Iraq War News

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Bomb in wreckage kills passing soldier


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France, India and Germany are refusing to contribute peacekeeping troops.

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (AP) — A powerful bomb, apparently hidden in an abandoned vehicle, blasted a truck in a U.S. supply convoy west of Baghdad today, killing a soldier who was hurled from his vehicle and wounding two others, soldiers at the scene said.

The explosion occurred as the 20-vehicle military convoy was passing a wrecked truck on the side of the road, Spc. Jose Colon told The Associated Press. Soldiers believe a bomb was hidden in the wreckage and remotely detonated as the convoy passed.

Sgt. Diego Baez, who was in the U.S. truck that took the brunt of the blast, wept as he described the dead soldier.

"We slept next to each other just last night. He was my best friend," said Baez, who was uninjured.

U.S. soldiers have come under increasingly ferocious attacks by suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists in recent weeks.

The soldier, who was not immediately identified, was the 33rd to die in hostile action since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities May 1.

A half-hour after the blast, the truck was still burning on the road near Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, site of Saddam's most notorious prison. The convoy, made up of reservists from a supply unit based in Puerto Rico, was heading on the main highway to a U.S. base near the Jordanian border.

"We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough," said Spc. Carlos McKenzie, a member of the convoy.

Houses searched

After the explosion, soldiers began house-to-house searches in nearby villages. A resident, Mohammed al-Qazi, said the bombing was the work of men from the tense cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, farther down the road. "It was not people from Abu Ghraib," he said.


Those cities are part of the so-called "Sunni Triangle," a region west and north of Baghdad where Saddam drew his strongest support and where Americans have come under the most attack since his fall.

Soldiers said the slain soldier had recently arrived in Iraq after being stationed in Kuwait. A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no immediate information about the matter.

"We just lost one of our buddies. It could have been any of us," said Spc. Adalberto Bonilla, who along with Colon had been in a vehicle behind the most badly damaged truck.

Also today, a U.S. Marine died in the southern city of Hilla when he fell off a building he was guarding, the military said.

The deaths highlighted the long and painful road left for coalition forces as they try to stabilize Iraq while soldiers come under attack an average 12 times a day.

On Tuesday, the American administrator of Iraq linked the length of the U.S. occupation to Iraq's political process, saying that American forces would remain in the country until Iraqis agree on a new constitution and set up a democratic government.

"We have no desire to stay a day longer than necessary," L. Paul Bremer said. "The timing of how long the coalition stays here is now in the hands of the Iraqi people."

The new Governing Council — Iraq's first postwar national body — was meeting again today to discuss security and education matters, said Nouri al-Badran, spokesman for the Iraqi National Accord, which holds several seats on the council.

On Tuesday, it decided to set up special courts to try former members of Saddam Hussein's regime who are accused of involvement in mass executions, torture and other human rights violations.

What's planned

U.N. officials said a council delegation will visit the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, when the world body is to discuss its role in postwar Iraq.

The Governing Council, whose members were selected rather than elected, is meant to be the forerunner to a 200-250-member constitutional assembly that would start drafting a constitution in September. That is expected to take nine months to a year, and free elections to pick a government are expected to follow.

But even talk of removing coalition soldiers from Iraq seemed premature while guerrilla-style attacks against U.S. forces are increasing and many major countries are balking at the idea of sending peacekeepers to replace exhausted American troops.

Many American soldiers thought they'd be home this summer, but their hopes were dashed in a U.S. Army e-mail to spouses Sunday.

"I'm tired of going to bed wondering if I'm going to wake up in the morning," said Spc. David Myers Jr. of the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment in Habaniyah, west of Baghdad.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Central Command said in a news release that it still intended to remove 3rd Infantry soldiers "by September, pending international or U.S. replacement units. As always, the security situation could affect deployments and redeployments."

Groups behind trouble

Bremer repeated the charge that hard-core Baathists, former members of the Fedayeen Saddam militia and the intelligence services were behind the attacks.

Nevertheless, the increasing frequency and sophistication of the attacks — and growing doubts about the basis for the war — have contributed to the decision by some countries not to contribute troops.

On Tuesday, France ruled out sending troops, following India and Germany in rejecting U.S. calls for help without approval from the United Nations.


Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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US forces should expect year-long duty in Iraq, commander says
By Associated Press, 7/16/2003 14:39
WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. forces should be braced for spending a year on duty in Iraq, the new U.S. commander for the region said Wednesday.

Gen. John Abizaid said military planners are working to bring home some units quickly, such as the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. But yearlong deployments are a possibility, at least until the situation in Iraq becomes more stable, he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing.

''Looking at what I contemplate being the force levels for a while, probably for the next 90 days, we need to probably say to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, 'Here's the maximum extent of your deployment. If we can get you home sooner, we will,''' Abizaid said.

Year-long deployments, a norm during the Vietnam War, have been rare in recent years. The 1st Armored Division served in Bosnia for a year during the 1990s, Abizaid said.

''So we've done it before, and we can do it again,'' he said.

The vast majority of the Air Force and Navy units that fought in the war left the area weeks ago. The 3rd Infantry's return is an especially sore point, because soldiers and their families believed they would return home once major fighting in Baghdad ended. Abizaid said the infantry would definitely be out of Iraq by September

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Support Our Troops
Posted on Wed, Jul. 16, 2003

Homecoming kings
Soldiers returning home recall Iraq battle experiences
BY S. THORNE HARPER
Staff Writer

Minutes after reuniting with his family Tuesday morning at Fort Benning, Staff Sgt. Yusef Jenkins recalled the night outside Karbala, Iraq, when the sky lit up like fireworks.

Jenkins and the rest of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment gazed in awe as the battalion unleashed a hell of rockets and shells that blazed through the heavens like falling stars heading in the opposite direction.

"We all stood there just watching," the 30-year-old Jenkins said. "It gave me a big chill."

Out of the 12,000 artillery rounds fired throughout the war, the 1-10 launched more than half of them -- 6,283 to be exact.

"That's triple the amount we shot in a year of training," said Lt. Col. Doug Harding, who commanded the 1-10 during the war.

The more than 400 soldiers from the battalion completed their return home Tuesday, arriving to the roar of family and friends that filled Kelley Hill's Kefurt Gym.

Tshaka Long was one of them. Her husband, Capt. Jeffery Long, commanded the 1-10's "A" Battery, which has been in Iraq and Kuwait for 14 of the past 15 months.

Tshaka, 28, met her future husband in ROTC at Northwest State University in Natchitoches, La. He was her commander there.

There's something about an artillery man, she said. Her father was one in Vietnam. She said she knew she was going to marry Jeffery the second she saw him.

"It was like the heavens opened and a light came down," she said. "You can't top an artillery man."

In Army lore, infantry is known as "the queen of battle." Artillery is "the king of battle." Soldiers say this comes from the game of chess. The queen is a powerful piece, able to move freely around the board. Though the king's movement is limited, the game always revolves around him.

"You can't win a battle without artillery," Harding said.

Tanks from the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, the "Panther" battalion, provided the lead force in the opening night battle of Tallil Airfield and then Karbala, considered by many to be the turning point in the Iraq War. But before the tanks rolled in, the 1-10's Paladin howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems pummeled Iraqi positions up to 18 miles away.

Soldiers from the 1-10 -- acting as forward observers deep inside enemy lines -- used sophisticated computer technology to direct a rain of MLRS and three-foot-long 155 mm shells on Iraqi tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery with deadly accuracy.

The onslaught forced many Iraqis to flee their positions. When U.S. troops arrived, blackened Iraqi tank turrets were often found yards away from their abandoned vehicles.

The 1-10 also provided artillery support for the battles of As Samawah, Al Hillah and Baghdad.

After embracing Tshaka, Capt. Jeffery Long gazed into the distance and said the battle of Baghdad provided his most vivid memory of the war.

"April 6 is probably the day no one in the 1-10 will forget," he said.

The 30-year-old, who commanded six Paladins, said his soldiers continued to launch artillery shells while taking small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

"My soldiers had confidence -- I saw it in their eyes," he said. "I'll always remember that."

Then, clutching the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Tiombe, Jeffery Long said, "We were blessed we didn't lose anyone."


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Contact S. Thorne Harper at (706) 571-8516 or sharper@ledger-enquirer.com

Support Our TroopsFrance Unwilling to Send Troops to Iraq
Refusal attributed to lack of UN order leading occupation




By Timothy M. Phelps
Washington Bureau Chief

July 16, 2003


Washington -- France Tuesday joined a chorus of countries unwilling to send troops to Iraq, even as military analysts said some U.S. forces' morale was reaching a breaking point.

French President Jacques Chirac said sending French troops to Iraq "cannot be imagined in the current context." India shocked Washington Monday by refusing to send an expected division of 17,000 troops, joining Germany and other countries that have not been identified by the Pentagon.

According to a senior European diplomat in Washington, the French refusal, like those of Germany and India, was based on the lack of a United Nations mandate governing the military occupation of Iraq.

Also Tuesday, the Pentagon continued to issue contradictory statements about when the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which spearheaded the assault on Iraq in March, would return to the United States. Parts of the division were first deployed in the Middle East last fall, and its soldiers originally had been expected to come home shortly after Baghdad fell.

But insecurity in Iraq, with infrastructure being sabotaged and U.S. soldiers picked off one by one, has so far forced the Pentagon to keep the 3rd Infantry in Iraq alongside its intended replacement, the 4th Infantry. The soldiers, working in 100-degree heat and fearful for their lives, have expressed open resentment at still being in Iraq, and so have their wives at home. Tuesday five Iraqis were killed after an ambush on U.S. forces west of Baghdad. There were no U.S. casualties.

Last week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate the 3rd Infantry would be pulled out in August and September. But Monday Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, the division's commander in Iraq, told them they would be staying indefinitely. Continuing the confusion Tuesday, the U.S. Central Command in Florida issued a statement saying it "remained committed" to returning the 3rd Infantry by September depending on the security situation and "pending international or U.S. replacement units."

But those replacements have been hard to find. The Pentagon has gotten commitments for 20,000 foreign troops to go to Iraq sometime this fall, far fewer than desired. Diplomats and military analysts say significant numbers of foreign troops will not be forthcoming unless the Bush administration swallows its pride and asks for UN support. That probably would mean ceding considerable control to the UN as well, something diplomats here believe the administration will not do.

"They should be forced to eat crow," said Brookings Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon, who said foreign forces are essential in Iraq. "They should care what's good for the country more than their own pride.

"The real issue is 'How do you, over time, avoid breaking the Army as you have to rotate people in?'" O'Hanlon said. "We are on the verge of basically betraying these people as the promise keeps changing by the day and the week."

Many Army divisions are tied down in Korea, Afghanistan or Bosnia, or have U.S. assignments that make them unsuitable or impossible to move. Two heavily armored divisions in Germany could be moved, according to a former 3rd Infantry Division officer, but the process would be long and costly at a time when Rumsfeld has doubled war cost estimates to $3.9 billion a month.

The problem, several retired military officers said, lies with the Pentagon's original expectations that few troops would be needed long term. Former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki was ridiculed by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in February for telling Congress "several hundred thousand" troops would be needed. Roughly 150,000 U.S. troops are there now.

"We cut our nose off to spite our face," said the former 3rd Infantry officer, who asked not to be identified because he still works with the military. "Those [3rd Infantry] guys are going to come home beat to death, and that poor division will take two years to recover."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Clark in Iraq with Army; building schools in Baghdad


For the Cumberland Times-News


Editor’s note: Cathy Clark of LaVale wrote about her son Aaron, who is serving in the U.S. Army.

LAVALE — Aaron Clark, a 2001 graduate of Allegany High School, is currently serving in Baghdad with the United States Army. He was recently promoted to the rank of private first class.

Aaron left last November for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. After completing basic, he remained there for his advanced training in combat engineering. He graduated March 13, 2003, and was assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion in Giessen, Germany. He was only in Germany a few weeks when his unit was deployed to Iraq. The unit is part of the 1st Armored Division and is currently stationed in Baghdad.

Aaron’s unit is working to rebuild schools in the area. Aaron has written his family that he feels good about what they are doing there. In a recent letter home, he wrote, “Most of the civilians are happy to see us. The children will remember that the U.S. soldiers were there to protect them and to rebuild their schools and playgrounds.�

He is the son of Bill and Cathy Clark of LaVale and the grandson of Bob and Cathy Roman of LaVale, Betty Jane Clark of Corriganville and the late Ralph Clark. While in high school, Aaron was a Times-News paper carrier in the LaVale area.

At Allegany, he played baseball and soccer and was co-captain of the soccer team his senior year. After graduation, he played on a United States soccer team in the Haarlem Cup in Amsterdam, Holland. The team had trained in Germany.

Receiving mail is a big morale booster for military personnel, especially those serving far from home. Anyone who would like to write to Aaron can use the following address: Pfc. Aaron Clark, C Company, 16th En Bn, Unit #92889, APO AE 09324-2889.

Marine gets a hero’s welcome home
U.S. Marine Sgt. Michael Castaneda was with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance, which led the rescue operation for seven prisoners of war.
By Ruth Friedberg
Odessa American
One of the Marines who helped rescue seven prisoners of war in Samarra, Iraq, on April 13 came home Tuesday to the Permian Basin.
U.S. Marine Sgt. Michael Castaneda of Sheffield was greeted by about 50 of his family members at Midland International Airport. A banner saying “Welcome Michael� with a photo of Castaneda in his dress uniform was held by some of the younger relatives.
“I’m excited and just so blessed to have him home,� said his mother, Betty Sue Gonzales of Odessa.
Gonzales said she heard from him, but “not as much as we wanted to.� She said he called a couple of times, but when he got to Iraq, she didn’t hear from him for about a month and a half. “Then we heard from him in letters,� she said.
Gonzales also saw her son on CNN when the news network interviewed him.
He found himself talking to reporters again Tuesday.
“It’s a good feeling to be back (and) be with my family,� Castaneda said. “You don’t realize what you have until you miss it or it’s not around you.�
Castaneda’s grandmother, Maria Castaneda of Sheffield, said she was very happy to see her grandson. “It’s like a dream. I’m still in a daze,� she said. She added that his return was the greatest “gift the Lord has given us.�
Castaneda was with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance, which led the POW rescue operation. His platoon was selected to conduct the rescue.
The POWs were Spc. Joseph Hudson, Sgt. James Riley, Spc. Shoshana Johnson, Spc. Edgar Hernandez and Pfc. Patrick Miller — members of a convoy from the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company — and chief warrant officers Ronald Young Jr. and David S. Williams.
The 507th Maintenance Company members were ambushed March 23 near Nasiriya and the warrant officers were captured March 24 after their Apache helicopter went down south of Baghdad, according to the CNN Web site.
About 24 Marines acted on an intelligence tip provided by local Iraqis. The POWs were dropped off with the Iraqi police. Castanedasaid the troops thought they might be headed into an ambush because the Marines didn’t know there were any Americans that far north. The Marines used global positioning equipment to find the prisoners. Castaneda’s scout team did a building to building room clearing to find their fellow troops.
They were in and out in 10 minutes, taking very light enemy fire, he said. The former POWs were put in a safe area and a med-evac was called. A section of highway was secured and the troops were transported to Kuwait.
“They were happy. They had never been so happy in their lives,� Castaneda said, adding that the rescue was a turning point for him.
“There’s a deep feeling of accomplishment … you can’t top. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world. It’s like being a parent for the first time or getting married,� he said.
Castaneda said he had been trained for a rescue like the one in Samarra, but had never done it in real life.
Castaneda, 24, was deployed to Iraq in January. He has been in the Marines for five years. His family had not seen him since January, when a group drove from Texas to Twenty Nine Palms, Calif., to see him off.
Castaneda’s family has a long tradition of military service. Castaneda’s cousin Matthew, is a lance corporal in the Marines. Another cousin, Santos Pedro Castaneda, an E-3 in the Navy, is still deployed aboard the USS Nimitz.
After visiting with family here, Michael Castaneda plans to return to California and pick up orders to become a drill instructor.
Meanwhile, Castaneda will spend time with his family. His aunt, Sylvia Robertson-Baldwin, will be just one of the many welcoming him home.
“I’m ecstatic. I’m really ecstatic,� Robertson-Baldwin said of having Castaneda back. “I’m so proud. I feel every young man or woman in the military should be recognized for their sacrifice.�


OA Online News

List of Michigan casualties in Iraq

The Associated Press
7/16/03 12:59 AM


Soldiers with known Michigan ties killed in the war with Iraq:

--Marine Maj. Kevin Nave, 36, formerly of Oakland County's White Lake Township, was killed when he was run over by a military vehicle March 26. Nave was a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and lived in Oceanside, Calif. He is survived by his wife and two children.

--Army Sgt. Todd James Robbins, 33, formerly of Pentwater, died after the Bradley fighting vehicle he manned with eight other soldiers apparently was bombed April 2, possibly by friendly fire. Robbins, a veteran of the first Gulf War, was stationed at Fort Sill, Okla. He leaves behind a wife and 13-year-old son from a previous marriage.

--Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, of Bedford Heights, Ohio. Sloan's body was one of nine found during the rescue of an American POW in Iraq. His unit, the 507th Maintenance Co., was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. Sloan's mother, Kimberly, lives in Fraser.

--Army Sgt. Michael Pedersen, 26, formerly of Flint, was one of six soldiers killed in the crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter April 2 during a fire fight in Iraq, his wife said. He served as a helicopter crew chief with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Ga.

--Army Pfc. Jason Meyer, 23, was killed April 7 when his personnel carrier took fire. He graduated from Howell High School in 1999 and joined the Army in 2001. Meyer was based in Fort Stewart, Ga., and had celebrated his first wedding anniversary two weeks before his death.

--Marine Pfc. Juan Garza, 20, of Temperance was killed by sniper fire April 8. Garza graduated from Summerfield High School in 2002 and was married the day after Christmas.

--Air Force Staff Sgt. Scott Sather, 29, of Clio was killed in action in Iraq on April 8. He was assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, based out of Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

--Army Spc. Richard A. Goward, 32, of Midland, was killed April 14 when his truck entered a dust cloud and collided with another truck in Iraq. Goward was assigned to the Midland-based 1460th Transportation Company of the Michigan Army National Guard. The father of two daughters served on active duty with the Army from 1990 to 1996, then joined the Michigan Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

--Army Sgt. Sean Reynolds, 25, was killed May 3 in an apparent accident involving his own weapon in northern Iraq. He grew up in Detroit and graduated from East Lansing High School in 1995. Reynolds was assigned to the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, deployed near Kirkuk. The 173rd is based in Vicenza, Italy.

--Army Master Sgt. William Lee Payne, 46, who joined the Army shortly after graduating from Otsego High School in 1975, died May 16 in Haswah, Iraq. He was killed when an ordnance exploded as he examined it. Payne was an intelligence officer for the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

--Army Staff Sgt. Brett J. Petriken, 30, of Flint, a military police officer, was one of two soldiers killed May 26 when a heavy equipment transporter crossed a median and struck his vehicle in Samawah, Iraq. He was part of the 501st Military Police Unit of the 1st Armored Division.

--Army Capt. Paul J. Cassidy, 36, of Laingsburg, died in Camp Babylon as a result of non-combat injuries July 13. He was part of the 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion based in Ashwaubenon, Wis., a suburb of Green Bay. Cassidy, a reservist, was in Iraq performing humanitarian services. He also served as department secretary for the Meridian Township clerk's office.

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Op/Ed - New York Post

GIS: WHY CAN'T WE COME HOME?
Wed Jul 16, 3:50 AM ET Add Op/Ed - New York Post to My Yahoo!


By JONATHAN FOREMAN

IN THE towns and sub urbs around Fort Stewart, Ga., there are banners welcoming home the heroes of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
But the "3ID" - the mechanized division that raided and captured the center of Baghdad back in April, bringing the war to a close six weeks earlier than Central Command expected - isn't coming home any time soon.


Yes, on July 9, Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) that the 3ID would at last be home by September.


But four days later, the Pentagon (news - web sites) suddenly, quietly changed its mind, informing the stunned troops and their shocked families that the return home of its 1st and 2nd Brigades has been postponed "indefinitely."


The wives of the men in these units are up in arms, sending letters to congressmen, the media and anyone who will listen.


"We've contacted senators, celebrities, even companies like Harley-Davidson," Spreanna Pomroy, whose husband is in the division's 1/9 Field Artillery, told The Post.


The reason she and others are so angry is that this is the second postponement of the division's departure. These 9,000 men and women, most of whom have been in the Persian Gulf since September, were due to come home by the end of May.





And the fact is that with the exception of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, most of the units that played a key role in the war's big battles have come home.


But because they had done such a good job stabilizing key areas of the Iraqi capital, the Army delayed the division's departure for 90 days and sent them to pacify the restive towns of Falluja and Habbaniyeh.


There, too, they have done a superb job, their prior peacekeeping experience in Bosnia and Kosovo as well as their combat experience during the war, enabling them to win hearts and minds while intimidating would-be resisters.


But now these men are exhausted.


E-mails and phone calls received by The Post from troops in the 2nd Brigade as well as their wives tell of whole units being put on suicide watch.


A "to whom it may concern" letter presumably written by a 3ID officer or noncommissioned officer, and signed "the soldiers of 2nd Brigade, 3rd ID" is being circulated by wives of the men in the Iraq (news - web sites).


The soldier writes: "Our morale is not high or even low. Our morale is non-existent . . . The 3rd Infantry Division soldiers feel betrayed, and forgotten."


The 3ID has done a great job, but it's hard to believe that no other unit can take its place. As one Army wife said to me, "Can't they just bring them home for 90 days of stabilization leave to see their families and then send them back?"


(Jonathan Foreman was embedded with troops attached to the 3rd Infantry Division from March to May)

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Attack on convoy kills U.S. soldier: "A U.S. soldier and an eight-year-old Iraqi child were killed in and around the capital Wednesday, as pro-Saddam Hussein insurgents unleashed a string of violent attacks on the eve of a recently banned Baath Party holiday."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Criminals may have held kidnapped Israeli: "A kidnapped Israeli taxi-driver who was freed in a midnight commando raid was greeted with a street party Wednesday, as speculation grew that his captors were common criminals rather than Palestinian militants."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



US soldier run over and killed in attack on highway west of Baghdad: "A US soldier was run over and killed when a military convoy came under attack on a highway west of the Iraqi capital. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Flashpoint Iraqi town issues anti-Saddam statement for first time: "A number of residents of the flashpoint Iraqi town of Fallujah have denounced the regime of former president Saddam Hussein for the first time since its ouster by the US-led coalition in April. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



France Rules Out Sending Troops to Iraq: "France's president Tuesday ruled out sending French troops to Iraq, following India and Germany in rejecting U.S. calls for help without approval from the United Nations. (AP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Roadside Blast Kills U.S. Soldier: "A powerful explosion targeted a military supply convoy moving along the main highway west of Baghdad, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding two others, soldiers at the scene said."

In CBS News: Iraq Crisis



Senate Dems Use Bill to Criticize Bush: "Senate Republicans braced for a continued faceoff with Democrats trying to use a multibillion Pentagon funding bill to criticize President Bush's handling of Iraq and the war on terrorism. (AP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Only 22 Pounds of Low-Grade Iraqi Uranium Dispersed-UN: "The United Nations nuclear watchdog saidon Wednesday it had accounted for most of the looted nuclearmaterial at Iraq's main nuclear facility, but at least 22pounds of low-grade uranium may have been dispersed. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq