Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Operations
Deployments
US Policy
United Nations
Reconstruction Issues
Foreign Reactions
News Reports

Current Operations

• IRAQ / U-S MILITARY VOA 16 Jun 2003 -- U-S military officials say armed assailants attempted to ambush a troop convoy north of Baghdad Sunday, but hit a civilian bus instead. Attacks on American troops in Iraq have been on the rise in recent weeks, prompting the military to launch security sweeps in areas where they believe armed supporters of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein may be hiding.
• U.S. SOLDIER DIES IN NON-HOSTILE INCIDENT CENTCOM 16 Jun 2003 -- A U.S. soldier died Sunday in an apparent non-hostile incident in the Taji area of Iraq.
• OPERATION DESERT SCORPION CONTINUES CENTCOM 16 Jun 2003 -- Coalition forces continued to strike pockets of resistance while bringing humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq in support of Operation Desert Scorpion.
• 'Desert Scorpion' Searches for Anti-coalition Forces, Banned Weapons AFPS 16 Jun 2003 -- U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq continued the search for Saddam loyalists and banned heavy weapons as Operation Desert Scorpion began June 15, according to U.S. Central Command news releases.
• US Forces Start Crackdown Against Armed Groups in Iraq VOA 16 Jun 2003 -- U.S. military officials say armed assailants attempted to ambush a troop convoy north of Baghdad Sunday, but hit a civilian bus instead. Attacks on American troops in Iraq have been on the rise in recent weeks, prompting the military to launch security sweeps in areas where they believe armed supporters of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein may be hiding.
• US Troops Report More Ambushes as They Hunt Saddam Loyalists VOA 16 Jun 2003 -- U.S. forces in Iraq are reporting more ambushes as U.S. troops search towns and villages near Baghdad to root out resistance from loyalists of the ousted Iraqi regime.
• MARINE DIES FROM GUNSHOT WOUND CENTCOM 16 Jun 2003 -- A U.S. Marine from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died at approximately 8:45 p.m. in An Najaf June 15 as a result of a non-hostile gunshot wound.
• CIVILIAN BUS HIT DURING AMBUSH CENTCOM 16 Jun 2003 -- An enemy individual fired a rocket-propelled grenade at 4th Infantry Division soldiers during an attempted ambush June 15, hitting a civilian bus that was passing a military convoy near the town of AL Mushahidah.
• Saddam Hussein Loyalists Continue to Ambush US Troops in Iraq VOA 15 Jun 2003 -- U.S. forces in Iraq are reporting more ambushes as American troops search towns and villages near Baghdad to root out resistance from loyalists of the ousted Iraqi regime.
• Weapons seized, four soldiers hurt during Operation Peninsula Strike Army News Service 16 Jun 2003-- The 4th Infantry Division and supporting units from Task Force Ironhorse concluded an extensive raid on June 12 as part of Operation Peninsula Strike, involving thousands of soldiers.
• 173rd Airborne on Peninsula Strike US Army Europe News 16 Jun 2003-- The men and women of 2d Battalion, 503d infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, are feeling the heat. One soldier's watch, with a built in temperature gauge, says it's 134 degrees.

Deployments

US Policy

• CONGRESS / IRAQ WEAPONS VOA 16 Jun 2003 -- A key Senate Democrat is pressing the Central Intelligence Agency (C-I-A) to de-classify all information it says was provided to United Nations' arms inspectors before U-S led military action to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. The effort by Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, comes as Senate and House committees begin closed-door hearings into information the Bush administration had before the war, and how it was handled.
• Bush Defends His Decision to Use Military Force in Iraq Washington File 16 Jun 2003 -- President Bush June 16 branded as "revisionist historians" those who now criticize his decision to use military force to oust Saddam Hussein from power.
• "Past the Point of Justifying," by Senator John McCain Washington File 16 Jun 2003 -- Like many Americans, I am surprised that we have yet to locate the weapons of mass destruction that all of us, Republican and Democrat, expected to find immediately in Iraq. But do critics really believe that Saddam Hussein disposed of his weapons and dismantled weapons programs while fooling every major intelligence service on earth, generations of U.N. inspectors, three U.S. presidents and five secretaries of defense into believing he possessed them, in one of the most costly and irrational gambles in history?

United Nations

• Security Council discusses two Iraq-related reports UN News Centre 16 Jun 2003 -- The United Nations Security Council met in closed session today to discuss two Iraq-related reports from Secretary-General Kofi Annan - one on missing Kuwaiti property, the other on the budget for phasing out the Oil-for-Food programme, on which 60 per cent of Iraqis were totally dependent for rations during Saddam Hussein's regime.
• UN envoy continues talks with Iraqi politicians, jurists, journalists UN News Centre 16 Jun 2003 -- United Nations envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, in a second week of talks with a wide spectrum of Iraqi society, today met with the head of the Iraqi Constitutional Monarchists Movement, Sherif Ali Bin Hussein, who told him the UN should not only play a humanitarian role but also be active in the political and reconstruction spheres.

Reconstruction Issues

Foreign Reactions

• U-N / BRITAIN / IRAQ VOA 16 Jun 2003 -- Britain has appointed its U-N Ambassador, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, as its new envoy to Iraq. s

News Reports