Operations
Other Conflicts
Defense Policy / Programs
News Reports

Current Operations

• AFGHANISTAN/US SHOOTING VOA 21 May 2003 -- American soldiers guarding the U-S embassy in Kabul have killed at least four Afghan soldiers, apparently mistaking them for attackers.
• Joining forces Exercise Balikatan 2003 comes to an end Marine Corps News 20 May 2003-- The United States armed forces and Republic of the Philippines wrapped up yet another training evolution here May 8.
• V CORPS AND IRAQI POLICE REOPEN BAGHDAD JAIL V Corps Release 21 May 2003-- Representatives of V Corps' 18th Military Police Brigade and Iraqi police officials shared a milestone in their efforts to restore law and order here with the official reopening today of the first fully operational jail in downtown Baghdad since the demise of Saddam Hussein's rule.
• Land Battles Long Hours, Supports Fleet During Operation Iraqi Freedom Navy Newsstand 21 May 2003-- Sailors aboard USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) live up to the submarine tender's motto - The LAND of Opportunity.

Other Conflicts

• CONGRESS/KOSOVO VOA 21 May 2003 -- Some congressional lawmakers are questioning the State Department's opposition to independence for Kosovo, which has been under United Nations administration since 1999. Differences of opinion emerged during a hearing of the House (of Representatives) International Relations Committee.
• ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS UPDATE VOA 21 May 2003 -- Palestinian doctors say a 65 year old woman and a 17 year old boy were shot to death by Israeli troops, during clashes Wednesday near the West Bank city of Ramallah. At least five others were reported wounded.
• DR of Congo: UN, Red Cross recover nearly 280 bodies in Bunia UN News Centre 21 May 2003 -- United Nations staff and local Red Cross workers have recovered close to 280 corpses as an uneasy quiet settles over the town of Bunia, site of a brutal inter-ethnic power struggle that has gripped north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) now for weeks.
• Text: Senator Hagel Sees No Stepping Back From U.S. Middle East Commitment Washington File 21 May 2003 -- The United States faces immense risks, challenges and opportunities in the Middle East, and how it responds will have "profound implications for global security," says Senator Chuck Hagel.
• SRI LANKA TAMIL DEMANDS VOA 21 May 2003 -- Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka say they want an interim administration established in Tamil majority areas before they will return to peace talks.
• RUSSIA/CHECHNYA AMNESTY VOA 21 May 2003 -- The Russian Parliament has tentatively approved an amnesty for rebel fighters in Chechnya that had been proposed by President Vladimir Putin. Approval of the measure was expected, but few independent observers believe the move will lead to an improvement of the situation in the war-torn region.
• PALESTINIAN TERROR ATTACKS VOA 21 May 2003 -- Reflecting on the latest round of tit-for-tat violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the American press worries President Bush's so-called road map for peace in the Middle East may have hit a dead end.
• IVORY COAST/MILITARY VOA 21 May 2003 -- Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo says he is buying weapons for his military to prevent further coup attempts. Mr. Gbagbo is blaming previous presidents for leaving him with a weak army.
• ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS VOA 21 May 2003 -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has canceled a planned trip to a town in the Gaza Strip, after Israeli troops returned to the area. Residents said the soldiers fired into the air and ordered workers to evacuate factories.
• CONGO/DEATHS VOA 21 May 2003 -- Red Cross workers say the mutilated bodies of more than 230 people have been discovered in the eastern Congolese town of Bunia. The death toll from weeks of ethnic fighting is expected to rise.

Defense Policy / Programs

• CONGRESS NUCLEAR VOA 21 May 2003 -- The U-S Senate and House of Representatives are expected to pass a bill Thursday authorizing 400 billion dollars for defense spending.

• C-130s deliver Strykers at Fort Polk exercise Army News Service 21 May 2003-- Air Force C-130 cargo planes labored for about nine hours May 18 to deliver a company of infantry soldiers and Stryker interim armored vehicles to Esler Air Field, La.
• Fleet Sharpens Skills with SLAM-ER NAVAIR Release 21 May 2003-- The U.S. Navy's Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) program conducted several firsts this month with a Carrier Air Wing One fleet training missile firing held at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Pacific sea test range off the coast of southern California.
• Local airfield control group supports CJTF-HOA Marine Corps News 21 May 2003-- The Arrival/Departure Airfield Control Group (ADACG) here supported nearly 500 fixed wing and rotary aircraft flights for Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa and others since CJTF-HOA arrived in December.
• Blue, silver AEFs get rotations back on track AFPN 21 May 2003-- The Air Force is establishing two transitional air and space expeditionary forces, blue and silver, to put the deployment schedule back on track by March 2004 and to bring home deployed airmen as quickly as possible.
• Coast Guard to decommision local great lakes cutter World War II vessel will be replaced by modern ship USCG 9th District 21 May 2003-- The Coast Guard will decommission one of its 180-foot cutters on Thursday, May 22, in a ceremony at the Port Huron Marine Terminal at 11:00 AM.
• MSC Oiler Completes Marathon Deployment in Support of 5th Fleet Navy Newsstand 21 May 2003-- When Military Sealift Command (MSC) oiler USNS John Ericsson (T-OA 194) arrived in Singapore in early April, it marked the end of a near record-setting deployment of 200 days for the ship and her crew in support of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
• First Expeditionary Strike Group deploys in the Pacific 7th Fleet News 20 May 2003-- The Expeditionary Strike Group-Forward Deployed Naval Force concluded the biennial joint exercise Tandem Thrust 2003 (TT-03) off the Mariana Islands on May 5.
• U.S., Bahraini Defense Officials Discuss Gulf, Terror Situations AFPS 21 May 2003 -- Terrorists are the enemy of free people everywhere, and Bahrain welcomes U.S. leadership in the struggle against global terrorism, Bahraini Defense Minister Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa said following a meeting at the Pentagon today.

• PENTAGON: NEW EUROPE/NEW ALLIES VOA 21 May 2003 -- America's allies in what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls "the New Europe" have lined up to help out in the U-S military effort in Iraq. The contributions of Baltic and East European states are triggering a shift in the Pentagon's thinking about who should benefit from future military to military cooperation.
• Transcript: Wolfowitz Meets with Romanian Defense Minister Washington File 21 May 2003 -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met with Romanian Minister of Defense Ioan Mircea Pascu and other officials to discuss U.S.-Romanian military ties and Romania's transition from totalitarianism to democracy, and also to thank Romania for its help in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and its upcoming peacekeeping role in Iraq.
• Transcript: Wolfowitz Discusses NATO, Iraq on Romanian Radio Washington File 21 May 2003 -- The seven countries invited to join NATO, including Romania, can bring a new spirit to the Alliance because they have experienced tyranny recently and now want to contribute to the defense of freedom and democracy, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said May 19 on Radio Romania.

News Reports

• SHAPE News Morning Update SHAPE 21 May 2003
• SHAPE News Summary & Analysis SHAPE 21 May 2003
• ALGERIA/QUAKE VOA 21 May 2003 -- A powerful earthquake has struck northern Algeria killing at least 459 people and injuring more than 24-hundred others.
• BURMA/TALKS VOA 21 May 2003 -- Thailand's top diplomat says Burma's military government will hold talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi within weeks. The Thai government is offering to help bring about reforms in Burma.