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<p>A garden where patients at the Central Teaching Hospital for Children could once stroll is now a cemetery. Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press.</p> <p>BAGHDAD, Iraq - The battle for Baghdad cost the lives of at least 1,101 Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children, according to records at the city's 19 largest hospitals.</p>

<p>Saddam Hussein's last remaining loyalists are using a trick they employed in the war by mingling with civilian crowds and firing on American forces trying to stabilize Iraq, U.S. military officials say.</p> <p>Since the fall of Baghdad on April 9, the tactic has been used sporadically, mostly in Sunni Muslim-dominated towns such as Kut, Mosul and Fallujah west of the capital.</p>

How do you feel when fedayeen Hussein shoot at our troops from behind pregnant women or out of mosques? How do you feel when they seize mother and children and tell the father that they will kill them if he does not fight us? How do you feel when they cut out the tongues of people who criticize them? Why do you deny yourself the joy of watching brutally oppressed people topple statues of their oppressor? Do you prefer shame to joy? Why not enjoy the wholesome admiration and gratitude most of your flock feels for our soldiers? You have...

The 31 European tourists missing in the Algerian Sahara desert are apparently alive and in captivity, and Algerian authorities are working to obtain their release, a Mali diplomat said. Algeria has deployed thousands of soldiers in a major hunt for 15 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss, a Dutchman and a Swede missing in the vast desert, which in Algeria alone covers two million square kilometres (775,000 square miles). "The 31 have been spotted and our Algerian brothers are working in double quick time to ensure their release," the official told AFP in Bamako, capital of the neighbouring state of...

ALGERIA: Human Shields for Holy Warriors April 24, 2003: The 31 lost Europeans are now thought to be held by a group of Islamic rebels fearful of a government crackdown. The Europeans were grabbed for use as human shields. The Europeans are thought to be held outside the town of Illizi, 1,700 kilometers southeast of the capital. April 18, 2003: Police ambushed rebels 430 kilometers west of the capital, killing three of them. April 18, 2003: So far this month, Islamic rebel activity has left 30 people dead, 25 of them rebels. Since the start of the year, 360 have...

Baghdad - The request for candy seemed innocent enough, but as the children approached the marines on patrol in Baghdad, Iraqi forces drove up and unleashed a salvo of rocket-propelled grenades. The ensuing five-hour firefight left nine marines wounded, including one who was shot in the head and remains in a critical condition. Staff Sergeant Brian Ivers said the experience on Wednesday, shortly after the marines' arrival in the Iraqi capital, had rammed home the dangers of being lulled into a false sense of security. Ivers said it appeared that the group of youngsters had been deliberately set up as...

We now glimpse the forbidden truths of the invasion of Iraq. A man cuddles the body of his in-fant daughter; her blood drenches them. A woman in black pursues a tank, her arms outstretched; all seven in her family are dead. An American Marine murders a woman because she happens to be standing next to a man in a uniform. "I'm sorry,'' he says, "but the chick got in the way.'' Covering this in a shroud of respectability has not been easy for George Bush and Tony Blair. Millions now know too much; the crime is all too evident. Tam...

<p>The White House yesterday blamed Saddam Hussein for the deaths of Iraqi civilians, saying his endorsement of terrorist tactics and his regime's use of women and children as human shields has endangered innocent lives.</p> <p>"The president always regrets any innocent loss of life," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "And he recognizes that most innocents have been lost in this war at the hands of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen.</p>

Basra's last-stand militia using five-year-olds as human shields JEANETTE OLDHAM PRO-SADDAM Hussein militia in Basra are using children as young as five as human shields and threatening men with death if they do not fight for them, British troops revealed yesterday. Sergeant David Baird, a tank commander, told Martin Bentham, a journalist with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, that he had seen at least four or five children, aged between five and eight, being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and held by Iraqi fighters as they crossed a road in front of his tank. He said he was "sickened"...

Iraqi Fedayeen paramilitaries used children as human shields during a battle with troops, a British tank commander said yesterday. Sgt David Baird, who commands a Challenger 2 tank from C Squadron of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group, said that he had witnessed at least four or five children, aged between five and eight, being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and held by Iraqi fighters as they crossed a road in front of his tank. Sgt Baird said the Iraqis had moments earlier been firing rocket-propelled grenades at his tank. He added that he had been forced...

RFE/RL correspondent Ron Synovitz is embedded with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division. He filed this report this morning from the outskirts of the central Iraqi town of Hindiyah, near Karbala. Hindiyah, Iraq; 31 March 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division advanced to positions about 50 kilometers southwest of Baghdad today, battling troops from Iraq's Republican Guard at a bridge across the Euphrates River in the town of Hindiyah. The rapid U.S. advance appeared to take Iraqi forces by surprise, with U.S. engineers reaching the bridge and cutting wires attached to...

<p>SOUTH CENTRAL IRAQ - A father comforted his 3-year-old daughter in the hospital bed next to his 5-year-old son. A farmer said he was shot after being forced to dress like an Iraqi soldier to set up an ambush. A college professor was fleeing the battle in his city when he was wounded.</p>

March 29, 2003 Either Take a Shot or Take a ChanceBy DEXTER FILKINS IWANIYA, Iraq, March 28 — At the base camp of the Fifth Marine Regiment here, two sharpshooters, Sgt. Eric Schrumpf, 28, and Cpl. Mikael McIntosh, 20, sat on a sand berm and swapped combat tales while their column stood at a halt on the road toward Baghdad. For five days this week, the two men rode atop armored personnel carriers, barreling up Highway 1. They said Iraqi fighters had often mixed in with civilians from nearby villages, jumping out of houses and cars to shoot at them,...

Report: Marines wounded in fighting late Wednesday in Iraq The Associated Press DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - At least 25 Marines from Camp Lejeune were injured during house-to-house fighting that began Wednesday night in An Nasiriyah, according to a WTVD-TV reporter traveling with the troops. Keith Garvin, reporting live Wednesday evening - about 2 a.m. in Baghdad - said the Marines were wounded over the past few hours in combat that had picked up "quite a bit in the last 10 minutes or so." He reported late Wednesday night that none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening. Civilians living behind...

<p>Iraqi paramilitary forces are seizing children and threatening Iraqi men with execution if they don't fight for the regime, U.S. and British officials said Thursday.</p> <p>The U.S. commanders around the south-central city of Najaf reported the development to Gen. Tommy Franks, who is commanding forces in the Gulf, said U.S. Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson.</p>

<p>Coalition commanders are reporting a new low in unconventional warfare on the part of Iraq, with the forced enlistment of children in the battle.</p> <p>"Our field commanders report that in the vicinity of Najaf ... Iraqi regime forces are seizing children from their homes and telling their families that the males must fight for the regime or they will all face execution," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said this morning.</p>

<p>March 27, 2003 -- Angry U.S. officials accused the Iraqis yesterday of committing war crimes and employing an arsenal of dirty tricks on the battlefield - even using wounded children as a ruse to fire on American troops.</p> <p>They charged Saddam Hussein's troops had feigned surrender and then shot at American forces, and had used hospitals and other civilian sites as staging areas for military operations.</p>

<p>March 27, 2003 -- British and American warplanes yesterday smashed a convoy of Iraqi armored vehicles heading out of the southern city of Basra - but it was unclear if the column was retreating from a popular uprising or striking out against coalition troops.</p>

WASHINGTON - Iraq has executed prisoners of war, the Pentagon's No. 2 general said Wednesday night as he listed a series of what he called unprecedented Iraqi violations of the laws of war. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apparently was referring to some of the U.S. Army troops captured Sunday by Iraqi forces in the city of An Nasiriyah. Iraqi state television later showed video footage of five living POWs and the bodies of at least five U.S. soldiers. Defense officials who have viewed the tape have said privately that several of the...

Allies Pound Iraqi Vehicles in Basra By DOUG MELLGREN and NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press NEAR BASRA, Iraq (AP) - British and U.S. aircraft pounded a convoy of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles that was streaming out of the besieged southern city of Basra late Wednesday, British military sources said. The sources estimated the column at about 120 vehicles, heading southeast along the main road toward Abadan. They said it appeared the Iraqis were using the sandstorm that had blanketed the region to try to sneak out. Basra had been largely quiet for much of the day Wednesday, with...