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WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2006 – Iraqi officials in An Najaf assumed security control of the province today during a ceremony in the holy city of Najaf. Coalition officials said the turn-over is an example of the political progress the Iraqis are making. “Coalition forces have never lost a battle here in Iraq, but we know that we cannot win the peace alone,” said coalition spokesman U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell. “Today’s transition to provincial Iraqi control in Najaf, shows that our other efforts are having effects.” The province is part of the Multinational Division Baghdad’s area of operations,...

On Patrol in An Najaf Cemetery Soldiers from Alpha and Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, prepare to throw a grenade into an underground catacomb where anti-Iraqi forces are thought to be hiding in the An Najaf cemetery, Aug. 15, 2004. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt Ashley Brokop opfopfopfopfopfopfopfo Soldiers from Alpha and Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, search through tombs and catacombs in the An Najaf cemetery for weapons caches, improvised explosive devices and anti-Iraqi forces that might be hiding in tombs or catacombs within the...

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops have found a suspected chemical factory in Iraq and officials were trying to determine late Sunday whether it was involved in making chemical weapons, U.S. officials said. The plant is near the city of An Najaf, which U.S. troops reached Sunday on a push to Baghdad, the officials said. President Bush and other U.S. officials say ridding Saddam Hussein's regime of chemical and biological weapons is the main objective of the war. Saddam's government denies it has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programs to produce them. Asked at a news conference in Qatar Sunday...

Marines open last legacy school before shipping homeSubmitted by: I Marine Expeditionary ForceStory Identification Number: 20038182241Story by Army Sgt. Mike Sweet AN NAJAF, Iraq(Aug. 14, 2003) -- Dozens of teachers and students in An Najaf, Iraq joined 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment Aug. 14 in a ribbon cutting ceremony that marked the last First Marine Division legacy school to be reopened before the Marines return home. The Al Gary Secondary School for Girls, which was heavily damaged during the war, was the target of a $72,000 renovation that was supervised by the Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4,...

A total of 150 Azerbaijani peacekeepers left for Iraq a while ago. Our soldiers were seen off at [Baku's] Bina airport and flew to Iraq on a special plane. We should recall that the peacekeepers led by Officer Fuad Mammadov will serve in the towns of Kirkuk, An Najaf and Karbala for one year.

KUFA, Iraq Stepping up his challenge to Iraq's U.S.-led occupiers, an influential Shiite Muslim cleric accused coalition forces Friday of crossing all the "red lines" and vowed that his religious army would drive U.S. troops out of the holy city of An Najaf. Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr told 50,000 worshippers gathered at the main mosque in the holy Shiite city of Kufa south of Baghdad that after his "Imam Army" pushes the Americans out of An Najaf and other Iraqi cities, the men will take charge of defending those cities. Speaking after his Friday sermon, Sadr said tens of thousands had...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 4/4/03 -Raids on Baghdad, Palaces, Airport, STRIKE VIDEOS BREAKING: Baghdad - Blackout - and crescendo shock and awe BREAKING: Saddam's Presidential Palace - raid BREAKING: Tharthar Palace - raid BREAKING: Chemical Ali''s House - taken BREAKING: Saddam Jessica Lynch International Airport - weapons hot BREAKING: STRIKE VIDEOS : Apache helicopters, Iraqi tanks, anti-aircraft missile launchers, meeting complex, An Najaf, artillery launcher, Karbala, communication facility, Ar Rutbah, bunker, Mosul, armored personnel carrier, trucks and other vehicles, Al Amarah, surface to air missile facility, fuel tank, radar ========= the ex-Saddam International Airport ========= Coalition...

<p>April 3, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - American forces are finally getting friendlier greetings from Iraqi civilians two weeks into the war, and the United States is speeding up its effort to help the people with food and other aid.</p> <p>A cheering crowd of several hundred Iraqis greeted soldiers in the Army's 101st Airborne in the city of An Najaf.</p>

March 28, 2003 -- With the 54th Engineers in Al Kifl 80 miles from Baghdad THINGS are strangely still, here in Al Kifl, a town on the east bank of the Euphrates taken yesterday by the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division - a town whose outskirts mark the deepest point of the American advance to Baghdad. Corpses of Iraqi troops lie in strange twisted positions along the sagging bridge leading into the town. And burned-out "civilian" pickup trucks, one of them still containing Iraqi mortar rounds and rifles, litter the western approach to the bridge....

US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT Caroline Glick Mar. 23, 2003 About 30 Iraqi troops, including a general, surrendered today to US forces of the 3rd Infantry Division as they overtook huge installation apparently used to produce chemical weapons in An Najaf, some 250 kilometers south of Baghdad. One soldier was lightly wounded when a booby-trapped explosive went off as he was clearing the sheet metal-lined facility, which resembles the eery images of scientific facilities in World War II concentration camps. The huge 100-acre complex, which is surrounded by a electrical fence, is perhaps the first illegal chemical plant to be...

<p>A senior pentagon official has confirmed to Fox News on Sunday that coalition forces have discovered a "huge" chemical weapons factory near the Iraqi city of An Najaf, which is situated some 225 miles south of Baghdad.</p> <p>Coalition troops are also said to be holding the general in charge of the facility.</p>