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Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia, an area of modern Iraq known as the cradle of civilization, more than 6,000 years ago, where they invented writing, the wheel, the plough, irrigation, the 24-hour day and the first city-states. Mission co-leaders Licia Romano and Franco D'Agostino of Rome's Sapienza University said Tuesday they discovered one of their ancient ports in Abu Tbeirah, a desert site about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) south of the town of Nasiriyah. The port's basin, measuring 130 meters (142 yards) in length and 40 meters (44 yards) wide, with a capacity equal to nine Olympics-sized pools, may have also...

I was watching TV this evening and started to flip cable channels when I saw a streaming on MSNBC on our forces finding castor beans. The following is a part of what their website said about it. NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski that within just the past week, U.S. investigators had found two shipping containers filled with millions of much more recent documents relating to chemical and biological weapons. One of the documents, from 2001, was titled “Document burial and U.N. activities in Iraq,” the sources said. It gave detailed instructions on how to hide materials and deceive U.N. weapons inspectors,...

(AP) Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either. In a new book out this week, the 37-year-old single mother describes mental health problems related to her captivity and tells how it felt to play second fiddle in the media to fellow POW Jessica Lynch, who was captured in the same ambush. "It was kind of hurtful," the former Army cook said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "If I'd been a petite, cutesy thing, it would've been different."

/29/2008 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- A single doctor, a retired Air Force colonel, arrived here without much fanfare May 18 and left four days later. He left in his wake improved sight for many Iraqis and priceless training for Nasiriyah General Hospital physicians in Nasiriyah, Iraq. He traveled with a few bags and a 50-pound box containing a microscope. A specialized, portable, eye-surgery microscope he used to treat people who may not have otherwise afforded it. He also carried 200 prescription glasses and 300 sunglasses to hand out freely to those in need. He performed his wonders at...

Nasiriyah Hospital Renovation Nears Completion A newly renovated maternity and pediatric hospital with 285 beds is expected to reduce the infant mortality rate in Dhi Qar province in Iraq. By John Connor U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Gulf Region South District NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Oct. 9, 2007 — Renovation work is nearly complete on the Nasiriyah Maternity and Pediatric Hospital, a facility whose re-opening has been eagerly anticipated by expectant mothers, medical professionals and many others in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq. "It's a beautiful facility. And it will do a lot of good once it's open again." U.S. Navy Cmdr....

TODAY, THE HOUSE Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Henry Waxman (D-CA) conducted a hearing into "misleading military statements" that followed the death of Pat Tillman and the ordeal of Jessica Lynch. I cannot speak of the Pat Tillman incident, but I can speak to the story of Jessica Lynch.I spent more than two years of my life studying the battle of An Nasiriyah. I read thousands of pages of government reports and personally interviewed nearly one-hundred of the participants of the battle, including four survivors of the 507th Maintenance Company's ambush, several Marines who came upon the...

Friendly Fire in Iraq: Pentagon Cover Up or Inept Investigation Tue Mar 27, 3:00 AM ET ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never before seen photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. Los Angeles (ERSNews.com ) March 27, 2007 -- Was the Pentagon covering up or was their investigation inept? These are questions being asked by the web site, ERSNews.com. ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never seen before photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. The official...

Iraqis to Complete Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station Work will include installation of 12 pumps and 12 swing gates. By Mohammed Aliwi and B.J. Weiner Gulf Region South District AN NASIRIYAH, Iraq, March 5, 2007 -- In a simple ceremony recently, the Iraqi government’s Ministry of Water Resources took responsibility for completing the Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers southern district. The pump station, a critical project for improving agriculture in the south, has progressed to being 70 percent complete, according to Lt. Col. Dale Johnson, Camp Adder area engineer, USACE. He emphasized that USACE...

Contractors' Convoy Was Ambushed, Military Officials Say WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2006 — Four Americans are believed to be among 14 people kidnapped in an ambush of a convoy of contractors in Iraq near the city of Nasariyah, defense officials tell ABC News. The incident took place this afternoon in a normally peaceful part of southern Iraq. A convoy run by a Kuwaiti-based company called Crescent Security Group was driving from near the Kuwaiti border to an Italian base near the City of Nasariyah. Early in the trip, the convoy stopped at what looked like an Iraqi police checkpoint, military officials...

PRIME Minister John Howard today foreshadowed a possible security role for Australian troops in supporting Iraq forces around the city of Nasiriyah. Mr Howard said any operations in Iraq were dangerous and great efforts would be made to minimise the risks in any future role. The move depends on a Japanese government decision to withdraw its 600-member engineering task group from Al Muthanna province and Mr Howard said there was speculation an announcement was imminent. Also tipped is an announcement of the transfer of security responsibilities for some southern Iraq provinces from coalition forces to the new Iraqi military. Mr...

Nasiriyah, Iraq – Iraq’s clean water supply country-wide has ebbed slowly for decades because of war, an antiquated pipeline network and co-mingling with sewage as a result of illegal line tapping. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District is riding the waves of progress to get the people of southern Iraq the clean drinking water they need.In the Thi Qar Province, the $173 million Nasiriyah Water Treatment Plant has two scopes of work: one is to finish the construction on the partially completed plant, and the other is to run water pipeline from Ash Shatrah to Suk...

Two years after six members of the 507th Maintenance Company stationed at Fort Bliss were captured and nine killed in an ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq, training has changed to better reflect the realities soldiers are facing, including the lack of a well-defined front line where most of the fighting takes place."Hindsight is 20/20; of course we didn't think of it at the time," said former Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, who was captured after being wounded in the legs. "We needed a different kind of convoy training and an improvement to the armor on the vehicles. It's good to see that...

ROME, Aug 16 (AFP) - Italian military officials denied on Monday reports that they had kicked out of their base in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah an American journalist who was kidnapped at the weekend while reporting on archaeological sites in the area. "The journalist was not kicked out of Camp Mittica, the Italian base where he had been staying since early June," Captain Ettore Sarli, spokesman for the Italian contingent in Iraq, was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency. "The journalist stayed with us until August 11 when he handed back the badge that allowed...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A French-American journalist was kidnapped Monday in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, Al-Jazeera television reported. The journalist was reportedly a citizen of both France and the United States, but was not otherwise identified. No other details were immediately available. The report could not immediately be authenticated.

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials say they have mounting evidence to suggest al-Qaida operative Abu Musab Zarqawi has had a hand in multiple attacks in Iraq, including those on a mosque in Najaf, the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and Italy's paramilitary police station in Nasiriyah. Another al-Qaida member, Hassan Ghul, was arrested this month while entering northern Iraq and is believed to have met with Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S. and coalition forces, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.Now in U.S. custody, Ghul is believed to be cooperating with interrogators. He known as a facilitator...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth in a five-part series of excerpts from The Iraq War, by John Keegan. Together they comprise chapter six: "The American War." Nasiriyah is an important crossing place over the Euphrates. A combat historian travelling with 1st MEF described it as 'a dingy, neglected collection of one- and two-storey cinder-block and mud houses sandwiched in square city blocks between the river and the Saddam Canal to the north. In essence an island two and a half miles square, Nasiriyah had bridges on its north and south ends: two on Route 7 through the heart of...

08:09 PM PDT on Thursday, May 27, 2004 By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff SALEM – Sgt. Donald Walters was captured then killed by his Iraqi captors after his U.S. Army convoy took a wrong turn into the town of Nasiriyah during the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A photo of U.S. Army Sgt. Donald Walters of Salem, which was on display during a past memorial ceremony. (AP Photo) Walters, a Salem man who was thought to have been killed in action and posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his valor in combat, is now considered a prisoner...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove Italian forces from a base in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Sunday and attacked coalition headquarters there with grenade and mortar fire as tensions in the Shiite region escalated. Two U.S. soldiers died elsewhere. Gunmen also killed three Iraqi women working for the U.S.-led coalition. Two Iraqi fighters were killed and 20 were wounded in battles in Nasiriyah, mostly at two bridges crossing the Euphrates River, residents said. The Italian troops evacuated as their base came under repeated attack. Portuguese police were called out to support the Italians,...

The second of the 4 links is a video from inside a tank evacuating a base in Nasiriyah today, suddenly coming under attack.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Most of the civilian staff of the U.S.-led coalition was evacuated from their headquarters in the southern city of Nasiriyah because of growing threats from Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen, a coalition official said Sunday. The official, Andrea Angeli, said only two civilians remain in the coalition headquarters, which was attacked Friday by al-Sadr militiamen. Coalition forces regained control of the building before dawn Saturday. The rest of the 10-member staff was evacuated Saturday afternoon to the coalition military base six miles out of town, Angeli said. He said there was more gunfire near the building Sunday and that...