Posted on 03/23/2003 10:53:08 AM PST by green team 1999
Iraq latest: At-a-glance BBC News Online charts the latest developments in the Iraq conflict. [All times GMT and approximate]
Sunday, 23 March
1805: US President George W. Bush says "Saddam Hussein is losing control of his country" and the US-led military campaign "is achieving its objectives". Mr Bush says the people who mistreat US prisoners of war will be treated as "war criminals".
1800: Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed tells a news conference that Baghdad will respect the Geneva Convention and will not harm captured US soldiers.
1755: Kurdish commander says the battle near the town of Irbil in northern Iraq was between Iraqi soldiers trying to defect and the loyal army unit. Earlier reports said the fighting was between the Kurdish forces with support of US troops and the Iraqi army.
1710: Explosions are heard near the town of Mosul, close to the front line of the Kurdish-held enclave in northern Iraq.
1700: Missing British TV reporter Terry Lloyd is believed to be dead, his employers ITN say.
1655: US Marines say they have suffered six dead and at least 14 wounded in and around the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya. Earlier, there were reports that 50 Marines had been injured.
1610: Loud explosions are heard in Baghdad. The night sky is lit up as Iraqi anti-aircraft defences opened fire.
1610: Fierce fighting breaks out between the Kurdish forces with support by the US troops and the Iraqi army near the town of Irbil in northern Iraq.
1530: Iraqi television shows what appear to be at least four dead US soldiers from Nasiriya. It also shows interviews with what is says are five US soldiers captured in Nasiriya.
1430: US Marines say they have suffered four dead and 50 wounded in more than eight hours of fighting in and around the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya.
1405: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he believes "some" US troops are missing in Iraq and could be prisoners of war. Chairman of US joint chiefs of staff, Richard Myers, says fewer than 10.
1350: British intelligence reports suggest President Saddam Hussein has survived the first US air raid on Baghdad on Thursday, UK Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien tells the BBC.
1245: Coalition military officials have now said Basra was bombed overnight by their warplanes.
1243: Report of large explosions in west Baghdad.
1225: Search along banks of Tigris River in Baghdad amid reports a parachute had been seen.
1140: Small explosion in Qatar said to have been a fuel tank at a car-crushing plant.
1117: Air raid sirens sounding in Baghdad.
1115: US B-52 long-range bombers preparing to take off from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England.
1105: Small explosion heard near US Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
1100: US Central Command in Qatar denied Iraq's claims to have taken coalition prisoners of war and shot down aircraft.
1035: Iraqi vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, said 35 captured US troops would be shown on television within hours. He said Iraq's military operation was progressing "in an excellent way".
1025: Commander of the British troops in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, confirmed an RAF Tornado returning from a mission was "engaged" by a US Patriot missile battery and is missing close to the Kuwaiti border.
0914: Two bombs dropped on building containing Iraqi forces in Umm Qasr.
0913: US officials discount Iraq's claim of having shot down American aircraft. "We have no reports of missing aircraft or pilots," a US official said.
0904: Iraq Defence Ministry spokesman says the country's forces have shot down five planes and two helicopters belonging to US - led invasion forces in Iraq.
0745: US Marines say about 120 Republican Guards are holed up in the compound they are attacking in Umm Qasr.
0745: UK officials say the missing British RAF aircraft may have been hit by an American Patriot missile.
0705: Tanks open fire on Iraqi-held house in Umm Qasr.
0615: A British RAF aircraft is missing after operational mission, coalition HQ says.
0610: New explosions rock Baghdad minutes after air raid siren sounded.
0530: Fighting flares up in the southern port town of Umm Qasr, as US troops try to wipe out pockets of Iraqi resistance.
0520: US military sources report one of 13 soldiers injured in the grenade attack in Kuwait has died.
0230: Dawn air raids reported on Baghdad.
0222 US military says a US soldier has been taken into custody over a grenade attack on the 101st Airborne Division in northern Kuwait.
0100: Four heavy bombs are dropped by US planes in areas of northern Iraq controlled by the extremist Islamist group Ansar al Islam, which is suspected of links to al-Qaeda.
0000: Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, arriving in Syria, urges Arab governments to "confront" the US-led war and vows to inflict "multiple harm" on Iraq's enemies.
Story from BBC NEWS:
for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.
An F/A-18 Hornet pilot Commander Mike Vance from Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-27 'Royal Maces' gives the thumbs up prior to taking off from the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier for a mission over Iraq .
U.S. Marines keep watch over displaced Iraqis, in the port of Umm-Qasr in southern Iraq . 
U.S. Marines take up positions after an air raid alarm brought their convoy to a halt near Al Nassiriya in Iraq (news - web sites), March 23, 2003. Marines battled Iraqi guerrillas for control of the southern city on Sunday, taking 'significant' casualties in a fight to open a route north to Baghdad, U.S. officers said. Reuters Correspondent Sean Maguire, traveling with the Marines First Regiment south of the city, said he could see explosions and huge plumes of smoke over Nassiriya, on the Euphrates river about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad. Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters
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