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Current Operations

• OIF/OEF Casualty Update 15 Sep 2005 [PDF]

• Operation Flea Flicker sweeps through Zafaraniya MNF-I 15 Sep 2005 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces searched houses and fields during Operation Flea Flicker in Zafaraniya Sept. 14.
• Terror Occurs During Times of Iraqi Progress, General Says AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- Because "democracy means failure for the insurgency" in Iraq, terrorists are employing violence across Iraq in an effort to derail the democratic process, a senior military Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters today during a Baghdad news conference.
• Suicide Bombers Strike in Baghdad for 2nd Straight Day VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- A fresh wave of car bombings rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and wounding nearly two dozen others.
• Operation Flea Flicker Sweeps through Zafaraniya AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces searched houses and fields during Operation Flea Flicker in Zafaraniya, Iraq, Sept. 14, military officials reported today.
• Iraq: Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility For Bombing Offensive RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- A wave of car bombings continues in Iraq, where at least 23 Iraqis died in explosions today.
• Suicide Bombings in Baghdad Kill 22 Policemen VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Iraqi officials say at least 22 policemen and several civilians were killed in three suicide bombings in Baghdad Thursday.
• Multiple Bomb Attacks In Baghdad Kill, Injure Dozens RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- A series of bomb attacks have struck Baghdad today, killing at least 23 Iraqis.
• Baghdad Suicide Car Bomb Kills 16 RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- Authorities say a suicide car-bomb attack in southern Baghdad today has killed at least 16 Iraqis, 10 of them police officers.
• Mosul terrorists captured MNF-I 15 Sep 2005 -- Acting on intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens, Multi-National Forces recently raided suspected terrorist safe houses in the Mosul area, resulting in the capture of three Al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist leaders.

• Afghan Elections Will Be Held September 18, State's Burns Says Washington File 15 Sep 2005 -- Upcoming parliamentary elections in Afghanistan will take place September 18 and they will mark another important step in the quest to establish a fully functioning democracy, says Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns.
• NATO Security Teams Complete Expansion to Western Afghanistan Washington File 15 Sep 2005 -- NATO has expanded the alliance’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to western Afghanistan and is providing security and helping reconstruction efforts in that part of the country.
• Security Is Increased Ahead of Afghan Elections VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Suspected Taleban insurgents have killed seven Afghan men, allegedly for carrying voter registration cards for next Sunday's elections.
• Afghanistan Faces Next Test on Path to Democracy VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Sunday's legislative elections in Afghanistan are a follow-on to last year's presidential vote that installed Hamid Karzai as president. Governance in Afghanistan will get a lot more complex.
• Afghanistan: Key Parliamentary, Provincial Elections Approach RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- On 18 September, Afghanistan will hold its first parliamentary elections in the last three decades.
• Afghanistan: Election Organizers Say Ink Problems Resolved RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- The October 2004 presidential election in Afghanistan was marred by controversy over the indelible ink meant to mark voters’ fingers and prevent them from voting more than once.
• NATO Prepares to Expand Mission into Southern Afghanistan AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- NATO defense ministers, who met here Sept. 13 and 14, "are strongly committed to expanding NATO's role" in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a Sept. 14 news conference.
• Afghanistan Attack Wounds GI, Firefight Kills Four Enemy AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- A U.S. servicemember was injured when an improvised explosive device struck a joint Afghan National Army and coalition forces patrol Sept. 14 south of Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, military officials reported today.
• AFGHANISTAN: Election campaigning ends, voter education continues IRNA 15 Sep 2005 -- With Afghanistan's historic parliamentary elections just three days away, the campaign deadline for some 5,800 contesting candidates for Sunday's polls is set to end on Friday morning, according to an official from Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB).
• Six Killed In Southern Afghan Province RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- The provincial governor says six people were killed in attacks by suspected Taliban rebels in Afghanistan's southern Oruzgan Province.
• OSCE Calls For Democratic Afghan Vote RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) today called on all participants in Afghanistan's parliamentary elections on 18 September to ensure a free and fair vote.
• Kabul Says Taliban Cannot Derail Afghan Vote RFE/RL 15 Sep 2005 -- Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali vowed today that armed opposition would not succeed in derailing the country's historic national and provincial elections on 18 September.
• Acts of Violence Compete With Expressions of Confidence as Afghanistan's Elections Approach VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Election observers in Afghanistan say ongoing attacks on political candidates could undermine public faith in this Sunday's elections.

• President Discusses Hurricane Relief in Address to the Nation The White House 15 Sep 2005
• Transcript: Defense Department Briefing on Hurricane Katrina Repairs 15 Sep 2005 -- Presenter: Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Gen. Carl Strock
• OSI ‘protecting the force’ at New Orleans airport AFPN 15 Sep 2005 -- When Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agents arrived at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Sept. 6, their mission was to help protect 4th Air Expeditionary Group Airmen deployed here.
• Defender Clears Way for Shipping off Gulf Coast Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- The mine countermeasures ship USS Defender (MCM 2), working in concert with USS Gladiator (MCM 11), USS Scout (MCM 8), USS Falcon (MHC 59) and Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15, completed a survey of 938 nautical miles along the coast of Louisiana since beginning operations Sept. 10 in wake of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
• Comfort Crew Provides Community Relief Effort Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) Sailors have teamed up with Salvation Army volunteers to prepare care packages for residents of the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina.
• Iwo Jima Sailors Assist Parish Emergency Operations Center Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- Six of USS Iwo Jima’s (LHD 7) Aviation Support Equipment Technicians (AS), Aviation Structural Mechanics (AM) and Hull Technicians (HT) provided welcome assistance Sept. 14 to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel assigned to Jefferson Parish’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) here.
• New Orleans 'Unwatering' Task Force Speeds Progress AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- The Crescent City will be dry long before originally thought, the commander of Task Force Unwatering said here Sept. 14.
• Army Corps of Engineers Fixes Levees, Drains New Orleans AFPS 15 Sep 2005 -- The Army Corps of Engineers continues working with New Orleans' authorities to repair levees damaged by Hurricane Katrina and to pump out remaining floodwater in the city, the corps' senior official said today.
• Tortuga and Army Teaming Up Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- The amphibious dock landing ship USS Tortuga (LSD 46), homeported in Little Creek, Va., continues to support Hurricane Katrina humanitarian assistance efforts here, including U.S. Army personnel.
• Canadians Hit the Beach, Join Katrina Relief Efforts Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- Sailors and Soldiers from two of three Canadian ships operating in the Gulf of Mexico joined U.S. Sailors Sept. 14 in providing support to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts here.
• Beach Masters Serve as Critical Hub for Hurricane Relief Support Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- Beach Master Unit (BMU) 2 took command of a devastated Biloxi landing craft zone Sept. 4 so U.S. and international Navy ships operating in the Gulf Coast region could bring Sailors, Marines and supplies to the beach in support of the hurricane disaster relief efforts.
• Counterterrorism Requires "All the Tools of Statecraft" Washington File 15 Sep 2005 -- The State Department's new coordinator for counterterrorism sees himself in the center of an evolving global war on terrorism facing an enemy that is changing rapidly.

Other Conflicts

• Annan recommends renewing mandate of UN mission in Sudan for a year UN News Centre 15 Sep 2005 -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan, underlining the daunting challenges faced by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), has recommended that the Security Council renew the mission's mandate for another 12 months, until September 2006.
• In Liberia, UN mission responds to threat to block voting by internally displaced UN News Centre 15 Sep 2005 -- Responding to a threat to block ballot boxes coming to an internally displaced persons' camp for the Liberian elections next month, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said it would take firm action against anyone who disturbed the peace at any time.
• Sharon Urges Palestinians to Follow Gaza Pullout with Terror Crackdown VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, addressing the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, urged the Palestinian Authority to follow Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with a crackdown on anti-Israel extremists and incitement.
• NIGERIA: Parties to Darfur talks to thrash out key issues in Abuja IRNA 15 Sep 2005 -- Representatives of the Sudanese government and two rebel groups involved in the two-year Darfur conflict are due in the Nigerian capital Abuja for a sixth round of peace talks, African Union (AU) officials said on Thursday.
• DRC-RWANDA-UGANDA: Claims of army desertion, rebellion in the east denied IRNA 15 Sep 2005 -- Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent Nkunda.
• SUDAN-UGANDA: LRA rebels attack villages in south Sudan IRNA 15 Sep 2005 -- A group of about 40 raiders believed to be fighters of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel movement attacked villages in southern Sudan earlier this week, setting homes on fire and abducting several people, officials said on Thursday.
• BURUNDI: Rebels willing to negotiate peace, but only with ethnic leaders IRIN 15 Sep 2005 -- The Libération du peuple Hutu-front national de libération (FNL), Burundi's last remaining rebel group, said on Wednesday it did not recognise the legitimacy of the new government and would only negotiate peace with representatives of the country's three ethnic groups.
• Israeli Court Rules West Bank Barrier is Legal VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Israel's top court ruled Thursday, that the barrier being built in and around occupied West Bank land is legal - rejecting an earlier decision by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, against the barrier.

Defense Policy / Programs

• Keesler hospital recovery picks up AFPN 15 Sep 2005 -- Part of the huge medical center at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. -- closed by Hurricane Katrina damage -- could open sooner than base officials estimated less than a week ago.
• Moseley: Future of the Air Force AFPN 15 Sep 2005 -- To determine the way ahead, one must understand the heritage and history of the Air Force, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley said during his keynote address on the future of the Air Force at the Air Force Association’s 2005 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition here Sept. 14.
• Boxer Participates in Wind Envelope Testing Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- Two CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters, along with eight personnel from Naval Rotary Wing Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (HX) 21, completed first phase of wind envelope testing aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4) (the "Golden Gator"), off the coast of Hawaii Sept. 5.
• Nimitz Sailors Spend, Sightsee, Slam Dunk in Dubai Navy NewsStand 15 Sep 2005 -- Sailors and Marines from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) visited the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai Sept. 1-6 and spent their free time shopping, sightseeing, and experiencing the local culture.
• Eglin wing picks ups missions from Louisiana ANG AFPN 15 Sep 2005 -- As many of the bases Air Force-wide support Joint Task Force-Katrina, the 33rd Fighter Wing here is doing its part by scrambling to help the Louisiana Air National Guard.

• U.S., Indian air forces continue building relationship AFPN 15 Sep 2005 -- U.S. and Indian air forces took the latest step in their growing relationship recently when six Indian Airmen were here for a weeklong visit, while two U.S. Airmen visited their counterparts in India.

• State Department Briefing, September 15 Washington File 15 Sep 2005 -- Iran, Israel/Palestinian Authority, North Korea, Russia

Defense Industry

News Reports

• Chile's Pinochet Acquitted of 'Operation Condor' Charges VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- Chile's Supreme Court has dropped some human rights charges against former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, one day after lifting his legal immunity.
• Somali Gunmen Release Ship Carrying Tsunami Aid VOA 15 Sep 2005 -- The United Nations says Somali gunmen who hijacked a U.N.-chartered vessel carrying food aid for tsunami victims have released the ship after holding it for more than two months.