Iraq War News

It's been a weekend of reunions and emotions for many Tri-state soldiers and their loved ones.
In less than 24-hours more than 230-members of the 478th Engineering Battalion of the U.S. Army Reserves have returned home from active duty in Iraq to a heroes' welcome.

Busloads of soldiers rolled into town Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

One of those returning was Army specialist Robert Martin, who has been gone for six months, and is back just in time for a wedding next weekend.

If the soldiers had any doubt about how much they were missed, the "welcome home" signs and celebrations all over the Tri-state should erase that doubt.

The 478th Battalion is stationed in Ft. Thomas and on Sunday the city of Ft. Thomas will hold a "welcome home" parade for the soldiers at noon.




478th Battalion Returns To A Heroes Welcome

"We're always looking for Saddam and it's just a matter of time," said Major Josslyn Aberle, the 4th Infantry Division's spokesman. "We've got the remnants of the former regime on the run. They know they can't stay in one place for more than an hour or two, so it's just a matter of time, whether it's the 4th Infantry Division, or the 101st, or the other coalition partners, before we get him."

Telegraph | News | Hunters close in on tired and lonely tyrant

U.S. Military Captures Hussein Bodyguards in Raid Outside Tikrit in IraqWar.ru (English)



Informant's family faces the daily fear of reprisals in IraqWar.ru (English)



Hutton inquiry hearings will not be televised in IraqWar.ru (English)



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Key questions for Lord Hutton in IraqWar.ru (English)



We did not threaten Kelly, says MoD in IraqWar.ru (English)



COALITION HELPS WITH CLEANUP AND SANITATION in CENTCOM: News Release



COALITION ESTABLISHED AERIAL GUNNERY RANGE in CENTCOM: News Release

Facts and figures on the Philippines:

* GEOGRAPHY: Pacific archipelago of 7,107 islands 600 miles southeast of China. Tropical climate.

* POPULATION: More than 76 million. Most descendants of migrants from Southeast Asia and Indonesia; large ethnic Chinese minority.

* RELIGION: About 84 percent Roman Catholic; others mostly Protestant, Muslim, animist.

* LANGUAGE: Filipino, Malay language based on Tagalog; English, second official language, widely used in business and government.

* HISTORY: Spanish colony from 1521 to 1898, when U.S. Navy defeated Spainish fleet at Manila Bay. Americans crushed Filipino rebels in six-year war. Japan occupied islands in World War II. Independence granted in 1946.

* RECENT POLITICAL UNREST: Dictator Ferdinand Marcos ousted by popular protests in 1986. Several failed coup attempts against President Corazon Aquino in late 1980s by military officers complaining about corruption. President Joseph Estrada forced from office on Jan. 20, 2001, by mass protests over corruption allegations.

Newsday.com - Philippines Facts and Figures

Four U.S soldiers charged with abusing POWs
Last Updated Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:52:46
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has charged four U.S. soldiers of abusing prisoners at a U.S.-run prisoner of war camp in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Saturday.

The soldiers were accused of punching, kicking and breaking bones of Iraqi prisoners at Camp Bucca.

The soldiers, charged this month, are the first U.S. troops known to face charges of abusing prisoners during the Iraq conflict.

U.S. soldiers said they acted in self-defence when some of the 44 Iraqi prisoners being transferred to the camp resisted arrest and had to be wrestled to the ground on May 12.

The four soldiers have not been jailed but have been given restricted duties. They've been separated from each other and assigned to a base in Kuwait, away from the rest of their unit.

Family members said they are worried about the stress on the four soldiers.

"If one of them commits suicide, if one of them gets killed, somebody has to answer for that," said a mother of one of the accused.

Some released Iraqi prisoners have complained of being kept in tightly bound plastic handcuffs and blasted with loud music and strobe lights.

A military proceeding will be conducted to decide whether a court-martial is in order.



Written by CBC News Online staff
CBC News: Four U.S soldiers charged with abusing POWs

Three US soldiers killed in grenade attack: "Three US soldiers guarding a children's hospital in Iraq have been killed and four were wounded in a grenade attack."

In Ananova: War In Iraq



COALITION ESTABLISHED AERIAL GUNNERY RANGE in CENTCOM: News Release



COALITION FORCES CONFISCATE WEAPONS in CENTCOM: News Release

3 U.S. troops die in Iraq grenade attack: "A grenade attack killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four Saturday while they guarded a children's hospital in Baqouba, a town northeast of Baghdad."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Shelling kills 3, injures 55 in Liberia: "Besieged residents of Liberia's capital came under new, deadly shelling Saturday, with a mortar slamming into a church harboring thousands of refugees, killing at least three and wounding about 55 others."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Memorial today for slain NYC councilman: "A Saturday memorial during an anti-violence rally was scheduled for Councilman James Davis, who was gunned down earlier this week by an aspiring rival politician in City Hall. In the evening, a candlelight vigil also was planned for the slain Democratic incumbent."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



N. Korea warns of war amid high tensions: "The Korean War ended 50 years ago, yet tensions remain high amid suspicion that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons. In a reminder of uneasiness along the world's most heavily armed border, the communist country Saturday warned of a new war."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Israel offers more to Palestinians: "A top Palestinian official expressed hope Saturday that Israel's easing of restrictions on movement by Palestinians is a first step toward faster implementation of the "road map" peace plan."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Bush campaign manager warns of drop: "President Bush's solid poll ratings will drop, his re-election campaign manager says, warning Republican activists against complacency in the 2004 race."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Hundreds hurt in Japanese earthquakes: "Three powerful earthquakes knocked out power grids, collapsed buildings and set off mudslides across northern Japan on Saturday. At least 268 people were hurt - suffering mostly minor injuries - and several hundred people were evacuated."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Wildfire threatens town near Glacier Park: "Three wildfires burning in Glacier National Park have chased away thousands of park visitors, with concern now centering on one blaze threatening a nearby town. In Washington state, meanwhile, a helicopter pilot died fighting flames on an Indian reservation."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press



Armstrong begins decisive time trial: "Lance Armstrong set off under driving rain Saturday in a time trial that was expected to determine whether he will win a record-tying fifth straight Tour de France."

In JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press

Posted on Sat, Jul. 26, 2003

U.S.: Arrests, tips closing noose on Saddam
By John Daniszewski
Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials said they captured up to 10 of Saddam Hussein's bodyguards Friday, further boosting their confidence that after tracking down his two sons earlier in the week a deluge of new would-be informants and tips will lead them to the former dictator himself.

The arrests Friday near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, could yield vital recent information about his movements. Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, said it was a sign of Saddam's dwindling chances to evade capture.

``We continue to gain more and more information about where he might be,'' the general said during a teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon.

The way his sons Uday and Qusay died Tuesday -- barricaded in a residence in Mosul with only one bodyguard and Qusay's 14-year-old son -- also is indicative of Saddam's troubles, said officials of the U.S.-led occupation force.

It underscored how vulnerable and alone Saddam is likely to be, said Chris Harvin, a spokesman for the occupation authority in Baghdad. With the deaths of his sons, and the arrest last month of his closest personal aide, Abid Hamad Mahmoud al-Tikriti, Saddam has fewer and fewer people on whom he can rely.

``When we get Saddam, you're going to see the same thing: He's going to be alone in a house,'' Harvin predicted. ``Somebody is going to sell him out. Somebody is going to turn him in.''

The corpses of Uday and Qusay were put on display for journalists Friday, one day after they were shown to members of the new Iraqi governing council.

To allay doubts among some members of the Iraqi public that the two were indeed dead, the faces had been shorn of the beards the men had grown, apparently to disguise themselves. Uday's face was also reconstructed by sewing up a wound that had smashed his nose and distorted his features, so that it more closely resembled the way he looked in life.

The coalition's decision to show the bodies carried an implicit message for Iraqis, Harvin said: ``It says we're helping you. We're making progress. No. 1 is next, and we're going to get him.''

A secretive unit, Task Force 20, drawn from the U.S. military's Delta Force and the CIA, has led the hunt for Saddam as well as other remaining senior regime officials. Shortly after Uday and Qusay died in a fierce gunbattle at the house in Mosul, members of the task force went through the building. They took away documents, computers and personal belongings of the occupants.

In addition to Task Force 20, each of the military divisions in the country has its own intelligence unit, developing Iraqi sources and interrogating the hundreds of prisoners swept up in raids on suspected Baath party loyalists.

Besides the arrests of the bodyguards, soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division seized a large weapons cache in a house and three adjacent bunkers near Samarra, a mainly Sunni city south of Tikrit on the Tigris River that is divided between pro-Saddam and anti-Saddam factions.

The weapons found in one bunker included AK-47 rifles, 42 sniper rifles, 21 submachine guns, seven machine guns, 42 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 152 rocket-propelled grenade rounds and 45,000 sticks of dynamite.

Odierno said both the weapons find and the arrest in a house south of Tikrit of Saddam's bodyguards were based on tips that have poured in from ordinary Iraqis, and which have intensified since Uday and Qusay were killed. Of the 13 people detained, he said, about five to 10 were Saddam's personal bodyguards.

A former head of Iraqi military intelligence, Wafiq Samarrai, was quoted in the British paper the Independent saying that Saddam has been seen in the Balad-Baquba farming area north of Baghdad, where U.S. forces have frequently been attacked.

Retired Lt. Gen. Shakur Mahmoud, mayor of Samarra, told the Los Angeles Times that Saddam was seen in his area about two weeks ago.

In addition to U.S. forces hunting for Saddam, Samarrai and several political parties that have returned from exile also have intelligence operations. And the country's new governing council decided last week in favor of creating a civil militia that would assist the U.S. Army with intelligence-gathering.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Alissa Rubin in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Welcome to the Mercury News on Bayarea.com

Final letter gives widow some solace



By JOHN DIEDRICH- THE GAZETTE

Kim Byers received a letter from her husband, Josh, on Wednesday, the same day he was killed in Iraq. At first, the letter lay unopened. But when she was able to read it, the letter comforted her. It told of her husband’s Fourth of July, when his unit held chicken races with birds they bought from local Iraqis.

"It was a good Fourth of July, a good time for the soldiers. It was as good as it could be for them," Kim Byers said Friday.

"It was very uplifting because he has so much faith in God. He mentioned God’s plan is always perfect. He said, ‘There is a reason we are going through what we are going through now. We will know that plan later.’"

Byers, 29, a captain and commander of Fox Troop, 2 nd Squadron, 3 rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, died when his convoy was attacked on a highway outside Ramadi.

A large explosive device blew up under the Humvee he was riding in. The blast, triggered by attackers hiding nearby, was heard miles away.

Another Fort Carson soldier was injured in the blast and was in serious condition.

An impeccable soldier and deeply religious man, Byers lifted fellow soldiers’ spirits in Iraq with his smile and easygoing nature.

"He was universally loved in the squadron," said Lt. Col. Toby Green, Byers’ former commander who is back in Colorado Springs. "All I can say is Josh was a great pick-me-up all the time."

Josh Byers was the oldest of three boys born to Baptist missionaries Lloyd and Mary Byers.

The family moved from South Carolina to Sparks, Nev., inhis teen years. Lloyd and Mary Byers oversaw a church in Sparks.

Beau Elsfelder of Sparks met Byers in a bookkeeping class when they realized they both liked Christian rock. They soon became inseparable.

"He was the best friend a guy could ask for. He would do anything you would ask. He was very loyal. He was just a good guy," Elsfelder said.

Elsfelder credited Byers for getting him to go to church and helping him create a strong bond with God.

The pair also goofed off a lot, making videos with a handheld camera. They did skits, playing off "Saturday Night Live," and lip-synched songs.

Byers graduated from West Point in 1996 and earned his Ranger tab the next year.

In December 1998, he married Kim, whose father also is a Baptist minister.

They moved to Colorado Springs two years ago. Byers was the aide to Maj. Gen. Charles Campbell, then Fort Carson’s commander, before he moved to the regiment in October.

When Josh Byers left for Iraq, he told his mother not to worry.

"He kept saying, ‘Mom, the worst will be over when I get there,’ " Mary Byers said.

When Fort Carson soldiers arrived in Iraq, they found a more dangerous mission than many expected.

As the squadron’s plans officer, Byers mapped out many of the missions because higherranking commanders often were on patrols or stationed with other troops, an extraordinary responsibility for a captain, Green said.

June 13, Byers took command of Fox Troop, a tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle unit of 140 soldiers.

Kim Byers said her husband’s morale lifted. He cherished being "Fox Six."

"In every letter he would write about how much he loved command," she said. "It was his dream. It was what he felt he was born for.

"He would say, ‘I love my soldiers. I would do anything for them.’ "

A service for Josh Byers is scheduled at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Carson.

Contributions can be made to the Byers’ family at any Academy Bank, Air Academy National Bank or Armed Forces Bank location.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0110 or

diedrich@gazette.com

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3 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Grenade Attack
5 minutes ago

By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers were killed guarding a children's hospital in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, and four were wounded in a grenade attack Saturday morning.


The deaths of the soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division brought to 161 the number of troops killed in action in Iraq (news - web sites) since the start of the war, 14 more than in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).


The killings marred what had been a quiet day in Iraq, as residents debated the authenticity of video images of the bodies of Odai and Qusai Hussein released Friday by U.S. authorities in a continuing effort to convince Iraqis the brothers were dead.


There had been a number of explosions and bursts of gunfire in the city throughout the day, but no reports of soldiers injured or killed. Guerrilla-style attacks on American forces have been averaging 12 a day, according to the military.


Gunfire and explosions are common in Baghdad during the night, and the military had no details Saturday morning. There were also reports that shots were fired along the main highway leading to the northern city of Mosul, where Odai and Qusai were killed Tuesday, but further information was not immediately available.


In Baghdad's al-Shoala neighborhood, the commander of Iraq's national police academy was wounded in a raid against suspected hijackers, police told The Associated Press.


Iraq. Brig. Ahmed Kadhim, 56, was shot around 1 a.m. while leading a police raid, said his assistant, Capt. Mushtak Fadhil.


He said several Iraqi police were trying to arrest five suspected hijackers when shots were fired. None of the police were killed but Kadhim was shot in the right calf and taken to a hospital. Five other policemen were wounded, one critically.


Fadhil said five suspected hijackers were arrested.


Baghdadis have complained that kidnappings, car thefts and carjackings are getting worse in the city, which is patrolled by Iraqi police, many carrying sidearms. There are about 60 police stations.


Meanwhile, Iraqis questioned whether videotape of Saddam Hussein 's elder sons — whose reconstructed faces were covered in morticians' makeup — would convince people of their deaths.


The bodies were displayed to journalists Friday. While the Baghdad newspaper Azzaman wrote about the corpses, it pointed out that few Iraqi journalists were allowed to see the brothers.


The hunt for their father intensified Friday with the arrests of 13 men believed to include some of Saddam's bodyguards in a raid near the former leader's hometown, Tikrit.


"We continue to tighten the noose," said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. U.S. officials have expressed hope that the killings of Odai and Qusai would weaken the anti-American resistance and lead coalition forces to Saddam himself.


Arab satellite media and CNN broadcast images of the brother's bodies throughout Iraq and the Arab world after journalists viewed them Friday. The corpses appeared markedly changed from the autopsy-style photographs released a day earlier.


The thick beards — grown, officials said, during 3 1/2 months on the run — were now shaved and trimmed, their faces rebuilt and a gash gone from the face of the body identified as Odai.


The display appeared to be a calculated gamble by coalition authorities, who may have produced more convincing evidence but also offended Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere by altering the bodies and delaying burial.





"Showing dead and deformed bodies on TV is not acceptable," protested Amer Ahmed al-Azawi, a 55-year-old Baghdad merchant. "But the Americans are criminals and unbelievers. We got rid of one tyrant and we ended up with a bigger one."

Hamza Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front in neighboring Jordan, said the display violated Islamic custom.

"The bodies of Odai and Qusai should have been washed, shrouded and buried immediately, but the Americans have no respect for our traditions and doctrine and they acted in a very unethical manner," he said.

U.S. officials say Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, were killed Tuesday in a gunbattle with U.S. troops, who raided a villa in the northern city of Mosul, directed there by an Iraqi tipster. Two other Iraqis in the house also were killed, apparently a bodyguard and Qusai's teenage son Mustafa.

Using dental and medical records and the serial and model number of a steel plate in Odai's left leg, U.S. medical personnel said they were sure the men were Saddam's sons.

Results of the DNA testing at a military lab in Washington could be completed as soon as next week. A final report on the deaths is expected in about six weeks, the medical personnel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.




Yahoo! News - 3 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Grenade Attack

WEAPONS CACHE FOUND in CENTCOM: News Release



Key Iraq Role For James Baker?: "President Bush is trying to convince the former secretary of state, now 73, to take charge of the economic and physical rebuilding of Iraq, the Washington Post reports. The administration is weighting a major overhaul of its postwar plans."

In CBS News: Iraq Crisis



Iran names judge to probe woman's death: "Iran has named a veteran judge to lead an independent inquiry into the death of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in police custody, the prosecutor's office said Friday - the second major investigation of the case in two weeks."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Cleric vows to drive U.S. troops out: "A Shiite Muslim cleric whose radical movement was left out of the Governing Council set up by the United States to run Iraq vowed Friday to rally his young followers and form a religious army to drive American troops from Najaf - the country's holiest Shiite city."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Six of Iraq's 34 Remaining Jews Immigrate to Israel: "Six of Iraq's 34 known remaining Jewsimmigrated to Israel on Friday, the first members of the tinycommunity in Baghdad to do so since the U.S.-led invasion, anIsraeli immigration official said. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Israel to transfer 2 West Bank cities: "Israel announced on Friday it would transfer two more West Bank cities to Palestinian control and shut down three roadblocks, moving ahead cautiously with a U.S.-backed peace plan as the Palestinian premier met with President George W. Bush in Washington."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq