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The Iraqi Army assumes control of Forward Operating Base Hotel in Najaf.FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Sept. 6, 2005 — A ceremony celebrating the transfer of authority of Forward Operating Base Hotel and the anniversary of the end of hostile activities in Najaf was held at Forward Operating Base Hotel Sept. 6. Members of 1st Battalion, 198th Armor, 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) transferred authority of Forward Operating Base Hotel, Najaf, Iraq, to the 1st Brigade, 8th Division of the Iraqi Army. The unit has assisted the people of Najaf since mid-January. Thirty-one projects, costing approximately...

The breach in the 17th Street Canal levee that had put the city of New Orleans underwater was essentially closed early Sunday evening after days of work and the use of "ingenuity to the max," a top U.S. Corps of Engineers general said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2005 – Iraqi security forces will provide the primary security for the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum and the December elections, a U.S. commander in Baghdad, Iraq, said today. In a news briefing, Army Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, said that because Iraqis will be mainly responsible for security, U.S. forces in the area will be increased only by about 2,000 troops for the referendum and elections. Vines said he expects insurgents to increase attacks as the referendum approaches, but coalition and Iraqi forces will be prepared to defend the Iraqis' democratic process. "Unfortunately,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi authorities plan to put Saddam Hussein on trial within five days after the Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution, an official close to the proceedings said Thursday. The official spoke after government spokesman Laith Kubba announced that Iraq had carried out its first executions since Saddam was ousted in 2003. Three men were hanged at 10 a.m. in a Baghdad prison for murdering three policemen. U.S. officials scrapped the death penalty in 2003 but Iraqi authorities reinstated it after the transfer of sovereignty so they would have the option of executing Saddam if he...

Iraq's nascent air force carried out its first military mission when it flew two battalions of Iraqi troops into a troubled zone in the north of the country, a US military spokesman has said. Maj Gen Rick Lynch said that three C-130 Hercules cargo planes this week redeployed troops belonging to the 2nd Iraqi Division from the Kurdish city of Irbil to Tal Afar near the country's north-western frontier with Syria. "This was the first use of the Iraqi air force," Lynch said. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq boasted the strongest air force in the Arab world. At its zenith in...

How will the Taliban contest Afghanistan's mid-September parliamentary elections? With their only political weapons: terror strikes and fearful headlines. Scheduled for Sept. 18 -- four years and a week after 9-11 -- the parliamentary elections are the "second act" in Afghanistan's democratic evolution. The "first act," the October 2004 Afghan presidential election, dealt the Taliban and their Al-Qaida allies a debilitating political defeat. The Afghan people not only selected a president, they rejected terror and fear. Four years ago, Osama bin Laden designated Afghanistan as the launch pad for his global jihad -- the world war that would make him...

BAGHDAD [MENL] -- The U.S. Defense Department has determined that the Iraq Army was demonstrating continuous improvement. Pentagon officials said Iraqi military and security units have shown steady improvement over the last year. They said the U.S. training and mentoring of the Iraqi military and police began in earnest only in mid-2004. "The reality is, we've been building an army from scratch for the past year under combat conditions," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said. "These forces have come an extraordinary way in a year." Over the weekend, the United States struck suspected Al Qaida strongholds...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 29, 2005) — The Iraqi Highway Patrol officially opened its new headquarters during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 25 in Baghdad. The location was chosen back in February by members of the 18th Military Police Brigade in coordination with the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq Civil Affairs and the IHP. The Iraqi government-owned site was once a special police training compound under the former regime. Construction was underway by April and completed in late July. The new headquarters is well received by the officers who officially moved in and began operations from it on July 30....

So here's a radical thought: How about letting Iraqis debate and vote on their new national charter before we Americans summarily denounce it as a failure?... By any existing Middle East standard, the new constitution is a great achievement. It promises to protect human rights, including free speech and the right to worship. It applies the very American principle of federalism, or decentralized power, to reassure multiethnic regions and various Muslim denominations and thus keep the country together. For all of Iraq's security problems, the present moment is one of remarkable promise. A constitution, written in a spirit of compromise...

This result would certainly be better if Sunni leaders, including some on the drafting committee, were not urging other Sunnis to defeat it. But consider this: For the Sunnis to defeat the constitution they will have to participate in the vote. That's more than they did in January's elections, and by itself represents a commitment to a democratic process that many Americans insist isn't possible in an Arab culture. It is also by no means clear that the constitution will be rejected by Iraq's voters. The pact must be repudiated by a two-thirds vote in at least three of Iraq's...

Iraqi constitution shows progress The concept of compromise, a foreign idea in much of the Arab Middle East, was essential, Salim Mansur saysBy Salim Mansur With the final draft of Iraq's new constitution now completed under the extremely adverse conditions of a bloody insurgency, it will be submitted to Iraqis for approval in an open referendum scheduled for Oct. 15. Last week's refusal by Sunni Arab members of the constitutional committee to accept the majority consensus reflects the reluctance of their constituents to yet acknowledge the profoundly altered reality of Iraq. Only in January, some seven months ago, Iraqis voted...

Members of Iraq's constitution drafting committee signed the draft charter Sunday after making some minor amendments, a Shiite on the committee said, and a ceremony was scheduled to mark the completion of the draft. It was unclear if the Sunni Arab negotiators signed the document.

Much has been and continues to be accomplished in Iraq. It would be a mistake to withdraw.Because I have been serving for nearly 18 months in Iraq, I have a greater sensitivity to the debate in the media about the war. It seems it is an obligation that I should share a different perspective from what the media focus on. My views are not those of someone who has "visited" Baghdad for a few days, as some pundits have. I serve in the day-to-day, sometimes monotonous battle for freedom. As a simple grunt colonel, I don't have the power of...

The constitutional wrangling in Baghdad is par for the course in Iraq's nation-building -- at least as filtered through the Western media. As the deadline approaches, we read that the whole magilla's about to go belly up, there's no agreement on the way forward, Washington's going to have to admit it called things disastrously wrong and step in to salvage what it can by postponing the handover to an Iraqi administration/the first free elections/the draft constitution/whatever. This time 'round, we were reliably informed that the constitution was turning into a theocratic rout of Kurds, women and any other identity groups...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces continued to help Iraqi citizens with humanitarian missions and to help train Iraqi security forces to bring stability to the country. Iraqi Soldiers and police worked with local citizens to create a safer environment, and reconstruction projects like new police and fire stations are building the security infrastructure. Other reconstruction projects were able to provide potable water to citizens who otherwise didn't have access to it. Coalition forces turned over Camp Zulu in As Suwayrah, Iraq, to the Iraqi Army on Aug. 21. The division's 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade will be permanently housed there. This...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces continued to help Iraqi citizens with humanitarian missions and to help train Iraqi security forces to bring stability to the country. Iraqi Soldiers and police worked with local citizens to create a safer environment, and reconstruction projects like new police and fire stations are building the security infrastructure. Other reconstruction projects were able to provide potable water to citizens who otherwise didn't have access to it. Coalition forces turned over Camp Zulu in As Suwayrah, Iraq, to the Iraqi Army on Aug. 21. The division's 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade will be permanently housed there. This...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2005 – Insurgents continued their attempts to derail the democratic process and discredit the Iraqi government this week, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said during a briefing from Baghdad, Iraq, today. "They continue to target the innocent men, women and children of Iraq with horrific acts of violence," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said. "Insurgents conducted a complex attack (Aug. 24) against civilians and Iraqi police officers, resulting in the unfortunate death 13 police officers and 27 innocent civilians." Insurgents entered a home in western Iraq, killed the five occupants, and then blew up the home,...

A final version of the Iraqi constitution has been completed and is set to be approved, an Iraqi Government spokesman has said. Political leaders had until tonight to agree a new constitution. Parliament had already granted Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators three more days to resolve the outstanding issues. During the negotiating process it emerged that Sunnis fear the federal structure of the new Government will give the Kurds and Shi'ites control over the country's oil revenues. They are also concerned that federalism will lead to an autonomous Shi'ite area in southern Iraq - under Iran's influence. A Shia and...

After crisscrossing Fallujah by foot and Humvee in May, I reported on tremendous progress being made to restore “the city we had to destroy to save.” Actually fighting left most of the town unscathed; most damage was from three decades of neglect under Saddam Hussein. And rebuilding began almost immediately. Good news from Iraq rarely gets a single story compared to the many thousands on a war protestor’s stake-out in Texas. Yet it occurs nonetheless. The following is from an e-mail by Navy Lt. Cameron Chen, head of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion at...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2005 – Coalition forces in Iraq met with several successes Aug. 23, capturing a known al Qaeda member, several suspected terrorists and weapons, and destroying a terrorist hideout, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad. Acting on tips from local Iraqis, coalition forces raided a hideout near Asad and confirmed terrorists were using the location to facilitate operations. No details were available on the capture of the al Qaeda member. But after coalition forces captured the individual, he told officials about related terrorist activity in the area, which led to the capture of two suspected terrorists. Coalition...