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

Current Operations

• With arrival of Spanish, 3/5 Marines head home Marine Corps News 28 Aug 2003-- One of the most welcome sights to Marines and soldiers assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment was a military convoy full of soldiers.
• Ukrainians replace Marines in Al Kut Marine Corps News 28 Aug 2003-- The Ukrainian Army officially took over for 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment as the military authority in Wasit province, Iraq on Aug. 26.
• 'Little Beige Book' Aids Communication in Iraq AFPS 28 Aug 2003 -- Because he finds it difficult to communicate with the Iraqis, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Szakal holds on to a little beige book a friend from civil affairs gave him.
• Sabotage Still Hampers Infrastructure Progress in Iraq AFPS 28 Aug 2003 -- Sabotage continues to hurt efforts to improve Iraq's infrastructure, but coalition forces are working to secure oil and electric lines so progress can be made, said Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez from his headquarters in Baghdad, today.
• Italians, Dutch Provide Air Base Security AFPS 28 Aug 2003 -- Troops from the 28 countries that have committed forces to support the international coalition in Iraq have begun assuming more and more duties. Dutch and Italian forces are working together to provide internal airfield security at this air base in southern Iraq.
• Iraq: U.S. Commander Says Better Intelligence Needed, Not More Troops RFE/RL 28 Aug 2003 -- The commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said today that there is no need for more U.S. troops to be deployed in Iraq.
• IRAQ / VIOLENCE VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- Military authorities in Iraq say a British soldier has been killed and another wounded in the southern city of Basra.
• SOLDIER DIES OF NON-COMBAT CAUSES CENTCOM 28 Aug 2003-- A U.S. soldier with the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade died of undetermined causes at approximately 11 a.m. on Aug. 27 at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
• Iraq: British Soldier Killed In South RFE/RL 28 Aug 2003 -- The British military says a British soldier was killed in southern Iraq today.
• IRAQ/BRIT KILLED VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- Military authorities in Iraq confirmed Thursday morning that one British soldier was killed and another injured during the night, in the southern part of the country.

Deployments

US Policy

• Armitage Says Possible Wider U.N. Role in Iraq Being Explored Washington File 28 Aug 2003 -- The United States is exploring with its colleagues in the United Nations Security Council the possibility of introducing a new U.N. resolution on Iraq, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told representatives of U.S. regional news syndicates August 26 in a discussion with them at the State Department.
• EDITORIAL: IRAQ MOVES TOWARD DEMOCRACY VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- As President George W. Bush said, "Every sign of progress in Iraq adds to the desperation of the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam's brutal regime." That is why these evildoers bombed the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on August 19th.
• Iraq: U.S. Faces Growing Costs Of Occupation, Debates How To Share Burden RFE/RL 28 Aug 2003 -- Several events this week have highlighted how costly it is for the United States to occupy Iraq. Amid continuing attacks, the total number of U.S. soldiers who have died keeping the peace in Iraq now surpasses the number who died during the war to topple Saddam Hussein. And assessing Iraq's economy, U.S. civil administrator L. Paul Bremer now says the total bill for the country's economic needs is "almost impossible to exaggerate."
• U-S/U-N/IRAQ VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- The Bush administration is considering a plan to create a multinational military force in Iraq which would be backed by the United Nations but under American command. It would amount to another change in U-S strategy toward Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

United Nations

• Fourteenth quarterly report on the activities of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999) UNOMIVC 28 Aug 2003 [PDF]
• UN envoy for Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello laid to rest in Geneva UN News Centre 28 Aug 2003 -- With memorial candles, flowers, a public church service and a private burial, the world bade farewell to Sergio Vieira de Mello today, nine days after the top United Nations envoy in Iraq and High Commissioner for Human Rights was killed by a terrorist's bomb in Baghdad.
• UN BURIAL/VIEIRA DE MELLO VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- The slain head of the U-N mission in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has been buried in Geneva during a moving ceremony that paid tribute to his work for humanitarian causes.

Reconstruction Issues

• Iraq`s electricity network to join those of neighbors IRNA 28 Aug 2003 -- Rotating Head of the Interim Iraqi Governing Council Ibrahim al-Jafari said on Wednesday, "In order to provide electricity for Iraqi cities, they will be connected to neighboring untries` electricity networks."
• Ex-Im Bank Authorized to Support U.S. Exports to Iraq Washington File 28 Aug 2003 -- President Bush has authorized the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to support U.S. exports to Iraq through credit, credit guarantee or insurance.
• Ex-Im Bank Approves $500 Million Support for Iraqi Bank Washington File 28 Aug 2003 -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has approved a $500 million export insurance program to cover transactions with the new Trade Bank of Iraq.

Foreign Reactions

• Blair insists he would resign if case for Iraq war was a lie IRNA 28 Aug 2003 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted Thursday that he would have had to resign if the allegations made by the BBC that the government exaggerated the case for the Iraq war were true.
• U.K.: Blair Says Would Have Resigned If 'Sexed Up' Claims Were True RFE/RL 28 Aug 2003 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice today to give evidence in the enquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly. Yesterday, appearing before the enquiry, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, who was expected to be the "fall guy" in the affair, shifted much of the blame back onto Blair's office.
• France: Iraq Needs 'Real International Force' VOA News 28 Aug 2003 -- France says it would support what the foreign minister calls a "real international force" in Iraq, but it is not clear if an idea floated by the U.S. administration goes far enough to gain U.N. backing.
• BRITAIN/IRAQ VOA 28 Aug 2003 -- Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, told a judicial inquiry under stiff questioning that he had staked his political future on the accuracy of a controversial government report documenting Iraq's weapons capability.
• Blair: Report on Iraq's Pre-War Weapons Program Not Altered VOA News 28 Aug 2003 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he would have had to resign if there had been any truth to a report that his government had exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's pre-war weapons program.

News Reports

• Iraq: Kurds, Turkomans Sign Agreement To Prevent Violence In North RFE/RL 28 Aug 2003 -- An Iraqi Kurdish faction and an ethnic Turkoman faction have signed an agreement aimed at preventing further ethnic violence after clashes in northern Iraq last week.
• IRAQ: Some international NGOs downsizing IRIN 28 Aug 2003 -- To get into the main office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Iraq these days, you must walk past a temporary, low chain-link fence blocking off the street about 20 metres away, walk through two metal security gates and be escorted by a guard to the back of the compound.