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A recent spike in attacks against coalition forces in Iraq has left two more coalition soldiers dead, a coalition military spokesman said today at a Baghdad news conference. A coalition soldier was killed and one was wounded today in an improvised explosive device attack on their patrol near Ramadi, said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, Combined Joint Task Force 7 deputy operations director. The wounded soldier was taken to the 31st Combat Support Hospital, Kimmitt added, but he provided no further details. Another soldier, from the 13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Texas, was killed and one was wounded March...

Violence continues in Iraq, and coalition forces continue their efforts to kill or capture enemies of the coalition and the Iraqi people. At a press briefing today in Baghdad, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, provided details of various recent incidents and operations. In the 24 hours leading up to the briefing, Kimmitt said, the coalition conducted 1,336 patrols, 20 offensive operations and 16 raids, and captured 69 anti-coalition suspects. In the northern zone of operations, coalition and Iraqi security forces conducted 75 patrols, three offensive operations, and detained nine anti- coalition...

Coalition officials said today that the March 17 bombing of Baghdad's Mount Lebanon Hotel killed only seven people, not 27 as previously believed. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, briefed reporters on the bombing at a Baghdad news conference. Kimmitt said a suicide bomber triggered the device inside a vehicle and died in the explosion. "The bomb was estimated to consist of approximately 1,000 pounds of explosives and artillery shells," he said. The bomb caused structural damage to the hotel and a number of nearby buildings. Kimmitt said that Iraqi Police service...

U.S. troops may have traded shots with Iranian guards during a March 14 incident near the Iraq border, a senior U.S. official said at a Baghdad news conference today. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters the U.S. 4th Infantry Division reported that one of its border patrols in the northeastern part of Iraq "was, in fact, shot and fired upon by what is believed to be personnel wearing uniforms resembling those worn by Iranian border guards." The American soldiers "took self-defense measures (and) returned fire" against their assailants, Kimmitt reported,...

Coalition forces acting on a tip by Iraqis captured a known associate of Izzat Ibrahim al-Dhouri, Coalition Provisional Authority officials announced today. During a briefing today from Baghdad, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, said that Ayed Hameed Nouri was arrested Feb. 23 at the Niwan Hotel in central Mosul. He was apprehended without incident. Kimmitt reported that in a separate raid Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces captured Shahab Al-Hawas, a suspected financier of coalition attacks and a cousin of al-Dhouri. Over the past 48 hours, coalition forces conducted seven offensive operations...

Terrorists are targeting Iraqi security forces not because they're working with the coalition, but rather because the security forces are bringing order and stability to Iraq, coalition officials said today at a Baghdad news conference. "It has nothing to do with collaborating with the coalition, and everything to do with trying to build a new, free, democratic, sovereign and united Iraq," said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7. Kimmitt said innocent women and children are being targeted to terrorize the Iraqi people, in the hope that the country would revert to dictatorial...

U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq continue to take the fight to the enemy, a senior U.S. military officer reported from Baghdad today. "The coalition remains offensively oriented in order to proactively attack, kill or capture anti-coalition and anti-Iraqi elements," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters during a press conference. U.S. and coalition troops across Iraq have conducted 1,625 patrols, 12 offensive operations and 15 raids over the past 24 hours, Kimmitt, the deputy operations director of Combined Joint Task Force 7, said. Forty-two suspected insurgents, he added, were captured within that timeframe. Meanwhile, the Iraq area of operations...

A combined operation by members of the 82nd Airborne Division and special operations forces resulted in the capture of number 54 of Iraq's 55 most-wanted fugitives Jan. 11 near Ramadi, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7, announced during a briefing from Baghdad today. Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, former Baath Party regional chairman for the Karbala governate, is in coalition custody, the general said. Due to circumstances of the capture, Kimmitt said, he could not provide any further details. This capture, he said, is "another significant step in reducing anti-coalition resistance. He was an...

MR. SENOR: Good afternoon. We have a slight technical glitch. Only one of the plasma screens here will be working. So we should have that fixed within the next couple days. I've just got a brief few words, brief opening statement. Then General Kimmitt will do a short presentation, and then we are happy to take your questions. We are joined by Hamid al-Kifa'i, who, as you -- many of you know, is the spokesperson for the Governing Council. And he is here to answer any questions you have with regard to the Governing Council. Ambassador Bremer today welcomed the...