Free Republic

Thursday, Apr. 24, 2003 Even as the U.S. works to stabilize a postwar Iraq, Turkey is setting out to create a footprint of its own in the Kurdish areas of the country. In the days after U.S. forces captured Saddam's powerbase in Tikrit, a dozen Turkish Special Forces troops were dispatched south from Turkey. Their target: the northern oil city of Kirkuk, now controlled by the U.S. 173rd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. Using the pretext of accompanying humanitarian aid the elite soldiers passed through the northern city of Arbil on Tuesday. They wore civilian clothes, their vehicles lagging behind a...

About 1,000 Iraqi troops have been killed in fierce fighting during the move by United States tanks into Baghdad. The toll was given by Colonel David Perkins, commander of the Second Brigade of the US Army's Third Infantry Division, which sent dozens of tanks into the Iraqi capital to step up the pressure on President Saddam Hussein. Asked about the casualty toll among the Iraqis, Colonel Perkins said it was "estimated at about 1,000 KIAs (killed in action)." Iraqi bodies were "all over the streets," he said. Colonel Perkins said the US forces destroyed about 100 pieces of Iraqi equipment,...

Mar. 6, 2003 IDF says Gaza casualties caused by Palestinian bomb blast, not tank fire (UPDATE) By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Eleven Palestinians were killed and over 100 wounded during an IDF incursion into the Jebaliya refugee camp in the north Gaza Strip aimed at destroying the Hamas infrastructure, seeking out weapons and arresting fugitives. The operation is part of ongoing plans to destroy the Hamas infrastructure officials said. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded in the operation. The IDF flatly rejected Palestinian claims that eight of the dead were civilians who were killed when an IDF tank fired a shell at...

Arab Bomb - Not IDF - Kills 8 in Gaza Israel Foreign Ministry officials are irked at media portrayal of last night’s IDF counter-terrorism actions in Gaza as a "massacre," a "retaliation for yesterday’s terrorist attack," or both. IDF sources say that there is a wave of disinformation regarding the killing of 11 Arabs in Gaza last night. It is being said that the 11 were killed when IDF troops fired at a terrorist engaged in firing a missile at them - but the commander at the scene said that he "knows for sure that the only casualty was the...

(IsraelNN.com) Army officials reported on Sunday night that since the IDF incursion into the PA-controlled city on Friday, eight suicide bombers were taken into custody, thereby preventing the deadly attacks. In addition, 36 PA residents suspected of terrorist activities were taken into custody. IDF forces were ordered into the PA autonomous area following Thursday morning's fatal suicide bombing attack on a No. 20 bus on Mexico Street in the capital. 11 persons were murdered in the attack that left almost 50 persons injured.

Tancredo Outraged at Another Mexican Border Incursion U.S. Border Patrol Agent Details Mexican Military Incursion Outside Ajo, Arizona WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today announced that he has learned of another incursion along the U.S. Mexico border near Ajo, Arizona. According to a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, the Tohono O’odham Police Department encountered a Mexican military incursion on Friday, May 17, 2002 at approximately 8:30PM along the Santa Cruz trail inside the Papago Farms border patrol area, just south of Forest Road 21. "I cannot in good conscience stand by and watch another incursion along our border...

Border Patrol agent fired on Says Mexican soldier was the shooter; ID disputed by officials By Tim Steller ARIZONA DAILY STAR Investigators are trying to confirm whether it was a Mexican soldier who shot at a U.S. Border Patrol agent Friday night on the Tohono O'odham Nation. An agent reported coming across three heavily armed Mexican soldiers riding in a Humvee near Papago Farms, about 90 miles southwest of Tucson. The agent said he drove away, but a shot ripped through the windows of his Border Patrol vehicle as he fled. Mexican officials said Tuesday they think the shooter was...

Sharon says he will not stop the incursion until the suicide bombings stop He also says he will allow Arafat to meet with Zinni