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LONDON - The retired American general who headed the first occupation government in Iraq (news - web sites) says the decision to disband the Iraqi army was one of several major mistakes Washington has made in Iraq. AP Photo Latest headlines: · Pentagon Sending More Marines to Iraq AP - 51 minutes ago · US readies extra marines for IraqAFP - 56 minutes ago · Iraq's Shiites Oppose U.S. Election Plan AP - 1 hour, 47 minutes ago Special Coverage   The United States should also have put more more troops into Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news...

<p>Iraq's American-backed administration failed in its first week to choose a president, abandoning that mission in favor of a weak, three-man rotating leadership. The top U.S. official in Iraq -- who hand-picked the Governing Council -- returned to Washington while an insurgency killed another American soldier Saturday.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq Americans can be proud of the role their fighting men and women played in freeing Iraq of Saddam Hussein and his cronies. The people of Iraq are now on the road to political and economic independence.The first official step in this political transition at the national level occurs today, with the convening of the Iraqi Governing Council. This is the latest sign of progress. For the first time in decades, Iraqis are truly free. More than 150 newspapers have been started since liberation. All major cities and 85 percent of towns now have a municipal council where Iraqis...

CAMP BOOM, Iraq - U.S. forces launched a massive operation early Sunday to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from the ousted regime in a show of force designed to stem a wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops. The operation, dubbed "Desert Sidewinder," is taking place in a huge swath of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, military officials said. Americans arrested a man in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad. He is suspected of recruiting young men to launch attacks on Americans, according...

The British military has ordered a suspension of weapons searches in the area of southern Iraq where six soldiers were killed, while a fundamental review takes place of the civilian population's right to carry arms. The Army has agreed to a two-month "cooling-off" period in the town of Majar al-Kabir, near Amara, and this may be extended to other areas in an effort to defuse the rise in anti-British sentiment. There is acknowledgement among defence staff that a lack of understanding of the local people contributed to the fatal confrontation on Tuesday in which six members of the Royal Military...

SAMARRA, Iraq -- U.S. military commanders have ordered a halt to local elections and self-rule in provincial cities and towns across Iraq, choosing instead to install their own handpicked mayors and administrators, many of whom are former Iraqi military leaders. The decision to deny Iraqis a direct role in selecting municipal governments is creating anger and resentment among aspiring leaders and ordinary citizens, who say the U.S.-led occupation forces are not making good on their promise to bring greater freedom and democracy to a country dominated for three decades by Saddam Hussein.

The huge effort to restore Iraq's oil industry begins every day two hours south of the Iraq-Kuwait border, at the lavish Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuwait City. No sooner does the lobby restaurant open at 5 a.m. than a line of middle-aged men in jumpsuits, golf shirts and identical tan caps forms at the breakfast buffet, eschewing the mezzeh and labneh for French toast, home fries and beef bacon. Outside, a couple of dozen silver S.U.V.'s are lined up, and after a quick breakfast the men are off in a swift northbound convoy, each car marked with the sideways V...

Iraq's 1st Public Poll Backs U.S. June 19, 2003 Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military ambulance in Iraq on Thursday, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring two others, the military said. It was the fourth attack in 24 hours on Americans in Iraq, and the third with deadly results either for Americans or Iraqis. The Pentagon has been playing down the attacks, saying they don't indicate widespread resentment on the part of the Iraqi people. Now, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, Iraq's first-ever public opinion poll seems to back that up. Sixty-five percent of Iraqis...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s state oil marketing company SOMO on Thursday awarded its first post-war tender to sell 10 million barrels of crude held in storage but only one U.S. company was among the six winners. The tender was won by Spanish refiners Repsol and Cepsa, Turkish Tupras, Italian ENI and French Total while ChevronTexaco was the only U.S. company. Of the 10 million barrels sold from storage in Turkey, 5.5 million will go to the European market and four million to the U.S., the remainder left for "tolerance," SOMO Director-General Mohammed al-Jibouri told reporters. Total...

Saudi Nationals have joined the Sunni insurgency against United States Troops in Iraq. At least one US Soldier daily has been killed over the past few weeks.Meanwhile a US based Saudi opposition organization has reported that two Saudi Nationals have been killed in the sporadic fighting Middle East Newsline reported. Last week, the US Armys Third Division sent its 2nd Brigade to launch an operation in several Sunni cities to quell the insurgency.US Officials confimed that Saudi nationals have financed and participated in the Sunni insurgency. They said elements in Saudi Arabia view the US Military presence in Iraq as...

I'm started to get irked with this nonsense of S*itbird Iraqis killing American soldiers. I'm starting to get irked with this nonsense of not slamdunking anyone shooting at Americans. This touchy feely BS needs to end. Clean out the remaining opposition....not with UN style patrols....clean'em out with CIA payrolled spies and quick strikes carried out by Green Berets, Navy Seals and Recon Marines. Buld a friggin Guantanamo out in the Western Desert and stick every single Arab with a frown on his face in there until the Iraqi Government can be set up. Let them deal with them later. ...and...

Iran warned off 'meddling' in Iraq Bremer admitted he still had a tough task ahead of him The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has accused neighbouring Iran of actively attempting to subvert the coalition mission in the country.Mr Bremer said he did not welcome "interference" from Iran while US-led forces in Iraq were engaged in the "process of reconstruction and democratisation." "The message is very clear: the Iranians know they're doing it and they know we're unhappy about it and they ought to stop it," he said. Iran has been critical of the delay in government being put...

CENTCOM:   June 10, 2003Release Number: 03-06-39 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TASK FORCE "IRONHORSE" LAUNCHES OPERATION PENINSULA STRIKE CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- During the early morning hours of June 9th, Task Force Ironhorse soldiers conducted a series of raids to eradicate Ba’ath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements located on a peninsula along the Tigris River, northeast of Balad, Iraq. The raids signaled the start of Operation Peninsula Strike. The operation took place in two major stages. The first stage of the operation involved moving soldiers and equipment into strike positions, intelligence gathering, and coordination with local police. During...

Wednesday June 11, 00:36 AM US warns of prolonged Iraqi resistance as violence flares again US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that coalition forces in Iraq will need many more months to eliminate armed resistance from fighters loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, as hostile fire wounded four more US soldiers.The dangerous disorder still prevailing over two months after the fall of Saddam's regime was further highlighted when three Iraqis were killed in a munitions explosion.Speaking in Lisbon at the start of a four-day tour of Europe, Rumsfeld blamed the attacks that have claimed mounting US casualties on former...

MOSUL, Iraq -- A soldier with 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery, 101st Airborne Division, assembles an AK-47 rifle with a soldier from the Joint Iraqi Security Company, left, and a translator, center, June 5. The 2-44 ADA  is training Kurdish and Iraqi forces to become the first self-sufficient Iraqi military force. Photo by Pfc. James Matise/U.S. Army. 2-44 ADA Trains Joint Iraqi Security CompanyIraq's First Military Security Force is Made Up of Iraqis From Across the Countryby Pfc. James Matise101st Airborne Division writer MOSUL, Iraq (June 6, 2003) – The soldiers gathered inside the dilapidated building were certainly...

BASRA, Iraq - In a significant escalation of political militancy against Iraq's interim authorities, saboteurs appear to be targeting the power grid of one of the country's largest cities with the aim of crippling a key oil refinery, local officials said Saturday. A series of destructive attacks on carefully selected power lines around Basra in recent weeks has played havoc with the energy-hungry Basra Refinery, an important source of gasoline for the domestic market. Looting wasn't a motive because no cables were stolen from the toppled electrical towers, the officials said, suggesting that holdouts from Saddam Hussein's vanquished Baath Party...

New Hampshire On the face of it, Jordan’s election this month would seem to be a lively affair. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve driven the length and breadth of the country. Well, not the length, but the breadth — from the Allenby Bridge across from the ghastly Arafat squat on the West Bank over to the eastern desert and the Iraqi border post at Trebil. And in every town you pass through there are handmade banners strung across the streets proclaiming the merits of a zillion candidates. Nothing fancy, just dense text on white sheets. But lots of...

There's no dysentery or cholera, no sign of a human catastrophe, the roads and medical centres are empty and the countryside charming. Yes, writes Mark Steyn, there's no place like Iraq for a holiday I've spent the past couple of weeks on a motoring tour of western and northern Iraq, and I can't recommend it highly enough. The roads are empty except for the occasional burnt-out tank and abandoned Saddamite limo. You can make excellent time, because it will be several months before a deBa'athified Iraqi highway patrol squad is up and running and even longer before they replace the...

May. 29, 2003 US raids Palestinian mission in Baghdad By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Baghdad US troops raided the Palestinian Authority's mission in Baghdad and arrested 11 members including its top diplomat after ransacking the building, Palestinian officials said Thursday. A top US general said only eight people had been arrested. "They even took all of our water bottles and food cans," said Mohamed Abdul Wahab, a mission official. "They behaved like common thieves." Although US troops have conducted numerous sweeps against suspected criminals and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime, Wednesday's raid was the first such action against a foreign diplomatic...

U.S. administrator Paul Bremer Wednesday reported "troubling" Iranian activity in Iraq and said it could result in serious problems if it went too far. "We have seen a rather steady increase in Iranian activity here, which is troubling," Bremer said in the interview with ABC News, excerpts of which were released Wednesday. His comments were the latest in a series of critical U.S. statements about Iran, lumped by President Bush in an "axis of evil" with North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in remarks published Tuesday the United States would not allow Iraq's neighbors to...