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

Current Operations

• New Satellite Terminals to Help Get News, Info Back to the States AFPS 07 Nov 2003 -- Senior coalition leaders in Iraq are about to increase their ability to keep America informed.
• Black Hawk Helo Crash Near Tikrit Kills 6 U.S. Soldiers AFPS 07 Nov 2003 -- Six American soldiers were killed Nov. 7 when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Tikrit, Iraq, according to U.S. Central Command.
• Iraq: Rumsfeld Says Number Of U.S. Troops To Fall While Indigenous Troop Numbers Will Rise RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- Many American troops in Iraq -- and their families in the United States -- have complained of what they call unacceptably long tours of duty. Some have been granted short home leaves, but nothing more. Now, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld plans to send some troops home and replace them with fresh, but fewer, forces.
• IRAQ / ATTACKS VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- At least six U-S soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash Friday in northern Iraq and U-S troops in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul were ambushed Friday morning.
• Iraq: U.S. Helicopter Crashes Near Tikrit, Kills Six RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- The U.S. Army said a U.S. helicopter crashed today near the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit. This comes after the 2 November helicopter crash (pictured), in which 16 U.S. soldiers died.

Deployments

US Policy

• Powell Urges Attention to the Good News in Iraq As Well As the Bad Washington File 07 Nov 2003 -- "What should Americans be thinking about the progress being made in rebuilding a free Iraq? Newspaper headlines have borne much bad and frightening news lately: car bombs in Baghdad, missile fusillades launched at hotels, deadly attacks on U.S. soldiers, Iraqi police and governmental officials, and representatives of the international community. But there is plenty of good news, too, even though it doesn't as often make the papers. "
• Powell Says Iraq Problems Come from Old Regime, Outsiders Washington File 07 Nov 2003 -- Following is the transcript of an interview that Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper November 5
• POWELL/TURKEY/IRAQ VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- The Bush administration has given up on the prospect of having Turkish troops join the U-S-led coalition in Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul spoke by telephone late Thursday, and decided mutually to shelve the idea, in the face of opposition to a Turkish presence by Iraq's Governing Council.
• EDITORIAL: SECURING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- The Saddam Hussein regime ruled Iraq for more than three decades before being removed by a U.S.-led coalition. Now, the Iraqi people, supported by the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council, are working to build a democracy in Iraq.
• EDITORIAL: IRAQI SPEAKS OUT ON TERRORISTS VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- In Iraq, says President George W. Bush, two major elements are responsible for the terrorist attacks against the Iraqi people, international aid workers, and coalition forces
• U.S.: Bush Envisions 'Global Democratic Revolution,' Starting In Iraq RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- U.S. President George W. Bush painted himself in Reaganesque hues yesterday, declaring that a free Iraq will be a watershed event in a "global democratic revolution" in which dictatorships around the Middle East and elsewhere will crumble. He compared that to how communist regimes collapsed under the crush of Cold War pressure from the United States under former President Ronald Reagan.
• EDITORIAL: SUPPORTING IRAQ VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- On November 6th, President George W. Bush signed an eighty-seven billion dollar supplemental aid package that includes more than eighteen-billion dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq. And in October, at the Madrid donors' conference, many other countries made pledges totaling at least thirteen-billion dollars for Iraqi reconstruction.

United Nations

• IRAQ: Maternal deaths triple since 1990, says UNFPA IRIN 07 Nov 2003 -- Maternal deaths in Iraq have tripled since 1990 due to a crumbling health system, a new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) revealed this week.

Reconstruction Issues

• ITN to set up television news channel in Iraq: report IRNA 07 Nov 2003 -- Britain`s Independent Television News (ITN) is considering to bid for a contract to establish a television news channel in Iraq, it was reported here on Friday.

Foreign Reactions

• TURKEY / IRAQ/ TROOPS VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- Turkey has formally announced that it will not send troops for the time being to help U-S-led coalition forces in Iraq. The announcement followed a telephone conversation late Thursday between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell.
• Iraq: Turkey Says It Will Not Send Troops RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- The Turkish government has decided not to send troops to Iraq to assist U.S.-led coalition stabilization efforts, after a discussion last night between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (pictured) and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
• UK cuts aid to over 20 countries to pay for Iraq funds IRNA 07 Nov 2003 -- The UK is diverting aid worth Pnds 100 million (Dlrs 170 m) from over 20 countries in the next two years to help pay for the government`s contribution to Iraq`s reconstruction, International Development Secretary Hiliary Benn has revealed.
• Cook fears US may `cut and run` from Iraq IRNA 07 Nov 2003 -- Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook voiced fears Friday that the US may walk away from Iraq and leave the country in the same violent turmoil as it left Afghanistan.

News Reports

• Iraq: Medicine, Compassion Slowly Returning To Baghdad's Hospitals RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- The situation in Baghdad's hospitals is slowly improving. Patients are receiving more and better medicine than during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Electricity cuts are also less frequent. However, doctors say there is still a lot to be done and that hospitals should get more assistance.
• Iraq: Reviving Marshland Ecosystem Takes More Than Flooding Drained Areas (Part 2) RFE/RL 07 Nov 2003 -- The former regime of deposed President Saddam Hussein spent years successfully turning Iraq's vast wetlands into a desert in an ecological war designed to root out armed Shi'a opposition to his rule. Now, with Hussein gone, Iraqi and coalition engineers are slowly returning water to the marshlands, and hundreds of thousands of people who once lived there now have hope of returning.
• U-S POL/IRAQ VOA 07 Nov 2003 -- President Bush's re-election hopes got a boost Friday when the Labor Department announced that the U-S economy gained new jobs for the third consecutive month. But the good economic news was tempered by the loss of another U-S military helicopter in Iraq and a new poll suggesting growing doubts among the American public about the president's handling of Iraq.
• RFE/RL Iraq Report, Volume 6, Number 46 07 Nov 2003 -- U.S. ADMINISTRATOR SETS CONDITIONS FOR RETURN OF FORMER IRAQI SECURITY PERSONNEL. / GOVERNING COUNCIL PRESIDENT DISCUSSES COUNCIL'S PROGRESS / TWO IRAQI JUDGES ASSASSINATED / IRAQI COURT SENTENCES FORMER U.S.-APPOINTED GOVERNOR TO 14 YEARS / FORMER IRAQI PREMIER SAYS HUSSEIN BELIEVED U.S. WOULD NOT INVADE / TWO IRAQI CLERICS BACK U.S. FORCES / IRAQI MINISTRY STARTS JOBS PROGRAM IN NORTHERN IRAQ / U.S. FORCES SEAL FORMER PRESIDENT'S VILLAGE IN IRAQ / AIDE TO IRAQI GRAND AYATOLLAH ATTACKED IN KARBALA / BARZANI DISCUSSES TENSIONS WITH TURKEY, KADEK REBELS / IRAQI WEEKLY CITES AL-SISTANI ON CONSTITUTION / IRAQI POLICE, COALITION FORCES INTERCEPT SMUGGLERS / BOMB EXPLODES OUTSIDE HOTEL IN KARBALA / MILITANTS ATTACK FREIGHT TRAIN IN IRAQ / FIFTEEN U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED WHEN HELICOPTER DOWNED / IRAQ'S NEIGHBORS CONFER IN DAMASCUS / JORDAN SEIZES IRAQI ARTIFACTS AT BORDER / TURKEY SAYS TROOP-DEPLOYMENT ISSUE 'CLOSED,' BUT CONTINUES TO CRITICIZE U.S. / TURKISH DAILY REPORTS THAT U.S. WILL ASK FOR TURKISH WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ / TWO UN SECURITY OFFICIALS PUT ON LEAVE AFTER REPORT / IAEA CHIEF CALLS ON U.S. TO RELEASE CLASSIFIED WMD REPORT / UNFPA SAYS PERINATAL DEATHS HAVE TRIPLED IN IRAQ SINCE 1990 / SPAIN WITHDRAWS DIPLOMATS FROM IRAQ / YUKOS OFFICIAL SAYS COMPANY STILL INTERESTED IN IRAQ / ROMANIA LIQUIDATES ALLEGED IRAQI TERRORIST NETWORK / IRAQI INTELLIGENCE FILES REVEAL REGIME CONTACTS / U.S. CONGRESS APPROVES $87.5 BILLION FOR IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN