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Operations
Deployments
US Policy
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Reconstruction Issues
Foreign Reactions
News Reports

Current Operations

• Special Report Al-Arab al-Yawm, daily newspaper, Amman, Jordan, 19 November 2003 - The sources revealed that the most important of these secret clauses in the document - which the Council announced after meeting Bremer at the beginning of this week - provide for the establishment of at least six military bases in different parts of Iraq in which American forces will be concentrated on a permanent basis in order to guarantee a continued American and British presence in accordance with the strategy that brought their fleets to these hot waters in the first place.
• Transcript: Coalition Provisional Authority Operational Update Briefing 19 Nov 2003 -- Participating Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmett, Deputy Director for Operations, Dan Senor, Senior Advisor to Coalition Provisional Authority
• OPERATION IVY CYCLONE II CENTCOM Release 19 Nov 2003-- The 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse conducted 42 planned attacks last evening as part of "Operation Ivy Cyclone II." Utilizing, 155mm artillery, 120mm mortars, AH-64 "Apache" attack helicopters and direct fire from Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1A1 "Abrams" tanks, 4th Infantry Division soldiers destroyed 12 anti-Coalition safe houses and buildings and suppressed 14 mortar-firing locations, as well as, four ambush sites.
• OPERATIONS MAKE IRAQ SAFER, IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE CENTCOM Release 19 Nov 2003-- The 82nd Airborne Division conducted operations to seek out those that destabilize the country and try to prevent coalition forces from carrying out their mission in Iraq. By accomplishing their missions, coalition forces continue to make Iraq a more stable and prosperous place for its citizens.
• TF "ALL AMERICAN" CAPTURES ATTACKER OF POLICE CHIEF'S SON CENTCOM Release 19 Nov 2003-- In a raid last night, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment of Task Force "All American" captured the individual believed to be responsible for the attack on the Ar Ramadi police chief's son two nights ago. Coalition forces believe the captured man has also been carrying out attacks on soldiers in the region. Local Iraqis tipped off coalition forces on where the attacker was located. Tips on anti coalition activities have increased six times since last month. Iraqis continue to take security into their own hands by cooperating with the coalition.
• IRAQ / SECURITY VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- The U-S-led coalition in Iraq is offering a 10-million-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of one of Saddam Hussein's closest aides.
• Coalition Puts $10 Million Bounty on Former Regime Official AFPS 19 Nov 2003 -- A key member of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime now has a $10 million price on his head, Coalition Provisional Authority officials said at a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, today.
• Soldiers Capture More Suspects, Continue Offensive Operations AFPS 19 Nov 2003 -- U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces continue to capture or kill coalition enemies, seize their weapons and destroy their hiding places as Operations Iron Hammer and Ivy Cyclone II roll on in Iraq, a senior coalition officer said in a Baghdad news conference today.
• PENTAGON/IRAQ VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has defended the use of heavy weapons by coalition troops as they step up their campaign against insurgent forces in Iraq.
• Iraq: U.S. Forces Continue Antiterrorist Operations Amid Diplomatic Activity RFE/RL 19 Nov 2003 -- The U.S.-led forces in Iraq used airpower to attack several locations in the Iraqi capital Baghdad overnight.

Deployments

US Policy

• World More Secure without Taliban and Saddam, Powell Says Washington File 19 Nov 2003 -- The United States has helped to maintain world peace over the last half century "and will continue to do so," Secretary of State Colin Powell told the French newspaper Le Monde. He said the operations to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq "improved the prospects for world peace by getting rid of brutal regimes that were developing terrible weapons ... harboring terrorists that were imprisoning their own people and ... creating mass graves of the kind that we haven't seen since World War II."
• Bush Vows to Stay in Iraq Until Democracy Established Washington File 19 Nov 2003 -- President Bush vowed in a major speech in London November 19 to help the Iraqi people establish a peaceful, democratic country and to apply the same "forward strategy of freedom" to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
• BUSH / IRAQ VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- President Bush has vigorously defended his Iraq policies and called for nations around the world to promote democracy. In the keynote address of his state visit to Great Britain, Mr. Bush took on the opponents of the Iraq war.
• U.S./U.K.: Bush Offers Strong Defense Of Iraq War During State Visit RFE/RL 19 Nov 2003 -- U.S. President George W. Bush, on the first full day of a state visit to Britain, today vigorously defended the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

United Nations

• Iraq: UN Oil-for-Food programme set to terminate on Friday, proud and on time UN News Centre 19 Nov 2003 -- The multi-billion dollar United Nations Oil-for-Food programme, which fed most Iraqis for seven years under Saddam Hussein's sanctions-bound regime, will finally wrap up its activities on Friday, on time to meet its expiry deadline and proud of all that it achieved since its inception in 1996.

Reconstruction Issues

• IRAQI WOMEN / TALABANI VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- Earlier this week, President Bush promised a delegation of Iraqi women that the U-S-led coaltion will continue to work to secure their country, even after a provisional government takes over sometime next year. The 17-member delegation is in the United States to promote the role of women in Iraq -- including a larger role in the new government.
• Iraq: Electricity Cuts An Ongoing Headache For Baghdad Residents RFE/RL 19 Nov 2003 -- Several times a day, residents of the Iraqi capital Baghdad experience electricity cuts. Blackouts have been a fact of life in Baghdad since the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. But officials say the current power cuts are tied to efforts to overhaul the entire energy grid and that a full-time supply of electricity is soon to be restored. For the time being, however, Baghdadis rely on gasoline-powered generators during the frequent blackouts. But even that can be a problem: Most gas stations will service cars, but not people looking to fill individual gas canisters.
• IRAQ: Focus on power and water supplies IRIN 19 Nov 2003 -- Despite a one-day power failure earlier this week in the southern city of Basra, power supplies appear almost normal in the country's second-largest city.

Foreign Reactions

• BUSH / BRITAIN WRAP VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- President Bush has defended the war in Iraq, saying sometimes the use of force is justified to confront threats to peace and security. The remarks came on the first full day of the president's state visit to Great Britain.
• Berlin silent on apparent aid workers` withdrawal from Iraq IRNA 19 Nov 2003 -- A German Interior Ministry spokesman Wednesday refused to comment on a newspaper report which alleged that German aid workers had been withdrawn from Iraq following a dramatic deterioration of that country`s security.
• U.S. Brigandish Pressure for Troop Dispatch Condemned KCNA 19 Nov 2003 -- Minju Joson in a signed commentary Tuesday condemns the United States for pressurizing south Korea to dispatch additional troops to Iraq.
• UN: Russia Proposes Conference On Iraq RFE/RL 19 Nov 2003 -- Russia is suggesting that the United Nations convene a conference to draft a peace plan for Iraq providing for international peacekeepers.
• BRITAIN / BUSH VISIT VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has strongly defended President Bush's visit to Britain. He told parliament the Anglo-American alliance is important for world security, which transcends differences on other issues.
• BUSH-BRITAIN WELCOME VOA 19 Nov 2003 -- Queen Elizabeth has formally welcomed President Bush to Great Britain - launching his state visit with pomp and ceremony in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace.

News Reports