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News

Operations
Other Conflicts
Defense Policy / Programs
News Reports

Current Operations

• OIF/OEF Casualty Update 09 Dec 2004 [PDF]
• ONE MARINE KILLED IN AL ANBAR PROVINCE
• TWO TASK FORCE OLYMPIA SOLDIERS KILLED FOLLOWING HELICOPTER ACCIDENT
• DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
• DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

• U.S. Marine Killed In Western Iraq RFE/RL 10 Dec 2004 -- Insurgents killed a U.S. Marine in western Iraq yesterday.
• Cache, Ordnance Seized From School, Playground MNF-I/MNC-I 10 Dec 2004 -- Service members of the First Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force discovered weapons and ordnance caches at a playground and school here on Dec. 9.
• Soldiers Detain Three in Raids Near Ad Duluiyah MNF-I/MNC-I 10 Dec 2004 -- First Infantry Division Soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment detained three individuals during raids near Ad Duluiyah on Dec. 10 at about 12:30 a.m. One person detained is a suspected member of the Taji Jihad Court
• 1/2 Marines battle insurgents in Jurf as Sakhr USMC News 10 Dec 2004 -- Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit clashed with anti-Iraqi insurgents in the town of Jurf as Sakhr Dec. 1, the last day of a nine-day offensive aimed at flushing out insurgents south of Baghdad.
• 2/24 uses police work to break insurgency in Iraq USMC News 10 Dec 2004 -- Anyone who visits the old chicken factory that serves as the headquarters of 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, can't help but notice its resemblance to a police station. At any given hour, Marines are getting ready to head out on patrol, others are gathering intelligence, while still others are booking detainees.

• CJTF-76 begins incentive program for reporting IEDs Army News 10 Dec 2004 -- To combat the problem of improvised explosive devices, Combined Joint Task Force-76 has launched a program designed to reward both Soldiers and Afghans for their efforts in eliminating the threat of IEDs.
• Drug Testing Increased for Troops in Afghanistan AFPS 10 Dec 2004 -- The Defense Department has increased drug testing for troops stationed in the U.S. Central Command area of operations, DoD officials said today.
• Afghanistan: President Declares Holy War Against Drugs RFE/RL 10 Dec 2004 -- Afghanistan is by far the world's leading producer of opium. Its narcotics economy, based on the farming of opium poppies, accounts for 87 percent of the global opium supply and this year earned an estimated $2.8 billion -- a massive increase over 2003's $500 million. The opium trade, according to the United Nations, accounts for more than 60 percent of the economy of Afghanistan, which is among the world's poorest countries. Eradicating opium, in such a context, might seem impossible. But during a national counternarcotics conference in Kabul this week, Afghanistan's newly inaugurated President Hamid Karzai pledged to do just that, vowing to wage an all-out "holy war" on drugs.
• KARZAI INAUGURATION SYMBOLIZES HOPE FOR 'NEW ERA' IN AFGHANISTAN US Dept. of State IIP, Foreign Media Reaction 10 Dec 2004

Other Conflicts

• MIDDLE EAST CONFERENCE VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- Senior officials from the Group of Eight industrialized nations and about 20 Muslim countries are meeting in Morocco to discuss ways to promote social, economic and political reforms in the Middle East and beyond.
• US/CONGO/RWANDA VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- A senior U.S. diplomat said Friday he is confident that Rwanda and Congo are committed to resolving their differences peacefully, despite two weeks of escalating tensions between the two neighbors. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Donald Yamamoto, who has just visited the two countries, said both are committed to peace in the region and are heading in the right direction.
• US/MIDEAST PEACE VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a month ago appears to have created a new atmosphere for possible renewal of peace efforts in the Middle East. Palestinians are scheduled to elect a new leader next month, and Israel has signaled it is willing to cooperate with a more moderate Palestinian president.
• NIGERIA-SUDAN: More Darfur peace talks against backdrop of continuing violence IRIN 10 Dec 2004 -- Peace talks to end almost two years of conflict in Darfur are set to restart on Friday but a top UN official warned that the new round was headed for failure unless the Sudanese government and rebel groups stopped blasting holes in a ceasefire agreement.
• Haiti: UN mission promises improved security as more troops arrive UN News Centre 10 Dec 2004 -- The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti is set to have more than 8,000 troops and police on the ground by the end of this month and will be able to demonstrate to country's people its determination to disarm rogue groups and establish security, the senior UN envoy to the country has said.
• U.S. Urges Restraint in Wake of Israeli Rocket Attack in Gaza Washington File 10 Dec 2004 -- In a statement released by the State Department December 9, the United States urged Israel to "consider the consequences of its actions" in the wake of its missile strike earlier in the day in Gaza, which wounded Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of the Popular Resistance Committee, in his car.
• IVORY COAST VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has banned all public protests for several months, as he tries to move forward the divided country's stalled peace process.
• UGANDA / LRA VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- The Ugandan army says it now doubts the authenticity of an apparent peace overture by northern rebels last month. An army spokesman says there is no evidence to confirm claims by rebel commanders that their leader wants to make peace.
• AFRICA/REFUGEES VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- The U.N. refugee agency is launching an appeal for more than one-billion-dollars to assist about 17-million people next year. Nearly half of the budget is allocated for programs in Africa.
• Chechnya: Ten Years After -- The Logic Behind The First Chechen War RFE/RL 10 Dec 2004 -- On 11 December 1994, Russian troops entered Chechnya. Officially, their mission was to restore Moscow's authority over the secessionist republic. The Russian defense minister at the time, Pavel Grachev, assured then President Boris Yeltsin that the Chechen capital Grozny could be seized in two hours by a regiment of paratroopers. Ten years and two military campaigns later, the war rages on, with no end in sight.
• DRC: UN troops break up militia camp in Ituri IRIN 10 Dec 2004 -- UN troops shut down a militia camp on Thursday in the embattled northeastern district of Ituri in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a UN official said on Thursday.
• GREAT LAKES: Kinshasa absent from tripartite meeting to ease regional tensions IRIN 10 Dec 2004 -- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) effectively cancelled a high-level inter-government meeting scheduled for Thursday with Rwanda and Uganda to develop mechanisms by which they could peacefully work out their differences and ensure the security of their respective borders.
• ISRAEL POLITICS VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has invited the Labor Party to join the government a day after winning approval to do so from his Likud party's Central Committee. The Israeli leader also plans to invite two conservative religious parties to join him in a coalition.
• SUDAN / PEACE TALKS VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- A new round of talks in Nigeria to end Sudan's Darfur conflict is getting off to a rocky start with the government accusing the rebels of breaking previous agreements and rebel delegates arriving late.

Defense Policy / Programs

• Army Announces Patriot Missile System's Performance In Operation Iraqi Freedom Army News Release 10 Dec 2004 -- The U.S. Army announced today its investigation into the Patriot Missile System's performance in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), which found the system was successful in performing its mission protecting troops and assets against enemy tactical ballistic missiles (TBM).

• Nicholson Tapped to Be New Veterans Secretary AFPS 10 Dec 2004 -- President Bush has named Jim Nicholson as his nominee as the next secretary of veterans affairs.
• Stars and Stripes Now Prints in Afghanistan AFPS 10 Dec 2004 -- Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper of the U.S. military, has announced that it started same-day printing and delivery in Afghanistan on Dec. 2.
• Soldiers deploy to Lackland for quick-reaction exercise AFPN 10 Dec 2004 -- Best known for its one-of-a-kind role as the source of Air Force basic training, this base in the heart of Texas welcomed Soldiers for training of a more advanced sort -- defending high-value government facilities from terrorist attacks.
• Test acceleration expedites fielding warning system AFPN 10 Dec 2004 -- Engineers here cut the test time for a crucial missile warning system from months to weeks, speeding the operational debut of the system on C-17 Globemaster IIIs.
• 4ID Soldiers help secure air base for homeland defense Army News 10 Dec 2004 -- Last year the 4th Infantry Division focused on battling insurgents and maintaining stability in Iraq. This week they concentrated on preparing to stave off disaster on their own soil.
• VP-9 Golden Eagles Return From Overseas Deployment Navy NewsStand 10 Dec 2004 -- Patrol Squadron 9 (VP) 9 returned from a six-month deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility Dec. 10.
• New Navy Invention: Laser Detector Protects Pilots' Eyes Navy NewsStand 10 Dec 2004 -- The Vision Laboratory in Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Human Systems Division won an Aviation Week and Space Technology Magazine "Product Breakthrough" award in late November for its Laser Event Recorder (LER), a device that gives aviators instant warning about laser radiation potentially hazardous to their eyesight.

• JAPAN/DEFENSE VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- Japan has taken another step towards freeing itself from military restrictions in place since the end of World War Two. As VOA's Steve Herman reports from Tokyo, the changes are a significant retreat from the pacifist policies that have kept the role of Japan's Self-Defense Forces limited in scope.

• State Department Noon Briefing, December 10 Washington File 10 Dec 2004 -- Iraq, Palestinians, North Korea, Rice/State Department visit, Zimbabwe, Cambodia
• White House Daily Briefing, December 10 Washington File 10 Dec 2004 -- President's visit to Operation USO, Guantanamo, White House Economic Conference, legislative agenda, supplemental, Kerik nomination, equipment for troops, UN/Kofi Annan, NATO, president's physical, Afghanistan, Ukraine, economic and energy security

News Reports

• RUSSIA/UKRAINE/EU VOA 10 Dec 2004 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia would not object to Ukraine joining the European Union. He says it would help the Russian economy to closer integrate into the EU. The Russian leader's comments follow weeks of heated rhetoric between Russia and the European Union over Ukraine's disputed presidential election.
• Kuchma Announces New Prosecutor-General RFE/RL 10 Dec 2004 -- Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma announced today he has reappointed Svyatoslav Piskun as prosecutor-general.
• Yushchenko Vows No Retaliation If Victorious RFE/RL 10 Dec 2004 -- Ukraine's opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko today promised not to retaliate with political persecution against his opponents if elected in the country's 26 December repeat presidential runoff.