Free Republic

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Luigi Gatti yesterday visited the family of assassinated former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Harir, who was killed with at least 15 others in a Beiruit suicide car-bombing on Monday. "This crime goes against our traditions, and Hariri's death goes to the exclusive advantage of Lebanon's enemies," said the Patriarch in a statement released yesterday. "The Maronite Church shares in the family's mourning, and shall not forget the important role played by Hariri in national politics. His legacy will be kept alive in Lebanon's memory." Patriarch Sfeir has called an extraordinary synod...

<p>The former stronghold of the militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam looked like a ghost town yesterday, after die-hard fighters fled into a network of caves and bunkers in the rugged, mountainous terrain along the Iranian border.</p> <p>The militants were chased out Friday under heavy bombardment by US special forces troops and Kurdish soldiers. Fighting resumed at dusk yesterday amid reports US forces were under fire on a ridge above Sargat, another village held by the guerrillas.</p>

First Flight Lands At 'Bush International' Captured Iraqi Airfield Renamed In Honor Of The President Mar 27, 2003 3:35 pm US/Eastern (AP) (TALLIL AIRFIELD, Southern Iraq) The first U.S. airplane landed Thursday at a key Iraqi airfield, which forces informally renamed "Bush International Airport." The captured airfield is expected to be a major resupply base and transport hub for American forces. A C-130 transport plane glided down onto a 12,000-foot runway newly cleared of concrete blocks, wrecked vehicles and other barriers placed on the strip by the Iraqi military to prevent its use. A hastily erected sign at the airfield's...

1,000 US troops arrived by air in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq Wednesday night. HARIR, IRAQ - US and British forces may be disappointed with their welcome in the rest of Iraq, but the US paratroopers who have dropped into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq are surrounded by a population happy to see them. The 1,000 members of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade who arrived at an airstrip here Wednesday night are part of a widening "northern front" that may soon complement the US-led advance in southern and central Iraq. Until now, the US presence in the Kurdish zone has consisted primarily of scores...

<p>Iraq's information minister said Thursday that Baghdad would be the "graveyard" of coalition forces and they would lose "even if they bring double American troops."</p> <p>"Americans are now in disarray," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told Arabic language TV network Al-Jazeera. "They try to engage the world as much as they can and we will continue until they leave our land."</p>

U.S. beefs up northern Iraqi front against Saddam By Sebastian Alison HARIR, Iraq, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S troops digging in near northern Iraq's Harir airstrip on Thursday morning were just the most visible sign of a push to establish a northern front in the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. U.S. activity was building up elsewhere in the region as Washington reported that 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade had landed overnight in northern Iraq. Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming saw a U.S. warplane drop eight bombs over Domiz, a small town or military installation north of Mosul...

HARIR, Iraq -- Shimmering in the mountain light, the airstrip dominates a majestic valley just below this neatly ordered Kurdish town deep in northern Iraq. The 1.5-mile runway, built in the 1980s by the Iraqi military, has lain derelict for a dozen years. But in the hands of the Kurdish militias that govern northern Iraq, its edges show signs of recent grooming. Bright white tents flank either end of the macadam. At the freshly installed sentry post, new red paint shines on a wooden drop-barrier. Standing behind it, a Kurdish militia officer politely waves away a visitor, saying "there is...