellow’: Progress in war with
Iraq eases fears of possible attacks." ... "The Homeland Security Department
on Wednesday lowered its terrorism threat assessment from “orange” to “yellow,”
reflecting an easing of concerns raised by the U.S. war against Iraq."
... "The nation had been on orange, or “high risk,” since March 17, three
days before the war with Iraq began, because of fears that the war would
bring terror attacks against U.S. targets at home or abroad."
-MSNBC
- "Looters
Ransack Iraq's National Library." ... "Looters and
arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National Library, leaving a smoldering
shell Tuesday of precious books turned to ash and a nation's intellectual
legacy gone up in smoke." ... "They also looted and burned Iraq's principal
Islamic library nearby, home to priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves
swept through the National Museum and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled
this region's role as the ``cradle of civilization.''"
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
- "Iraqi
elite pledge free nation: Meeting of 70 leaders
told U.S. will cede power in 3 to 6 months." ... "Gathering under U.S.
auspices near the biblical birthplace of Abraham, a select group of Iraqi
leaders took the first steps Tuesday toward rebuilding their government
with a vow to embrace democracy." ... "The meeting, held under drum-tight
security in the presence of American, British and Polish diplomats, marked
the beginning of an ambitious plan to remake a nation crushed by decades
of repressive rule and years of strict economic sanctions." ... "More than
70 exile leaders, tribal sheikhs, ethnic Kurds and Shiite clerics emerged
from the six-hour meeting with 13 goals for the new government, the first
being "Iraq must be democratic."" -By Chuck Squatriglia
-SFGate.com
-
- "Experts
warned of museum looters: But U.S. military
says it made no promises for site." ... "The experts met privately with
Pentagon officials as early as January to warn that the impending war could
pose grave risks to Iraq's archaeological treasures. They renewed the warnings
by e-mail in the days before the U.S. attack on Baghdad began, some of
the experts said Tuesday." ... "But Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear at a briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday
that the protection of the museum had been assigned less importance than
the combat operations that were continuing sporadically in Baghdad on Thursday
and Friday while the museum was being sacked." -By
Douglas Jehl and Elizabeth Becker -NYTimes
via -HoustonChronicle.com
- 
-
- "US
looks to reduce size of forces in Gulf." ... "General
Richard Myers, the highest-ranking US military officer, said on Tuesday
that large numbers of American forces might no longer need to be based
in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia following the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime
in Iraq." ... "US forces will remain in Iraq, however, although the size
of the force has been a point of debate inside the Pentagon. A senior army
general has insisted it could constitute 200,000 troops, a figure Defense
Department civilians have termed "wildly off the mark"." -By
Peter Spiegel -FT.com
-
-
- "U.S.
Seeks to Shut Down Pipeline to Syria." ... "Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that U.S. forces have shut down
a pipeline used for illegal oil shipments from Iraq to Syria, but he could
not assure that oil is not still flowing between those two countries."
... "During a question-and-answer session with reporters, Rumsfeld denied
that coalition forces had destroyed any pipelines. ``We have preserved
infrastructure in that country,'' he said."
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- Special
Report - "Key
people for post-conflict Iraq index." ... "The Pentagon
has named Lt Gen Jay Garner, a retired US officer, as the man they want
to be the de facto governor of post-war Iraq before an interim administration
is established." ... "The Pentagon wants to establish 23 ministries each
headed by an Iraqi but supported and directed by American "technical advisers"."
-Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "Personality
Identification Playing Cards." The playing card deck
released by the US military of the 52 most wanted Iraqi government and
military leaders from Saddam's administration includes head shot photos
of many of the faces of those wanted. Saddam Husayn Al-Tikriti is
the ace of spades, his son Uday Saddam Husayn is the ace of hearts, his
son Qusay Saddam Husayn Al-Tikriti is the ace of clubs, and the Presidential
Secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud Al-Tikriti is the ace of diamonds. Two joker
cards are included. One includes "Arab Titles" which explains that "Qadi
- [is the] Judge for Islamic Sharia Court," and "Shaykh - [means] literally
an elder." The second joker card lists "Iraqi Military Ranks" with the
US military equivalent, for example, "Muhib" is the "General of the Army."
A 55th card showing desert camouflage is included for the back of the cards.
[20030410]
-DefenseLINK.mil/news
- "U.S.
forces 'win most of Tikrit': U.S. Marines are
in charge in the heart of Saddam Hussein's hometown, Tikrit, a Canadian
journalist told CNN." ... ""They have control of quite of a lot of it,"
Matthew Fisher, a reporter for Canada's National Post, told CNN Monday.
"They hope to establish control over the rest very soon.""
-CNN /World
-
-
-
-
- "After
Iraq, where will Bush go next: 'fascist' Syria, theocratic
Iran, or communist North Korea?" ... "The mission begins in Baghdad but
it does not end there. Were the US to retreat after victory into complacency,
new dangers would soon arise. War in Iraq represents but the first instalment.""
... "With US troops securing positions in Baghdad, it is hard to imagine
a more concise formulation of what so unnerves much of the world about
the possible direction of 21st century America than this last sentence
of a new book co-written by an influential Washington conservative and
a liberal internationalist." ... "William Kristol and Lawrence Kaplan,
in their recently published War Over Iraq, argue for a course of
action that has come to be seen by many outside America as the settled
course of US foreign policy after Iraq. Mr Kristol is the founder of the
Project for the New American Century, the neo-conservative think-tank that
has among its friends in the Bush administration Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy
defence secretary and architect of the Iraq strategy. Mr Kaplan is a senior
editor at the left-leaning New Republic." -By Gerard
Baker -FT.com
-
- "US
shifts focus to Syria's role in conflict." ... ""The
Syrian government needs to co-operate with the United States and our coalition
partners and not harbour any Ba'athists, any military officials, any people
who need to be held to account for their tenure," Mr Bush said. Mr Hussein's
Ba'ath party held power in Iraq until the US-led invasion. Asked whether
Syria could face military action if it did not turn over Iraqi officials,
Mr Bush said: "They just need to co-operate." He added: "We believe there
are chemical weapons in Syria. Each situation will require a different
response." ... "Imad Moustapha, Syria's deputy ambassador to the US, denied
his country was harbouring escaped Iraqis and said it was the responsibility
of US troops to monitor Iraq's border with Syria."" -By
Richard McGregor, Harvey Morris, and Edward Alden
-FT.com
-
- "Bush
Demands 'Cooperation' From Syrians." ... "President
Bush accused Syria today [20030413]
of harboring senior Iraqi military and government officials and demanded
"cooperation" in punishing some of them. But he stopped short of threatening
to use military force against Syria." ... ""Each situation will require
a different response," Mr. Bush told reporters on returning here from a
weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. "First things first.
We're here in Iraq now." Mr. Bush also asserted that "there are chemical
weapons in Syria," although it was not clear whether he thought Iraqi chemical
arms had been shipped there during or before the war. Top Pentagon officials
gave varying assessments today of whether that had happened. A senior administration
official said that Mr. Bush was referring to Syria's own weapons program."
(1, 2)
-By
Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- "Seven U.S.
troops found healthy." ... "Iraqi troops released
seven U.S. POWs — some wounded but in good condition — to Marines on Sunday,
a surprise development near where U.S. troops were entering Saddam Hussein’s
hometown of Tikrit." ... "Two of the POWs — Chief Warrant Officer Ronald
D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Springs, Ga., and Chief Warrant Officer David
S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla. - were shot down in their Apache helicopter
south of Baghdad on March 23." ... "The five others were part of the Army’s
507th Ordnance Maintenance Company whose convoy was ambushed outside the
southern city of Nasiriyah, also on March 23. They are Spc. Shoshana Johnson,
30, Fort Bliss, Texas; Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken, N.J.; Spc. Joseph
Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M.; Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan.;
and Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, Mission, Texas." ... "All the missing members
of the 507th are now accounted for." -AP
and -Reuters via -MS-NBC
- "U.S.
Says Resistance Much Defeated Around Qaim." ... "U.S.-led
forces have worn down Iraqi resistance around the western Iraqi town of
Qaim, which Washington suspects could house weapons of mass destruction,
a top U.S. general said on Saturday." ... ""The resistance in and around
al Qaim we believe has been much defeated, not completely, but much defeated,"
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a briefing at war headquarters in
Qatar." -Reuters
-
- "Iraqi
defense of border site intrigues U.S.: Determined
resistance suggests leaders or weapons in area." ... "Washington -- Out
of sight of television cameras, some of the heaviest and most prolonged
fighting in Iraq has been raging for nearly three weeks near the town of
Qaim on the Syrian border." ... "British commandos and U.S. Army Special
Forces have been attacking units of Iraq's Special Republican Guards and
Special Security Services, according to senior military and defense officials."
-By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Syria
Warned Again Not to 'Meddle' in Iraq: Wolfowitz
Says U.S. May Rethink Policy If Damascus Harbors Iraqi Officials." ...
""In recent days, the Syrians have been shipping killers into Iraq to try
to kill Americans," he said. "We don't welcome that. We've stopped it when
we've found those people. So, it is a problem. I think it is important
that Iraq's neighbors not meddle with Iraq."" ... "The Bush administration
has listed countries that harbor terrorists as potential targets in its
war on terrorism. Syria has given sanctuary to groups such as the Islamic
Resistance Movement (or Hamas), Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, and has been
listed in CIA reports as a country developing weapons of mass destruction.
This week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld voiced a new complaint,
that Syria was giving entry to the families of leading Iraqis fleeing the
war." -By Walter Pincus-WashingtonPost
- "Iraqi
regime abandons biggest city in the north." ... "U.S.-led
forces expanded their control over Iraq on Friday as Mosul, largest city
in the north, fell without a fight. Saddam Hussein and his sons are "either
dead or they're running like hell,'' said Gen. Tommy Franks, top commander
of a war nearly won." ... "The U.S. Central Command issued a deck of 55
cards, each one bearing the picture of a member of the ruling elite so
the troops could better know who they were searching for. ``There are jokers
in this deck,'' Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said, and Saddam was the ace
of spades." -By David Espo
-AP via -StarTribune.com
-
- "Syrian
volunteers fought US troops in southern Iraq:
A witness says 40 to 50 Syrians entered Samawah April 3, taking positions
in a residential area." ... "Volunteer fighters from Syria were among the
forces battling US troops in recent days in southern Iraq, say civilian
witnesses." ... "The accounts from the southern city of Samawah contribute
to evidence that the US faces a stubborn fight from non-Iraqi Arab volunteers.
Unlike Iraqi soldiers, their loyalties lie with militant anti-Western Islam,
not the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein." -By Ben
Arnoldy -CSMonitor
-
- "US
takes on Syria in war of stern words: Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld charged again this week that Syria is harboring
Iraqi regime members." ... "Syria's support for the collapsed regime of
Saddam Hussein may have goaded Washington into seriously considering the
use of military force against Damascus." ... "Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld charged on Wednesday that Syria is taking in fleeing members of
Hussein's regime and continues to supply Iraq with military equipment,
an accusation he first leveled two weeks ago." ... ""I have accurately
advised that they not provide military assistance to Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld
said. "They seem to have made a conscious decision to ignore that." ...
""Senior regime people are moving out of Iraq into Syria, and Syria is
continuing to send things into Iraq. We find it notably unhelpful," he
said." -By Nicholas Blanford
-CSMonitor
- "Mosul falls
quickly; U.S. eyes Tikrit: In quick order,
the northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosul have fallen under the apparent
control of American and Kurdish fighters, leaving Saddam Hussein’s hometown
of Tikrit as the last holdout in the 3-week-old war to oust the Iraqi leader.
Meantime, U.S. forces stepped up the hunt for regime leaders who may be
attempting to flee the country. On Friday, Central Command said it has
issued a most-wanted list of 55 officials who must be captured or killed
by American troops." ... "The White House welcomed developments in Iraq,
while repeating its mantra that the war is far from over." -Contributions
by Preston Mendenhall, Chip Reid, Tom Aspell, David Shuster, Jim Miklaszewski,
and Jeannie Ohm, -AP
and -Reuters via
-MS-NBC
-
- "White
House: 'Regime is gone': Former Iraqi leaders
to be 'pursued, killed or captured'." ... "The White House on Friday declared
that Saddam Hussein's "regime is gone," as coalition war planners issued
a most-wanted list of former Iraqi leaders they say must "be brought to
justice." ... "President Bush promised Iraqis, in a videotaped message
broadcast Thursday, that coalition forces would maintain law and order
once Saddam's regime was gone." ... "Coalition commanders are rushing special
military units into place to provide security and to crack down on the
looting and chaos that grip parts of Iraq, White House officials said.
Those military units are to arrive as early as Friday or within the next
few days, the officials said." -Contributions by Rula
Amin, David Ensor, Chris Plante, Tom Mintier, Diana Muriel, Walter Rodgers,
Jane Arraf, Brent Sadler, John King, Barbara Starr and Ben Wedeman -CNN
/World
-
-
- "Kirkuk's
oil fields loom as possible flashpoint for Kurds, Turks."
... "Kurds, Turks and Americans sought Thursday to avert any violent scramble
for control of the prolific oil fields around Kirkuk after Iraqi defenses
appeared to collapse in the strategic northern city." ... "As advancing
Kurdish fighters poured into the city, neighboring Turkey dispatched military
observers to the area stoking fears the two sides could blunder into a
local war within the larger Iraqi conflict." -By Bruce
Stanley -AP
via -Boston/Globe
-
-
-
-
- "Some
see victory extending beyond Iraq." ... "The fall
of Baghdad is a victory not only for the U.S. military but for an influential
group of foreign policy hard-liners who have realized the first step in
a bold plan to reorder the Arab world and global institutions." ... "The
loose-knit group, whose core includes Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, sees the war in Iraq as
a model for the world's lone superpower. The group believes that with or
without international consensus, the United States should move with force
to pre-empt security threats and spread democracy and free-market economics
to remaining pockets of authoritarianism, primarily in the Middle East."
... "While U.S. officials emphasize the enormity of the tasks that need
to be completed in Iraq, some administration supporters already are proclaiming
the birth of a new historical period and suggesting that regime change
in Iraq could be followed soon by Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt."
-By Barbara Slavin -USATODAY
-
- "Real
battle in Iraq may have only just begun: Postwar
era will be dicey, experts warn." ... "Although the capital of Iraq came
under U.S. control Wednesday, the challenge ahead for the U.S. military
is twofold: push north and defeat the remaining Iraqi troops while transforming
itself from a fighting force to a police agency in cities such as Baghdad
and Basra." ... "The immediate tasks for U.S. and British forces, in addition
to finishing off the Iraqi units in such cities as Tikrit and Kirkuk, is
to quickly restore law and order in Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities,
in a nation in which 70 percent of the people are urban dwellers. But most
U.S. military units have little specific training in the realm of policing."
-By Edward Epstein -SFGate.com
- "Oil city in
northern Iraq taken without fight." ... "KUWAIT After
the exuberance in Baghdad as U.S. forces swept into the capital, fighting
quickly resumed Thursday as U.S. Marines came under heavy fire at a presidential
palace in the north of the city." ... "But about 240 kilometers (150 miles)
to the north, Kurdish and American forces entered the important oil city
of Kirkuk without meeting significant resistance from forces still loyal
to Saddam Hussein. Kurdish forces also entered Khaneh on the Iranian border,
and, in joint operations with American Special Forces, took oil fields
near Kirkuk." ... "Some shooting continued, and the American forces in
Qatar said they could not claim control of the city." -By
Jane Perlez -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
- "American
Flag Flap: Stars and Stripes on Saddam’s Doomed
Statue Strikes a Sensitive Chord." ... "It took Cpl. Edward Chin just seconds
to hang an American flag on the head of Saddam Hussein's statue in central
Baghdad, but it's a move that's likely to be debated for years to come."
... "The mood of Iraqi civilians was briefly muted in Baghdad Wednesday
as Chin climbed up and covered Saddam's face with an American flag." ...
"The crowd's loud cheers faded, and in less than a minute the Stars and
Stripes was removed from the massive statue and replaced with Iraq's black,
white and red flag." -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "US
warns Syria over Iraq: United States Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has once again attacked Syria, this time accusing
it of helping Saddam Hussein's key supporters escape Iraq." ... "He said
the US has "scraps of intelligence" Damascus is helping some Iraqis move
to Syria, from where a number are moving on to other places." ... "On Wednesday,
Mr Rumsfeld also repeated earlier charges that Syria had facilitated the
movement of military equipment and people into Iraq to help fight US and
British forces." -BBC/News
- "Blair's
'delight' at Iraqi cheers: Tony Blair has watched
with "delight" the television pictures of Iraqis celebrating in Baghdad
but says the coalition should not claim victory too early." ... "The prime
minister's official spokesman said: "What we have seen today is the scales
of fear falling from the eyes of the people of Iraq and they are able to
express themselves for the first time in two decades.""
-BBC/News
- "Saddam
Statue Falls As U.S. Takes Baghdad." ... "Saddam
Hussein's rule over the capital has ended, U.S. commanders declared Wednesday,
and jubilant crowds swarmed into the streets here, dancing, looting and
cheering U.S. convoys. A Marine tank helped residents topple a giant statue
of Saddam in a sweeping, symbolic gesture." ... "In the most visible sign
of Saddam's evaporating power, the towering statue of the Iraqi president
was brought down in the middle of Firdos Square. Cheering Iraqis, some
waving the national flag, scaled the statue and danced upon the downed
icon, now lying face down. As it fell, some threw shoes and slippers at
the statue - a gross insult in the Arab world." -By
David Crary with contributions by Ellen Knickmeyer, Ravi Nessman, Chris
Tomlinson, Alex Zavis, Hamza Hendawi in Baghdad and others
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
- "Tikrit may
be regime’s last holdout: As Baghdad falls,
U.S. forces focus on Saddam’s hometown." ... "U.S.-led forces on Wednesday
pounded President Saddam Hussein’s desert hometown, where they said the
regime’s loyalists were making a last stand as resistance in Baghdad crumbled.
U.S. military commanders were assessing a buildup of Iraqi forces around
the city." ... "Saddam, if he is still alive, may try to flee to his birthplace
in the hope that tribesmen with blood ties to him will fight to the death
for their leader. Even if he is dead, experts fear Tikrit would remain
a hotbed of resistance long after a new government is installed."
-MSNBC
- "U.S.:
Saddam No Longer Controls Baghdad: U.S. Military
Says Saddam's Govt. No Longer Controls Baghdad, Warns of More Fighting
Ahead." ... "President Saddam Hussein's government is no longer in control
of Baghdad and coalition forces have secured "significant parts" of the
Iraqi capital, U.S. officials said Wednesday." ... "Combat is still possible
in the city, however, and Saddam's supporters maintain control over pockets
of the north, including the Iraqi leader's hometown of Tikrit, which is
a major focus for coalition forces, the officials said."
-ABCNEWS.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
- "BP
maps out Iraq strategy: World's No. 3 oil company
is getting ready to work on the world's second largest reserves of crude."
... "British oil company BP PLC has put a team to work on a strategy for
its future in oil-rich Iraq, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday."
... "The news follows a meeting in London at the weekend where Iraqi exiles
and U.S. state department officials agreed that international oil firms
should take a leading postwar role in reviving Iraq's oil industry."-Reuters
via -CNN /fn
- -
-
- "Analysis:
Three stages to a new Iraq." ... "The British have
proposed that the UN should give its approval to a three-stage process
under which Iraq will move from essentially military rule through an interim
Iraqi administration to a representative government." ... "Stage one:
Military rule." ... "US and UK military will be in charge of security
and in overall command." ... "Stage two: Interim Iraqi Administration
(IIA)." ... "This is where the British Government wants the UN to take
a leading role by organising a conference in Baghdad which would appoint
members of the IIA." ... "Stage three: Representative government."
... "It could be a year or so before this is organised. And the phrase
"representative government" will have to be defined." -By
Paul Reynolds -BBC/News
- "The
Latest Iraq Snapshot." ... "U.S. forces tighten grip
on Baghdad, blitzing targets in heart of city and seizing an airbase."
... "Two cameramen, from Reuters and Spain's Tele 5, killed after U.S.
tank fires on Baghdad hotel housing foreign media; al-Jazeera cameraman
dies after U.S. air raid on Baghdad" -Reuters
- "Baghdad
running low on medicine: Aid agencies warned
Tuesday that overwhelmed Baghdad hospitals were running low of life-saving
medicines and that civilian casualties were mounting in Iraq's besieged
capital." ... ""Nobody is checking every single hospital, nobody is adding
up all the numbers ... (but) there clearly is a large volume of civilian
casualties," World Health Organization spokesman Iain Simpson told a United
Nations briefing." --Reuters
via -CNN /World
-
- "British
troops work to restore law and order on looted streets of Basra."
... "Brazen looters plundered government buildings, universities and even
hospitals in Basra on Tuesday despite the presence of British troops in
Iraq's second-largest city, roaming the streets to grab whatever they could
ceiling fans, mattresses, car seats, furniture, slabs of wood." ... "British
troops had claimed Basra the day before, but found law and order hard to
impose. Troops rolling through the city in tanks and on foot did little
to quell the looting, other than to issue warnings over loudspeakers."
-By Tini Tran -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- "British
put sheik into power in Basra." ... "British forces
began establishing the first postwar administration in Iraq on Tuesday,
putting a local sheik into power in Basra shortly after their troops won
a two-week campaign for control of Iraq's second largest city." ... "Col.
Chris Vernon, spokesman for the British forces, said the sheik was a tribal
leader. The sheik's name and religious affiliation were not disclosed."
... "Vernon said the sheik had met British divisional commanders Monday
and been asked to set up an administrative committee representing other
groups in the southern region. The sheik and his committee were to be the
first civilian leadership established in liberated Iraq." -By
Patrick McDowell -AP
via -Salon
-
- "Marines
find bloodstained U.S. uniforms." ... "U.S. Marines
raiding an Iraqi military prison in Baghdad found bloodstained uniforms
belonging to at least two American prisoners-of-war, officers here said
Tuesday." ... "The Marines attacked a sprawling 54,000 square foot compound
at Rashid airfield in the southeastern corner of the city after receiving
intelligence reports that up to seven POWs were being held there." -By
David J. Lynch -USATODAY
- "Bodies
recovered from site of attack on Saddam." ... "The
question of whether Saddam Hussein was dead or alive hung over Baghdad
Tuesday after a U.S. warplane dropped four massive bombs and blasted a
smoking crater 60 feet deep at a restaurant where he was believed to be
meeting with his sons." ... "Iraqi rescue workers looking in the rubble
for victims told The Associated Press that three bodies had been recovered
and the death toll could be as high as 14. U.S. officials said they planned
to inspect the site of the attack to see whether they could locate Saddam's
remains, but no U.S. forces had appeared there by nightfall."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
-
-
- "Proud
to be an American: Immigrant Soldier May Achieve
American Citizenship in Death." ... "More than 31,000 members of the U.S.
armed forces are not American citizens, but some of them have already given
their lives in Iraq. Army Pfc. Diego Rincon, 19, was one of them." ...
"Rincon died March 29 while manning an Army roadblock near Najaf when a
suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver detonated a bomb." ... "Officially,
Rincon was a permanent U.S. resident, not a U.S. citizen, but his family
said the events of Sept. 11, 2001, inspired him to join the military and
defend his adopted home. The Rincon family fled Colombia for the suburbs
of Atlanta when Diego was 5 years old." -Contributions
by Janice Johnston and Bill Redeker -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Saddam’s
Voice? Intercept Believed to Be of Saddam’s
Voice Led to Airstrike; Heavy Fighting in Baghdad." ... "U.S. intelligence
intercepts, including one believed to be of Saddam Hussein talking to his
advisers about how to flee the capital city, led to a U.S. "leadership
strike" on an upscale Baghdad neighborhood, ABCNEWS has learned." ... "One
intelligence intercept, believed to have been carried out by the NSA (National
Security Agency), indicated that a person who may have been the Iraqi leader
was having a conversation with his advisers about how and when they could
leave Baghdad." -Contributions by Richard Engel, John
Donvan, John McWethy, Martha Raddatz, and Don Dahler -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Troops ignore Saddam
death report: Marines: ‘Sure — Osama and Jimmy
Hoffa were there, too!’" ... "U.S. officials said they had intelligence
information from an extremely reliable source Monday that Saddam and other
top Iraqi leaders, including at least one of his sons, were meeting at
a building in the upscale Al Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad." ... "Acting
on the tip, a lone U.S. B-1 bomber dropped four 2,000-pound “bunker buster”
bombs on what U.S. officials described as a residence." -By
Chip Reid -MSNBC
-
- Full Text - "Joint
Statement by President Bush, Prime Minister Blair on Iraq's Future:
Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair
on Iraq." ... "The future of Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people. After years
of dictatorship, Iraq will soon be liberated. For the first time in decades,
Iraqis will soon choose their own representative government." ... "Coalition
military operations are progressing and will succeed. We will eliminate
the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, deliver humanitarian
aid, and secure the freedom of the Iraqi people. We will create an environment
where Iraqis can determine their own fate democratically and peacefully."
... "We are grateful to our men and women in uniform, as well as to the
brave troops of Australia and Poland, and to forces contributed by other
members of the Coalition. They have demonstrated enormous bravery and professionalism
in the face of great danger. We mourn for the members of the Armed Forces
who have sacrificed their lives, and extend our deepest sympathies to their
families." ... "We also grieve for the loss of civilian life in Iraq. Coalition
forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties. The Iraqi regime has
done the opposite. It has deliberately put Iraqi civilians in harm's way,
and used women and children as human shields. It has sent execution squads
to kill Iraqis who choose freedom over fighting for a brutal regime. We
condemn Iraqi regime forces' attacks in civilian clothing, false surrender,
and mistreatment of prisoners of war. These acts are an affront to all
standards of human decency and international law." ... "We are taking every
step possible to safeguard Muslim holy sites and other protected places
in Iraq that are important to the religious and cultural heritage of Islam
and of Iraq. We have no confidence that the Iraqi regime has done the same,
and are deeply concerned by reports that it is deliberately endangering
such sites and using them for military purposes." ... "The Coalition is
delivering food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi
people. This flow will increase as more of Iraq's territory is liberated
and United Nations specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations
are better able to operate. We welcome the adoption by the United Nations
Security Council of Resolution 1472, which will allow shipments of humanitarian
items to Iraq to resume under the Oil for Food program." ... "As we said
at our March 16 meeting in the Azores, we will uphold our responsibility
to help the people of Iraq build a nation that is whole, free and at peace
with itself and its neighbors. We support the aspirations of all of Iraq's
people for a united, representative government that upholds human rights
and the rule of law as cornerstones of democracy. We reaffirm our commitment
to protect Iraq's natural resources, as the patrimony of the people of
Iraq, which should be used only for their benefit." ... "As the Coalition
proceeds with the reconstruction of Iraq, it will work with its allies,
other bilateral donors, and with the United Nations and other international
institutions. The United Nations has a vital role to play in the reconstruction
of Iraq. We welcome the efforts of U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations
in providing immediate assistance to the people of Iraq. As we stated in
the Azores, we plan to seek the adoption of new United Nations Security
Council resolutions that would affirm Iraq's territorial integrity, ensure
rapid delivery of humanitarian relief, and endorse an appropriate post-conflict
administration for Iraq. We welcome the appointment by the United Nations
Secretary General of a Special Adviser for Iraq to work with the people
of Iraq and coalition representatives." ... "The day when Iraqis govern
themselves must come quickly. As early as possible, we support the formation
of an Iraqi Interim Authority, a transitional administration, run by Iraqis,
until a permanent government is established by the people of Iraq. The
Interim Authority will be broad-based and fully representative, with members
from all of Iraq's ethnic groups, regions and diaspora. The Interim Authority
will be established first and foremost by the Iraqi people, with the help
of the members of the Coalition, and working with the Secretary General
of the United Nations. As coalition forces advance, civilian Iraqi leaders
will emerge who can be part of such an Interim Authority. The Interim Authority
will progressively assume more of the functions of government. It will
provide a means for Iraqis to participate in the economic and political
reconstruction of their country from the outset." ... "Coalition forces
will remain in Iraq as long as necessary to help the Iraqi people to build
their own political institutions and reconstruct their country, but no
longer. We look forward to welcoming a liberated Iraq to the international
community of nations. We call upon our partners in the international community
to join with us in ensuring a democratic and secure future for the Iraqi
people."-WhiteHouse.gov
-Iraq
- "Key
Developments in the War Against Iraq." ... ""U.S.
Marines battled to seize Baghdad's second airport and encountered intense
resistance in some places around the Iraqi capital, an American general
said." ... "Iraqi forces staged a counterattack over the Tigris River,
sending buses and trucks full of fighters against U.S. forces holding a
strategic intersection in western Baghdad. At least 50 Iraqi fighters were
killed and two U.S. soldiers were wounded, U.S. officials said."
-AP via -WashingtonPost
- "U.S.
Launches Attack On Central Baghdad: A column
of coalition tanks and armored personnel carriers moved into central Baghdad
early Monday, seizing one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palaces,
news reports say." ... "Asked whether the attack was the beginning of a
sustained battle for Baghdad, Captain Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command
spokesman, told CNN the attack was "another day in a continuing effort
whose ultimate goal is the end of the regime."" ... "Thorp said he preferred
to characterize the operation as an "armored raid through the city, bringing
down any resistance that we meet and taking down any leadership capability
[forces encounter]."" ... ""This isn't about occupying the country, this
is about liberating the country for the people of Iraq," Thorp said."
-PBS /NewsHour
- 
-
- "Analysis:
Show of strength in Baghdad: With television
pictures showing US forces inside a presidential palace in the heart of
Baghdad, there can be no doubting the dramatic advance made by US forces
during the early hours of Monday morning." ... "But this operation has
as much a psychological as a purely military purpose." ... "We are told
here [US Central Command, Qatar] that it is all part of a carefully orchestrated
plan to try to persuade ordinary Iraqis that the messages that they are
getting from the regime's leaders are simply wrong." -By
Jonathan Marcus -BBC/News
- "Ambush
shatters sense of ease." ... "Before dawn yesterday,
advance parties for the Second Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment's four gun
batteries moved to scout what they figured might be the unit's final location
of the war. As the convoy rolled through the eastern Baghdad suburbs, the
Marines shared a sense of relief that the end of their piece of the war
seemed near." ... "Then, just as the sun came up, the Marines drove into
an ambush." -By Scott Bernard Nelson
-Boston/Globe
- "British
troops move into Basra." ... "ASRA, Iraq - The Ba'ath
Party was giving up its last stronghold in southern Iraq, jubilant residents
reported yesterday, as coalition forces seized territory within the city
for the first time." ... "After a two-week bombing and shelling campaign
from the city's outskirts, British troops moved into central Basra. The
attacks have targeted the Ba'ath party leadership, but reportedly killed
dozens of civilians." ... "British officials said that they had not yet
taken the city, but that they had decided that it was safe enough to secure
an area where some troops would stay the night and plan their next move."
-By Thanassis with contributions by Anne Barnard Cambanis
-Boston/Globe
-
- "Analysis:
British dominance in Basra signal to rest of Iraq: Saddam's finished."
... "The British thrust into the center of Basra is a signal achievement
in its own right." ... "But it is also important for the larger campaign
to topple Saddam Hussein and win the battle for Baghdad." ... "American
and British commanders hope the capture of Iraq's second-largest city will
be a vivid demonstration that Saddam's government is fast losing control
of major population centers and that the fate of Saddam is sealed. That,
they hope, will encourage resistance to Saddam throughout Iraq, including
in Baghdad." -By Michael R. Gordon
-AP via -StarTribune.com
- "U.S.
forces storm into Baghdad, seize Saddam's New Presidential Palace; surround
Information Ministry." ... "U.S. forces in tanks
and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad on Monday, seizing
one of Saddam Hussein's palaces and briefly surrounding the Information
Ministry in a bold daylight raid aimed at demonstrating the Americans can
come and go as they please." ... "More than 70 tanks and 60 Bradley fighting
vehicles took part in the lightning thrust by the Army's 3rd Infantry Division,
with tank-killing A-10 Warthog planes and pilotless drones providing air
cover against mostly scattered resistance." ... "Once they reached the
gold-and-blue-domed New Presidential Palace, U.S. soldiers rifled through
documents in the bombed-out compound, its gilded, Louis XIV-style furnishings
covered with dust. A statue of Saddam on horseback was blown up by U.S.
troops in the city center." -By Chris Tomlinson and
Hamza Hendawi with contributions by Ellen Knickmeyer and Kimberly Hefling
-AP via -SFGate.com
- "U.S.
tanks enter central Baghdad: U.S. tanks and
armored vehicles rolled into central Baghdad early Monday, sending up heavy
smoke near presidential palaces and government buildings." ... "American
forces entered one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace compounds as
fires burned near the Tigris River. Meanwhile, Iraqi Information Minister
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf stood in the street issuing denials of U.S. troop
advances, saying the capital was "safe and secure." (Full
story)." -CNN
/World
- "U.S.
Tanks Roll Into Heart of Baghdad." ... "American
tanks rumbled into the battered Iraqi capital on Monday and soldiers took
over key buildings as gunfire and explosions thundered in many parts of
central Baghdad." ... "Buildings occupied by U.S. troops included a major
presidential palace and the Information Ministry. Reporters saw the tanks
roll into the heart of Baghdad on the western side of the Tigris River,
which divides the city." -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "U.S.
[C-130] Plane Lands at Baghdad Airport." ... "A U.S.
military cargo plane landed at Baghdad's international airport late Sunday,
the first known U.S. aircraft to arrive in the Iraqi capital, the U.S.
Central Command said." -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
- "British move
forcefully into Basra: British “Desert Rat”
forces staged their largest military incursion yet into Basra, rumbling
into Iraq’s second-largest city Sunday with a column of 40 armored personnel
carriers." -Contributions by Jim Miklaszewski and
Tammy Kupperman -MSNBC
with -Reuters
- "British
Troops Raid Basra, Arrest 14 Iraqis: Arrests
of Baath Party Leaders Aimed at Ending Climate of Fear in Basra." ... "Seeking
to break the government's grip in southern Iraq, British troops raided
villages surrounding Basra early today and apprehended 14 people considered
to be key Baath Party and militia leaders who had been intimidating residents
and forcing them to remain loyal to President Saddam Hussein." ... "Since
British troops arrived in this area two weeks ago, lingering fear of government
and Baath Party retribution has been a significant factor in the resistance
mounted by army regulars and militia members. Not only has it encouraged
the city of 1.3 million to stick with the Baath authorities, it has helped
block the popular welcome U.S. and British forces had expected in outlying
areas and stymied efforts to restore basic services and allow residents
to resume something of a normal life." -By Keith B.
Richburg -WashingtonPost
-
- "U.S.
Forces Roll Through Iraqi Capital." ... "U.S. armored
vehicles drove through Baghdad on Saturday, smashing through Iraq's Republican
Guard to reach - at least briefly - the ultimate destination of their two-week
surge across southern Iraq. In one skirmish, Marines with bayonets battled
Arab fighters from abroad in a marsh on Baghdad's outskirts." ... "The
U.S. incursion was not an attempt to capture large sections of Baghdad,
which remained under tenuous Iraqi government control. Rather, said Air
Force Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart, "it was a clear statement of the ability
of coalition forces to move into Baghdad at the time and place of their
choosing."" ... "The intent, Renuart said in a briefing at Central Command
in Qatar, was to show the Iraqi leadership "that they do not have the control
they speak about on their television."" -By David
Crary -AP
via -WashingtonPost
- "U.S.
Forces Enter Baghdad, Probe Defenses: U.S.
forces have entered the central part of Baghdad in an operation designed
to "move through a major area" of the Iraqi capital, American military
officials said Saturday." ... ""This is a clear statement of the ability
of coalition forces to move into Baghdad at times of their choosing. These
kinds of operations will continue," U.S. Central Command spokesman Major-General
Victor Renuart said. "But this fight is far from over."" ... "Renuart said
U.S. troops faced "pockets of very intense fighting" from Republican Guards
and paramilitaries loyal to Saddam Hussein. He later said U.S. forces were
still wary of the possible use of chemical or biological weapons by Iraqi
forces." -PBS
/NewsHour
- "Iraq
Promises 'Unconventional' Attack: Iraqi Official
Promises 'Unconventional' Attack; 2,500 Republican Guard Soldiers Surrender."
... "With thousands of frightened residents fleeing Baghdad and U.S. troops
in control of its airport, the Iraqi information minister promised Friday
that his nation's military would launch an "unconventional" counterattack
against the coalition troops." ... ""We will do something which I believe
is very beautiful," said Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf at a Baghdad
news conference, adding that the Iraqis planned to strike back "in an unconventional
way." Asked if that meant the use of chemical weapons or other weapons
of mass destruction, he quickly said no." ... ""What I meant are commando
and martyrdom operations in a very new, creative way," al-Sahhaf said."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
- "How
to think about this war if you're against it:
I hope for a U.S. victory with minimum bloodshed and maximum freedom for
the Iraqi people. But I also want the cakewalk conservatives to pay for
their hubris politically." ... "With U.S troops poised on the outskirts
of Baghdad, a surreal political phenomenon is unmistakable: So far the
loudest establishment voices criticizing the Bush administration's war
plan belong to retired generals, unnamed active military leaders and former
Republican officials, while most prominent Democrats either proclaim their
support, or remain silent." ... "Why are so many war critics flummoxed
by talking about the war? Isn't it possible to critique the president without
giving aid and comfort to the enemy? And is pointing out the effort's shortcomings
the same as glorying in them? I've been struggling with these questions
since the war began. I'm not an antiwar Democrat; I'm just anti-this war,
at this time. I think Saddam is a bigger menace than most of the left seems
to; I think his flouting U.N. resolutions merited a tough international
response; I thought the world was on its way to crafting one when the Bush
administration pulled the plug on diplomacy. Yet even though I opposed
its timing, once the war commenced I reflexively wished it would be over
quickly. Now, though, while I didn't root for the administration's setbacks
in the war's early going, I have to admit they served to prove its hubris,
its dishonesty and the dashing arrogance of the administration's frightening
first-strike doctrine that the war on Iraq was meant to kick off. And even
if the battle for Baghdad ends quickly, there remains plenty to critique."
-By Joan Walsh -Salon
- 
-
- "Positive test
for terror toxins in Iraq: MSNBC.com finds
signs of ricin, botulinum at Islamic militants’ camp." ... "MSNBC.com tests
reveal evidence of the deadly toxins ricin and botulinum at a laboratory
in a remote mountain region of northern Iraq allegedly used as a terrorist
training camp by Islamic militants with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist
network. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is conducting its own tests
at the same area, but has not yet released the results, according to officials
in northern Iraq." ... "MSNBC.com's tests were conducted over a two-day
period at Sargat, an alleged terrorist training camp a mile from the Iraq-Iran
border. The camp, set back in an isolated valley and surrounded by snowcapped
peaks, was home to the radical Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, which
counts among its some 700 followers scores of al-Qaida
fighters." -By Preston Mendenhall
-MSNBC
- "TV appearances
suggest Saddam survived attack: Man resembling
Iraqi leader gives speech, tours Baghdad." ... "Iraq’s state-run television
on Friday provided the strongest evidence yet that Saddam Hussein survived
a U.S. missile attack at the outset of the war, broadcasting a speech in
which a man who appeared to be the Iraqi
president referred to a downed U.S. helicopter and airing footage showing
him touring what was described as a neighborhood in Baghdad to cheers from
frenzied residents." -Contributions by Andrea Mitchell
with -AP and-Reuters
via -MSNBC
-
-
- "Three
troops, pregnant woman and driver killed." ... "A
woman, who appeared to be pregnant, got out of the car and began "screaming
in fear" at the checkpoint, about 11 miles (18 km) southwest of the Hadithah
Dam in Iraq, a Central Command statement said." ... "Three coalition troops
walked toward the car and it blew up, U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig.
Gen. Vincent Brooks said, citing initial reports."
-CNN /World
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
-
- "Blair
'dissuaded Bush from attack after 9/11'." ... "Tony
Blair has frequently played a pivotal role in the infighting in the US
administration over Iraq, according to the recently retired British ambassador
to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer." ... "In the documentary Blair's
War, Sir Christopher, who returned to Britain last month, said that when
Mr Blair met Mr Bush in the weeks after September 11, he urged him to deal
first with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and its protector - Afghanistan's
Taliban government - before tackling Iraq." -By Ewen
MacAskill -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Dueling
defense chiefs fight the war of spin: For both
sides, the case made in briefings can often be checked by media on ground."
... "Of all the clashes taking place in Iraq, one of the most critical
is being fought not with weapons but with words. With claims and counterclaims
about the war's progress flying across the airwaves - often multiple times
in one news cycle - each side is struggling to frame the conflict so as
to showcase its own strengths and build public support." ... "Of course,
propaganda and spin have been critical components of wars throughout history.
But the media juggernaut surrounding this war has provided each side with
new opportunities - and new pressures - to get its message out. It's also
putting a new premium on accuracy, say analysts, since things alleged in
a briefing often can be instantly confirmed or contradicted by reporters
on the ground." -By Liz Marlantes
-CSMonitor
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- "Ex-CIA
director: U.S. faces 'World War IV': Former
CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged
in World War IV, and that it could continue for years." ... "He said the
new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran,
the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda."
... "Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi
Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for
the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on
the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks,
the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people.""
-By Charles Feldman and Stan Wilson
-CNN /World
-
- ELECTION
2004 -
- "Kerry
says US needs its own 'regime change'." ... "Senator
John F. Kerry said yesterday that President Bush committed a ''breach of
trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war with
Iraq, creating a diplomatic chasm that will not be bridged as long as Bush
remains in office." ... "''What we need now is not just a regime change
in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States,''
Kerry said in a speech at the Peterborough Town Library." -By
Glen Johnson -Boston/Globe
-
-
-
-
- Special
Reports - "Blair's
War: He fought in vain for trans-atlantic unity on
Iraq. Now, as the battle for Baghdad begins, his future hangs in
the balance." ... "Introduction
[Synopsis]." ... "Blair gambled everything on his ability to personally
bridge the gap between America and key players in Western Europe -- and
he failed. Now, political observers are questioning whether NATO, the United
Nations -- and Blair himself -- will survive the aftermath of war with
Iraq." ... "The
Prime Minister: A conversation with his biographer, assessments
of his character and politics, and a look at his relationship with George
W. Bush." ... "The
Fractured Alliance: Robert Kagan and Will Hutton debate the myths
and realities of the U.S.-Europe divide. Plus, comment and analysis on
the costs of U.S. unilateralism." ... "The
Liberal Divide: Paul Berman, Timothy Garton Ash, and David
Rieff discuss Blair, the liberal case for war, and the divided left." ...
"The
Failure of Diplomacy: An overview of thekey diplomatic moments
and missteps leading to war with Iraq." ... "Interviews."
... "Readings&
Links." -PBS.org
(A-Z) -Frontline
- "Iraqis
fight out of fear and fervor: With mortal threats
or pleas for exile, Iraqi POWs discuss their motives in this war." ...
"The 19-year-old Iraqi war prisoner shook and cried as he was led into
a US medical tent at a dusty camp. But it wasn't because he had a gunshot
wound in his right leg." ... ""He thought we were going to execute him,"
says Sgt. Mark McLaurin of the 3rd Infantry Division's 566th Medical Support
Company. By the next day, the boy was saying, "Thanks," and calling Sergeant
McLaurin "Doc."" ... "The young prisoner, like many captured Iraqis here,
said he had been forced to fight by Saddam Hussein loyalists who made death
threats against his family." -By Ann Scott Tyson
-CSMonitor
-
- 2003 April 3 IRAQ TIMELINE
- "Day
15 of the war." ... "(all times BST):" ...
""2230: US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld says there is "no way
out" for Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders." ... "2020: A leading
Iraqi Shiite Muslim urges Iraqis to remain neutral and not fight the invading
US and British troops, according to reports from a London-based Shiite
charity." ... "1950: Dozens of Iraqi civilians and soldiers were
killed in the village of Furat, which lies between the airport and the
city centre, Reuters reported. Witnesses said a US missile strike was responsible.
Iraqi officials said 83 people were killed in the attack." ... "·British
Summer Time (BST) is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and three
hours behind Iraqi time." -Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Turkey
allows America to use supply route for troops." ...
"Turkey finally agreed last night to allow the shipment of food, fuel and
medicine to American forces fighting in northern Iraq after a damage-limitation
meeting between the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and Turkish leaders
in Ankara." -By Helena Smith
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- "Airport
Seized: Baghdad Airport Seized by U.S. Forces."
... "U.S. ground forces have swept into Baghdad's international airport
under cover of darkness, securing it with tanks and other armored units.
They encountered almost no opposition from Iraqi forces." ... "Reporting
from the tarmac of Saddam International Airport, ABCNEWS' Bob Schmidt,
embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, said the airport was in pitch
darkness as coalition tanks entered the facility." ... "He reported seeing
Iraqis waving and cheering as U.S. tanks rolled toward the airport which
is just 10 miles from central Baghdad." -Contributions
by Richard Engel, Ted Koppel, Bob Schmidt, Mike Cerre, Jim Sciutto, Aditya
Raval, John McWethy, and Brian Hartman -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Power
Off in Baghdad for First Time in War." -ABCNEWS.com
via -Reuters
- "From
One Bomb, A Swarm of Tank Killers: U.S. Uses
New, Smarter Cluster Bombs Against Iraqi Tanks." ... "As the bomb falls,
it splits open in midair — and releases 10 smaller units, each of which
descends under a small white parachute." ... "As they approach the ground,
those units split as well, each one ejecting four armor-piercing explosives."
... "The result, say sources: one bomb drop causes 40 explosions, spread
out over 15 acres or more." ... "The CBU-105 is a heat-seeking weapon.
Its sensors look for engines of tanks, personnel carriers and other sources
of high temperature. As the bombs descend, they can be steered by small
fins, to get closer to their targets, and to counteract the force of the
wind." -By Ned Potter
-ABCNEWS.com
-
- "US
battling outside Baghdad: Copter down; 7 Americans
believed killed." [Latest reports are saying six soldiers were killed from
a downed Black Hawk helicopter]. ... "A two-pronged battle against
Republican Guard divisions outside Baghdad yesterday brought US ground
forces to the outskirts of the capital city." ... "But Iraqis shot down
an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet south of Baghdad.
Seven soldiers on board the helicopter were believed killed and four were
rescued when it crashed after being hit by small-arms fire near Karbala,
Pentagon officials said." ... "The officials said a surface-to-air missile
struck the Navy fighter, which was flying from the aircraft carrier USS
Kitty Hawk. There was no immediate word on the fate of the pilot. It was
the first US jet downed in the war." -By Anne E. Kornblut
and Anne Barnard -Boston/Globe
-
- "On to Baghdad
— but when [analysis]? Rapid advance presents dilemma
for U.S. commanders." ... "The rapid advance of the Army’s 3rd Infantry
Division and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force to the outskirts of Baghdad
yesterday presents Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his subordinate commanders
with the biggest battlefield dilemma they have faced in the two-week-long
Iraq war: whether to assault the capital now or to wait two weeks or more
for reinforcements." ... "Essentially, Franks has to decide whether to
wait for the tank-heavy 4th Infantry Division, which defense officials
say won’t be ready to join the attack until the middle of the month." -By
Thomas E. Ricks and Jonathan Weisman -WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
- "Al-Jazeera
suspends correspondents' work in Iraq." ... "The
Arab-language news agency Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday it has suspended
the work of all its correspondents in Iraq, after Iraqi officials banned
at least one of its employees from reporting." ... "It said it will continue
to broadcast video from some areas of the country."
-CNN /World
- "U.S
troops push toward showdown on Baghdad's outskirts; special forces infiltrate
command posts." ... "U.S. troops surged forward today
into the outskirts of Baghdad, and a special forces unit raided one of
Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces. One U.S. spokesman said Iraqi forces
appeared on the verge of collapse." ... "Lead units of the multi-pronged
U.S. assault force were about four miles from the edge of Baghdad. Army
troops closed in from the southwest after crossing the Euphrates River;
Marine units advanced from the southeast in a long column along the Tigris
River." ... ""We are getting closer and closer,'' said Navy Capt. Frank
Thorp, a Central Command spokesman. ``We will be in Baghdad within a matter
of hours from when we decide to go.''" -By David Crary
-AP via -StarTribune.com
- "Troops
near international airport 12 miles from center of Baghdad."
... "Marines and infantry moved with surprising speed toward Baghdad today,
passing down roads littered with black combat boots as Saddam Hussein's
loyalists shed their uniforms and switched to tribal robes hoping to avoid
capture." ... "Coalition forces drove to within four miles of the Baghdad
city gates. Thousands of U.S. military vehicles of the 7th Infantry pushed
across the Euphrates River from the south and west of Baghdad after fighting
through a failed Iraqi attempt to hold the bridge at Musayyib, 35 miles
due south of the capital. The bridge had been wired with explosives, which
were disarmed by U.S. engineers." -By Ellen Knickmeyer
and Chris Tomlinson -AP
via -StarTribune.com
- "U.S.
Troops Push to Within 19 Miles of Baghdad." ... "A
military source told a Reuters correspondent with the Third Infantry that
vanguard units were just 19 miles from the southern edges of the capital.
Some had crossed to the eastern bank of the Euphrates that lies on their
route to Baghdad." ... "Forces pushing along the Tigris valley from the
southeast were as near as 25 miles away, the source said." ... "Two powerful
U.S. columns are now closing on the capital from the south and southeast
after an aerial bombardment that battered elite units guarding the city
for more than a week." -By Luke Baker-Reuters
-
- "U.S.
Forces Advance to Within 50 Miles of Baghdad:
U.S. troops entered the "red zone" within 50 miles of Baghdad on Wednesday,
after advancing past the city of Karbala to the southwest of the capital
and capturing an important bridge over the Tigris River to the southeast."
... ""This is so far the biggest fight of the war," said a U.S. spokesman
at Central Command in Qatar. "The battles in Karbala and Kut are the most
significant battles to date." U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said
the troops approaching Baghdad had crossed a "red line" which he said could
trigger a chemical attack by embattled Iraqi forces. "We have forces that
have already crossed those red lines," Brooks told a news conference at
Central Command headquarters in Qatar on Wednesday."
-PBS (A-Z)
/NewsHour
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
- "11
bodies found with rescued U.S. POW." ... "Eleven
bodies -- some of them believed to be Americans --were found with prisoner
of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid
on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday." ... "Acting
on an intelligence tip about Lynch's whereabouts, U.S. special operations
forces slipped behind enemy lines and seized Lynch from the Saddam Hospital
under cover of darkness Tuesday, military officials said." -By
Doug Mellgren -AP
via -Salon/-news
-"US
smashes Baghdad defence positions: ·
Kerbala secured in three hours · Republican Guard battle looms ·
Battle in holy city of Najaf." ... "US forces today claimed to have broken
through Iraqi lines at two key points south of Baghdad, seizing a strategic
bridge across the Tigris and "destroying" a division of Saddam Hussein's
elite Republican Guard." ... "A vanguard of US troops had moved within
20 miles of the Iraqi capital today after securing the area around the
city of Kerbala, according to Reuters." ... "Up to 15,000 US troops have
massed around Kerbala waiting to pour across the Euphrates - the last major
natural obstacle standing between them and Baghdad on the south-western
approach to the capital." -By Sarah Left, Simon Jeffery,
David Batty, Jason Deans, Mark Oliver
-Guardian.co.uk
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
- "US
forces cross Tigris, close in on Baghdad: Iraqi
soldiers accused of firing from inside mosque." ... "Closing to within
35 miles of Baghdad, U.S. forces seized a bridge over the Tigris River
and swept past battered Republican Guard units Wednesday. One of the key
Guard divisions, defending the city of Kut, "has been destroyed," a U.S.
general said." ... "Farther south, U.S. commanders said Iraqi soldiers
were shooting from inside a revered mosque in Najaf. American soldiers
withheld return fire." ... "Soldiers on the front lines and relatives 6,000
miles away in West Virginia rejoiced over the bold, middle-of-the-night
rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from captivity at an Iraqi hospital that was
housing a military command post. The commandos who freed her also retrieved
11 bodies, most of them believed to be American soldiers." -By
David Crary -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- "American
forces rescue Iraq POW Jessica Lynch." ... "Lynch,
19, of Palestine, W.Va., had been missing since nine days ago with 11 other
U.S. soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company. The unit was ambushed
near Nasiriyah after making a wrong turn during early fighting in the invasion
of Iraq. Five other members of her unit were later shown on Iraqi television
answering questions from their Iraqi captors." ... "Fifteen other Americans
are formally listed as missing. The other POWs include two Army Apache
helicopter pilots captured March 24 after their helicopter went down."
-By Matt Kelley -AP
via -Boston/Globe
-"POW
Rescued: U.S. Forces Find Soldier Reported
Missing After Ambush." ... ""Coalition forces have successfully conducted
a rescue mission of one of the prisoners of war in Iraq," Brig. Gen. Vincent
Brooks said at Central Command in Qatar." ... "U.S. officials told ABCNEWS
that soldier rescued was Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, a supply clerk with the
Army's 507th Maintenance Co." ... "She was reported missing on March 23,
when she was among the soldiers whose supply convoy was ambushed in the
southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. She was not among the five soldiers whose
faces were shown on Iraqi television after the capture, and her status
was officialy listed as unknown by the military." ... "Sources said it
was a U.S. operation that saved Lynch, from Palestine, W.Va. Brooks said
CENTCOM officials would release more details about the rescue at a later
time." -Contributions by Richard Engel, Don Dahler,
Ted Koppel, Jim Ryan, John McWethy, Lisa Sylvester and Brian Hartman ABCNEWS.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-"Coalition
Forces Rescue U.S. POW in Iraq." ... "U.S. Central
Command confirmed the rescue of Jessica Lynch, a U.S. Army prisoner of
war held captive in Iraq." ... "Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks refused to provide
any further details or identify the rescued POW." -By
Nicole Windield -AP
via -WashingtonPost
-
-"Rumsfeld
and Myers Assail Complaints About War Strategy."
... "Pentagon officials struck back today at critics of the military campaign
in Iraq, declaring that complaints about the handling of the war are misinformed,
inaccurate and harmful to American forces in combat." ... "Both officials
rejected various complaints about the military campaign — that it was launched
before there were enough troops deployed, that it relied too heavily in
the beginning on air power — as wrongheaded. Members of the Joint Chiefs
were unanimous in approving the plan beforehand, Mr. Rumsfeld and General
Myers said, and commanders in Iraq are getting all the men and equipment
they ask for." -By David Stout
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
- "Fox
told to remove Rivera from Iraq." ... "US defence
officials in Washington have today confirmed that Fox News Channel has
been asked to remove controversial reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq."
... "Fox News had agreed to the request to remove Rivera, the former talk
show host who angered the US military by revealing operational details
of the Iraq campaign during a report, according to defence spokesman Lieutenant
Colonel Dave Lapan." -Jason Deans
-Guardian.co.uk/media
-
- "Just
fired, Peter Arnett hired by British paper:
Britain's Daily Mirror hired veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett Tuesday,
less than 24 hours after he was fired by NBC and National Geographic for
saying on Iraqi TV the U.S. war plan has "failed."" ... ""Piers Morgan,
an editor for the Daily Mirror, told CNN, "Peter is one of the most respected
journalists in the world, and we are delighted he is joining us to expose
the truth about a war increasingly dominated by propaganda."
-CNN /World
- "Jordan
'foils hotel bomb plot': Jordanian officials
say four Iraqis have been arrested for trying to blow up a major hotel
in Amman last week." ... "The authorities are still giving few details
of the attempted attack, but Western officials have confirmed there was
a "worrying incident" at a hotel in the middle of last week." -By
Caroline Hawley -BBC/News
-
- "U.S.
troops gear up for Baghdad push: Statement
said to be from Saddam: 'They will be the losers'" ... "After days of intense
aerial bombardment, U.S. forces are in contact with Saddam's "most prized
forces" south of Baghdad, a U.S. Marine official said." ... "Increasing
numbers of U.S. Army troops are being freed up for the siege on Baghdad,
reports CNN's Walter Rodgers, who is embedded with the 3rd Squadron, 7th
Cavalry of the 3rd
Infantry Division." ... "Tough, ongoing battles in southern Iraqi cities
such as Basra, Najaf and Nasiriya could become second priority as reinforcements
come in and the military focus shifts to Baghdad, Rodgers said." -Contributions
by Christiane Amanpour, Jane Arraf, Bob Franken, Art Harris, Tom Mintier,
Nic Robertson, Walter Rodgers, Brent Sadler and Ben Wedeman and Producer
Mike Mount -CNN
/World
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
- "NBC, MSNBC
fire Peter Arnett." ... "NBC, MSNBC and National
Geographic said Monday that they had terminated their relationship with
Peter Arnett after the journalist told state-run Iraqi TV that the U.S.-led
coalition’s initial war plan had failed and that reports from Baghdad about
civilian casualties had helped antiwar protesters undermine the Bush administration’s
strategy." -MSNBC
with -AP
-
-"Offense
and Defense: The battle between Donald Rumsfeld
and the Pentagon." ... "Several senior war planners complained to me in
interviews that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his inner circle
of civilian advisers, who had been chiefly responsible for persuading President
Bush to lead the country into war, had insisted on micromanaging the war's
operational details." ... "On at least six occasions, the planner told
me, when Rumsfeld and his deputies were presented with operational plans—the
Iraqi assault was designated Plan 1003—he insisted that the number of ground
troops be sharply reduced. Rumsfeld's faith in precision bombing and his
insistence on streamlined military operations has had profound consequences
for the ability of the armed forces to fight effectively overseas.
They've got no resources, a former high-level intelligence official said."
... "The critical moment, one planner said, came last fall, during the
buildup for the war, when Rumsfeld decided that he would no longer be guided
by the Pentagon s most sophisticated war-planning document, the TPFDL—time-phased
forces-deployment list—which is known to planning officers as the tip-fiddle
(tip-fid, for short). A TPFDL is a voluminous document describing the inventory
of forces that are to be sent into battle, the sequence of their deployment,
and the deployment of logistical support." -By Seymour
M. Hersh 20030407
-NewYorker
-
- "U.S.
Troops Push Closer To Baghdad; Coalition Death Count At 63. [Also: Fox
News reporter Geraldo expelled]." ... "Forces from
the Army's 3rd Infantry Division pushed north on Monday (March 31) into
the town of Hindiyah, less than 50 miles from the Iraqi capital." ... "The
Pentagon has expelled Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq. Officials
say Rivera posed a security threat to American forces. During a recent
live broadcast, Rivera drew a map in the sand indicating the position where
the unit which he was embedded with was located. Members of the 101st Airborne
Division will escort Rivera to the border with Kuwait."" ... "The latest,
revised casualty count: 63 U.S. and British troops killed, 24 missing.
The total number of Iraqis killed is unknown." -By
Gil Kaufman and Ethan Zindler -MTV.com
/ News
-
-
-
- "Powell
warns Syria and Iran: US Secretary of State
Colin Powell has issued a fresh warning to Iraq's neighbours, Syria and
Iran, to stop supporting terrorism." ... "Widening the range of US concerns
beyond Iraq, Mr Powell said Syria must abandon its "direct support for
terrorist groups"." ... "He also said it was time for "the entire international
community to insist that Iran end its support for terrorism"." ... "Mr
Powell's comments came two days after US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
warned both countries not to get involved in the conflict in Iraq."-BBC/News
-
- "Fire
From the Skies: ‘Historic Bomber Package’ Pounds
Iraq; Ground Units Probe Toward Baghdad." ... "An "historic bomber package,"
of B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers have delivered a simultaneous firestorm of
ordnance from the skies in a push to destroy and disable Iraqi defenses
and pave the way for coalition ground forces advancing toward Baghdad."
... "U.S. Central Command officials today said overnight air raids used
a combination of the three bombers to pummel targets in Baghdad as U.S.
Army scouts ventured miles closer to the capital than the previous 49-mile
distance from the city to see if the area was safe for the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division to move forward, ABCNEWS reported." -Contributions
by Richard Engel, Aditya Raval, Linda Albin, John McWethy, Lisa Sylvester,
Brian Hartman, and John Donvan -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Coalition
forces increase pressure: But Iraq insists
U.S. campaign 'being defeated on all fronts'." ... "Intense airstrikes,
targeted raids and sporadic battles pounded away at Iraqi forces Monday,
coalition military officials said." ... "U.S. and British warplanes continued
to strike targets Monday, hitting Republican Guard positions around Baghdad
and the Karada Intelligence Complex believed to be the headquarters of
the Fedayeen Saddam, the paramilitary group known for its guerrilla tactics."
-Contributions by Christiane Amanpour, Bob Franken,
Art Harris, Tom Mintier, Walter Rodgers and Nic Robertson, Mike Mount -CNN
/World
-
-
-
- "Myers:
U.S. Controls Terror Camp in Iraq." ... "American
forces are searching a terrorist compound in northeastern Iraq that was
probably the site where militants made a biological toxin, traces of which
were later found by police in London, the Pentagon's top general said Sunday."
... "U.S. and British forces now control the compound, which belongs to
the group Ansar al-Islam, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, describing it as a site "where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaida
had been working on poisons."" -By Matt Kelley
-AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
- "U.S.
Troops Rammed In Kuwait; Rumsfeld Criticized For Denying Generals' Requests."
... "Between 10 and 15 American troops were injured at a U.S. military
base in Kuwait after being rammed by a pickup truck on Sunday (March 30).
The attack took place at Camp Udairi, which serves primarily as a maintenance
and supply location for the Army's V Corps." ... "A soon-to-be-published
report says that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly denied
requests from top generals during the run-up to war to deploy a larger
fighting force to the Persian Gulf region. On six occasions, Rumsfeld argued
successfully that the number of troops should be reduced, according to
an article that will appear in this week's New Yorker magazine."
... "General Tommy Franks, who is overseeing operations in the Gulf, said
he had not requested a larger force during the planning stages of the war."
-By Gil Kaufman and Ethan Zindler
-MTV.com / News
-
- "Iraq
Vows to Use 'Any Method' Against Foe." ...
[20030329]
"A suicide bomber blew up his taxi today and killed four United States
soldiers from the Third Infantry Division at a checkpoint near Najaf, as
allied warplanes continued to pound targets south of Baghdad." ... "Today's
bomb attack signaled that, despite the heavy Iraqi casualty toll this week,
the men under Mr. Hussein's command are still ready to risk their lives
— whether out of loyalty, coercion or fear." ... "Separately this morning,
British commando forces dashed into Basra, which is Iraq's second-largest
city, and destroyed two large statues of Mr. Hussein in a strike that the
British depicted as intended to reassure Basra's 1.5 million people that
coalition forces are determined to topple the government in Baghdad." (1,
2)
-NYTimes via
-By Patrick E. Tyler -Google-News
-
- "Engineer
says Saddam's bunker can withstand newest bombs."
... "A German trained as a civil defense engineer said Sunday he helped
a company design a bunker under Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palace in the
early 1980s that is likely to withstand even the newest non-nuclear bombs."
... "Karl Esser told The Associated Press that the shelter was also built
to survive, from 650 feet away, a nuclear blast from a bomb like the one
dropped at Hiroshima, and temperatures of more than 570 degrees Fahrenheit."
... ""It's very, very difficult to crack unless you hit it directly with
a small atomic bomb," he said in a telephone interview."
-AP via -USATODAY
- "U.S.
Gen. Franks Says No Pause in Iraq War." ... "U.S.
Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks rejected reports on Sunday that
there was a pause in the U.S.-led push toward Baghdad." ... "Some U.S.
troops said on Sunday they had been told a pause in land advances from
the south toward the capital could be extended by several weeks because
of overstretched supply lines and stiff Iraqi resistance."-Reuters
via /Asia
- "Giant explosion
rocks Kuwait City: Missile believed to have
been
fired from Iraq; two injured." ... "A missile landed Saturday near the
waterfront in central Kuwait City shortly after midnight, causing a huge
explosion and unleashing a large plume of smoke but causing little damage
and only two minor injuries, Kuwaiti officials said. U.S. officials and
local investigators told NBC News that evidence at the scene suggested
the missile was a Chinese-made Silkworm cruise-type weapon fired from southern
Iraq." ... "The missile hit a small pier jutting into the sea about 1:45
a.m. (5:45 p.m. ET Friday) close to the Souq Sharq shopping mall in the
city center, a little more than a mile from the emir’s palace, police Brig.
Ahmed al-Rujaid said." -Contributions by Steve Handelsman,
Brian Williams and Don Teague, Tammy Kupperman
-MSNBC
-
- "Ground forces
regroup near Baghdad: U.S.-led airstrikes pounded
targets in Baghdad on Saturday, while ground forces nearest the capital
were regrouping. Field commanders said supply shortages had led to an “operational
pause” in their advance, while NBC’s David Bloom reported from the
front that U.S. forces were reviewing plans after Iraqi Republican Guard
units south of Baghdad were repositioned. U.S. officials said the regrouping
did not reflect a change in strategy or widespread supply problems." ...
"... coalition airstrikes have increased dramatically in recent days, many
of them targeting Republican Guard positions. Some 1,700 precision-guided
bombs and 75 cruise missiles have been fired since Thursday, McChrystal
said. Up until that time, 4,300 precision bombs and 400 cruise missiles
had been fired." -Contributions by David Bloom, Dana
Lewis, David Shuster, Qatar, and Jim Miklaszewski, Jeannie Ohm, Preston
Mendenhall With -AP
and -Reuters via -MS-NBC
-
- "Suicide
Bombing Kills Four U.S. Troops, Iraq Warns of More Attacks:
After a car bomb exploded Saturday at a U.S. military checkpoint near the
central Iraqi city of Najaf killing four American soldiers, the Iraqi vice
president said that coalition forces could expect more suicide attacks."
... "The car bomb exploded just outside Najaf on the road north to Kerbala,
not far from the furthest forward positions that U.S. troops have reached
in the 10-day-old war against Iraq. A small city on the Euphrates River,
Najaf is about 100 miles south of Baghdad and has been the scene of intense
fighting between Iraqi and U.S. troops." ... "According to witnesses, a
taxi stopped close to the checkpoint, and the driver appeared to wave for
help. As soldiers approached the car, it exploded, Capt. Andrew Wallace
told Associated Press. The victims were part of the Army's 1st Brigade,
3rd Infantry Division." -PBS
/NewsHour
-
- "Iraq
Threatens More Suicide Attacks: Car Bomb Kills
Four U.S. Soldiers; Four Other U.S. Bodies Found." ... "A senior Iraqi
official today threatened more suicide attacks like the one that killed
four American soldiers at a U.S. Army checkpoint near Najaf." ... ""This
is just the beginning. You'll hear more pleasant news later," Iraqi Vice
President Taha Yassin Ramadan said at a news conference. Asked whether
suicide bombings will now become a policy of the Iraqi military, Ramadan
said: "It will be routine military policy. We will use any means to kill
our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land."" -Contributions
by Richard Engel, Ted Koppel, Linda Albin, Tim Scheld, Luis Martinez and
Aditya Raval, James Ryan, Vic Ratner, and John McWethy
-ABCNEWS.com
- "Reports:
Car bomb kills five U.S. soldiers: Missile
hits Kuwait City mall." ... "A car bomb exploded Saturday at a U.S. military
checkpoint in Najaf in central Iraq, a source with U.S. Central Command
said." ... "A U.S. military officer told The Associated Press that five
soldiers were killed in the bombing. CentComm officials were trying to
confirm the exact casualty count." ... "According to the Central Command
source, a car with two men inside detonated at a checkpoint operated by
the Army's 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division."
-CNN /World
Search
Iraq News
-
-
-
-
-
-
- "Supplying
the Enemy." ... "Whatever one may think of Russia's
political opposition to the war in Iraq, no one denies Moscow's right to
it. Supplying arms to Iraq is something else. Not only is this a clear
violation of U.N. sanctions, but Russia has weapons that pose a lethal
threat to U.S. and British soldiers. Those are exactly the kinds of weapons
that the Bush administration has accused Russia — and now Syria — of supplying
Iraq. Whether President Vladimir Putin chooses to acknowledge the sales
or not, he would be well advised to make sure they are stopped right now."
-NYTimes
-
-
-
- "US
officials vow to extinguish fires, repair wells."
... "While flames billowed hundreds of feet in the air at Oil Well Number
4, US officers and a private contractor vowed yesterday to extinguish the
fire and others set by retreating Iraqis and to repair and update the wells."
... "Of nine oil well fires set in Rumaila, one of Iraq's largest crude
deposits, five still burned yesterday. But the military said two more would
be extinguished in the next day or so, with the others to follow quickly
now that coalition forces have secured the field and [Halliburton Co. subcontractor]
Boots & Coots International Well Control of Houston is on the scene
to snuff out the blazes." -By Marcella Bombardieri
-Boston/Globe
-
- "Weathermen
say Iraq sandstorms possible next week." ... "Weather
experts forecast U.S.-led troops in Iraq could face more sandstorms next
week, with temperatures starting their climb towards unbearable summer
highs." ... "Meteorologists in the United States said on Friday temperatures
could soar to an above-average 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.22 Celsius) next
Wednesday, overshadowing fears of more storms which can reduce visibility
to zero and damage high-tech military equipment."-Reuters
-AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
- "UN
to resume Iraq 'lifeline': The United Nations
Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution clearing the way
for the oil-for-food humanitarian aid programme in Iraq to resume." ...
"The resolution transfers control of aid distribution directly to the UN
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan." ... "In another move, the UN on Friday
launched its biggest-ever international aid appeal, seeking more than two-billion
dollars to meet the immediate needs of the Iraqi people."-BBC/News
-
-
- "Rumsfeld
warns Syria on military shipments: U.S. also
warns armed supporters of Iran." ... "U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
issued a warning to Syria Friday, saying that coalition officials had information
indicating that shipments of military equipment, including night vision
goggles, were being moved into Iraq from Syria." ... ""These deliveries
pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider such
trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable
for such shipments," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing." ... "Rusmfeld
also warned that armed supporters of Iran's government entering Iraq would
be considered enemy combatants if they interfere with U.S. forces there."
-CNN /World
-
- "Biggest
bombs yet strike Baghdad; Iraqi fighters said to fire on civilians in Basra."
... "The biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far -- two 4,700-pound "bunker
busters" -- struck a communications tower Friday in an intense U.S. bombardment.
In the south, British officers said Iraqi fighters defending the besieged
city of Basra fired on hundreds of civilians trying to flee." ... "The
British, who have encircled Basra, said their troops were prepared to rescue
and aid any civilians wounded by the mortar and machine-gun fire from paramilitaries
loyal to Saddam Hussein." ... "British officers said soldiers from the
1st Black Watch battalion, in Warrior armored fighting vehicles, were trying
to wedge themselves between the militia fire and the targeted civilians."
-By David Crary -AP
via -SFGate.com
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
- "U.S.
Troops Position Around Iraqi Capital." ... "America's
battle plan for Baghdad is taking shape, with U.S. forces now in position
to strike the Iraqi capital from nearly all sides - or to mount a siege
and wait for Saddam Hussein's regime to fall to internal opposition." ...
"As sporadic battles rage between American infantry and defiant Iraqi troops
and paramilitary guerrillas, more armor and at least 100,000 reinforcing
U.S. and allied troops are on their way to join the coalition force over
the next few weeks." ... "In the interim, the American game plan is simple:
bombs, bombs and more bombs." -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
- "US
captures 'Iraqi general'." ... "US Marines say they
have captured an Iraqi army general in Nasiriya, in southern Iraq." ...
"Sporadic fighting continues in and around the town, although not as severe
as in recent days." -By Andrew North
-BBC/News
- "US
gears up for long campaign: The US military
has admitted that stiff Iraqi resistance is slowing the progress of the
invasion force as battles rage around strategic towns in the south." ...
"The US army's senior ground commander Iraq, General William Wallace, warned
that long supply lines and Iraqi guerrilla-style tactics had reduced the
chances of a swift military victory." ... ""The enemy we're fighting is
different from the one we'd war-gamed against," he told The Washington
Post, in comments reported to have caused some unease in the Pentagon."
-BBC/News
-
- "Fighting
by the Rules: The Conventions of Conflict Require
Careful Military Planning." ... "When the 3rd Infantry Division was facing
artillery fire from the direction of a school soccer field in southern
Iraq, Col. Lyle Cayce had to make a quick battlefield decision — not a
military one, but a legal one." ... "Cayce and 16 others are unusual members
of the Army's 3rd Infantry. Instead of being charged with fighting, they
are Army lawyers tasked with sorting through the rules and regulations
of war to make sure they're properly carried out on the battlefield." ...
"His job, Cayce told ABCNEWS' Ted Koppel, is a real challenge since Iraqi
forces themselves don't appear to be fighting by the rules." ... "In fact,
accusations of war crimes violations have already flown from leaders of
both sides of this conflict." -Contributions by Ted
Koppel and Amanda Onion -ABCNEWS.com