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KABUL, Afghanistan, April 23, 2007 – The progress the Afghan National Army is making was on display for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a visit to the Kabul Military Training Center here April 21. During a visit hosted by Afghan National Army Brig. Gen. Amin Wardak, the commander of the center, Marine Gen. Peter Pace toured the training center, viewed the barracks and spoke to some of the classes. Wardak described some of the classes the center hosts from basic military training to a kandak (battalion) command course. Pace visited classrooms for Afghan noncommissioned officers...

BAGHDAD, April 20, 2007 – U.S. provincial reconstruction teams are helping accelerate progress in many provinces of Iraq, Rick Olson, the director of the PRT national coordination team, said here. Olson said there are now 10 “full-up” teams in Iraq. Led by State Department officials, the teams are an interagency approach to helping Iraqi provincial governments take control of their areas. The teams have representatives from the Defense Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Justice Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. agencies. Each established team has between 35 and 40 members. The largest team...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ECHO, Iraq, April 16, 2007 — After several days of continuous combat operations in Diwaniyah, soldiers from Task Force 1-14 Cavalry, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, are now focusing their efforts on locating specific targets and performing clearing operations in different areas of the city while forming working relationships with the local population. “These people are actually happy we’re here and taking care of the city.” Sgt. Michael Gibson Every day the soldiers are in different neighborhoods searching for weapon caches and talking with the residents about the problems in the area....

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2007 – With more than half of the U.S. surge troops in Baghdad, there has been steady progress in the Baghdad security plan, a top U.S. commander in Iraq said today. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, spoke to Pentagon reporters via a video hook-up from the Iraqi capital. He said there has been progress in the security situation in Baghdad, but that “real success is based on sustaining progress over the long term, with eventually Iraqis alone providing security to their people.” Three of the five promised U.S. brigades...

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2007 – Over the past month in Baghdad, Iraqi security and coalition forces seized more than 300 weapons caches, detained more than 1,400 suspects, and found and cleared more than 300 improvised explosive devices, a coalition spokesman told reporters in the Iraqi capital yesterday. “Additionally, the more than 5,000 tips from Iraqi citizens last month contributed to Iraqi security and coalition forces’ ability to conduct these operations,” said Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, communications division chief for strategic effects, Multinational Force Iraq. The Baghdad security operation, called Fardh al-Qanoon, an Iraqi phrase that means “Enforcing...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – While early indicators on the Baghdad troop surge appear positive, coalition officials “are looking at this in a very patient fashion,” a senior military official in Baghdad said yesterday. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, communications director for Multinational Force Iraq, told online journalists that U.S. commanders will not rush to judgment on potential trends in Iraq’s security situation before the entire U.S. surge force is on the ground. Fox noted about half of the 21,500 U.S. combat troops requested for the surge are currently in place, with the remainder expected by early June. He...

PANJSHIR, Afghanistan , March 28, 2007 – The tomb of Shaeed Ahmad Shah Masood, “the Lion of Panjshir,” stands on a hilltop overlooking the mountainous river valley which he dedicated his life to protect against Soviet invasions and Taliban assaults. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 82, cuts a ribbon at the groundbreaking of a new public works building in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, on March 27. Photo by Sgt. Timothy Dinneen, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Masood was the leader of the Northern Alliance, and he is a hero to many...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007 – The crackdown on insurgents in Baghdad is showing progress, but a senior military official there warned that it’s likely to drive the enemy to strike out dramatically before succeeding. “Like backing a rat into a corner, increasing pressure on the extremists by limiting their available resources and places to hide leads to desperate changes in tactics,” Navy Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, told reporters during a roundtable session in Baghdad today. Fox cited a Feb. 23 suicide-bomb attempt in Ramadi as an example of that desperation. When Iraqi police...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2007 – The Baghdad security plan has only been under way for a short time, but the Iraqis are meeting their commitments and early signs are pointing toward success, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. The most important measure of success in the new security plan is whether the Iraqis are meeting their commitments, such as appointing commanders for Baghdad, providing extra troops, and removing political restrictions from troops in the area, Gates said in an interview with the Pentagon Channel. “We can measure those things, and those are the areas where the Iraqis...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2007 – While security remains the overriding concern in Iraq, the Iraqi government is making progress on the economic front, the coordinator for economic transition in Iraq, today said. The coordinator, Ambassador Timothy Carney; Jeremiah Pam U.S. Treasury attaché with the embassy in Baghdad; and Joseph Gregoire, the embassy executive secretary with responsibility for provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq, spoke via teleconference from Baghdad with Pentagon reporters. Carney said his job is to assist the Iraqis to realize their resources and their interests in giving services and economic development to their people. He also is responsible...

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 – Improvised explosive devices are to the war in Iraq what artillery and mortars were to World War II, Korea and Vietnam -- the main troop killers, a retired general working to defeat the deadly devices said here yesterday. Retired Army Gen. Montgomery Meigs, head of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, briefed media on progress in countering IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan. “IEDs are hybrid, idiosyncratic things that go off in surprising ways,” Meigs said. “But all they are, are the enemy’s fire system. The question is, ‘How do we deal with this...

See original Here Site must be excerpted, don't want to cause any trouble.

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2007 – Afghanistan is making progress, but big challenges remain, the man with ultimate responsibility for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said today. Meeting with reporters at the Pentagon today, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, said that in addition to dealing with Taliban fighters and other insurgents in the country, Afghanistan is plagued by problems caused by opium cultivation and the drug trade. ISAF has about 35,000 troops from 35 different nations in Afghanistan. The United States has 15,000 troops serving there under the ISAF banner and a...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2007 – Americans need to hear and see more about reconstruction in Iraq to fully understand the situation there, the general in charge of Army Corps of Engineers efforts in the Persian Gulf region said today. “We see successes in the U.S. government’s construction program here” every day, Army Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, commander of the Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division, in Baghdad, said during a news conference there. He said the U.S. effort is putting in essential services, often in places that never had them. Walsh helps oversee more than $22 billion worth...

The year 2006 was a complex time, marked in Iraq by violence, often of the sectarian variety, but also by progress. The past year was one of inclusiveness, as Iraq’s elected government functioned with representatives from nearly every sect and tribe. The year also saw major strides in security operations, as Iraqi Security Forces took the lead in law enforcement and anti-insurgent activity.Iraqis and their Coalition partners faced several challenges during the transformation from decades of dictatorship to a democratic government.Read 2006 year-in-review report here. 

See Related Video Defence Secretary Des Browne meets troops from the 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets BASRAH -- The Iraqi Government is making encouraging strides in its efforts to curb violence in the country, the Defence Secretary Des Browne said on a visit to Basra on Tuesday.Mr. Browne began his visit to Iraq with a series of meetings in the capital Baghdad. He then landed in Basra where he paid tribute to the work of British troops involved in Operation Sinbad, a successful joint Multi National Forces and Iraqi Army reconstruction programme. So far the operation has helped regenerate...

Capitol Hill has probably been too busy running for political cover to notice. But the last few days in Iraq have actually featured good news, as the government seems to be making some progress on key political and security issues. One step forward is that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has won parliamentary backing for his Baghdad security plan. This means the elected representatives of Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds remain capable of compromise and are willing to give the new strategy a chance to work. There's also evidence that the Baghdad plan is having an effect. Yes, al Qaeda bombs...

U.S. missile defense maturing, latest test a success By Andrea Shalal-Esa 1 hour, 46 minutes ago Within a year, the U.S. missile defense system should be able to guard against enemy attacks, while testing new technologies, the deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Monday. The United States activated the ground-based system last summer when North Korea launched one long-range and six short-range missiles. North Korea's intercontinental Taepodong 2 missile fell into the Sea of Japan shortly after launch but the short-range tests appeared successful, said Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, deputy director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2007 – Fed up with al Qaeda’s murderous rampage in the region, local tribes in the Iraq’s Anbar province have endorsed and joined local government efforts to drive out insurgents and establish security in the area, the commander of Multinational Force West said today. The newfound support has given Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer “guarded optimism” about the progress made in that region in the past year, and he said the extra Marines earmarked for that area in the president’s planned troop increase will help secure that progress. The past year has been a fight...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2007 – More Afghan adults are employed; more of their children are attending school; and the Afghan government is expanding, the senior U.S. military commander in Afghanistan said today. “The Taliban have not achieved any of their objectives in the last year,” Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76 and commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division, told reporters in the Pentagon via satellite connection from Afghanistan. “By contrast, over the past year, U.S. forces and coalition partners have made great progress in the creation of a stable, secure and...