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Operations
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US Policy
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News Reports

Current Operations

• OIF/OEF Casualty Update 24 Feb 2004 [PDF]

• Transcript: Coalition Provisional Authority Briefing from Iraq 24 Feb 2004 -- Participating were Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations, Combined Joint Task Force 7, and Dan Senor, senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority
• Coalition Raids Lead to Several Captures AFPS 24 Feb 2004 -- Coalition forces acting on a tip by Iraqis captured a known associate of Izzat Ibrahim al-Dhouri, Coalition Provisional Authority officials announced today.
• TASK FORCE OLYMPIA COLLECTS MORE THAN 5,000 MUNITIONS, DETAINS 21 IN ONE WEEK CENTCOM Release 04 Feb 2004-- During operations conducted from Feb. 15 through Feb. 22, soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, under the operational control of Task Force Olympia, collected more than 5,000 weapons and explosives and detained 21 suspects in connection with anti-Coalition activities.

Deployments

• Australia to send fresh troops, frigate to Gulf PLA Daily 24 Feb 2004 -- Australia will send a defence force team to Iraq to help train the Iraq's armed forces, Defence Minister Robert Hill said in a statement Monday.

US Policy

• Despite Attacks, Progress Continues in Iraq, Negroponte Reports Washington File 24 Feb 2004 -- Despite terror attacks and sabotage, much has been accomplished in the past three months, with visible steady progress, making this "a time of hope for Iraq," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the Security Council February 24.
• Coalition officials hail growing UN involvement in Iraq's political future UN News Centre 24 Feb 2004 -- The Ambassadors of the United States and the United Kingdom today told the Security Council that the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) welcomes the growing role of the United Nations in helping Iraq to determine its political future.

United Nations

• U-N /IRAQ VOA 24 Feb 2004 -- The U-S and British ambassadors to the United Nations are urging the world body to quickly take on a more prominent role in Iraq. But as Peter Heinlein reports from U-N headquarters, the envoys brushed aside calls for an updated Security Council resolution.
• Iraq: UN Says 'Credible' Elections Possible By Year's End RFE/RL 24 Feb 2004 -- United Nations experts have outlined a series of steps that would make direct elections in Iraq possible by the end of the year. But the experts say Iraqi leaders would need to quickly reach consensus on electoral preparations before such a timetable could be realized. In the meantime, they say, any plan for an interim government must come from Iraqis themselves, who have been polarized on the issue.

Reconstruction Issues

• IRAQ: Kurdish leaders back US, UN moves to delay elections IRIN 24 Feb 2004 -- Shut your eyes when talking to Iraqi Kurdish officials about elections, and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in the United Nations building in New York, or the Baghdad office of Iraq's US administrator, Paul Bremer.

Foreign Reactions

• IRAQ / U-N REACT VOA 24 Feb 2004 -- Iraqi religious and political leaders say they are skeptical about a U-N plan to have elections late this year or early next year, but the U-S-led coalition says the coming months are needed to properly prepare for elections.
• S.Korean unit to be sent to Iraq established PLA Daily 24 Feb 2004 -- The South Korean military unit to besent to Iraq established on Monday in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, some 40 kilometers south to Seoul.
• NATO role in Iraq to be decided by UN, Iraq: Chirac PLA Daily 24 Feb 2004 -- France considers that present conditions are not met for a NATO role in Iraq but it does not rule out the possibility of such a role if requested by the United Nations and Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac said Monday.
• JAPAN/LAWSUIT VOA 24 Feb 2004 -- Even as United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is praising Japan for its military deployment to Iraq, a class action lawsuit is seeking to have the deployment declared illegal.
• Stability in Iraq strengthens regional security: Asefi IRNA 24 Feb 2004 -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said here Tuesday that establishment of stability and security in Iraq would strengthen regional security.
• Opposition to Iraq war "greatest danger" to Blair`s reelection IRNA 24 Feb 2004 -- Half of the members of Britain`s ruling Labour Party believe that opposition to the Iraq war is the "greatest danger" to Prime Minister Tony Blair`s government winning the next general election, according to a new poll.
• S. Korea's Troop Dispatch to Iraq Must Be Stopped KCNA 24 Feb 2004 -- South Korea's additional troop dispatch to Iraq is a war crime joining the U.S. in the war of aggression against and occupation of Iraq without any justification and an anti-national crime damaging the dignity, interests and honor of the Korean nation, says Rodong Sinmun in a commentary today.

News Reports

• Post War Planning for Iraq VOA 24 Feb 2004 -- Critics often argue the U-S administration carefully planned the military campaign against Saddam Hussein, but failed to plan for what to do after the war. However, in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, veteran reporter James Fallows demonstrates the fallacy of that view. Today's Dateline examines some of the controversy over post-war planning for Iraq.
• SEEKING REFUGE IN SYRIA VOA 24 Feb 2004 -- Many Iraqis who fled to Syria for safety before, during and just after the war in Iraq say they still are afraid to go home.