There were so many military actions during this period that to report all of them would require to many pages. Only the main ones will be mentioned here, some more details can be found in Annex 11.

Insurgent attacks:
2004
Total attacks: 26496
Improvised bombs: 5607
Car bombings: 420
Suicide car bombings: 133
Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 7
2005
Total attacks: 34131
Improvised bombs: 10593
Car bombings: 873
Suicide car bombings: 411
Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests: 67

The Americans, and especially their president, boasted that as a result of the "surge" at the beginning of 2007 in the number of US soldiers in Iraq (20 to 25,000) the situation has improved quite a lot. These are the facts:
- March 23, an US soldier was killed in the Ambar province and another one by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
- March 25, four US soldiers were killed by a bomb in the Diyala province and another by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
- March 27, 152 Iraqis were killed by a truck bomb in Tal Afar and a US soldier was killed in Baghdad's Green Zone.
- March 28, off-duty Shia policemen executed 45 men.
- March 29, three attacks in Khalis killed 53 Iraqis, 62 more were killed by a suicide bomber on northern Baghdad and a roadside bomb killed a US soldier.
- April 1, a British soldier was killed and another wounded in Basra while six US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southwestern Baghdad.
- April 2, a British soldier was shot dead in Basra, two US soldiers and a Marine are killed in the Ambar province and another US soldier was killed by a truck bomb in Kirkuk.
- April 3, a US soldier was killed by small arms in southern Baghdad.
- April 4, four British soldiers -including two women- were killed by a roadside bomb in Basra.

Is this such an improvement as Bush would like us to believe?

An Afghan army soldier shot dead two US soldiers at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul on May 6, 2007. Here are the latest figures for foreign military deaths in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001:
United States 388
Canada 54
Britain 54
Spain 20
Germany 18
Other nations 39
TOTAL: 573
Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and violence is increasing this year. More than 4,000 people were killed in fighting in 2006, a quarter of them civilians and more than 170 of them foreign soldiers.

A. The Americans
The body of an American pilot was found on May 3, 2005, during a search for two missing US Marine warplanes in Iraq. Contact was lost with the two F/A-18 Hornet aircraft on Monday night during a sandstorm, including heavy rain, thunder and lightning, which hit Baghdad and other parts of central Iraq. As the search continued on Tuesday, the US military would not say if either of the two F/A-18 Hornet aircraft had been found, whether the located body had been recovered, or how many servicemen had been aboard the two warplanes.

The US military ended its weeklong offensive near the Syrian border over Saturday May 14, 2005, saying it had successfully "neutralized" an insurgent sanctuary and killed more than 125 militants. Many more suspected insurgents were wounded and 39 with "intelligence value" were detained. Nine US Marines were killed and 40 injured during the campaign known as Operation Matador.

On Monday May 23, 2005, we were told that the US wants to build four big and permanent military bases in Iraq. Their excuse is that they will allow the American soldiers to give the control of the towns and cities to the Afghans but many people there are afraid that they will be permanent bases and that the occupation of Iraq will last for ever, like the imprisonment of the so-called terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. The Americans say that this is not the case and that they will be given to the Afghan soldiers when the country is safe so they can leave. Who trust them these days?

An American helicopter crashed on May 25, 2005, north of Baghdad after coming under small arms fire. There was no immediate word on the number aboard or their condition but they are probably dead. Two Task Force Liberty helicopters were hit by ground fire while conducting operations in support of coalition forces near Baquba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. One, an OH-58 Kiowa, landed safely at nearby base after sustaining damage. The other crashed.

On June 9, 2005,we were told that the American military authorities have been talking to some so-called representatives of the Sunnite guerrillas for a few months. The talks took place in Jordan but so far have not been successful. The Sunnite want a higher representation (13 have been attributed to them but they want at least 25); they insist on a calendar, guarantee by the UN, detailing the date all the foreign troops will leave Iraq; the liberation of many prisoners including some people of the old regime; the reintegration in the army and the police of the former members thrown out by the Americans in May 2003; the possibility for the Baath party to participate in the Iraqi political game; they insist that the security forces should be recruited locally in each region; they insist that Iraq should remain a strong centrally run state. Of course, some of these requests, if not most, are unacceptable to the Americans. The Iraqis rejected an American proposal that their troops should leave all the town and cities by September 15, 2005, to regroup in four big military bases covering the whole country. On the opposite, the Iraqis want all the foreign troops to leave their country including all the American soldiers. It is not certain that the Iraqis who participated to the discussions are really representatives of the insurgents. What is certain is that they do not represent Zarqawi and Assar al-Sunna's forces.

On Saturday July 9, 2005, we were told that about 600 US Marines and Iraqi soldiers have launched a fourth counterinsurgency operation in less than a month in a volatile western province in Iraq, this time near Falluja. Operation Scimitar started Thursday with targeted raids in the village of Zaidan, 20 miles southeast of Falluja. So far, 22 suspected insurgents had been detained.

On July 11, 2005, American forces have captured a key operative in the organisation of Iraq's al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Aziz. Monday's capture of Abu Abd Al-Aziz, whom he called Zarqawi's 'main leader in Baghdad', was "going to hurt that operation of Zarqawi's pretty significantly." Al-Aziz was picked up 'on the battlefield'.

Despite pouring more than $9 billion into rebuilding Iraq over the past two years, the United States has only made limited progress in key areas such as oil and power we were told on August 1, 2005. Rebuilding Iraq is seen by the Bush administration as a major foreign policy priority; but three US government reports released this week indicate ambitious reconstruction goals are falling short. Soaring security costs are a major stumbling.

On August 2, 2005, we were told that hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on unnecessary and overpriced equipment for Iraq's new army at a time when the United States and its allies are struggling to get the force in shape to battle insurgents, Iraqi officials say. Iraqi authorities have opened inquiries into several cases of possible corruption at the Defence Ministry. The ministry official believed behind most of the questionable deals was removed from his job in June and banned from leaving the country.

On August 2, 2005, a US freelance reporter, Steven Vincent, has been shot dead by unknown gunmen in Basra. Mr Vincent was abducted with his female Iraqi translator at gunpoint by men in a police car. His bullet-riddled body was found on the side of a highway south of the city a few hours later. He had been writing a book about the city, where insurgents have recently stepped up their attacks. The girl was wounded but she is alive.

Insurgents blew up a US assault vehicle in western Iraq on Wednesday August 3, 2005, killing 14 American marines and a civilian interpreter. It is the deadliest roadside bomb attack against American forces since the war began. The roadside bomb exploded under a marine amphibious assault vehicle as it was travelling south of Haditha, a town on the Euphrates river about 200 km northwest of Baghdad. One marine was wounded.

About 1,000 US Marines and Iraqi forces launched attacks in western Iraq on Friday August 5, 2005. The operation Quick Strike started Wednesday with Iraqi soldiers and Marines positioning their units. They focused on an area centred around the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniya, and Parwana, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad. On Friday, US and Iraqi troops, including Special Operations forces, moved into the city of Haqlaniya. US jets conducted an air strike on insurgents hiding in buildings outside of the town. Residents in the area said US and Iraqi forces had cordoned off Haqlaniyah, and began conducting house-to-house searches. Abrams tank fired at "rebels" armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades south of Haqlaniya while other tanks fired on another building.

In a classified briefing to senior Pentagon officials last month, the top American commander in the Middle East outlined a plan that would gradually reduce US forces in Iraq by perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 troops next spring, three senior military officers and US Defence Department officials said.

The United States expects to increase its troop levels in Iraq this fall to bolster security for the planned October constitutional referendum and December elections for a new government, the Pentagon said on Monday August 8, 2005.

The US military is trying to determine if more than 1,500 gallons of chemicals found this week at an abandoned storage site in northern Iraq were being used to make weapons, a military spokesman told CNN on Saturday August 13, 2005. The chemicals are commonly used for industrial purposes, but could potentially be combined to produce weapons. It is not yet known if the site, which appeared to have been abandoned six weeks ago, was a chemical weapons facility.

A Reuters cameraman remained in US military custody in Baghdad on Tuesday August 30, 2005, two days after surviving an incident in which his soundman was shot dead, apparently by US troops. US officers said they were continuing to question Haider Kadhem, 24, about "inconsistencies" in his statements after he was taken from the car in which soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots while on a news assignment. Iraqi police said US troops fired on the Reuters team, both Iraqis. Reuters has demanded the immediate release of the cameraman, who arrived in Baghdad from his home in the southern city of Samarra only last week. The international news agency has said it sees no reason to detain a victim and witness in the shooting. Kadhem was treated for minor wounds from flying fragments. Security experts who examined the scene said all the shots appeared to have been fired from the same spot, corresponding to the roof of a building overlooking the highway bridge where the car was hit. Kadhem told colleagues who spoke to him briefly after the shooting that he saw a US soldier on that rooftop.

US forces said they had killed a known al-Qaida militant in western Iraq on Tuesday August 30, 2005, in air strikes, which a hospital official said, had killed 47 people. US warplanes launched three waves of strikes near the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border. A hospital official in Qaim, Mohammed al-Aani, told Reuters 35 people had died in a strike on one house and another 12 in a second house. It was not immediately clear how many of the 47 might have been militants. The US military said in a statement it had carried out three separate strikes, initially dropping four bombs on a house in Qusayba, near Qaim, referred to by the military as Husayba.

The US military confirmed on Thursday September 1, 2005, that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was "appropriate". Describing Sunday's incident, when television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots, Major General Rick Lynch said: "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious. There were individuals hanging outside with what looked to be a weapon. Reuters cameraman Haider Kadhem, 24, like Waleed an Iraqi, was slightly wounded by flying fragments but survived in the passenger seat of the car, only to be detained for the next three days by US troops. Kadhem was using a small video camera. Reuters rejected any suggestion that the killing of Waleed was justified.

US and Iraqi forces put pressure on suspected insurgents in the town of Tal Afar on Friday September 9, 2005, as Iraq's prime minister vowed to restore order a day after the US military threatened an all-out attack. Tal Afar, a northern Iraqi town whose population is mostly ethnic Turkmen, is seen by the United States as a stronghold of rebellion. US and Iraqi troops have been battling insurgents there for several days and said they had killed 7 on Wednesday. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani warned against an early withdrawal of US forces from Iraq but said troops can be reduced gradually over the next two years.

Iraq says a major operation is under way on September 9, 2005, to try to retake the northern town of Tal afar from insurgents. US and Iraqi troops swept through the town, smashing walls with armoured vehicles and engaging in gun battles. The Americans believe foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria are using the town as a staging post. Iraq's defence minister said 144 rebels had been killed in Tal afar in the past two days. He said his forces were ready to strike rebels in four other towns.

The US could withdraw up to 50,000 of its troops from Iraq by the end of the year, Iraq's president said on September 13, 2005. President Talabani said the possible pullout was prompted by the progress made in preparing Iraq's own forces. Mr Talabani is in Washington for talks with President Bush, in which he said troops reduction would be discussed.

When American troops entered Baghdad in April 2003, hordes of looters rushed into the Iraq Museum, repository of the world's greatest collection of Mesopotamian antiquities, and stripped the place while our GIs were busily pulling down Saddam statues for CNN. The truth is a bit more elusive. About 15,000 objects were stolen, not 170,000 as first reported. Some objects were irretrievably damaged, but nearly half those stolen have since been recovered.

About 1,000 US troops, backed by helicopters and warplanes, swept into Sadah, a village near the Syrian border Saturday Octobre 1, 2005. US aircraft firing missiles struck houses and cars, sending palls of smoke into the sky. Marines and insurgents clashed in the streets. The US military said the Iraqi al-Qaida had taken control of Sadah and foreign fighters were using it as a way station as they enter from Syria to join the insurgency. The assault was the fourth large US offensive in the border area since May.

On October 6, 2005, US senators have voted overwhelmingly -by 90-9 in favour of the motion- to outlaw cruel or degrading treatment of detainees held in US custody abroad. The motion was opposed by the White House that said it would be restrictive, and limit its fight against terrorism.

US forces said on October 16, 2005, they are holding the man who helped Iraqi insurgents evade capture by changing their appearance. Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi, known as "The Barber", and another man were arrested on 24 September in Baghdad. The other, Ibrahim Muhammad Subhi Khayri al-Rihawi, was a "close associate" of Abu Azzam, al-Qaida's second in command in Iraq. Abu Azzam, the top aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed by US forces in the Iraqi capital a day or two later.

The White House set up a secret group to market a war in Iraq in August 2002, seven months before the March 2003 invasion the media told us on Sunday October 16, 2005. The group had eight members, including Karl Rove, the top political adviser to President George W. Bush, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and then presidential security adviser Condoleezza Rice and others.

On Wednesday October 19, 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not rule out American forces will still be in Iraq 10 years from now. Pushed by senators from both parties to define the limits of US involvement in Iraq and the Middle East, Rice also declined to rule out the use of military force in Iran or Syria, although the administration prefers diplomacy.

President George W. Bush's envoy to Iraq predicted on Wednesday October 26, 2005, that some US troops may be pulled out of Iraq next year. Bush has always refused to set any timetable for when troops might come home. But US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad offered a glimmer of a possible timetable now that the approval of Iraq's constitution has set the stage for elections in December.

A military investigator has recommended on November 1, 2005, that a US soldier face a court martial over charges he murdered two of his superiors while serving in Iraq. Colonel Patrick Reinert said he had reasonable cause to believe Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez, 38, killed his colleagues in a personal vendetta. Captain Phillip Esposito, 30, and Lieutenant Louis Allen, 34, died in a blast in Tikrit on 7 June.

On November 3, 2005, witnesses said a weapon fired at a US AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter that crashed in Iraq. The information suggested hostile fire was to blame for yesterday's crash near Ramadi that killed two Marine pilots. A US warplane later dropped two 500-pound bombs on a suspected insurgent base near the site of the crash in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. Al-Qaidaa in Iraq said it shot down a US attack helicopter that crashed, killing two Marines.

About 3,500 US and Iraqi troops backed by war jets launched a major attack Saturday November 5, 2005, against an insurgent-held town near the Syrian border used as a route for foreign fighters entering the country. The town of Husayba is the key to controlling the volatile Euphrates River valley of western Iraq and dislodging al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The US-led force includes about 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, and the offensive will serve as a major test of their capability to battle the insurgents. Explosions shook Husayba early Saturday as US Marines and Iraqi scouts, recruited from pro-government tribes from the area, fought their way into western neighbourhoods of the town. US jets launched at least nine air strikes. The US command said there were no reports of casualties among American or Iraqi government forces.

Three more US troops had been killed in Iraq on November 5, 2005. One soldier was killed by small-arms fire south of Baghdad, and another died the same day when the vehicle in his patrol was hit by a mine near Habaniya, 50 miles west of the capital. Another soldier was killed in a traffic accident in southern Iraq.

US and Iraqi forces are fighting suspected insurgents house-to-house in Husayba, a town near Iraq's border with Syria, in a major new offensive on November 7, 2005. 36 insurgents and one US marine had been killed in the operation so far. Medics working in the area said a similar number of civilians had died, and thousands had fled their homes. Sunni Muslim politicians have criticised the operation, in the largely Sunni province of Anbar. They say it will damage the chances of national reconciliation and cause more suffering to Iraqi people.

On November 8, 2005, Italian state TV, Rai, broadcasted a documentary accusing the US military of using white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Iraqi city of Falluja. Rai added this amounts to the illegal use of chemical arms, though the bombs are considered incendiary devices. Eyewitnesses and ex-US soldiers said the weapon was used in built-up areas in the insurgent-held city. The US military denies this, but admits using white phosphorus bombs in Iraq to illuminate battlefields. Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.

On November 9, 2005, US and Iraqi forces announced they had secured the town of Husayba on the Syrian border. Some 3,500 troops have taken part in Operation Steel Curtain targeting insurgents along the Euphrates valley. The aim of the operation was to seal off a main route for foreign fighters entering western Iraq.

On a surprise visit to Iraq on November 11, 2005, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Iraqis to consider ethnic and religious differences a strength, not a weakness. Ms Rice arrived amid heavy security, her visit kept secret until she landed in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. Ms Rice met Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and was briefed by US officials on security progress ahead of elections scheduled for 15 December.

About 2,500 US and Iraqi troops launched a joint operation on November 30, 2005, near Hit, west of Baghdad.

On December 8, 2005, US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that 20,000 US soldiers should come home after the December 15 parliamentary elections in Iraq. Some of the remaining 137,000 soldiers could begin to come home next year if the situation in Iraq allows it.

On December 22, 2005, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfelt on a secret visit to Iraq hinted that the number of US troops in Iraq would soon be reduced below 138,000. Now there are more than 160,000 US troops there.

On December 23, 2005, Donald Rumsfeld hinted that the number of US soldiers in Iraq could be reduced to about 130,000. Now they are 160,000 soldiers but 22,000 were send to help security during the constitution referendum and the parliamentary elections. The core number could be reduced -if the conditions on the spot allow it- from 138,000 to 130,000.

On December 24, 2005, US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, served Christmas Eve dinner to dozens of US soldiers in Iraq. He told them that he was optimistic that they were winning the war but that they will stay in sufficient number until the Iraqis can control their country.

On December 25, 2005, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Peter Pace, said that the number of US troops in Iraq could increase, and not decrease, if the insurgency continues. This statement seems to contradict what President Bush and Defence Secretary Rumsfeld said just days before

On January 6, 2006, we were told that the US troops had not the right body armour to protect them against roadside bombs. And the Pentagon knew about it for a long time but did not do anything about to protect their soldiers. Probably it costs too much! Quite a few lives could have been saved.

On January 5, 2006, 11 US soldiers were killed in Iraq. The death of five soldiers was already reported but 6 more died the same day. Is that victory? Two of these six soldiers were killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb, two US Marines died in Falluja by small arms and one Marine and a soldier died in the Ramadi attack. Moreover an Iraqi police patrol found the bodies of 10 civilians about 20 miles southeast of Baghdad.

On Sunday January 8, 2006, a US Army Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter Crashed near the northern town of Tal Afar in Iraq killing the four-crew members and 8 passengers. It is not clear if they were all military personnel. It is not known either if it was an accident or if the insurgents hit it. The US has recorded more than 20 accidents with helicopters in Iraq killing at least 144 US personnel. On January 9 we were told that there were 8 US troops and 4 American civilians in the craft.

According the US newspapers and televisions nothing happened in Iraq on January 10 and 11,2006. True?

Another helicopter crashed in Mosul, Iraq on January 13, 2006 killing the two pilots. The OH-54 Kiowa reconnaissance helicopter was probably shot down by the insurgents.

On January 20, 2006, the Pentagon said that they passed a contract to supply their soldiers in Iraq with better ceramic body armour that should reduce the number of casualties.

The ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and the cameraman Doug Vogt were wounded by a roadside bomb on Sunday January 29, 2006. Both were badly hurt but their condition is stable after being operated.

Seven US soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq on Wednesday February 22, 2006, when roadside bombs struck the vehicles in which they were travelling. Four US soldiers were killed in the Iraqi town of Hawiya while on patrol. Three US soldiers were killed near the Iraqi town of Balad when their vehicle struck another roadside bomb. The deaths bring to 2,287 the number of US troops who have died in Iraq since the US-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The US military on Friday extended a major attack on insurgent strongholds near Samara that started on Thursday March 16, 2006, in what the Pentagon described as the largest air assault since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The assault -which is expected to last several days- was directed at insurgents in an area north-east of Samarra. The air attacks came the day the new Iraqi parliament briefly convened for the first time. Operation Swarmer, involving Iraqi and coalition forces, with some 1500 troops and 50 aircraft - apparently recovering a number of weapons caches and IED making materials near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces will control about 75 percent of Iraq by the end of summer, up from under 50 percent now, Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, a senior US commander, said on Friday March 17, 2006, as the United States turns over more responsibilities to allow a reduction of its forces. Iraqi forces, currently number about 240,000.Chiarelli said Iraqi forces now controlled "somewhere under 50 percent" of Iraq.

US and Iraqi forces have spent a second day hunting for insurgents in villages and fields north of the capital Baghdad on March 17, 2006. Completing the second day of Operation Swarmer, US and Iraqi soldiers seized mortar rounds, rockets, explosives, and high-powered cordless telephones used to remotely detonate roadside bombs. They have not encountered any insurgents. The US military says while 48 people had been detained but no insurgents had so far been found. About 900 Iraqi and US troops are scouring villages and fields around the city of Samarra, which is regarded as an insurgent stronghold. A spokesman for the US military said it was difficult to differentiate between insurgents and the local community (luce! Luce!).

On March 21, 2006, Army General John Abizaid, who oversees US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as head of Central Command, has agreed to keep the job at least another year at the request of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. General Abizaid, 54, is responsible for about 250,000 troops in the 25-nation Central Command region stretching from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia, spanning much of the Middle East.

President Bush denied on March 21, 2006, that Iraq was in a state of civil war but refused to say whether he thought that American troops could be withdrawn by the time he wraps up his second term in the White House in 2009. The President was asked whether there will come a day when there would be no more US soldiers in Iraq. He replied: "That is an objective. That will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

A US military helicopter crashed Saturday April 1, 2006, during a "combat air patrol" southwest of Baghdad, but the status of the crew was unknown. It was the first loss of a US helicopter since three of them crashed in a 10-day period in January, killing a total of 18 American military personnel. At least two of the helicopters were shot down.
The US command also said a Marine was killed Friday during combat operations in Anbar province west of the capital. The Marine's death brought to at least 2,328 the number of members of the US military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.

An Iraqi militant group affiliated to al Qaeda published on Wednesday April 5, 2006, footage of militants dragging a burning body from what it said was the wreckage of a US helicopter downed on Saturday. A video posted on a Web site often used by insurgents showed militants from the Mujahideen Council pulling the body from the twisted and enflamed wreckage while they cheered 'God is Great'. It was not clear from the footage whether the body was that of a US pilot's but the group said it belonged to that of an American. The outfit of the body, dragged for several metres, was torn and it was not possible to identify if it was in military uniform.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has said on April 7, 2006, that US officials have held talks with some groups linked to the Sunni-led Iraqi insurgency. Mr Khalilzad told the BBC that he believed the talks had had an impact, as the number of attacks on US troops by Iraqi militants had fallen. But he ruled out negotiating with those he called Saddamists or terrorists.

Three marines were killed by enemy action in Iraq western Anbar province. The three US marines were killed on Saturday April 15, 2006. The latest deaths have brought to about 2,366 the number of US personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

US troops repelled an attack by Sunni Arab insurgents on April 18, 2006, who used suicide car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and automatic weapons in a coordinated assault against Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, main government building and two US observation posts. There were no reports of US casualties. The fighting provided fresh evidence that the insurgency is thriving in Sunni Arab-dominated areas despite last month's decline in US deaths. In Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces fought an hours-long gun battle with about 50 insurgents in the Sunni Arab district of Azamiyah. Five insurgents were killed and two Iraqi troops were wounded.

On April 26, 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaking after she and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met the PM, Nouri Maliki, in Baghdad, has praised Iraq's new prime minister, saying he is focused on and committed to forming a national unity government.

On May 3, 2006, US forces are switching tactics in Iraq to take a less confrontational approach to civilians in response to criticism from British military commanders that they have been too tough. American commanders are ordering marines and soldiers manning checkpoints or travelling in convoys to be less trigger-happy. Instead of firing into the air or at civilians to warn them off as they approach checkpoints or convoys in cars, troops nervous about suicide bombers are being encouraged to use strobe lights and other means to signal that they should slow down or back off. Troops are also being told to be less rough during searches. Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, has sent his commanders articles from the British press that criticised US forces for being unnecessarily tough.

The US Senate has approved on May 4, 2006, a $66 billion spending measure to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq, Thursday May 11, 2006:
- Three US soldiers were killed in two separate incidents when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs in a rural area southwest of Baghdad.
- Moreover four US marines died on Thursday May 11, 2006when their tank rolled off a bridge in Iraq's western Anbar province.
- Another other US soldier died of wounds sustained in non-combat action in northern Iraq.
- The latest fatalities brought to at least 2,430 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers on Thursday May 18, 2006. An Iraqi interpreter also died in the blast northwest of the capital.

On May 30, 2006, US military commanders are moving about 1,500 troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq to help local authorities establish order there.

The US-led multinational force in Iraq is losing troops from two of its most important allies - Italy and South Korea - and up to a half dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by year's end we are told on May 30, 2006. The withdrawals are complicating the U.S. effort to begin extracting itself from the country, where a fresh onslaught of deadly attacks on coalition forces is testing the resolve of key partners such as Britain and Poland.

United States President George Bush paid a surprise visit to Baghdad to meet the new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on June 12, 2006. The two leaders held talks at the fortified Green Zone where the American embassy is located. The U.S. President was also scheduled to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Speaker of Parliament, and the newly appointed ministers of oil and defence. His visit follows the killing of the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Al-Qaeda has named Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, as Zarqawi's successor. Mr. Bush was expected to stay in Baghdad for five hours. He had earlier visited Iraq in November 2003.

U.S. troops on Saturday June 17, 2006, searched for two soldiers missing after an attack that killed one of their comrades at a checkpoint in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad. A dive team also was going to search for the men, whose checkpoint was located by a Euphrates River canal near Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad. Fellow soldiers at a nearby checkpoint heard small-arms fire and explosions, and a quick-reaction force reached the scene in 15 minutes. The force found one soldier dead but no sign of the two others.

On June 18, 2006, US and Iraqi troops have set up extra checkpoints in the insurgent stronghold town of Ramadi in an effort to restrict the militants' movements. In Ramadi, US commanders described the operation to put a stranglehold on insurgent movements as part of "ongoing" operations, and said no extra troops had been deployed to the area.
US and Iraqi troops have pushed further into the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on June 19, 2006. Helicopter gunships provided air cover as troops and armoured vehicles pushed into the east of the city, one of the strongholds of the insurgency.

Two US soldiers missing in Iraq since Friday have been found dead in the Yusifiya area south of Baghdad on June 20, 2006. An insurgent group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq had claimed it abducted the soldiers from a checkpoint. The missing men have been named as Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, both from the 101st Airborne Division. One US soldier, David Babineau, was killed in the attack on the checkpoint. The bodies showed signs of torture.

The US military says four marines have been killed in "enemy action" in western Iraq on June 20, 2006. Three of the marines were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Anbar province. The fourth died after coming under fire during "security operations" in the same province.

Sixteen American troops died during the week ending Saturday June 24, 2006:
- Tuesday: The U.S. military recovers the brutalized bodies of two missing soldiers in the Sunni triangle south of Baghdad. Four Marines were killed in separate attacks in Anbar province west of the capital.
- Wednesday: A soldier died south of the capital, and another Marine is killed in Anbar province.
- Thursday: A Marine is killed in Anbar province and a soldier dies elsewhere in a non-combat incident.
- Friday: Three soldiers of the Multi-National Division in Baghdad are killed by roadside bombs in separate attacks. Another soldier from the same division dies in a non-combat incident.
- Saturday: A bomb kills two U.S. soldiers on a foot patrol south of Baghdad.

Hundreds of US Marines stormed through the Ramadi General Hospital, the largest hospital in western Iraq with 250 beds, on Wednesday July 5, 2006, taking control of a facility allegedly used by members of al-Qaida in Iraq to treat their wounded and fire on US troops. Wounded Iraqi police officers that had been taken to the hospital were later found beheaded. The Marines said they found about a dozen triggering devices for roadside bombs hidden above the tiled ceiling of one office. Hospitals are considered off-limits in traditional warfare. In western Ramadi, however, insurgents have fired on Marines from the rooftop of a women and children's hospital so often that patients were moved to a wing with fewer exposed windows.

The US Army filed three charges on Wednesday July 5, 2006, against First Lt. Ehren Watada who refused to fight in Iraq due to objections over the legality of the war. Watada called the war and US occupation of Iraq "illegal" and said participation would make him a party to war crimes. The Army has charged Watada with missing movement, contempt toward officials and conduct unbecoming an officer. If found guilty of all charges, Watada could face several years in confinement, dishonourable discharge and forfeiture of pay.

A car bomb struck a convoy in Ramadi on Sunday July 9, 2006, wounding four American troops.

An Iraqi group linked to al-Qaeda has released a video on July 11, 2006, showing the mutilated bodies of two US soldiers. The Mujahideen Shura Council said it had captured and killed the soldiers in revenge for the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman by US troops. Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker were seized from a checkpoint to the south of Baghdad on 16 June.

US President George W Bush has announced on Tuesday July 24, 2006, that US troops will be redeployed to Baghdad to combat the deteriorating security situation. The troops would help to secure suburbs where militants operate.

Two senior US generals told Congress on Thursday August 3, 2006, that growing sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims threatens to plunge Iraq into civil war. "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war," said Gen. John Abizaid, the chief of U.S. Central Command. Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and thus the top general at the Pentagon, agreed with the assessment. Their frank remarks came hours after it was reported that the outgoing British ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, warned in a confidential memo that Iraq is descending toward civil war and is likely to divide along ethnic and religious lines.

A US helicopter has crashed in Iraq's Anbar province on August 8, 2006, injuring four crewmembers and leaving the other two missing. The UH-60 Blackhawk transport helicopter went down during a routine flight. The incident did not seem to have been caused by enemy action.

The United States has expanded its force in Iraq to 140,000 troops, the most since January and 13,000 more than five weeks ago, the Pentagon said on Thursday August 30, 2006. This follows July's decision by commanders to augment the US military presence in Baghdad to try to curb escalating sectarian violence that has heightened concern about all-out civil war in Iraq.

Two US Marines and three US soldiers were killed in separate attacks and another American soldier died of non-combat injuries in Iraq on Monday September 4, 2006. A roadside bomb killed a soldier of the 1/34th Brigade Combat Team who was conducting a convoy escort mission north of Baghdad. A soldier with the 15th Sustainment Brigade died of non-combat injuries. Two Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 were killed Sunday in fighting in the Anbar province, while a roadside bomb killed a soldier from the 3rd Striker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division near Mosul. Another soldier, from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb near Baquba. At least 2,653 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.

US officials said on Monday September 25, 2006, that American troop levels in Iraq were likely to remain well above 140,000 for the next few months, although they would not confirm reports that the 3,500-strong First Armoured Division had been ordered to remain in Iraq beyond its official tour of duty. Growing sectarian conflict between Iraqi militias in the last few months and the continuation of the mostly Sunni insurgency against US forces has complicated the Bush administration's goal of "standing down as the Iraqis stand up". The overall US troop presence in Iraq has risen from 127,000 in July to 142,000 this week. Last week John Abizaid, the US commander in the region, said that US troop deployment in Iraq was likely to remain at these levels well into 2007 in order to wrest Baghdad and other provinces from the day-to-day control of sectarian death squads and insurgent groups.

The war in Iraq is a disaster, and Rumsfeld needs to be replaced. But don't just take our word for it -this reiteration comes today September 25, 2006, from a pair of recently retired two-star army generals with more than sixty years of military experience between them. They testified today in a hearing before the Democratic Policy Committee. Major General John Batiste said that he is a life-long Republican and was on the verge of getting his third star, but retired after deciding he could do more for his soldiers out of uniform than in it. "Bottom line, our nation is in peril, our Department of Defence's leadership is extraordinarily bad, and our Congress is only today, more than five years into this war, beginning to exercise its oversight responsibilities," he said. "Secretary Rumsfeld's dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American servicemen and women, our allies, and the good people of Iraq," Batiste added. During questioning, Batiste told the Committee that he and other generals on the ground in Iraq had repeatedly requested more troops but were denied by the Bush Administration, leaving them unable to achieve their objectives. Major General Paul Eaton, who was the Commanding General of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team and charged with building the Iraqi army after the invasion, also blasted the mismanagement of the war by Bush and Rumsfeld. According to Eaton, Rumsfeld made it clear that establishing the Iraqi army was the "last priority" in restoring security. Eaton said Rumsfeld did not provide him with the resources he requested and desperately needed for success.

On September 3, 2006, al-Qaida has urged non-Muslims -especially in the US- to convert to Islam, according to a new videotape. The call is made by a man identified on the film as "Azzam the American", a convert also known as Adam Gadahn who is wanted for questioning by the FBI. He says ignorance of Islam leads Westerners to accept wars waged by their governments and Israel against Muslim countries. The video opens with an introduction by al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.

A massive fire at an ammunition dump at a US base in southern Baghdad on Wednesday October 10, 2006, was sparked by a mortar round fired by insurgents, which set off a series of explosions from detonating tank and artillery shells that shook buildings miles away. The 82mm round was fired from a nearby residential area and hit Forward Operating Base Falcon. No injuries were reported.

The US Army is planning to maintain current troop levels in Iraq until at least 2010, its top general, Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker, said on Wednesday October 11, 2006.

US military casualties have surged in Iraq with U.S. troops engaging in perilous urban sweeps to curb sectarian violence in Baghdad while facing unrelenting violence elsewhere. At least 44 US troops have been killed so far in the first two weeks of October 2006. At the current pace, the month would be the deadliest since January 2005. After falling to 43 in July, the US toll rose in August and September before spiking this month. The war's average monthly US death toll is 64. The number of US troops wounded in combat also has surged, with September's total of more than 770 the highest since November 2004, when US forces launched a ground offensive to clear insurgents from Falluja.

Lawyers for an American citizen facing execution in Iraq appealed Friday October 13, 2006, in US federal court to keep the man in American custody to prevent his death while another case is being appealed. Mohammad Munaf, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge earlier this week on charges he helped in the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad. Iraqi-born Munaf, a naturalized US citizen since 2000, was working as their translator and guide. He maintains his innocence. Munaf's attorneys claim his rights to a fair trial in Iraq were violated when he was convicted without being able to present evidence in his defence, or to see the evidence against him.

A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers west of Baghdad on Tuesday October 17, 2006, raising the number of US troops killed this month to 62. The blast from the improvised explosive struck the soldiers' vehicle. The death toll in October is on a pace that, if it continues, would make the month the worst for coalition forces since January 2005, when 127 service members died. At least 2,774 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

The United States military in Iraq says a marine and nine soldiers have been killed in Iraq on Tuesday October 17, 2006, including four in a roadside bombing near Baghdad. The blast struck the soldiers' vehicle as they travelled west of the capital. Three more were killed in the restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad. The three others died in separate attacks. More than 60 US troops have been killed this month. An average of three Americans dying every day, this is one of the highest casualty rates sustained by US troops since January 2005. In fact 11 American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday. At least 69 U.S troops have died in Iraq this month -one of the bloodiest in the past two years.

US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday October 24, 2006 that stabilising the country is possible in a realistic time-frame, despite ongoing sectarian violence. He said there would be setbacks, but the goal of creating a multi-ethnic and multi-faith Iraq remained unchanged. The US military commander in Iraq reaffirmed his belief that Iraqi forces could take over security within 18 months. At least 87 US troops have died this month - the highest monthly toll since November 2004.

The number of US troops in Iraq had swelled to 150,000, the largest number reported this year, the US Defence Department said on October 31, 2006. A Pentagon spokesman attributed the growth to overlapping unit rotations, but it came amid surging violence that has turned Iraq into the number one issue of the US elections on November 7. Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of US ground forces in Iraq, retired from the Army on Wednesday November 1, 2006, said the military alone cannot secure a victory in Iraq.
"We could fight there for years, if we continue to apply only the element of military power," Sanchez told reporters. "We can continue to kill people there for a decade and until you can sort out the political and economic issues in that country, we will continue to have an issue there."

Seven American troops were killed on Thursday November 2, 2006. Three US marines died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al-Anbar province. Earlier statements had said three army soldiers were killed on Thursday in a Baghdad bomb attack and one more marine was killed in the west. The deaths bring to 2825 the number of US troops to have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

A US helicopter crashed in northern Iraq's Salahuddin province on Monday November 6, 2006, killing two US soldiers on board. The military said that no enemy fire observed in the area at the time of the crash. Three US soldiers, including two marines, have been killed in the western province of Anbar. One marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Saturday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Anbar province. A second marine from the same combat team died Sunday from wounds sustained due to the same reason. One US soldier assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armoured Division was also killed Sunday by enemy fire while operating in Anbar province. Since the US-led war in Iraq broke out in March 2003, more than 2,820 US soldiers have been killed in the country.
About 57,000 US troops will be sent to Iraq in early 2007 to maintain the current force levels there, Pentagon officials said Friday November 17, 2006. The routine plan calls for 47,000 active-duty troops, plus 10,000 reserves, to rotate into Iraq early next year. The force levels in the country have been fluctuating between roughly 140,000 and 150,000.

Seven US troops were killed in fighting in the Baghdad area and the Anbar province. A soldier was killed Sunday December 3, 2006 in Baghdad. Two soldiers and one Marine also died Saturday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in the insurgent stronghold of Anbar. Two soldiers died when a roadside bomb hit their security patrol in Anbar on Saturday. A soldier from the Multinational Corps-Iraq died of injuries sustained when his convoy was struck a roadside bomb on Saturday near Taji. At least 2,894 men and women in the US military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.

Ten US troops were killed in Iraq on Wednesday December 6, 2006, a major blow on the same day a high-level panel in Washington recommended gradually shifting US forces from a combat to a training role.

US President George W Bush is likely to boost troop levels -up to 25,000 more troops- in Iraq next year, an administration official said on December 16, 2006.

The US military on Friday December 22, 2006, reported the deaths of five more soldiers in Iraq as Defence Secretary Robert Gates ended a visit aimed at finding a new strategy to curb violence and allow US troops to withdraw. Four US servicemen were killed in action on Thursday in Anbar province. A fifth was killed and another wounded west of Baghdad on Friday when their patrol came under machinegun and mortar fire. At least 71 US soldiers have died so far this month. The deaths brought the US toll in Iraq to 2,960, creeping closer to the 3,000 mark and adding more pressure on President Bush to find a strategy that will allow the eventual withdrawal of 135,000 US troops.

On Thursday December 28, 2006, four American soldiers and a Marine were killed in Iraq. A roadside bomb killed a soldier and wounded another while they were on a foot patrol north of Baghdad. On Wednesday, two soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded southwest of Baghdad. Another soldier was wounded in the explosion. Another soldier was killed in an eastern section of the capital on Wednesday. The unit was on a route-clearing mission when a roadside bomb exploded. Two soldiers were wounded. A Marine was killed during combat in Iraq's western Anbar province Wednesday. With 100 American troops dead so far, December is the second-deadliest month of 2006 for US military personnel. Some 105 troops died in October.

The death of a Texan soldier in Baghdad on December 31, 2006, brings the total number of US troops killed in Iraq to 3,000. The soldier was killed by small arms fire in the capital last week. The end of the year is the deadliest month for US troops in Iraq for two years.

US PRESIDENT George Bush is overhauling his top diplomatic and military team in Iraq as his Administration scrambles to complete its new war policy in time for a speech to the nation next week. Army Lieutenant-General David Petraeus, who gained fame for his early success in training Iraqi troops and securing a volatile city in northern Iraq, will replace General George Casey as commander of the multinational forces in Iraq. Admiral William Fallon will be nominated head of the Central Command, replacing General John Abizaid. The veteran US diplomat Ryan Crocker, the envoy to Pakistan who began his career in the 1970s in Iraq, will be the new ambassador to Baghdad and the controversial ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, will be nominated to become the top US envoy at the UN, replacing John Bolton.

US forces stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil on January 11, 2007, and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident. Iranian and Iraqi officials said the building was an Iranian consulate and the detainees its employees. The US military said that the building did not have diplomatic status.

US and Iraqi troops seized a prominent spokesman for Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday January 19, 2007. Sadr's aides angrily called this an "American provocation." It came as Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew in to the southern city of Basra to meet the commander in Iraq, General George Casey. Gates said Iraq was at a "pivotal moment" and failure would be a "calamity" for US interests.

On Monday January 22, 2007, investigators probing the scene of an Army helicopter crash in Iraq that killed a dozen US soldiers have found evidence it may have been shot down but the crash is still under investigation. The Black Hawk crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, a day when 25 US troops were killed in Iraq. That made it the third-deadliest day since the war started in March 2003 -surpassed only by the one-day toll of 37 US fatalities on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the US invasion. Al-Qaida insurgents claimed Monday that its fighters shot down the helicopter.

Four of the five Americans killed when a US security company's helicopter crashed in a dangerous Sunni neighbourhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head we were told Wednesday January 24, 2007. It is not known if they were still alive when they were shot. A machine gunner downed the helicopter, but a US military did not confirm it. Two Sunni insurgent groups, separately, claimed responsibility for the crash. A second helicopter also was struck, but there were no casualties among its crew. The doomed helicopter swooped into electrical wires before the crash.

The US. military reported the deaths of seven more soldiers Saturday January 27, 2007. Two died in Diyala province on Friday, three in an unspecified location north of Baghdad on Saturday and two in east Baghdad on Thursday. The latest reported deaths raised to at least 3,079 the number of U. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,471 died as a result of hostile action.

Another helicopter went down north of Baghdad killing two US troops. The US did not say what caused the crash but witnesses said the helicopter was shot down, near a US air base at Taji, shortly after dawn. Another helicopter was hit by gunfire but managed to fly away.

A February 3, 2007, US intelligence assessment on Iraq says "civil war" accurately describes certain aspects of the conflict, including intense sectarian violence. The report, compiled by US security agencies, adds that the controversial term does not adequately sum up the complexity of the situation.

Five US soldiers were reported killed in Iraq on Saturday February 3, 2007. A roadside bomb south of Baghdad Friday killed two. Two others soldiers died Friday from wounds sustained in Anbar province. The statement says the wounds were the result of enemy action. A fifth soldier died Friday of an apparent heart attack after physical training.

The US command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the last two weeks. On Sunday February 4, 2007, the US acknowledged for the first time that the aircraft were lost to hostile fire.

Yet another US helicopter has now been lost in Iraq on Wednesday February 7, 2007. This time it was a CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter, which came down near Baghdad. Al-Qaida in Iraq claims to have brought it down, though the US military has indicated it may have been mechanical failure.
The new commander of US forces in Iraq, Lt Gen David Petraeus, has assumed control on February 10, 2007, ahead of a fresh push to quell violence in Baghdad. Gen Petraeus will oversee President George W Bush's security plan, under which 21,500 extra US troops are being sent to Iraq. Gen Petraeus, a veteran of the Iraq conflict, said his task was "hard but not hopeless" at a ceremony in Baghdad.
Insurgents staged a bold daylight assault against a US combat post north of the capital Monday February 19, 2007, first striking with a suicide car bombing, and then firing on soldiers pinned down in a former Iraqi police station. At least two soldiers were killed and 17 wounded. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad. Three Marines and one soldier were killed since Saturday while conducting combat operations in the western province of Anbar.

The top US general in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said on March 8, 2007, the military alone cannot provide a solution to the country's conflict. He said it was critical that alienated groups be brought into talks. He also said he believed violence in Baghdad could be curtailed. The US defence secretary approved an extra 2,200 military police to aid the crackdown. Democrats in the US Congress have proposed legislation requiring all US troops to leave Iraq by August 2008.

US President George W. Bush has approved sending 4,400 additional American soldiers to Iraq, as part of his Iraq security plan, media reports said Saturday March 10, 2007. The Pentagon has said that as many as 7,000 additional support soldiers would also be deployed to Iraq, including some 2,200 additional military police that the new top US commander in Iraq, David Petraeus, had asked for to handle an anticipated increase in detainees. Currently there were over 140,000 American troops in Iraq, and nearly 3,200 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the US invasion in March 2003. Meanwhile, the president has formally requested about 3.2 billion US dollars for the additional deployment of 4,400 troops. In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Bush revised the administration's previous request of 100 billion dollars emergency funding for this year's military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to take account of new request.

US President George W. Bush is sending 8,200 more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, the White House said on Sunday March 11, 2007. In a letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Bush asked Congress for an additional $3.2 billion to pay for the new reinforcements. His new plan calls for sending 4,700 more troops to Iraq and 3,500 troops to Afghanistan. The extra troops are in addition to a 21,500-troop build-up that President Bush announced for Iraq in January. There are currently around 141,000 US troops in Iraq, including the first deployment of soldiers after the January announcement. Most of the 4,700 troops meant for Iraq will be used to provide support to the US combat brigades already deployed there and to handle more Iraqi prisoners.

On March 12, 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to round up Democratic support for an emergency-spending bill that would also pull American troops out of Iraq. As Democrats seek to lower troop numbers, President Bush is moving in the other direction. Vowing to veto any deadline for withdrawal, Bush asked Congress for 8,200 more troops for Iraq and Afghanistan this weekend. The Democrats' new House leader, Pelosi, D-California, is working to find the 218 votes she needs from within a deeply divided party to approve a troop withdrawal by August 2008 as part of the supplemental spending bill.

Less than half of Americans -46%- think the United States can win the war in Iraq, according to a poll released Tuesday March 13, 2007. Only 37 percent said the United States will win. Fifty-four percent of Americans said the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion. Nearly six in 10 of those polled want to see US troops leave Iraq either immediately or within a year. In addition, more people would prefer Congress to run US policy in Iraq than President Bush.

In Washington, thousands of anti-war demonstrators, some carrying signs reading "U.S. out of Iraq now!" marched towards the Pentagon on Saturday March 17, 2007. About two dozen protesters had been arrested in front of the White House late on Friday, just days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the start of the war. Anti-war demonstrations were also staged or planned in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, as well as in Australia, Britain, and Canada.

The US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said on Sunday March 18, 2007, there are grounds for optimism over the latest security drive. He added that with two out of the five extra brigades now on the ground in Iraq, there had been fewer sectarian attacks.

The US military said on March 25, 2007, roadside bombings killed five American soldiers. Four Americans were killed when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in Diyala province. Another roadside bomb also killed a US soldier and wounded two others during a route clearance mission in northwestern Baghdad.

The departing U. ambassador said Monday March 26, 2007, that talks with insurgent representatives are focusing on persuading them to join forces against al-Qaida, hoping to take advantage of anger over attacks increasingly targeting Sunnis as well as Shiites. In a farewell news conference, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he was cautiously optimistic that Iraq was heading in the right direction. But he warned Iraqi leaders that US voters were increasingly impatient with the war and urged them to step up efforts to bring the country's fractured ethnic and religious communities together to stop the violence.

Outgoing US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said on March 26, 2007, he held talks last year with insurgent groups to try to bring them into the political fold. He had talks both before and after the bombing of a Shia shrine in February last year that sparked a surge in sectarian unrest. Mr Khalilzad flew to Jordan for some of the talks, but they foundered after the Samara attack.

Two Americans, a contractor and a soldier, were killed in a rocket attack on the heavy guarded Green Zone on Tuesday March 27, 2007. Five other people were wounded, one contractor who was seriously hurt and three with slight wounds. A second soldier also was wounded in the attack.

US military reported six soldiers killed in two roadside bombings Sunday April 1, 2007, hours after Senator John McCain, in a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, insisted a US-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working.

A week after acknowledging a litany of errors in the friendly fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, the Army said Wednesday April 4, 2007, two soldiers who died in Iraq in February may also have been killed by their own comrades. Pvt. Matthew Zeimer and Spc. Alan E. McPeek who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq, on February 2. The families of the two soldiers were initially told they were killed by enemy fire. Their unit commanders did not at first suspect they were killed by US forces, but an investigation by the unit concluded that may be the case. The families of the two soldiers were told, on March 31, that friendly fire was suspected.

The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen on Sunday April 8, 2007, to redouble their battle to oust American forces and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy." The US military announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed on Sunday. Security remained so tenuous in the capital on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad that Iraq's military declared a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in the capital from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated Monday as a holiday, just a day after it had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off. Among the 10 US deaths announced Sunday were three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling south of Baghdad; one killed in an attack south of the capital; and two who died of combat wounds sustained north of the capital, in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces. On Saturday, the military said, four US soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala.

Three retired generals approached by the White House about a new high-profile post overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reporting directly to the president have rejected the proposed post we were told on April 11, 2007. One of the four-star generals said he declined because of the chaotic way the war was being run and because Dick Cheney, the vice-president and the leading hawk in the Bush administration, retained more influence than pragmatists looking for a way out. The White House confirmed that George Bush was considering restructuring the administration to create a new post, dubbed the war tsar by US media. It would involve co-ordinating the work of the defence, state and other departments at what is described as a critical stage in the wars. One of the retired generals approached, Marine General John Sheehan, told the Washington Post: "The very fundamental issue is they don't know where the hell they're going." The unwillingness of the generals to take the job undermines recent attempts by the Bush administration to put a positive spin on the Iraq war. Mr Bush has claimed repeatedly over the past few weeks that there are signs his strategy of pouring extra US troops into Baghdad and neighbouring Anbar province is working.

US troops will now serve up to 15 months in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of the usual 12-month tours under new defence department rules revealed on April 12, 2007. Soldiers will be allowed a minimum of 12 months at home bases upon return. The extended tours apply to troops currently in Iraq and those about to be deployed, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

On April 20, 2007, we were told that the US military is building a three-mile concrete wall in the centre of Baghdad along the most murderous fault line between Sunni and Shia Muslims. The wall, which recognises the reality of the hardening sectarian divide in Baghdad, is a central part of George Bush's final push to pacify the capital. Work began on April 10 under cover of darkness and is due for completion by the end of the month. The highly symbolic wall has evoked comparisons to the barriers dividing Protestants and Catholics in Belfast and Israelis and Palestinians along the length of the West Bank. And the Berlin wall?

Iraq's prime minister asked on Sunday April 22, 2007 the US military to halt work on a wall separating a Baghdad Sunni enclave from nearby Shiite areas after sharp criticism from some residents. The cement wall around the district of Adhamiya is part of a new U.S. military tactic to protect flashpoint neighbourhoods with barriers, in a security crackdown in the capital that is seen as a final attempt to halt civil war between majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs.

The new US ambassador to Baghdad said on Sunday April 22, 2007, the next few months are critical to reconciling Iraq's warring communities. He also defended the thinking behind a controversial wall being built around the flashpoint Adhamiya neighbourhood but Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he had ordered a halt to the building around the Sunni enclave on the mainly Shia east bank of the Tigris.

The number of people killed around the world in terror attacks rose by 40% last year to more than 20,000, the US State Department said on May 1, 2007. The increase is mostly due to greater violence in Iraq. The number of attacks in Iraq nearly doubled to 6,630, accounting for 45% of the global total. Iraq alone accounts for nearly two-thirds of all terrorism-related deaths last year.

The US military said on Friday May 4, 2007, it had identified two more senior al Qaida in Iraq leaders killed in an operation north of Baghdad three days ago. The latest two people confirmed killed were Sabah Hilal al-Shihawi, who it said was the religious adviser of Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, and Abu Ammar al-Masri, who it described as a foreign fighter. The US military said on Thursday it had killed Jubouri, the senior information minister for Al Qaida in Iraq, in a raid in Taji, north of Baghdad. Shihawi and Masri were killed in the same operation. The military said in a statement that five insurgents were known to have been killed during an offensive against al Qaida in Iraq known as "Operation Rat Trap" on Tuesday morning.

American troops could be in Iraq for years and can expect heavy casualties in the next few months as they struggle to wrest the initiative from insurgent groups, a senior US officer, Major-General Rick Lynch, said on May 8, 2007. He added the lesson of recent history was that it took an average of nine years to overcome internal uprisings and that there was "no instantaneous solution" to Iraq.

Five US soldiers have been killed and three are missing after an attack near the town of Mahmudiya by insurgents south of Baghdad on May 12, 2007. US and Iraqi forces have mounted a massive search operation and roadblocks have been set up around the area.

On May 12, 2007, the US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad. In the first 11 days of this month, there have already been 234 bodies -men murdered by death squads- dumped around the capital, a dramatic rise from the 137 found in the same period of April. Improving security in Baghdad and reducing death-squad activity was described as one of the key aims of the US surge of 25,000 additional troops, the final units of whom are due to arrive next month.

On Sunday May 13, 2007, US and Iraqi forces are conducting a massive search for three soldiers missing since their patrol was attacked south of Baghdad on Saturday. Roadblocks have been set up to prevent the soldiers being moved from the area. A US military spokesman said the search would continue until the fate of the missing soldiers was known.

On May 15, 2007, US President George W. Bush chose Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the Defence Department's director of operations, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a "war czar" after a long search for new leadership. It was a difficult job to fill, given the unpopularity of the war, now in its fifth year, and uncertainty about how much power the war coordinator would have. The search was complicated by demands from Congress to bring US troops home from Iraq and scant public support for the war. The White House tried for weeks to fill the position and approached numerous candidates before settling on Lute. In the newly created position, Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser and would also maintain his military status and rank as a three-star Army general.

On May 19, 2007, we were told that the new US embassy in Baghdad will be the world's largest and most expensive foreign mission, though it may not be large enough or secure enough to cope with the chaos in Iraq. The 42-hectare compound, set to open in September in what today is a war zone, to be an ultra-secure enclave. Over the long term the massive city-within-a-city could prove too enormous for the job of managing diminished US interests in Iraq. The US$592 million embassy occupies a piece of prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington's National Mall, with desk space for about 1,000 people behind high, blast-resistant walls. The compound is a symbol both of how much the United States has invested in Iraq.

Two more American soldiers have died from roadside bombs on Sunday May 27, 2007, as American forces decided to run DNA tests on a body that could be that of one of the remaining two missing soldiers seized in an ambush on May 12 south of Baghdad. May could soon become the deadliest month of the year so far for American troops. With four days left in the month, not counting the unidentified body, 103 American soldiers have been killed. That was one death shy of the total for April, when 104 died, the highest monthly toll this year. The worst month for American troops was November 2004, when 137 died.

Ten American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and a helicopter crash on Memorial Day (May 28, 2007), making May 2007 -at 112 fatalities- the worst month for US forces this year. The loss of eight US soldiers in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala underscores the intensity of fighting in this mixed region on the Iranian border. Six US soldiers were killed Monday in a single attack on their patrol, victims of a sophisticated al-Qaida-led insurgency capable of defeating well-protected US vehicles. Two others died when their helicopter crashed.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged Friday June 1, 2007, that a US forces might remain in Iraq for decades in a long-term military presence similar to its arrangement with South Korea.

The US military announced Sunday June 3, 2007, that 14 American soldiers were killed over the past three days, including four in a single roadside bombing and another who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol. The blast that killed the four US soldiers occurred Sunday as the troops were conducting a cordon and search operation northwest of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were killed and five were wounded along with an Iraqi interpreter in two separate roadside bombings. In the boldest attack, a US soldier was killed Friday after the patrol approached two suspicious men for questioning near a mosque southwest of Baghdad, and one of the suspects blew himself up. Seven other soldiers were killed in a series of attacks across Iraq on Saturday. A car bomb also exploded outside a US base near Baquba, leaving a number of troops gasping for air and suffering from eye irritations. It did not confirm a report in the Los Angeles Times that the car was carrying chlorine canisters and said the soldiers who were sickened had been treated and returned to duty. The attacks came days after the Pentagon announced the completion of the troop build-up ordered by President Bush in January, raising the total number of troops in Iraq to about 150,000. That number may still climb as more support troops move in.

A U.S. Air Force F-16 crashed Friday June 15, 2007. The aircraft was flying on a close air support mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

The identification cards of two American soldiers missing since an attack on their unit in May were found on June 16, 2007, in an al-Qaida safe house north of Baghdad, along with video production equipment, computers and weapons.

US forces in Iraq have launched a major security offensive around Baghdad on June 17, 2007. Troops would enter "key areas" around the Iraqi capital used by insurgents to launch car bombings, said the commander of US forces, General David Petraeus.

Three more US soldiers have been killed in explosions near their vehicles on Saturday June 16, 2007. Two soldiers died from their injuries after a bomb exploded near their vehicle during operations in Baghdad; another soldier was also wounded in the incident. Another soldier died in an explosion and two more were wounded near a military vehicle in Kirkuk province. The number of US soldiers killed this month amount to 41. The number of US service members who have died since the war began is now 3,524.

The latest US deaths rose to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003. The more recent deadliest attack was a roadside bomb on Thursday June 21, 2007, that struck a convoy in northeastern Baghdad, killing five US soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter. A rocket-propelled grenade struck a vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding three others. On Wednesday, another powerful roadside bomb killed four US soldiers and wounded another in western Baghdad, while two Marines died in fighting in Anbar province, to the west of the capital. Southwest of Baghdad, two soldiers were killed and four were wounded Tuesday when explosions struck near their vehicle. Counting a previously announced fatality that occurred Tuesday, the latest military statements meant that 15 troops were killed over a three-day period.

Five more American soldiers were killed on Saturday June 23, 2007. Four soldiers died when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle northwest of Baghdad; an Iraqi interpreter was wounded in the blast. A fifth soldier was killed in a roadside bombing near Tikrit. Two other soldiers were also killed and three others injured when their unit struck with a roadside bomb, then came under small arms fire in eastern the capital. Another soldier died from a non-battle related cause. At least 3,555 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the Iraq war broke out in March 2003.

US troops hoping to directly confront al Qaida militants in a major offensive in the Iraqi city of Baquba instead found themselves "swimming through a minefield", a senior officer said on Sunday May 24, 2007. The operation in and around Baquba, capital of the Diyala province, is in its sixth day and is a major part of one of the biggest offensives by US and Iraqi forces against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

Two American soldiers were killed and three others wounded in two attacks in Monday June 25, 2007. One soldier was killed and three more injured in a roadside bomb struck their vehicle during combat operations in eastern Baghdad. Another soldier was killed when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. The latest deaths brings the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq during the month to about 85, and more than 3,560 since the war broke out in March 2003.

Five US soldiers have been killed on June 29, 2007, in an attack on a patrol in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Seven others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as the patrol passed by. The troops then came under sustained fire from small arms and rocket propelled grenades. Ninety-nine US troops have been killed in Iraq so far in June. Last month, 126 American military personnel died, making May the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq since late 2004.

Five US soldiers and a Marine were killed in attacks in Baghdad and Iraq's Anbar and Salahuddin provinces we were told on Monday July 2, 2007. One soldier was killed Monday when an explosion went off near his vehicle as he conducted operations in Salahuddin. Two other soldiers were wounded in the blast. In Baghdad, on Sunday, a US-Iraqi patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in a western district, and then gunmen opened fire, killing one American soldier and wounding two Iraqi policemen. Another soldier was killed when gunmen attacked his patrol in southern Baghdad. Two soldiers and one Marine were killed while conducting combat operations in Anbar. The deaths brought to 3,583 the number of members of the US military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

A report on Iraq, set for release today July 12, 2007, argues that the Baghdad government has made "satisfactory" progress toward nearly half of the political and military goals sought by Congress, while acknowledging that an equal number remain "not satisfactory," an administration official said yesterday. The report is an interim assessment of President Bush' s troop-increase strategy, identifies some positive movement in eight of the 18 congressional benchmarks, most of them related to military issues; finds insufficient improvement in eight others, mainly related to political reconciliation; and judges mixed results in the final two.

The US military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President George W. Bush thinks his troop surge strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday July 16, 2007.

Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on July 19, 2007. The soldiers were on a patrol as part of operations to disrupt the flow of insurgents and weapons into Baghdad.

The US House of Representatives approve on July 25, 2007, a resolution prohibiting permanent American military bases in Iraq. Congress is already on record opposing permanent bases, but Democrats want the Bush administration to clarify its position on the matter.

Five US military personnel have been killed in fighting around Iraq over the past few days, we were told on Friday July 27, 2007. One US soldier was killed by small arms fire in southern Baghdad on Thursday. A day before, three marines and one sailor were killed during fighting in Diyala province, north of the capital. A total of 65 US personnel have died in Iraq this month.

US generals expect to need a large contingent of troops in Iraq until the middle of 2009, we were told on Monday July 30, 2007. Such a timeline would hand President George W. Bush's successor the task of bringing US forces home from Iraq, more than six years after Bush dispatched them to topple Saddam Hussein.

Four more American soldiers have been killed during violence in Iraq on or before August 4, 2007. Three of the soldiers were killed and 11 more were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded during their patrol in eastern Baghdad. The fourth fatality happened during combat in the west of the city. The latest deaths mean 3,663 US military personnel have been killed since fighting began in March 2003.

Two American soldiers have been killed in Iraq after coming under attack in Baghdad, the US military said on Sunday August 5, 2007. One soldier was killed and two others were wounded during combat operations in western Baghdad on Saturday. The second soldier died of wounds after a roadside bomb exploded alongside a military vehicle near the capital on the same day.

The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces we were told on August 6, 2007. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures.

Four American soldiers have been killed in an explosion during fighting south of Baghdad on August 11, 2007. Another four were wounded in the blast during combat operations on Saturday. In another incident a soldier was killed by small arms fire while on foot patrol southeast of Baghdad.

Four US soldiers were killed on Monday August 13, 2007, in Iraq. Three soldiers died of wounds sustained from an explosion in Iraq's Northern Province of Nineveh and another was killed in Baghdad during combat operation. US and Iraqi forces launched on Monday an offensive across the country against al Qaida and "Iranian-supported" Shiite militants in an apparent attempt to thwart an expected surge in violence.

In Baghdad nine American military personnel were killed on August 14, 2007, in three incidents, including the crash of a twin-rotor Chinook helicopter. A truck bomb rendered impassable a bridge on a major route from Baghdad to the north.

Fourteen US soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash on August 21, 2007, in northern Iraq. The Black Hawk helicopter, carrying 10 soldiers and four crew members, crashed after experiencing a mechanical malfunction. There were reportedly no indications of hostile fire, but the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

A US soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action it was reported Friday August 24, 2007. Jason Hubbard, 33, will return to his family's home in northern California after younger brother Nathan, 21, was one of 14 soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq on Wednesday. The death came three years after a roadside bombing claimed the life of another sibling, Jared, 22, in Falluja in 2004. Jason was withdrawn under the military's "sole survivor" policy aimed at preventing parents losing all of their children to war.

The most senior US commander in Iraq said on September 8, 2007, that progress in bringing security to the country had been uneven and in some cases disappointing. In a letter to troops, General David Petraeus said Iraq's political leaders had not made the gains hoped for under the US troop "surge" strategy. But he said US forces had achieved "tactical momentum" against insurgents in several areas of Iraq.

Seven US soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad on Monday September 10, 2007, and 11 other soldiers were wounded. Two detainees who were being transported by the soldiers were also killed and a third detainee was wounded. Another soldier died when his vehicle overturned east of Baghdad also on Monday. Another soldier died on Sunday from wounds sustained when insurgents fired a rocket at his patrol in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk.

US President George W Bush has made a televised address on September 14, 2007, backing a limited withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Following the advice of US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, Mr Bush said 5,700 personnel would be home by Christmas, and expected thousands more to return by July 2008. The plan would take troop numbers back to their level before Mr Bush ordered a "surge" at the start of this year.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates went further when he said Friday September 14, 2007, he hopes US forces in Iraq can be drawn down to about 100,000 troops by the time a new president takes office in January 2009. Such a move would reduce US combat strength in the country by half, from 20 combat brigades to 10, cutting much deeper than the more modest troops reductions recommended by General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq.

THE White House on September 14, 2007, said Iraqi leaders had made little progress towards meeting key military and political goals. The report undermined President George Bush's argument that American sacrifices were creating space for political advancement by Iraqis. The administration's first required report on 18 "benchmarks", in July, showed the Iraqi government was making satisfactory progress toward meeting eight and unsatisfactory progress on eight others. At the time, two could not be rated.

On Monday September 17, 2007, US and Iraqi officials are investigating a shooting incident in Baghdad in which at least eight civilians were reported killed by private US security contractors. The private security workers employed by the US State Department, apparently opened fire after their convoy came under attack on Sunday. At least 13 people were also injured in the shooting in a busy part of Baghdad, Nisour Square in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Mansour. Later on, Iraq's Interior Ministry withdrew the license of the US security company under investigation for the fatal shooting of civilians in the capital on Sunday. A ministry spokesman said Blackwater USA is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq. The company provides security for many US civilian operations in the country.

On September 18, 2007, the Iraqi government was ordering Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects US diplomats, to leave the country after what it said was the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a US State Department convoy. The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to US government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.

On September 19, 2007, the US has suspended all road journeys by its diplomats in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. This follows an incident in which 11 Iraqi civilians died when security guards from the US firm Blackwater opened fire in a busy Baghdad square. Blackwater, which says its guards acted only in self-defence, has a contract to provide security to all US state department employees in Iraq. Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has called on the US authorities to replace the firm.

The United States has assembled an imposing industrial army in Iraq larger than its uniformed fighting force and responsible for a broad swath of responsibilities the military might not be able to operate without its private-sector partners. More than 180,000 Americans, Iraqis, and nationals from other countries work under a slew of federal contracts to provide security, gather intelligence, build roads, forge a financial system, and transport needed supplies in a country the size of California. That figure contrasts with the 163,100 US military personnel. The Pentagon puts the military figure at 169,000. There are another 12,400 coalition forces in Iraq.

The US security firm Blackwater resumed limited operations in Baghdad on September 22, 2007, four days after a deadly shootout involving the company. It had been ordered by the Iraqi government to halt operations while a joint US-Iraqi inquiry was held. A US embassy spokeswoman said the decision to allow Blackwater to resume work had been taken in consultation with the Iraqi government.

On September 23, 2007, Blackwater denied as "baseless" allegations that it was involved in weapons smuggling. Blackwater's statement follows reports of a US investigation into allegations that some employees sent unlicensed weapons and equipment to Iraq. The weapons could have been used by a group labelled as terrorist by the US.

The US admitted on September 28, 2007, something went tragically wrong when 11 Iraqis died in a shooting involving a US private security contractor earlier this month. The State Department and the Pentagon are carrying out an investigation into contractors in Iraq. The firm under suspicion, Blackwater, has said its guards reacted lawfully to an attack on a US diplomatic convoy.

Private security contractors, who are under scrutiny over the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis this month, have over-reacted in some situations and used "over the top" tactics, a US general said on Friday September 28, 2007. Contractors serve critical roles that free US troops up for other duties. But officers, often speaking privately, say the strong-arm tactics employed by private security contractors hurt troops' efforts to gain the trust and cooperation of Iraqi civilians.

On October 2, 2007, the FBI said it will investigate the role of the private security firm, Blackwater, in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad last month. Criminal charges were possible if its inquiry agreed with the Iraqi government's findings. Iraq has accused Blackwater's employees of opening fire without provocation.

The Iraqi prime minister's office said Sunday October 7, 2007, that the government's investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed "deliberate murder" and should be punished accordingly. Iraqi investigators, supported by Iraqi witness accounts, have said unofficially that they could not find evidence of any attack on the Blackwater guards that might have provoked the shooting on Nisour Square, which the Iraqis say killed 17 and wounded 27.

Iraq demanded on October 9, 2007, that the US end its association with private security firm Blackwater within six months.

Guards from a private security company opened fire Tuesday October 9, 2007, on a car that they said ignored commands to stop, killing two women and unleashing new Iraqi rage over the convoys that protect many foreigners here.

On October 9, 2007, Iraqi authorities have demanded $US8 million ($8.9 million) in compensation for the families of each of the 17 people killed when Blackwater USA guards opened fire on a crowded square last month.

Iraqi authorities on Wednesday October 10, 2007, accused guards working for a foreign security company of firing randomly when they killed two women in the latest incident involving private security contractors that has outraged Iraqis.

Two US soldiers died Wednesday October 10, 2007, of non-combat related causes in Iraq. One soldier died in the southern section of Baghdad the second soldier died of injuries not sustained in fighting.

On October 11, 2007, the American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad.

U.N. officials said Thursday October 11, 2007, they will be looking into whether war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed in recent shootings of Iraqi civilians by US-hired contractors, and they urged US authorities to hold private security firms accountable for unjustified killings of Iraqis.

A US human rights group said on October 12, 2007, it is suing private security firm Blackwater for unspecified damages for war crimes and wrongfully killing Iraqi civilians. The Centre for Constitutional Rights is acting on behalf of an injured survivor and three families of men killed by Blackwater guards on 16 September.

On October 12, 2007, the former top commander of American forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, called the Bush administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and said the result was "a nightmare with no end in sight." Sanchez who was replaced in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal blamed the Bush administration for a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan" and denounced the current addition of American forces as a "desperate" move that would not achieve long-term stability.

US and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad's demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months. American diplomats are working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.

A State Department review on October 17, 2007, of private security guards for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over the deaths of 17 Iraqis last month, but the company probably is on the way out of that job.

On October 17, 2007, the United States is looking for alternative ways to supply its troops in Iraq in case Turkey closes its borders in protest at a perceived snub by Washington.

The activities of security contractors are "in conflict" with the US military's mission in Iraq, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said on Friday October 19, 2007. But he acknowledged that the US could not manage without contractors, except by diverting thousands of troops. On Thursday, three Iraqis were injured when guards from a UK company fired into a taxi in Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

US light sweet crude fell 87 cents to $88.60 after an earlier $90.07 record on Friday October 19, 2007.

A former US commander, Lt. Col. William H. Steele, at the Iraqi jail that held Saddam Hussein was acquitted Friday October 19, 2007, of aiding the enemy but sentenced to two years imprisonment for convictions on other charges. He had faced a life sentence if convicted of accusations he allowed prisoners use of his cell phone for unmonitored calls.

Iraq repeated a call for US firm Blackwater to leave on Saturday October 20, 2007, almost five weeks after its guards killed as many as 17 civilians, but said it had no problem with other companies that obeyed the law.

The US government Tuesday October 23, 2007, vowed to clamp down on Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq, which stand accused of killing innocent civilians through gung-ho tactics.

A US State Department audit of a Dyncorp International contract under the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund released Tuesday October 23, 2007, found that investigators were unable to determine what the company had provided under the contract or how $1.2 billion in funds were spent. Invoices and supporting documents for the Iraq police training program managed by the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) bureau 'were in disarray,' and that during the initial year of the contract, INL's workload increased 'substantially' without a corresponding personnel increase. 'The result was poor contract management. As a result, INL cannot provide a detailed accounting of the $1.2 billion expended under its DynCorp Iraqi police training program.

The man in charge of security for US diplomats in Iraq resigned on October 24, 2007, after heavy criticism of how foreign private security firms in Iraq are supervised.

On October 29, 2007, the State Department promised Blackwater bodyguards immunity in its investigation of last month's killing of 17 Iraqi civilians. That means it's possible no criminal charges will be brought, or, if they are, it may take months.

On October 24, 2007, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private security contractors used in Iraq. The steps include tightening the state department's rules of engagement so they are in line with the military's. Contractors will also have to undergo improved cultural awareness training. There will also be better co-ordination with the US military and tighter restrictions on the use of force.

On October 30, 2008, six weeks after a fatal shootout in a Baghdad square involving contractor guards from Blackwater USA, private security firms in Iraq may no longer be able to operate quite as privately as they used to. Placing such guards under Department of Defence oversight may mitigate any abusive behaviour, as well as ensure better coordination with military activities. It remains unclear whether any Blackwater employee will ever be prosecuted for the Baghdad shootings, which Iraqi officials say left 17 civilians dead. And given current force levels, there is little chance that uniformed US troops themselves will take over the guards' protection duties.

Six American soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Iraq on Monday November 5, 2007, taking the number of deaths this year to 852. The toll makes 2007 the deadliest year of the war for United States troops. Five of the American soldiers died in two roadside bomb attacks near Kirkuk. A sixth soldier died during combat operations in Anbar Province.

A Baghdad taxi driver was shot dead by a guard from the US security contractor DynCorp International Inc. on November 10, 2007. The involvement of DynCorp in the death was confirmed by the Interior Ministry. The taxi driver who was killed had posed no threat.

The US military is sending 3,000 soldiers home from Diyala province, the second large unit to leave Iraq as troop levels are cut after a 30,000-strong "surge" earlier this year. They will not be replaced. Troops from the larger 4th Striker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, located near Baghdad, will take over the area.

The shootings of 14 of the 17 Iraqi civilians killed by Blackwater security personnel in a September confrontation were unjustified and violated rules on the use of deadly force we were told on November 14, 2007. No evidence support assertions by Blackwater employees that they were fired upon by Iraqi civilians. The FBI concluded that three of the deaths may have been justified under rules that allow lethal force in response to an imminent threat. Five of Blackwater guards opened fire during the shootings, with one guard being the focus of the investigation because he was responsible for several deaths.

Five US Army National Guard brigades have been ordered to go to Iraq and Afghanistan in the summer of 2009, the Pentagon announced Monday December 3, 2007; 8,000 will go to Iraq and the rest 7,000 will leave for Afghanistan.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, visited the northern city of Mosul on December 5, 2007, to see for himself "the considerable progress" made in reducing violence since his last visit. Mr Gates will meet Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and talk to the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

On December 6, 2007, the US Pentagon and state department have agreed on procedures which they say will improve oversight of private security contractors operating in Iraq. The move gives US military commanders a greater role in co-ordinating the movements of private security staff guarding US diplomats and the military. The deal also sets new standards for inquiries into alleged rule breaches.

A $5.2bn fund used to train and equip Iraqi security forces cannot be shown to have been used properly, US military auditors said on December 7, 2007. The report, based on a visit from March to May this year, said high levels of violence made it hard to oversee management of the fund.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on December 18, 2007. She intended use her trip to encourage Iraqi leaders to seek political reconciliation.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates Friday December 21, 2007, said he hoped that US troops will soon start returning home from Iraq, saying improved security there will enable five units to pull out by July as planned. There are currently about 160,000 US troops in Iraq.

Suicides among serving American soldiers reached a record high in 2007, as more troops were sent back for multiple tours of the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Army saw suicides among active duty troops leap 20 per cent from 2006, with 121 soldiers taking their own lives during 2007. The increase in attempted suicides and self-inflicted injuries was higher still, jumping six-fold since the war in Iraq began in 2003. The army suicide rate now stands at twice that of 1980, when records began, and for the first time in American military history more soldiers are killing themselves in wartime than in peace

US troops in Iraq said on Friday February 8, 2008, they have arrested a suspected leader of a Shia militia group allegedly backed by Iran. He was arrested late on Thursday, along with three other suspects, during operations in the Mashru area in the province of Wasit.

After meeting the US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on February 11, 2008, he favours a "pause" in troop reductions in Iraq after up to 30,000 US soldiers are sent home this summer. The Pentagon aims to decrease troop numbers in Iraq from 20 to 15 brigades. One brigade has already left; the last of the five is due to leave by July.
After meeting the US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, Mr Gates said he wanted a "period of evaluation".

On February 20, 2008, the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, cautioned of the dangers of over-hasty withdrawals of military forces in Iraq. The ambassador also said a recent improvement in the current security situation was not irreversible. He warned a new cycle of violence could start up if withdrawals were not handled very carefully.
Some 2,000 US soldiers are being withdrawn from Baghdad as part of a planned reduction of US forces in Iraq, the US military said on Thursday March 6, 2008.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said on March 8, 2008, that he intends to leave his post early next year, to retire. Reports have said Mr Crocker may leave Baghdad as soon as mid-January, before a new American president takes office. Mr Crocker has repeatedly said that US troop withdrawals from Iraq should depend on conditions on the ground and not on timetables set in Washington. This puts him at odds with the policies of some presidential candidates.

The top US military commander running the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq quit abruptly on March 12, 2008, after a published report claimed he was fighting off a push by the White House to launch a third war against Iran. Admiral William Fallon, who headed Central Command, which stretches from the restive Middle East across Iraq and Iran to Afghanistan and Central Asia and is the focus of US President George W. Bush's multi-fronted war on Islamic extremism, ended a glittering military career in what seemed to be a rift with the President.

US Senator John McCain has gone to Baghdad in an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital on Sunday March 16, 2008. Mr McCain -set to be the Republican's presidential candidate in November- will meet with US and Iraqi officials during his trip. Mr McCain is also scheduled to visit London, Paris and Israel this week.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Baghdad on Monday March 17, 2008, for a previously unannounced visit, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion. Mr Cheney has had a classified briefing with the top US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and the US ambassador to the country, Ryan Crocker. During the visit a series of explosions shook Baghdad, killing at least four. North of the capital, police said they found the bodies of three members of a US-backed neighbourhood police group.

On March 29, 2008, US President George W Bush called the Iraqi government offensive against militiamen in Basra "a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq". Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has set a deadline for the Mehdi Army, which still controls large parts of the city, to lay down their arms for money. The militia has so far ignored the ultimatum.

Central to the Bush-Petraeus Iraq strategy is to pacify and confuse American public opinion during the 2008 elections, an approach Gen. Petraeus calls "slowing down the American clock" to gain time for the counterinsurgency to continue. This week's events in Basra suggest that US strategy is collapsing amidst its own contradictions. This is the most important opportunity for critics to question the "surge" since it began last year. The four-day offensive has failed so far, provoking widespread violence from Basra to Mahmudia, Hilla, Diwaniya, Kut and the streets of Baghdad. Hundreds have been killed or wounded. Maliki's forces are being exposed as unable to fight without US airpower bombarding positions as small as those for mortar crews. The prospect of US or British intervention in Basra grows by the hour. Tens of thousands of Shia are protesting on the streets of Sadr City. So much for the surge. The US is now in panic mode, trying to ensure the survival of its unpopular client regime in Baghdad.

On April 7, 2008, a confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country. The draft strategic framework agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, dated March 7 and marked "secret" and "sensitive", is intended to replace the existing UN mandate and authorises the US to "conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security" without time limit. The authorisation is described as "temporary" and the agreement says the US "does not desire permanent bases or a permanent military presence in Iraq". Iraqi critics point out that the agreement contains no limits on numbers of US forces, the weapons they are able to deploy, their legal status or powers over Iraqi citizens.

The State Department on Monday April 7, 2008, cited the need to protect staff in Iraq as justification for renewing a contract with private security firm Blackwater USA. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki complained that Washington had renewed the contract without his government's approval, adding the issue was still under consideration. The State Department told reporters: "It's a decision for us to take, about how we protect our people.

US President George W. Bush on Thursday April 10, 2008, suspended indefinitely the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq following a plea from his top commander in Iraq and warned that the strife-torn country remains too fragile five years after Baghdad fell. General David Petraeus, who testified to US lawmakers for two days this week, had called for a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" after July, before any more troops were withdrawn.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, on April 12, 2008, called on Arab countries to do more to support Iraq adding that the US was ready to hold security talks to Iran in Baghdad but was waiting for an Iranian response.

A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday April 12, 2008, capping the bloodiest week for US troops in Iraq this year. The death toll rose to at least 19 the number of American troopers killed in Iraq since last Sunday.

General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq who implemented President Bush's troop "surge" strategy, is to leave his post and will take charge of US Central Command in Florida, which oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Senate must first confirm him in his new position, and little opposition is expected. Mr Bush will also nominate Lieutenant-General Ray Odierno to replace General Petraeus in Baghdad.

The U.S. military said 3,500 soldiers sent to Iraq last summer as part of the so-called surge will soon be leaving according to a statement released on Monday May 5, 2008.

U.S. commanders moved swiftly on May 18, 2008, to avert a crisis after a soldier deployed in Baghdad was found to have used a copy of the Koran for target practice. The incident had the potential to inflame Muslim opinion against the U.S. military and compromise the delicate alliance it has been forging with Sunni Arab communities against religious extremists. Local leaders accepted an apology from senior U.S. commanders, and the soldier responsible had been disciplined and pulled from Iraq.

On May 24, 2008, an audit of some $8bn paid to US and Iraqi contractors found that almost every payment failed to comply with US laws aimed at preventing fraud. In one instance, $11m was paid to a US company without any record of what goods or services were provided. US spending of another $1.8bn in seized Iraqi assets were also poorly handled. The findings, covering the period from 2001 to 2006. Democrats accuse the Bush administration of relying too heavily on contractors to run the Iraq war and paying too little attention to problems of corruption and fraud.

A US marine in Iraq has been removed from duty on May 31, 2008, following claims that he handed out coins inscribed with biblical verses in Arabic. Residents in Falluja had complained that the coins were being distributed at a checkpoint. US troops are forbidden from proselytising any religion. The case comes a week after US President George Bush made a personal apology over a US soldier in Iraq shot holes into a version of the Koran.
US military deaths in Iraq have fallen to their lowest monthly level for four years, after about 20 soldiers were reported killed in May 2008. The figures for Iraqi civilian deaths vary according to different sources, but have also dropped to about 530 -or about half the levels seen in March and April.

A retired Army colonel, Levonda Joey Selph, who has been the focus of a wide-ranging criminal inquiry into contracting fraud in Iraq, pleaded guilty on Tuesday June 10, 2008, to steering a military contract for warehouses in Iraq to a contractor for $4,000 and a vacation in Thailand. She pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy in U.S. District Court here as part of a plea bargain with the government in which she agreed to cooperate with the investigation. She agreed to pay the government $9,000, and under sentencing guidelines could serve a prison term of up to two years.

Three Ohio men were convicted Friday June 13, 2008, of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq. Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27, face maximum sentences of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops.

On Monday July 14, 2008, Barack Obama pledged to increase US troops in Afghanistan. If he becomes president, he would send 10,000 more to reinforce the 33,000 already there. Obama has promised, soon after becoming president in January, to begin scaling back the 156,000 US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and to shift the focus to Afghanistan.

A former top U.S. official, Thomas Schweich, said on July 23, 2008, that President Hamid Karzai is obstructing the fight against Afghanistan's narcotics trade and protecting drug lords for political reasons. Until June he was one of State Department's top counternarcotics .He wrote that although the Taliban insurgency fighting Karzai's government profits from drugs, the president is reluctant to move against big drug lords in the country's south where most opium and heroin is produced because it is his political power base.

On July 24, 2008, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai vehemently rejected allegations that he has been obstructing counter-narcotics efforts and protecting drug lords. Mr Schweich said the Afghan government is deeply involved in shielding the opium trade, and drug traffickers are buying off hundreds of police chiefs, judges and other officials.

On Wednesday July 30, 2008, Afghan authorities released a television talk show host, Nasir Fayaz, critical of the government following an outcry in the media over his detention, which lasted two days. Afghan intelligence agents detained Fayaz on Monday after the government alleged that he made "baseless accusations" against two ministers and called for his prosecution.

On the August 28, 2008, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that Senator Joe Biden "wanted to split Iraq into three different countries by ethnic lines." Limbaugh went on to say, "That would have created a civil war. He did not want to win." In fact Biden introduced a "five-point plan" to "maintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis breathing room in their own regions." The plan also states that "the Iraqi constitution already provides for federalism" and that "the central government would be responsible for common interests, like border security and the distribution of oil revenues." You cannot trust the Americans in general about what they say on Iraq but ring wingers are real liars.

Top US defence officials have recommended that President George W. Bush withdraw one combat brigade from Iraq but not until early next year, Pentagon said on Thursday September 4, 2008. A US Army combat brigade has 3,000 to 5,000 troops. The United States now has 15 combat brigades in Iraq as well as many other units, making a total of more than 140,000 troops.

US President George W Bush announced on September 9, 2008, that about 8,000 US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by February 2009 with 4,500 being sent to Afghanistan. There are currently 146,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan.

The outgoing commander of US troops in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said on September 12, 2008, that he will never declare victory there. He added that recent security gains were "not irreversible" and that the US still faced a "long struggle". When asked if US troops could withdraw from Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, he said that would be "doable". In his next job leading the US Central Command, Gen Petraeus will also oversee operations in Afghanistan.

David Petraeus, the American general who presided over Iraq's pullback from the brink of all-out civil war, relinquished his command Tuesday September 16, 2008, to General Ray Odierno.

US Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden bid a safe farewell on Friday October 3, 2008, to 112 "citizen soldiers" headed to Iraq, including his son, and told them "thank you for answering the call of your country."God bless you and may He protect you," Biden said a day after his debate with his Republican rival Sarah Palin, who as Alaska's governor saluted her 20-year-old son off to war last month.

The Iraqi puppy adopted by an American soldier but was refused a flight to the U.S., is alive, the military said Tuesday October 14, 2008.The case has cast a spotlight on Defence Department rules that prohibit soldiers in the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, from adopting pets or transporting them home. Army Sgt. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis, tried to send Ratchet home with the help of Operation Baghdad Pups earlier this month as she prepared to leave Iraq. But the dog was reportedly confiscated by a U.S. officer before it could reach the Baghdad International Airport, raising concern about the animal's fate.

On October 16, 2008, the stray puppy befriended by a US soldier in Iraq has received the green light to move to America to be reunited with his owner. Specialist Gwen Beberg, who adopted the black pup in May after helping to save him from a burning pile of rubbish, was delighted at the news.

General David Petraeus rose to the helm of Central Command on Friday October 31, 2008. He pledged to push for more than military solutions to the troubles of the greater Middle East.

On November 15, 2008, after more than five years of rampant violence and misconduct carried out by the massive army of private corporate contractors in Iraq -actions that have gone totally unpunished under any system of law- the US Justice Department appears to be on the verge of handing down the first indictments against armed private forces for crimes committed in Iraq. The reported targets of the "draft" indictments: six Blackwater operatives involved in the September 16, 2007, killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square.

On November 18, 2008, we were told that a rise in Taliban attacks along the length of a vital NATO supply route that runs through this border town in the shadow of the Khyber Pass has U.S. officials seeking alternatives, including the prospect of beginning deliveries by a tortuous overland journey from Europe.

The US will withdraw its troops from Iraq if the security pact between the two governments is not signed we were told on November 18, 2008.

A soldier in the New York Army National Guard was acquitted of murder on Thursday December 4, 2008, in the bombing deaths of two superiors in Iraq, triggering outbursts and gasps from the slain officers' families. A military jury found the soldier, Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, not guilty on two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip T. Esposito of Suffern, N.Y., and First Lt. Louis E. Allen of Milford, Pa. The officers were killed when a mine detonated in a window of their room at a United States military base in Tikrit, Iraq, in June 2005.

On December 6, 2008, the commander of the US military in Iraq has written to troops to announce a "subtle shift" in how they conduct operations in the country. Gen Raymond Odierno's move follows the signing last week by the Iraqi government of a deal that will see US troops leave the country by 2011. He said the US would continue to engage in combat but all operations would be approved by the Iraqi government. The US currently has about 150,000 military personnel deployed in Iraq.

A surprise visit by US President George Bush to Iraq on December 15, 2008, has been overshadowed by an incident in which two shoes were thrown at him during a news conference. An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush "a dog" and threw his footwear, just missing the president. Mr Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki signed the new security agreement between their countries. The pact calls for US troops to leave Iraq in 2011 -eight years after the 2003 invasion that has in part defined the Bush presidency.

The new US embassy in Baghdad has been opened on January 1, 2009, with a dedication ceremony attended by the Iraqi president. The compound is one of the biggest and most expensive embassies the US has ever built, and was opened amid heavy security in the Iraqi capital. The US also gave back Saddam Hussein's palace there, which had been their headquarters in the city. The new complex where about 1,200 staff will live and work has been built with security very much in mind. The opening ceremony was led by Ambassador Ryan Crocker and attended by US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

On January 7, 2009, five guards from US security firm Blackwater pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 17 Iraqis in 2007. The men are charged with 14 counts of manslaughter, as well as weapons violations and attempted manslaughter. A sixth guard has pleaded guilty to killing at least one Iraqi and has been co-operating with prosecutors.

On February 4, 2009, an academic whose estimates of civilian deaths during the Iraq war sparked controversy has been criticised for not fully co-operating with an inquiry. Gilbert Burnham said in the Lancet medical journal in 2006 that 650,000 civilians had died since 2003 -a figure far higher than other estimates. A polling association in the US said Dr Burnham had refused to supply "basic facts" for its inquiry into his work.

On February 7, 2009, defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two US soldiers in Iraq.

Blackwater Worldwide, a private security company whose work in Iraq was plagued by trouble, said on February 15, 2009, that it is changing its name to Xe as it shifts its business focus.

On February 26, 2009, we were told that President Barack Obama is due to announce the withdrawal of most US troops in Iraq by August 2010 and that the US "combat mission" in Iraq will officially end by that time. He is also expected to say that up to 50,000 of the 142,000 troops will stay in Iraq after that date to advise Iraqi forces and protect American interests. This was confirmed the next day.

US Republicans broadly welcomed President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw most troops from Iraq by 2010. They described the plan as responsible while remaining flexible. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki said his forces were capable of controlling security in Iraq after US troops leave. President Obama announced on February 27, 2009, that the US "combat mission" would officially end by August 2010.

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater who used an auto parts inheritance to build the security firm into one of the world's most respected -and reviled- defence companies in the world, said Monday March 2, 2009, he has stepped aside as chief executive. Prince appointed a new president and chief operating officer in a management shake-up. It comes just a couple weeks after changing its name to Xe in an effort to repair its severely tarnished name and reputation.

A US army captain, Michael Dung Nguyen, has been charged on March 6, 2009, with stealing nearly $700,000 intended for emergency reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He sent it back home while he was stationed in Iraq between April 2007 and February 2009. He allegedly spent the money on luxury cars, electronics and furniture. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including theft of government property and money laundering.

President Barack Obama is standing by his nomination of Christopher Hill as the next US ambassador to Iraq despite opposition from at least three Republican senators who want him to reconsider, Obama's chief spokesman said Friday March 13, 2009.

President Obama made a surprise detour to Iraq on Tuesday April 7,2009, stopping to visit American troops and commanders before returning to Washington from his first overseas trip as president. Iraq was chosen over Afghanistan as a final stop because of its proximity to Turkey, where Mr. Obama has been for the last two days, as well as a need to consult with Iraqi officials but the trip was primarily to see troops.

US President Barack Obama said on April 8, 2009, the time has come for Iraqis to "take responsibility for their country". He was greeted enthusiastically by US troops, whom he praised for their "extraordinary achievements" in Iraq. Mr Obama also had talks with Iraq's leaders, and confirmed his plans to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said on April 25, 2009, the US "will stand with the people of Iraq" during a difficult transition period in the conflict-torn country. She was speaking during her first visit to Iraq as America's top diplomat. President Barack Obama has committed the US to withdrawing troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June. All combat brigades are to leave by next summer.

U.S. soldiers will not appear in Iraqi courts to answer any charges relating to a raid this week that killed two people and triggered condemnation from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the U.S. military has said on April 30, 2009. Brigadier-General Peter Bayer, chief of staff for the U.S. military's day to day operations in Iraq, said the raid in the southern city of Kut was "lawful and legal." Responding to a question whether American soldiers would appear in Iraqi courts, he replied: "No. Absolutely not."

A man accused of being a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda has pleaded guilty in the US on May 1, 2009, to conspiring to provide material support for terrorism. Ali al-Marri, a dual Saudi-Qatari national, was arrested two months after the attacks of 11 September 2001. Prosecutors said he had met top al-Qaeda figures, who sent him to the US to help plan further attacks. He was held for nearly six years as an "enemy combatant" in a military jail, before being charged in a civil court.

The troubled Blackwater era ends in Iraq on Thursday May 7, 2009, as another firm takes over the once-dominant company's security services contract in Baghdad. Triple Canopy, a Herndon, Virginia-based company, picks up the expiring contract of the security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which changed its name to XE a few months ago. The end of the contract followed the Iraqi government's refusal to renew the firm's operating license because of a September 2007 shooting in which Baghdad says security guards -then employed by Blackwater- killed 17 Iraqi civilians.

The United States military said Monday May 11, 2009, that five American soldiers had been shot to death by a fellow soldier who opened fire on them in a base in Baghdad, and that the suspected shooter was in custody.

A 60-year-old Arizona reservist became the oldest soldier to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Army Maj. Steven Hutchison of Scottsdale died this week of wounds he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Al Farr we were told on Friday May 15, 2009. Hutchison volunteered to go to Iraq through a military Retiree Recall program that permits older, experienced soldiers to return to action. Pentagon officials say the armed forces can reinstate retirees voluntarily up to age 64 for general officers

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday May 14, 2009, approved a $96.7 billion measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30 as well as rush critical economic and security aid to Pakistan. $47.7 billion are to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama had originally requested in total $84.3 billion. It also includes $1 billion for Pakistan as it tries to fight militant Taliban insurgents spilling over the border. It also has $3.1 billion for eight Boeing Co C-17s and 11 Lockheed Martin C-130 transport planes. The Senate is working on its own version of the bill and differences, which will have to be resolved, including money for the International Monetary Fund and how to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that houses terrorism suspects.

Four men were arrested late on Wednesday May 21, 2009, over alleged plots to attack targets in and near New York. The four -all Muslims- planned to blow up synagogues and use Stinger missiles to bring down military planes. The men were seized after allegedly planting what they thought were bombs near two synagogues in the Bronx area. The four are charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the US and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles.

The U.S. Senate approved a $91 billion spending bill that would fund President Barack Obama's troop build-up in Afghanistan and block a lawsuit seeking to force the release of photos showing abuse of war prisoners. Senators voted 86-3 yesterday to approve the legislation, setting up negotiations with the House over a compromise measure. Democrats who control both chambers aim to send Obama a final bill early next month after returning from a weeklong Memorial Day recess. The vast majority of the money in the bill would fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing total costs for the two wars to more than $900 billion.

Eighteen U.S. soldiers have been confirmed as the first cases in Kuwait with swine H1N1flu we were told on Sunday May 24, 2009. They were confirmed with the virus upon their arrival from their country to the military base (in Kuwait).

The campaign for nationwide elections in Afghanistan got off to a subdued start Tuesday June 16, 2009, shadowed by security fears and marked by the chronic disorganization that characterizes most large-scale endeavours here. None of the three main presidential candidates made a public appearance on the first official day of the two-month campaign. Out in Afghanistan's vast hinterlands, many candidates for provincial assemblies stayed home, saying traditional campaign activities such as rallies would be far too dangerous. In Kabul campaign workers were out before dawn, plastering walls and utility poles and the city's few trees with campaign posters. By midday, many of the posters had been torn down, defaced or papered over with a rival's image. The ballot for the August 20 vote is laden with 41 presidential candidates, most of whom are considered to have little chance of victory. The only qualifications for running for president are holding Afghan citizenship and being at least 40 years old.

On June 30, 2009, US troops are withdrawing from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion, having formally handed over security duties to new Iraqi forces. A public holiday -National Sovereignty Day- has been declared, and the capital, Baghdad, threw a giant party to mark the eve of the changeover. US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010, with all troops gone from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Vice President Biden briefly interrupted his reconciliation tour of Iraq for some welcome family time -a reunion with his citizen-soldier son Friday July 2, 2009. The Veep had breakfast in Baghdad with his namesake, Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, 40, Delaware's attorney general and an Army captain serving with the Delaware National Guard.

The US military sentenced a soldier, Sergeant Miguel A. Vegaquinones, to three years in a military jail on Saturday July 11, 2009, for the accidental shooting death of a fellow soldier serving in Iraq. He will also be reduced in rank to private in addition to a dishonourable discharge. Vegaquinones pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after the January 11 incident in which he shot another soldier, Sean McCune, in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
According to the terms of a pre-trial plea arrangement, Vegaquinones will serve only up to 30 months.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday July 20, 2009, announced a temporary increase in the size of the U.S. Army that would boost the force by up to 22,000 troops for three years. The increase, intended to cope with strains from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would raise the total strength of the Army to 569,000 soldiers.

The US may be able to withdraw troops from Iraq faster than planned, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on July 29, 2009, as he ended a two-day visit to the country. Visiting the Kurdish autonomous area in north Iraq, he urged Iraq's factions to resolve their differences politically.

On Sunday August 1, 2009, we were told that Marines in western Ambar Province had found remains that have been positively identified as those of an American fighter pilot shot down in the opening hours of the first Gulf War in 1991. The Navy pilot, Michael Scott Speicher, was the only American missing in action from that war. Efforts to determine what happened to him after his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down by an Iraqi warplane on January 17, 1991, had continued despite false rumours and scant information.

The number of American troops in Iraq has dropped below 100,000 for the first time since the 2003 invasion, we were told Tuesday February 16, 2010. The military plans on maintaining its current level of troops, about 98,000, through parliamentary elections set for March 7.

A man has been arrested on Tuesday May 4, 2010, in connection with the failed car-bomb attack in New York City on Saturday. Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, is due to appear in a Manhattan court later to face charges of driving the bomb into Times Square. Mr Shahzad was detained at John F Kennedy Airport in New York on Monday as he attempted to leave for Dubai.

On July 7, 2010, an Army intelligence analyst serving in Iraq has been charged with leaking classified information, including a controversial video shown on the website WikiLeaks of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack that killed 12 civilians in Baghdad. Pfc. Bradley E. Manning was charged with improperly downloading the video, 150,000 State Department cables and a classified PowerPoint presentation to his personal computer between November and May. Manning has been in U.S. military custody in Kuwait since May, when a former hacker turned him in.

With the United States drawing down troops in Iraq, the State Department plans to double the number of private security contractors it uses to ensure the safety of the huge civilian development effort we were told on Thursday August 19, 2010. The plan would bring to some 7,000 the total security contractors employed by the government in Iraq, where since the 2003 U.S. invasion private security firms have often been accused of acting above the law.

The British Army was defeated in Basra and abandoned its citizens to be terrorised by rogue militias, two senior American officers have said on September 29, 2010.

With all of the media focus on democratic uprisings across the Middle East, it's easy to forget that coalition forces are still bogged down in a misadventure to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates reminded us of this fact on March 4, 2011, by issuing the following warning during an address to West Point cadets. Mr Gates said, "In my opinion, any future defence secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined..." It's reasonable to infer from his warning, however, that Gates would have advised Bush against invading these two countries. This, of course, puts him at variance with Obama, who called Afghanistan the "good war."

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on Thursday March 10, 2011, said that valid intelligence on pre-war Iraq's suspected WMD capabilities would likely have prevented the 2003 invasion of the Middle Eastern state. "We were unequivocally told by the CIA that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons," Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary from early 2001 through July 2003 said. "The CIA made its best estimates. (But) it was a mistake. We got it wrong." The Bush administration made the Hussein regime's alleged unconventional weapons efforts a key component of the case for war. No evidence of active WMD production sites or operational stockpiles were found following the U.S.-led invasion.

Two American businessmen have been charged with giving Army officers airline tickets, spa vacations and more than $1 million in bribes to secure multimillion-dollar contracts to supply the American military and help rebuild Iraq. A federal indictment against the men, George H. Lee, and his son, Justin W. Lee, was unsealed on Friday may 27, 2011. Both are charged with four counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy. The Lees are among nearly 60 contractors and military officers to face criminal charges stemming from the scramble for often poorly monitored government contracts in the early years of the Iraq war. Federal officials have also blocked 120 people and companies accused of fraud and corruption from doing business with the government. The Lees' company, Lee Dynamics International, was suspended in July 2007. Justin W. Lee was expected to appear in federal court in Philadelphia as early as Tuesday, and George H. Lee is believed to be at large outside the United States, possibly in Kuwait or Dubai. A lawyer who has represented the company did not return phone or e-mail messages on Monday.

U.S. officials said on Tuesday June 7, 2011, that there is no sign Iraqi leaders are closer to asking Americans to extend their stay beyond December 31, even as Monday's triple rocket attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in Baghdad punctuated a recent increase in violence. With the deadline less than seven months away, 46,000 U.S. troops advising Iraqi Security Forces and hoping to be home by New Year's Day are left waiting for politics in Baghdad and Washington to determine their fate.

On June 7, 2011, Robert Gates' days as defence secretary number just 24. But before he goes, consider this number: 646,094. That's the number of miles he has travelled outside the U.S. in 4½ years while leading a wartime Pentagon. He will add to his total by about 21,500 when he completes his current trip, an 11-day round-the-world finale with a last stop in Brussels to attend NATO meetings. The grand total of 667,594 is the equivalent of flying around the world 26 times at the Equator. His top destinations? Iraq and Afghanistan, where America is still waging two wars. The 1,400-plus hours he has spent in the air to show the Pentagon flag abroad is the equivalent of 58 days - nearly two months. Most of that was aboard a modified Boeing 747 equipped to serve as an airborne command post for the president and top aides in the event of a nuclear war. The so-called "Doomsday" plane can be refuelled in flight, saving time, and can communicate directly with nuclear-armed submarines lurking under the seas. Gates has visited 104 countries -many of them more than once.
His No. 1 destination: Iraq. That was the war uppermost on his mind and that of the American public when Gates took over for Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in December 2006. Gates hopped a plane to Baghdad the day after he was sworn in, and he returned with regularity each succeeding year as U.S. war fortunes improved. His 13th and final visit was in April.
Second on the Gates list is Afghanistan, the other war -the one that took a back seat to Iraq until President Barack Obama took office in 2009 and declared that he would get the U.S. military out of Iraq and devote more resources to the war he believed was more crucial to U.S. security: Afghanistan.
No secretary of defence travels abroad for the fun of it. It's a grind under the best circumstances. Under tough circumstances, like in Afghanistan's southern desert Sunday, where temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit and there was little escape, even for a defence secretary with a doting entourage, it's more than a grind. It's a pounding, mind-numbing march. And it's not without risks. On a stop Monday at a vulnerable outpost in Afghanistan's eastern Logar province, an Army officer let Gates' party know that if the base came under attack they should drop everything and duck into a bomb shelter a few steps away. "But don't trample the secretary," he advised.
Among other destinations he visited more than once: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and Israel in the Middle East; Germany, England, Turkey and Russia in Europe; China, Pakistan, Japan and Korea in Asia; and, closer to home, Canada and Mexico. The list is dominated by treaty allies but includes others of more ambiguous status. Gates' designated successor, Leon Panetta, is likely to visit Afghanistan and possibly Iraq shortly after he takes over July 1, assuming he wins Senate confirmation. By then, Gates will have flown off to his retirement home in Washington state -by commercial air.

A small U.S. force will stay in Iraq after the deadline of the U.S. troops' withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011, we were told on Thursday June 23, 2011. The residual U.S. force will be liaised with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and will not be part of the yet-to-be decided extension of U.S. troops' presence in Iraq or the complete troops' pullout scheduled by the end of 2011. The source remarks came as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held talks with U.S. ambassador to Baghdad James F. Jeffrey tackling means to develop bilateral relations during the upcoming stage, the paper added. On Monday, the Iraqi leading political parties held their first meeting at the residence of Talabani in Baghdad to discuss the extension of the U.S. troops' presence in the country beyond the end of 2011 deadline. Talabani said that the Iraqi factions agreed on holding another meeting "soon" to take a unified political decision. Baghdad and Washington are in debate whether the U.S. troops need to extend the presence of its troops in Iraq beyond the 2011 deadline.

During President Bush's last year in office, he agreed to a timetable for troop withdrawals in Iraq: U.S. forces would leave by the end of 2011. The same year, Barack Obama insisted that if elected he would end the Iraq War. In a speech given shortly after his inauguration, he repeated the promise. "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," he said. "I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Now he may not honour his promise: the Obama Administration has offered to leave 10,000 troops in Iraq if its government so requests. Already the White House "has worked out options to keep 8,500 to 10,000 active-duty troops in Iraq to continue training security forces."

On Thursday July 7, 2011, the White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year despite opposition from many Iraqis and key Democratic Party allies who demand that President Obama bring home the American military as promised. Any extension of the military's presence, however, depends on a formal request from Baghdad -which must weigh questions about the readiness of Iraqi security forces against fears of renewed militant attacks and unrest if U.S. soldiers stay beyond the December pullout deadline.

For the first time since the American invasion of Iraq, an entire month -August 2011- has passed without a single United States service member dying. The milestone is particularly remarkable because it comes after 14 troops were killed in June, making it the most deadly month for the Americans in three years, and it has occurred amid a frightening campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations from Sunni insurgents that killed hundreds of Iraqis, resurrecting the spectre of the worst days of sectarian fighting.

Dick Cheney's autobiography presents a robust defence of his push for the U.S. invasion of Iraq without critically examining two issues central to America's near-failure in the war: the Bush administration's decision to disband the country's army and banish all members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. Cheney's parting shot after decades of public service comes in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The book has rekindled debate over the rationale to attack Iraq in 2003 and the cost in American lives and dollars. It also has focused attention on whether the war diverted U.S. attention from catching al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and eradicating the group's hide-outs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cheney and former President George W. Bush had said invading Iraq and removing Saddam was imperative after September 11. They insisted Saddam was working with bin Laden and that Iraq had amassed weapons of mass destruction to use against its neighbours or to give to al-Qaida for use against America.

As of October 18, 2011, the United States plans to pull nearly all of its troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. Whether that changes between now and December 31 depends on Iraq. While there have been reports that the United States is giving up plans to keep a residual training force in Iraq after 2011, an agreement between the two countries requires a pullout by the end of the year -any request to change that plan has to come from the Iraqi government, and, so far, no formal request has been made. Still, amid concern about the continuing insurgency in Iraq, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday that the U.S. is "still in negotiations" with the Iraq government about keeping troops in the country to help train local security forces.

President Obama is discussing the Iraq pullout and other foreign policy successes to recipients on a special White House e-mail list sent on October 21, 2011. "When I came into office, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end," Obama writes in the e-mail message that includes a link to a video to Friday's remarks about the Iraq withdrawal. "As Commander in Chief," he adds, "I ended our combat mission last year and pledged to keep our commitment to remove all our troops by the end of 2011. To date, we've removed more than 100,000 troops from Iraq." Ending the war in Iraq "reflects a larger trend" in which "the wars of the past decade are drawing to a close," Obama adds.

Kuwaiti defence minister said Sunday November 6, 2011, the United States would not beef up military presence in Kuwait as Pentagon picked up pace to withdraw troops from Iraq. Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah denied reports that an unspecified number of U.S. troops would be shifted to Kuwait after concluding their missions in Iraq. U.S. officials said Wednesday the Obama administration was weighing a plan to relocate around 4,000 soldiers from Iraq to Kuwait by the end of the year in what it said a move to prevent military vacuum after soldiers pull out. Kuwait would be only a crossover for the U.S. troops to pull out from Iraq and return home, Sheikh Jaber added. He also said that Kuwait would not allow its territory to be used for attacking any country in the region, hinting at a possible U.S. military attack on Iran. The United States already maintains around 23,000 soldiers in the oil-rich Gulf emirate.

On November 23, 2011, the number of American service members in Iraq is plummeting ahead of a fast-approaching December 31, 2011, deadline for all American troops to be out of the country. There are now 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and only seven U.S. bases remain to be turned to Iraqi control by year's end. Just last week there were 24,000 American troops in Iraq. That's a significant reduction from the 46,000 American troops that were in Iraq two months ago. The most significant base to recently be turned over to Iraqi control was the giant U.S. air base at Balad in northern Iraq. It had long served as a major air hub for US forces in Iraq.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has moved swiftly to consolidate power in advance of the American military withdrawal, offering a glimpse of how Iraq's post-American identity may take shape, by rounding up hundreds of former Baath Party members and evicting Western companies from the heavily fortified Green Zone. As Mr. Maliki met with President Obama in Washington on Monday December 12, 2011 to discuss Iraq's future after the end of a painful nearly nine-year war, his aggressive actions back home raised new concerns in the West, where officials have long been uneasy with the prime minister's authoritarian tendencies.

The U.S. troops have left Iraq, and U.S. diplomats will now be the face of America in a country that remains extremely volatile. On December 28, 2011, we were told that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, along with several consulates, will have some 15,000 workers, making it the largest U.S. diplomatic operation abroad. Those diplomats will be protected by a private army consisting of as many as 5,000 security contractors who will carry assault weapons and fly armed helicopters. Embassy personnel will ride in armoured vehicles with armed guards, who work for companies with names like Triple Canopy and Global Strategies Group. Their convoys will be watched from above. Another company, DynCorp International, will fly helicopters equipped with heavy machine guns.

The US private security company formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the families of four contractors. The four men were killed in a 2004 ambush that was a defining moment of the Iraq war for the American public. On January 7, 2012, the families reached a confidential settlement with the company, now known as Academi, agreeing to the dismissal of their case before the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit based in Richmond, Virginia.

Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country. Until now the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors. The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a post-war Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.

A U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday May 22, 2012, voted to eliminate funding for a police training program for Iraq, saying the danger and expense were just too great after the American troop pullout last year. The panel refused to provide $850 million that President Barack Obama's administration requested for fiscal year 2013 for the program, in which U.S. security advisers are training Iraqi police. It has been seen as a key component of the U.S. civilian aid mission to Iraq now that U.S. troops are gone. The subcommittee's decision must still be ratified by the full Senate and the House of Representatives for it to become law.

A poll conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2, found that fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view. The Bush administration's insistence that the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction and might give them to terrorists was a key selling point in its campaign to take the country to war. It turned out to be untrue. Debate continues over whether former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and other top officials knew there were no WMD, but intentionally deceived the American people and Congress because they were intent on attacking Iraq for less palatable reasons, or whether they managed to convince themselves that it was true using cherry-picked intelligence. There is no reality-based argument that Iraq actually had WMD, after extensive searches found none, but this is hardly the first time many Americans have been certain of something that simply wasn't true. It just shows Americans are stupid an especially the Republicans who are brainwashed by such media as Fox News.

A female U.S. Army deserter who in 2007 moved to Canada to avoid being sent back to Iraq was arrested Thursday September 20, 2012. Authorities took her into custody at a border crossing in New York after the Canadian government ordered her deported. Kimberly Rivera, an Army private and mother of four, had fled to Canada to escape returning to Iraq, where she had already served three months. She travelled to Canada during a home leave, citing her opposition to the war in Iraq.

On Monday December 10, 2012, we were told that over 3,000 US troops have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait for missions pertaining to the recent developments in Syria and northern Iraq. The US troops have secretly entered Iraq in multiple stages and are mostly stationed at Balad military garrison in Salahuddin province and al-Asad air base in al-Anbar province. The troops include US Army officers and almost 17,000 more are set to secretly return to Iraq via the same route.

An Iraq War veteran being treated for mental illness was the gunman who opened fire at Fort Hood, killing three people and wounding 16 others before committing suicide, in an attack on the same Texas military base where more than a dozen people were slain in 2009. Within hours of the Wednesday April 2, 2014, attack, investigators started looking into whether the man's combat experience had caused lingering psychological trauma. The gunman had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems.

President Barack Obama asked Congress on Wednesday February 11, 2015, to formally authorize military force against Islamic State militants, declaring they are on the defensive and "going to lose." But he vowed not to repeat the large and costly ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama said a large deployment of U.S. troops won't be necessary to fight the Islamic State, and he argued that the three-page proposal he sent to lawmakers would give him and his successor the needed flexibility to wage a battle likely to take "some time." The initial reaction to his congressional request was bipartisan skepticism. Republicans expressed unhappiness that Obama chose to exclude any long-term commitment of ground forces, while some Democrats voiced dismay that he had opened the door to deployment at all.

On Friday March 20, 2015, we were told that General David Petraeus, who commanded US troops during the 2007-2008 surge in the Iraq war, believes Iran-backed Shia militias are a bigger threat to Iraq than the Islamic State militants they are fighting. Iran's military mastermind, Qassem Suleimani, has played pivotal roles in the deployment of Iranian assets against the Islamic State (aka Islamic State, ISIL, Daesh) in Iraq. Suleimani was present during the successful siege of Amerli in August, and he is on the frontlines of the battle against ISIS in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. ---

The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) revealed on Tuesday August 9, 2016, that the US-led coalition has conducted over 14 thousand air strikes -9,411 air strikes in Iraq and 4,682 air strikes in Syria- against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since the start of its operations in August 2014. The US aircraft conducted 10,826 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria including 6,393 air strikes in Iraq and 4,433 air strikes in Syria. The majority of air strikes were conducted by American aircraft and the total cost of the aerial campaign reached 8.4 billion US dollars. The air strikes destroyed over 26 thousand targets including 143 tanks and 1,600 rockets launcher pads.

B. The British
Royal Air Force warplanes have been called into action in Iraq alongside American forces fighting close to the Syrian border on June 19, 2005. The British GR4 Tornadoes were supporting a US operation against insurgents. They were there in support of the US operation and although they could have engaged if they'd wanted to, they didn't have to.

A roadside bomb has killed three British soldiers on July 16, 2005. The troops, from the 1st Battalion Staffordshire Regiment, were attacked in central Amara, in the southeast of the country, early on Saturday. Two other British soldiers were injured in the attack, but their wounds are not life threatening. A total of 92 UK troops have now been killed in Iraq.

Relatives of some of the London suicide attack victims have expressed their outrage after a video message from one of the bombers was shown on Arab TV on September 1, 2005. The video showed Mohammed Sidique Khan criticising British foreign policy and saying he was a soldier fighting a war. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said there was "no excuse for terrorism".

Two British soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded at a roadside in southern Iraq on September 5, 2005. The deaths of the soldiers, whose identities have not yet been revealed, brought to 94 the number of British service personnel killed since the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq in March 2003. The two were travelling in an armoured Land Rover in a convoy five miles east of the Shaibah airbase, in British-patrolled Basra province, when the device detonated on Monday.

One British soldier has been killed and three others injured in an attack in Iraq's Basra province, on Sunday September 11, 2005. A roadside bomb was detonated as the soldiers' convoy passed. An investigation was ongoing. The death brings the number of UK soldiers killed in Iraq to 95.

Iraqi authorities have arrested two British servicemen on September 19, 2005, after allegedly firing on police in Basra, killing one officer and wounding another. Clashes later broke out between UK forces and protesters. Tanks were set on fire and soldiers had to jump out of the blazing vehicles. Four civilians were wounded in the clashes. The two Britons arrested were undercover officers dressed as Arabs.

The two British soldiers arrested by the Iraqis prompted UK troops to storm a Basra police station to rescue them from militia on September 20, 2005. Brigadier John Lorimer said it was of "deep concern" that the men detained by police ended up held by Shia militia. Under Iraqi law the soldiers should have been handed over to coalition authorities.

Iraq denounced British forces on Tuesday September 20, 2005, over the dramatic rescue of two undercover. British troops used an armoured fighting vehicle on Monday to burst into an Iraqi jail in search of soldiers held by police in Basra. The British commander learned they had been handed to militia, and ordered their rescue from a nearby house. The operation followed rioting that began when the two soldiers fired on a police patrol. At least two Iraqis were killed in the violence.

On September 21, 2005, UK Defence Secretary John Reid has said Britain will not "cut and run" from Iraq and its problems. UK troops would not stay in Iraq any longer that necessary, and the Iraqi government would judge how long that should be.

The Iraqi authorities in Basra said on Thursday September 22, 2005, they will not cooperate with the coalition forces, especially British soldiers, until they receive an apology and compensation for a raid by British forces on a police station to release two soldiers. The British rammed their way with armoured vehicles into a Basra police station where the two Britons were initially detained, and then raided a house nearby where they were reportedly being held by Shiite militiamen. The action triggered a riot.

A Basra judge has issued an arrest warrant on September 24, 2005, for the two British soldiers accused of killing an Iraqi civilian and wounding a police officer. The two servicemen - believed to be undercover SAS officers - were detained after a confrontation on Monday.

On September 26, 2005, we were told British troops will start leaving Iraq next. Defence chiefs said troops would stay until "the job is done", and the military pullout would occur at different times across the country. Britain had "privately" informed Japan of its plans, a move that would make it impossible for about 500 Japanese troops to remain in the sector.

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday September 27, 2005, ruled out a quick withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. Blair said, Britain had a duty to defend democracy in Iraq.

On October 6, 2005, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Iraqi president that British troops would stay in the country "as long as he wants them". Jalal Talabani said an early withdrawal of US and UK troops would be a "catastrophe".

British troop numbers in Iraq will be cut by around 500 next month, the defence secretary, John Reid, announced on October 10, 2005, bringing the total down to 8,000, a "relatively minor adjustments." Britain would not "cut and run" from Iraq.

A senior British military investigator was found dead at the British base in Basra on Saturday October 15, 2005. He was an officer commanding the 61 section, special investigations branch, of the Royal Military Police. The Ministry of Defence named the man as Ken Masters, 40, and said he was married with two children.

On October 7, 2005, British forces have detained 12 people, including three police officers, in connection with a series of deadly attacks on UK forces in southern Iraq by local militia. Some of the 12 are said to be followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. This comes two weeks after UK armoured vehicles destroyed the walls of a Basra police station, sparking protests. The arrested officers were from the same Basra police station.

A roadside bomb in Basra has killed a British soldier on October 18, 2005. The soldier was on a routine patrol and died as a result of his injuries. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair sent his condolences to the soldier's family.

The Guardian British newspaper announced Thursday October 20, 2005, that its journalist, who was abducted in Iraq on Wednesday, has been freed. Rory Carroll, a 33-year-old Irish has been working for the British newspaper in Iraq for nine months.

On November 13, 2005, the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, said that the British troops could leave Iraq at the end of 2006.The British top soldier, General Mike Jackson agreed that this was possible.

Two Britons were killed in Iraq when insurgents attacked a bus carrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines. Three were wounded.

On December 22, 2005, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair was again in Iraq on a surprise visit to the British troops in the south of the country. He said that Iraq's security and political situation has improved but he added that it was still too early to fix a timetable for withdrawing the troops.

On January 28, 2006, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said that Britain hopes to reduce the number of its troops in Iraq this year. However this will only take place when the Iraqi government is secure.

On January 31, 2006, the British government confirmed that another British soldier, Corporal Gordon Pritchard was killed in Iraq. This brings to 100 the total number of British military personnel who died there. His parents and the general public in Britain asked that all their soldiers leave Iraq now but Prime Minister Blair refused repeating that they will remain there until the country is safe.

A British soldier killed in a road crash on February 2, 2006, had only been on duty in Iraq for 11 days, the Ministry of Defence said. Trooper Carl Joseph Smith, 23, from the 9th/12th Lancers, died in an accident on the outskirts of Basra in southern Iraq.

British troops will not wait for the end of the insurgency before leaving Iraq and there will be "significantly fewer" in the country by next year, John Reid, the defence secretary, said on February 7, 2006. Ultimately, the Iraqis had to look after themselves.

Two British soldiers have been killed and another injured by a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Amara, in southern Iraq, on Tuesday February 28, 2006. It takes the number of UK troops killed in Iraq to 103.

Britain's top military commander in Baghdad said on March 7, 2006, that the first pull-out of British troops from Iraq could begin in a matter of months, with a final withdrawal by mid-2008. The British government said that no date has been set yet.

Britain will pull about 800 troops out of Iraq by the end of May, cutting its contingent in the south of the country by nearly 10 percent, Defense Secretary John Reid said on March 13, 2006. The pullout will leave Britain with about 7,000 troops in southern Iraq when completed, Reid told the House of Commons on Monday. He said the reduction was made possible by a "continual and considerable advance" in the capabilities of Iraqi troops.

On March 18, 2006 we were told that the number of British soldiers absconding from the British Army has trebled since the invasion of Iraq, raising fears that the military is facing a crisis in morale. Last year more than 380 soldiers went absent without leave and have since failed to return to duty - marking a dramatic increase since the invasion of Iraq three years ago (86 in 2001 to 118 in 2002 and then 135 in 2003). Military lawyers and campaigners said that these figures suggested significant levels of disaffection in the ranks over the legality of the occupation, and growing discontent about the coalition's failure to defeat the Iraqi insurgency.

Extremists in Iraq have failed in their attempts to provoke a civil war, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on April 9, 2006. Mr Straw was responding to a warning from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak that the country is close to civil war. Mr Straw conceded there was currently a "high level of slaughter" in Iraq.

An RAF doctor who refused to serve in Iraq has been sentenced on April 13, 2006, to eight months in jail and dismissed from the service. Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, was found guilty of five charges of disobeying orders. He claimed his actions were justified, as the UK involvement was illegal. Dr Kendall-Smith will serve half of his sentence in a civilian prison and the remainder on licence. He was also ordered to pay £20,000 in costs. Dr Kendall-Smith's solicitor, Justin Hugheston-Roberts, said that the doctor was "upset yet resilient" and would be appealing.

A soldier from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards has died of injuries received in a bomb blast in southern Iraq on April 15 2006. Three other soldiers were slightly injured in the incident that occurred just north of Basra.

The deaths of 10 UK personnel in Iraq in 2005 could have been avoided if a safety device had been fitted to their Hercules plane we were told on May 2, 2006. RAF pilots requested that explosive- suppressant foam devices be fitted to fuel tanks two years before the attack in which the men died. The Ministry of Defence said none of its planes in Iraq or Afghanistan had foam, but some would be fitted soon. The foam has been in use in US Hercules aircraft since the Vietnam War.

A number of British servicemen -four soldiers- have died in a helicopter crash in southern Iraq on May 6, 2006. The aircraft crashed into a house in the centre of the city after being hit by a rocket. British soldiers deployed in the city sealed off the area as hundreds of Iraqis rushed to see the incident. British troops were seen running through the streets firing shots into the air as hundreds of Iraqis gathered, many waving their arms and throwing stones. The footage also showed a Warrior tank being hit by homemade petrol bombs hurled by people in the crowd. One of the petrol bombs caught alight on the top of the tank and fire extinguishers were seen trying to put out the flames.

Iraqi civilians killed during unrest in Basra could not have been hit by the shots fired by UK soldiers we were told on May 7, 2006. Calm has been restored in the southern Iraqi city following unrest after a British Lynx helicopter crashed there. Five local people - including two children- have died in the fighting that followed. British investigators are examining the helicopter's wreckage to find out if it was shot down.

The first British servicewoman to die in action in Iraq was among five military personnel killed in Saturday May 6, 2006's helicopter crash in Basra. Flt Lt Sarah Mulvihill died in the crash with Wing Commander John Coxen, Lt Commander Darren Chapman, Captain David Dobson, and Marine Paul Collins. The Ministry of Defence said the five are missing, presumed dead. Wing Commander Coxen, from Royal Air Force Benson, is the most senior British officer to be killed in Iraq. British investigators are examining the helicopter's wreckage to find out if it was shot down, as some reports suggest. Their bodies arrived in England on May 18.

Two UK soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack outside Basra on Saturday May 13, 2006. They are Private Joseva Lewaicei and Private Adam Morris both of 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment. Meanwhile, four soldiers have been wounded in a mortar attack on a camp near Amara in southern Iraq. They were hurt during shelling at Camp Abu Naji, where the Queen's Royal Hussars battle group is based. One was taken to the military hospital at Shaibah, where his condition was stable. Three others were treated for minor injuries at the base.

Two British soldiers have been injured in a roadside bombing in southern Iraq, on May 20, 2006. The troops were on a routine patrol north west of Basra when they were attacked. The wounded soldiers sustained light injuries and have been taken back to their base in the city, he added.

A roadside bomb has killed two British soldiers in southern Iraq on May 28, 2006 and two others were injured. The incident happened in Gizayza, northwest Basra, during a routine patrol in an armoured Land Rover.

Two British television journalists - CBS News's cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, who both lived in London - died on May 29, 2006 when the military unit they were embedded with was hit by a bomb in Baghdad.

On May 31, 2006, Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has vowed to use an "iron fist" to crush people who threaten security in the city of Basra. Mr Maliki's comments came as he visited the southern city. He has accused "criminal gangs" of holding the city's lucrative oil exports and other trade to ransom.

Claims that British troops killed a 13-year-old Iraqi boy after firing at an angry crowd are being investigated, the Ministry of Defence said on June 7, 2006. The soldiers, part of the Maysan battle group, were in an area just south of Amara in southeast Iraq. More than 100 Iraqis allegedly hurled stones at the troops, who reportedly responded with baton rounds. Two teenage boys -a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old- were hit during the clash and a 13-year-old boy was also hit and killed.

The governor of Iraq's southern province of Muthanna said foreign troops began their withdrawal on Thursday, days after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a handover of security in the region. A British military spokesman in Basra said the withdrawal process had already been under way for some time and would take around six weeks. British Defence Minister Des Browne said British forces would still monitor security although Iraqis will have overall responsibility.

One British soldier has been killed and another wounded during an operation to seize a suspected "terrorist" in Basra on July 16, 2006. Two soldiers were wounded when they came under small arms fire, they were evacuated to hospital where one later died.

A British soldier was killed on Tuesday August 1, 2006, in a mortar attack on an army base in Basra. The Ministry of Defence in London later named him as Corporal Matthew Cornish, 29.

Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo on August 3, 2006. William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines. He did also say that "the position is not hopeless" - but said it would be "messy" for five to 10 years.

The number of British troops in Iraq could be halved within the next nine months, military chiefs said on August 22, 2006. But the remaining mission of between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers is likely to remain for several years to bolster the Iraqi army and police. After more than three years of fighting, with more than £3 billion spent and the loss of 115 British lives, the country has an obligation to protect its investment. Within the next four to six months, the current force of 7,200 is likely to drop by 1,000, and halve by next May.

On August 24, 2006, British troops pulled out of Camp Abu Naji in Amarah, 200 miles south-east of Baghdad and turned over to Iraqi authorities, a base in southern Iraq that had come under frequent attack, aiming to reposition their forces along the area bordering Iran and crack down on smuggling.

Britain will continue its handover of formal control of security to Iraqi forces in the south of the country, Defence Secretary Des Browne said on Sunday August 27, 2006. Mr Browne, in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, said security in the south had improved.

The handover of a second province in Iraq will take place later this month and the security of most of the country could be under local control by the end of the year, Nouri al Maliki, Iraqi Prime Minister, said on August 29, 2006.

Two British soldiers were killed and a third was seriously wounded in Iraq on September 4, 2006 when a roadside bomb north of Basra hit their patrol. Two more were injured -one seriously- in the incident near the town of Ad Dayr. Both were taken by helicopter for emergency medical care at a British field hospital at Shaibah logistics base.

On September 5, 2006, we were told that Britain is to reinforce its military presence in Iraq in a move that reflects increasing concern about the threat to its troops and the inability of local forces to take over responsibility for the country's security.

A British soldier has been killed and another injured during an attack at a UK base in Basra on October 2, 2006. The two soldiers were said to have been hit in an "indirect fire attack" at the Shatt Al-Arab Hotel after mortars landed inside the base perimeter. The death on Sunday brings the British death toll in Iraq to 119. He was later named by the Ministry of Defence as L/Cpl Dennis Brady. The 37-year-old, from Cumbria, was a regular reservist from the Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the 1st Battalion of the Light Infantry.

On October 5, 2006, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has ordered an inquiry after a Muslim constable was excused from guarding the Israeli embassy in London. The officer was reassigned on "moral grounds" as he objected to Israeli actions in Lebanon. But the Association of Muslim Police Officers said it was a "welfare issue" -the officer had Middle Eastern relatives and felt unsafe in that role. The officer, who has been named as Pc Alexander Omar Basha, is attached to the Scotland Yard's Diplomatic Protection Group. He has a Syrian father and a Lebanese wife.

Cabinet Minister Jack Straw said on October 5, 2006 he would prefer Muslim women not to wear veils that cover the face. The Commons leader said he did not want to be "prescriptive" but he believed that covering people's faces could make community relations more difficult. Mr Straw said he asks Muslim women at his Blackburn constituency surgeries if they would mind removing veils. Some Muslim women called his remarks insulting, but other Muslims said they understood his concerns.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, on October 8, 2006, defended the right of Muslim women to wear veils, which cover their faces. It comes after House of Commons leader Jack Straw sparked a row by saying he asked Muslim women to take off their veils at his constituency surgery. Mr Prescott told the BBC he would not ask a woman to remove her veil, adding: "If a woman wants to wear a veil, why shouldn't she? It's her choice." But he said he welcomed the "proper debate" caused by Mr Straw's remarks.

The head of the British army said on October 12, 2006, that UK troops in Iraq are acting as a catalyst to violence. General Sir Richard Dannatt said British troops should get out "sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems". Gen Dannatt, who became Chief of the General Staff in August, told a newspaper: "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear.

American soldiers in southern Iraq unlawfully killed the ITN journalist Terry Lloyd, an inquest found on October 13, 2006. The US troops shot Lloyd in the head while he was in a makeshift ambulance, having already been hurt in crossfire. Mr Lloyd's interpreter was also killed and his cameraman is missing believed dead following the incident, which took place near Basra in March 2003. The coroner is to ask the attorney general to consider pressing charges. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he would also be writing to the director of public prosecutions asking for him to investigate the possibility of bringing charges.

Jack Straw met constituents for the first time on October 13, 2006, since claiming that the covered faces of Muslim women can make community relations more difficult. He told reporters he was surprised at the debate it had provoked, but hoped it would benefit all communities. He was applauded outside the town hall, but a protest is expected on Saturday. Mr Straw had said he felt full-face veils were a "visible statement of separation" - and was criticised by some Muslim groups.

A Muslim support teacher was suspended on October 12, 2006, for wearing a veil in class; she said it was never a problem for her pupils. Headfield Church of England Junior School, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said pupils found it hard to understand her during English language lessons. But Aishah Azmi, 23, said: "They never complained." She added she was willing to take the veil off in class, but not in front of any male colleagues. London Mayor Ken Livingston said he would like Muslims to give up the veil.

On October 13, 2006, Tony Blair has given his support to the new head of the Army, who has made controversial comments on the Iraq war. General Sir Richard Dannatt is quoted in the Daily Mail saying British troops "exacerbated" Iraq's security problems and should withdraw "sometime soon". The general later told BBC Radio 4 he meant that troops should leave "when the mission is substantially done". Mr Blair said Sir Richard was saying, "the same as we all are", but had been taken out of context in the newspaper.

On October 115, 2006, we were told that the British military planners have been urging senior commanders to seek the pullout of up to half their troops from Iraq in order to bolster the battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their hope is for a withdrawal of 'between one-third and a half' of the 7,000 British troops in Iraq by May next year.

A Muslim teaching assistant suspended for refusing to remove her veil in class should be sacked, a local government minister said on October 14, 2006. Phil Woolas, whose brief covers race relations, told the Sunday Mirror that Aishah Azmi, 23, had "put herself in a position where she can't do her job".

Tony Blair on Wednesday October 18, 2006, shifted ground on the continuing presence of British troops in Iraq by saying it was the UK government policy to leave the country within 10 to 16 months -so long as the security situation allowed. The Prime Minister also agreed with the Chief of the UK General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that the presence of British forces could become a provocation, but disagreed with General Dannatt by insisting it was still the government's aim to secure a liberal democracy in Iraq.

A Muslim teaching assistant suspended for wearing a full-face veil has been urged by her MP on October 20, 2006, to give up her fight. Aishah Azmi lost her employment tribunal case for discrimination and harassment, but was awarded damages for victimisation by Kirklees Council. Her legal representative said they will take the case to "a higher court". But Dewsbury Labour MP Shahid Malik told the BBC: "I would appeal to Mrs Azmi now just to let this thing go. There is no real support for it."

The Ministry of Defence has named a British soldier who died after a road accident in southern Iraq. Lieutenant Tom Tanswell, 27, of 58 Battery 12 Regiment Royal Artillery, was killed on Friday October 27, 2006, outside Shaibah Logistics Base near the city of Basra. Three other soldiers were hurt in the accident.

The Ministry of Defence has named a British soldier who died after an attack on a base in southern Iraq on November 7, 2006. Kingsman Jamie Hancock, of the 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, came under small arms fire on Monday while on sentry duty in Basra City. The 19-year-old, who lived with his soldier brother near Wigan, Greater Manchester, began a tour last month. The number of British troops killed in operations in Iraq is now 121. Of these, 91 died after hostile action.

The first female British soldier to die in Iraq killed herself the day after she was reprimanded for getting drunk while in uniform, an inquest jury found Tuesday November 14, 2006. Staff Sgt. Denise Rose, 34, who was a military police investigator working on probes of British soldiers' deaths in the Gulf, was found dead with a gunshot wound to her mouth in October 2004, at an army base in Basra.

The bodies of four UK service personnel who were killed in an attack on a patrol boat in southern Iraq have been flown back to Britain on Thursday November 16, 2006. Warrant Officer Lee Hopkins, 35, Staff Sgt Sharron Elliott, 34, Cpl Ben Nowak, 27, and Marine Jason Hylton, 33, died when their boat was hit on Sunday. Their bodies were flown to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The body of Kingsman Jamie Hancock, 19 - killed while on sentry duty in Basra on 6 November - was also on the flight.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has made his first visit to Iraq on November 18, 2006, and has promised an extra £100m over three years to help rebuild the country's economy. He met UK troops near Basra. He said he hoped to see troop reductions "in the next few months". Mr Brown also met senior military officers and discussed Iraq's economy with senior Iraqi ministers.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has announced that British troops could start pulling out of southern Iraq as early as next spring. This is the first time that the British Government has indicated a time-table for military withdrawal from Iraq, and the move is believed to have been prompted by growing pressure from senior army officers who have publicly called for an early withdrawal. Ms. Beckett's surprise statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday November 22, 2006, came barely weeks after Army Chief Sir Richard Dannatt warned that the continued pres

The number of UK troops in Iraq is set to be "significantly lower by a matter of thousands" at the end of next year, the UK defence secretary said November 27, 2006. Des Browne said it was hoped that local Iraqi forces would take control of Basra in the spring. But a "drawing down" of troops did not mean a withdrawal because the Iraqis would still need back up. The UK has about 7,000 troops in the south of Iraq, mostly around Basra.

On December 23, 2006, hundreds of British troops backed by tanks have seized seven Iraqi police officers suspected of corruption and leading a death squad in Basra. This action aims to disrupt and disband the southern city's Serious Crime Unit.

British forces stormed a police station in Basra on Monday December 25, 2006, rescuing prisoners on death row and killing seven Iraqi gunmen. More than 1,000 British troops backed by tanks then demolished the building with explosives. The military called the police headquarters a symbol of oppression for the city's residents and said the unit was suspected of torturing and murdering prisoners. Many of the 127 people rescued -all of whom were suspected criminals- were crowded together in a small cell, living in "appalling conditions." But the Basra council has stopped co-operating with the military in protest of what the council described as an illegal raid. But the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had voiced support for the mission to destroy the station, which had allegedly been carrying out illegal activities.

On December 26, 2006, British officials must explain to the authorities in Basra why coalition troops demolished the headquarters of the city's Serious Crime Unit. A British officer said the destruction of the base has made Basra safer. Mohammed al Abadi, head of the city's council, said the raid was illegal and threatened to stop co-operation.

A roadside bomb in Basra has killed a British soldier on December 29, 2006. The soldier was killed while taking part in a routine patrol in Basra City. A roadside bomb targeted the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle, which he was travelling in.

On January 14, 2007, Tony Blair formally rejected an American appeal to send hundreds more British troops to Iraq to help with US "surge" tactics. The request for extra help to supplement the thousands of American reinforcements on their way to Baghdad came during conversations with President Bush before Christmas. But he turned down the plea for around 2,000 extra British troops - to add to the 7,200 already stationed around Basra - because it would conflict with the government's hopes of scaling down Britain's Iraq presence in the coming months.

Six British soldiers have been hurt after rockets and mortars struck a military base in southern Iraq on January 19, 2007. One soldier was seriously wounded while the others received minor injuries.

A roadside bomb in Basra has killed a British soldier on February 5, 2007. The soldier was on a routine patrol when he was killed in the blast near Basra's US consulate. The bomb also wounded an unknown number of Iraqi civilians. The death brings the total number of UK troops killed in operations in Iraq to 131. Some 7,500 British troops are currently based in Basra.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said on February 18, 2007, the operation to allow Iraqis to take the lead in frontline security in Basra had been "completed" and "successful". The operation was intended to put Iraqi forces in "the main frontline control of security within the city", he said. UK troops are still heavily involved in Basra but increasingly in a supporting role, with Iraqis taking the lead.

Wounded British troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving inadequate medical treatment similar to that reported by American veterans, relatives and British media reported Sunday March 11, 2007. Families of the wounded British soldiers have also complained about widespread mental health problems among veterans, with some suggesting that health services in both Britain and the US have been stretched by lack of planning for the conflict. British Defence Secretary Des Browne said that an investigation had begun into the treatment of 18-year-old Jamie Cooper, the youngest British soldier wounded in Iraq. He was badly injured in November when a mortar bomb exploded in the southern city of Basra.

On March 12 2007, we were told that injured veterans of the Iraq War are being forced to pay tens of thousands of pounds for private treatment or face agonising delays on the Health Service. In some cases, servicemen requesting even meagre help with medical bills are being refused assistance by the Ministry of Defence.

Ten Iraqis held in a British military detention centre in Basra carried out an audacious escape plan over the past several days: they switched places with visitors, British authorities said Friday March 16, 2007. An 11th detainee was missing, but no one appeared to have been substituted for him. The escape came to light on Thursday, when it became apparent that "one person was not who he said he was. The military began to investigate and found that nine other detainees were also substitutes. The real ones had walked out the door, apparently after swapping clothes with their willing stand-ins. The substitutions were carefully plotted, and the impostors "were remarkably well prepared.

The waterway in which 15 British sailors were arrested by Iran on Friday March 23, 2007, forms the southern end of that country's long border with Iraq, and has long been strategic to the people living on both of its banks. Known as the Shatt al-Arab and to the Iranians as the Arvand Roud, the waterway is a wide river through which the waters of both the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers flow into the Gulf. The strategic aspect of the waterway derives from its use over centuries as a trade route, and it has acquired global significance since the development of the modern oil industry.

On March 24, 2007, the 15 Royal Navy personnel seized at gunpoint in the Gulf by Iran are reportedly being questioned in Tehran. Iranian armed forces spokesman Gen Ali Reza Afshar told Iranian radio the prisoners had admitted being in Iranian waters. The British government says the eight sailors and seven marines were in Iraqi waters. It has demanded their immediate release. Satellite tracking systems on the British boats proved they were inside Iranian waters, Iran said.

The United States rejected any suggestion Friday March 30, 2007, that 15 British sailors detained by Iran for the past week could be swapped for five Iranian officials held by US forces in Iraq since January.

A British soldier died after being attacked while on patrol in Iraq on April 1, 2007, bringing the death toll of British soldiers killed to 136. It is the second soldier to have been killed in two days.

Two women were among four British soldiers killed by a roadside bomb near Basra on April 5, 2007. A civilian translator was also killed in the bomb blast, which targeted a patrol in a Warrior armoured vehicle. A fifth soldier was also "very seriously injured".

On April 6, 2007, the Royal Navy's head, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, defended the actions of 15 British personnel seized by Iran and UK operations in the Gulf. He said the crew "reacted extremely well in very difficult circumstances" adding that British boarding operations being carried out in the Gulf had been "absolutely proper", but there would be a "complete review". He was reacting to criticism that the crew, freed on Thursday after being held for 13 days, gave up too easily.

On April 6, 2007, the Army insists it is making progress in Basra, despite the deaths of four British soldiers in the Iraqi city. Lt Col Kevin Stratford-Wright said the area was "difficult" but denied that "things are going terribly wrong".

Iran's ambassador to London said on April 7, 2007, Britain should respond "in a positive way" to the release of the 15 Royal Navy personnel held for 13 days. Rasoul Movahedian said that Iran wanted help to release five Iranians held by the US in Iraq, and to ease fears over its nuclear programme. The crew have two weeks' compassionate leave to spend with their families. Iran has said a press conference where the crew described being bound and held alone was "theatrical propaganda" that did not justify their "mistake".

The Ministry of Defence said on April 8, 2007, that the 15 Royal Navy personnel held captive by Iran can sell their stories to the media since their experiences amounted to "exceptional circumstances" that allowed its usual ban on such payments to be lifted. Politicians and military commentators have attacked the move, warning the crew may lose public sympathy.

Leading Seaman Faye Turney told on April 9, 2007, how she "felt like a traitor" when she was forced to write "confession" letters shown on Iranian television. The only woman among the 15-strong Royal Navy crew has also defended her decision to sell her story to ITV1's Trevor Macdonald and the Sun newspaper. Some of the reported six-figure sum for the interview will go to navy families. Relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq criticised the decision allowing the crew to sell their stories.

Downing Street flatly denied on April 11, 2007, any role in the decision to allow the navy crew freed by Iran to sell their stories to media. It follows accusations that the sailors had been used as pawns in an international propaganda war with Iran. Defence Secretary Des Browne has taken responsibility for the navy's decision. He said he had not been "content" with it but believed he had no choice under the rules.

A private ceremony has been held on April 12, 2007, to mark the repatriation of the bodies of four UK soldiers killed in Iraq. The coffins, draped in union jacks, were taken off a C-17 aircraft at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, before being carried past watching families. Second Lt Joanna Yorke Dyer, 24, Cpl Kris O'Neill, 27, Pte Eleanor Dlugosz, 19, and Kingsman Adam James Smith, 19, were attacked on 5 April near Basra.

Two helicopters have crashed in Iraq on April 15, 2007, killing two British military personnel -Corporal Ben Leaning and Trooper Kristen Turton- and injuring five others one seriously. Reports suggest the crash, north of Baghdad, was an accident.

A British soldier - Alan Joseph Jones- was killed by small arms fire in Iraq on Monday April 23, 2007, while acting as the gunner who provides cover from the top of a Warrior armoured vehicle. Britain has announced plans to sharply reduce its presence in Iraq during the next few months, eventually withdrawing troops from Basra to a base outside the city. But attacks on its patrols have remained frequent. A total of 145 British troops have died in the Iraq campaign since the 2003 invasion.

The head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt on Monday April 30, 2007, said that Prince Harry would be deployed to Iraq with his regiment as planned. He said that it was entirely right that he as head of the Army made the decision on the deployment of Prince Harry, but that he had consulted widely before coming to that decision. Dannatt also urged the media to stop speculating about Harry's deployment.

Prince Harry's deployment to Iraq has been delayed on May 2, 2007, to allow time for fellow soldiers to assess the potential dangers his unit will face.

Iraq faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation, UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House said on May 17, 2007. Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country. It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq's neighbours more.

On May 18, 2007, Tony Blair made an emotional tribute to British troops during his seventh and probably final visit to Iraq as PM. He told servicemen and women at the British HQ in Basra, that they were doing "brilliant" work. Minutes later, two mortars exploded, rocking the building -which typically receives two such attacks a day. Earlier, Mr Blair also brushed aside mortar attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone just as he arrived. He hailed "signs of change and progress" in Iraq.

Former US President Jimmy Carter criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair On May 19, 2007, for his "blind" support of the war in Iraq. Mr Carter said that Mr Blair's backing for US President George W Bush had been "apparently subservient". He said the UK's "almost undeviating" support for "the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq had been a major tragedy for the world".

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on his last visit to Iraq before stepping down in June, urged Iraq's leaders to speed up reconciliation efforts to end the violence in the country Saturday - after three blasts rocked the compound -the Green Zone- where he met with Iraq's leaders. The attack by mortar shells or rockets wounded one person. One round hit the British Embassy compound. It was not known if Blair was in the embassy at the time, but he appeared to refer to the attack when he held a news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani after meeting with them privately.

On May 21, 2007, Washington is confident British prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown will not pull British troops out of Iraq early.

On Wednesday May 30, 2007, US and Iraqi troops have raided houses and buildings in Baghdad's Sadr City, close to where five Britons were kidnapped on Tuesday. The suburb is a stronghold for the Shia militia, the Mehdi Army.

On June 16, 2007, the British soldier who died in a road accident in southern Iraq yesterday has been named by the Ministry of Defence as Lance Corporal James Cartwright who died when the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle he was driving reportedly slid off a bridge into a small canal and overturned.

A British soldier died on Friday June 22, 2007, after he was hit in a roadside bomb attack in Basra. The soldier, from the 4th Battalion the Rifles died after he was seriously injured in the attack.

Three British soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. A fourth soldier was seriously injured in the attack on Thursday June 28, 2007, in the Al Antahiya district.

Two British soldiers have died in separate incidents in southern Iraq on Saturday July 7, 2007. One soldier was killed in an improvised bomb attack on a Warrior patrol in the Tuninah district in the north of Basra. The other soldier was involved in a fatal accident at the British Basra Palace base in the city.

The battle to deal with radicalisation in the fight against terrorism could take at least 15 years to achieve, the UK's new security minister said on July 8, 2007. Former navy chief Admiral Sir Alan West blamed jihadists outside the country for influencing young Britons, and said the terror fight was a "daunting task". He urged people to be un-British by "snitching" to the authorities. Meanwhile Gordon Brown said he wanted a system put in place across Europe to help identify potential suspects.

Three RAF servicemen have been killed in a mortar attack in Basra on July 19, 2007.

The head of the Army has warned that British troops are so stretched that the nation's military reserves are "almost non-existent". In a memo Gen Sir Richard Dannatt said the Army was undermanned because of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also said vital equipment was being used "at the edge of sustainability".

A British soldier has been killed in Basra on July 21, 2007. The soldier died as a result of a rocket or mortar attack on the Army's Basra Palace base. The death brings the total number of British service personnel killed in Iraq to 163, with 127 of those killed in combat.

Thousands of British frontline veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing escalating mental health problems, alcoholism and family breakdown, we were told on Friday August 3, 2007. The Kings College London military health centre's study of 5,547 veterans of overseas tours focused on the 20 percent who were deployed for more than 13 months within a three-year period, the maximum recommended time limit set by the government.

A British soldier died after being shot in Basra on August 6, 2007. The soldier was killed during an operation in the Al Fursi district of the city. The death brings the total number of British personnel killed in Iraq to 165, with 129 killed as a result of hostile action.

On August 8, 2007, the British government said it will review the cases of Iraqi interpreters who have been told any claim for asylum in the UK will not be given special treatment. The 91 interpreters fear for their lives, because they are seen as traitors by local militias. The Home Office insists they will have to apply for asylum in the normal way -registering when they arrive in the UK. About 20,000 Iraqis had helped British forces since 2003.

Two British soldiers were killed in Iraq early on Thursday August 9, 2007, taking the death toll to four in about 48 hours. The soldiers killed were in a convoy hit by a roadside bomb near the Rumaila oil fields, west of Basra. Two other soldiers were seriously injured. One soldier was killed during a foot patrol on Tuesday and another was shot while driving an armoured Warrior vehicle on Monday night. The British have withdrawn from three of the four provinces they once patrolled, leaving troops only in Basra where they have pulled out of two of their three bases. They are due to abandon the last city base in coming weeks and withdraw to their heavily mortared air base outside the city. British commanders say Shiite militants are stepping up attacks to create the impression they are pushing the British out. The military says it will withdraw on its own schedule.

On August 21, 2007, families sending parcels to troops out in Afghanistan and Iraq have been granted free postage by Royal Mail after a public appeal on their behalf by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army.

Comments on August 21, 2007, by the head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt that his forces are stretched in Afghanistan and cannot deploy any more soldiers will only increase pressure on the British government to hasten its withdrawal from Iraq.

On Saturday August 26, 2007, Iraqi police prevented Shiite militiamen to occupy a joint command centre in the southern city of Basra from which British troops withdrew overnight. Britain, which has been responsible for security in Basra since it joined the United States in invading Iraq in 2003, has begun withdrawing this year and is expected to pull its forces out of their last base inside the city within two weeks.

On August 28, 2007, Gordon Brown ruled out setting a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, saying they still have "an important job to do". He insisted setting a timetable would undermine those efforts.

The head of the British army during the Iraq invasion said on September 1, 2007, that the US post-war policy was "intellectually bankrupt". General Sir Mike Jackson added that US strategy had been "short-sighted". He said former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation".

A second key British general criticised US post-war policy in Iraq on September 2, 2007. Major General Tim Cross, who was the most senior UK officer involved in post-war planning, said that US policy was "fatally flawed".

The withdrawal of British troops from the southern Iraqi city of Basra is not a defeat, Gordon Brown said on September 3, 2007. The 550 soldiers have handed Basra Palace over to Iraqi control and joined 5,000 troops at the UK's last base, near the airport, outside the city. The Ministry of Defence said the handover of Basra province was now due in the autumn. The prime minister said the withdrawal was "pre-planned and organised" and UK forces would take an "overwatch" role.

Iraq on Wednesday September 5, 2007, formally took charge of the last British military base in the southern port city of Basra. On Monday, around 500 British soldiers slipped out of the former Saddam Hussein palace, handing over security to Iraqi forces and leaving behind a city in the grip of a brutal militia turf war. The British military has now handed over four of the five bases in the Basra province to Iraqi forces, after four and a half inconclusive years of fighting. Britain's entire military force of 5,500 troops is now based at Basra's desert air base, 11 kilometres west of Basra city.

Britain's military force in Iraq is to be cut by 1,000 by Christmas as the UK hands over security responsibility for Basra province to local troops. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced the withdrawal during a surprise visit to the country on October 1, 2007.It will leave just 4,500 UK troops in Basra -one-tenth of the number deployed during the 2003 war.

Iraqi interpreters and aides who assisted British forces in Iraq will be allowed to settle in Britain, newspapers said Saturday October 6, 2007. Iraqis who have worked as translators or support staff for the British government for 12 months or longer will be granted asylum status. Those unable or unwilling to move to Britain will be given money to help them settle elsewhere. Those with less than 12 months' experience would have their case looked at sympathetically.

British troops in Iraq are set to be withdrawn completely by the end of next year after Gordon Brown announced on October 9, 2007, that more than half will have left the country by spring. The departure of 3,000 troops next May will leave just 2,500 in Basra.

The most seriously injured troops will receive more money under changes to the armed forces compensation scheme published October 11, 2007. Those hurt will receive up to £285,000 for all injuries suffered in a single incident -rather than just the three most serious, as had been the case. Payments will be backdated, meaning Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson who was given £152,150 for injuries sustained in September 2006, will benefit. The government said personnel could also received tax-free income payments.

On November 24, 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected criticism from five former military chiefs about the treatment of and funding for the armed forces. He said he had "nothing but praise" for the forces and was putting more money into defence "than ever before".

Eighteen British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are undergoing medical checks on January 10, 2008, after it emerged they received blood which was not properly tested. The emergency transfusions came from US personnel, who have subsequently been found not to have hepatitis or HIV. Six UK civilian security contractors may also have received contaminated blood provided by the US military. The MoD said the infection risk was low and the transfusions had been vital.

On January 28, 2008, Parviz Khan described as a "fanatic" pleaded guilty to plotting to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier. Three other men, Basiru Gassama, Mohammed Irfan, and Hamid Elasmar have admitted other offences connected with Khan's plot.

The minutes of cabinet meetings at which ministers discussed the legality of invading Iraq should be published, the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, said on February 26, 2008. There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision. Thomas said the public interest in disclosure outweighed the principles that normally allow the government not to have to publish minutes of cabinet decisions. The government is expected to appeal against Thomas's decision, which on its own will not guarantee that the minutes will be disclosed. The legality of the invasion of Iraq has been a source of huge controversy ever since the invasion in March 2003, with some lawyers and campaigners believing that Tony Blair's decision to attack was illegal under international law.

UK Defence Secretary Des Browne visited the Iraqi city of Basra on March 12, 2008. The Ministry of Defence confirmed Mr Browne was on a "general visit" to the country, but declined to say how long he would be there.

A British soldier died in a firefight in Iraq on Wednesday March 26, 2008, amid renewed clashes in the southern city of Basra, near where the troops are based. The number of British soldiers killed in the country amount to 176 since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The British army joined in the fighting in Basra on March 29, 2008, firing artillery to support Iraqi forces. The Defence Ministry said a few artillery rounds had been fired at militants using mortars to attack Iraqi forces in Basra.

The number of British troops in Iraq will not be reduced as planned, due to violence in Basra, Defence Secretary Des Browne said on April 1, 2008. Since October the government cut troop numbers from 5,000 to 4,000. But plans for a further reduction to 2,500 have been halted. During the weekend, forces became directly involved in fighting between the Iraqi army and Shia militiamen.

Sending British soldiers on patrol or into battle with defective equipment could breach their human rights, High Court Judge Mr Justice Collins ruled on Friday April 11, 2008. In a test case over Scottish soldier Pte Jason Smith's death in Iraq, he said human rights legislation could apply to troops on active service.

On April 15, 2008, we were told that a young Iraqi man who was accidentally shot by a British soldier is set to receive £2 million. He suffered severe spinal injuries which left him paralysed. The final settlement is awaiting a further High Court hearing. The sum is far higher than anything paid to any British troops injured in Iraq and is likely to reopen the controversy over the compensation levels for wounded service personnel.

Britain's defence secretary said on April 24, 2008, his country will maintain its current troop levels in Iraq until security improves adding that British commanders are still evaluating the situation in the city of Basra, where most British troops are stationed.

The government announced on July 17, 2008, that it will double the compensation offered to the UK's most gravely wounded troops. The maximum payment will increase from £285,000 to £570,000, on top of a guaranteed income payment for life. There will also be a smaller rise in the awards to service personnel who have sustained less serious injuries.

The outgoing commander of British forces in Iraq said on August 15, 2008, that most of the 4,100 UK troops in the country could be withdrawn by next summer. Major General Barney White-Spunner said the Iraqi-led crackdown on Shia militia groups in Basra had improved security and they would not regain control.

Most of the British troops serving in Iraq will be withdrawn in the next nine months we were told on August 16, 2008. Only a few hundred will remain after May next year, effectively ending Britain's involvement in the country after six years of fighting.

British troops are to leave Iraq by the end of July next year, Gordon Brown said on December 18, 2008, after talks with Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki in Baghdad. Military operations will end by 31 May and the remaining 4,100 service personnel will leave within two months. Several hundred trainers will remain, some working with the Iraqi navy.

Two Iraqis accused of killing two British soldiers can be tried by Iraqi authorities despite a "real risk" they could face the death penalty we were told on December 19, 2008. Faisal Al-Saadoon and Khalaf Mufdhi are accused of murdering Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth and Sapper Luke Allsopp.

An official inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war and its aftermath will begin soon after the bulk of British troops leave the country this summer, the foreign secretary said Wednesday March 25, 2009. But he stopped short of announcing a public inquiry, something critics of the war have long demanded.

British forces will officially start to pull out of Iraq on Tuesday March 31, 2009, signalling the end of six years of military operations that began with the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. The British-led coalition base in Basra will lower its flag and transfer to US control as American soldiers arrive to take up a new role that includes the training of Iraq's fledgling police force.

On Tuesday March 31, 2009, British forces have begun their official withdrawal from Iraq after the UK's commander in the south of the country handed over to a US general. Most of Britain's 4,000 troops will leave by 31 May, the official end-of-combat date. About 400 will stay after that, either in HQ roles or to train the Iraqi Navy.

Britain will withdraw its remaining forces from Iraq to Kuwait by the end of the month because the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training; we were told on Tuesday July 28, 2009. Britain already has withdrawn its combat forces according to a previous agreement. The British Ministry of Defence said the new announcement related to between 100 and 150 mostly navy personnel left to train the Iraqi navy. U.S. troops would be standing in for the British while they were out of the country. An agreement reached with the Iraqi government would have let some British troops stay in Iraq to train after most had left their bases around the southern city of Basra.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has gone to the Court of Appeal on July 28, 2009, to try to significantly reduce the compensation awarded to two injured soldiers.
One, who was shot in the leg in Iraq, received £46,000, while the other, injured in training, and got £28,750. Both had their payouts raised due to complications, but the MoD argues that they should only be compensated for their "original injuries".

The military mission in Afghanistan has failed to deliver on its promises -as troops have too many tasks- we were told on August 2, 2009. The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee says "mission creep" had brought too many responsibilities, including fighting the drugs trade. Poor government planning and a lack of realistic strategy and clear direction undermined the mission.

A British private security contractor, Danny Fitzsimons, was taken into custody by Iraqi authorities in Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday August 9, 2009, after he fatally shot two colleagues. The gunman also shot an Iraqi as he attempted to flee the compound where the shootings occurred. The Iraqi man was critically wounded. The case could be the first time a foreign security contractor faces trial in Iraq in a homicide case.

The British security contractor accused of murdering two western colleagues in Baghdad and critically wounding an Iraqi appeared in court on August 11, 2009, and "made admissions" about the case. Daniel Fitzsimons, a former paratrooper, appeared before an investigative judge, where he was told he faces execution if convicted. Fitzsimons confessed during the brief hearing to shooting dead his colleagues.

David Miliband has been caught on film rebuking a former cabinet minister for applauding his brother who said Labour was "wrong" to go to war in Iraq. Ed Miliband, who was not an MP when Iraq was invaded, raised the issue in his first speech as Labour leader. Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband was filmed turning to Harriet Harman and asking: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?" Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Andy Burnham also did not applaud. Ed Miliband -who beat his brother to the party leadership- has previously said he did not back the decision to go to war in Iraq.

On April 21, 2011, secret documents reveal the much-denied links between oil giants and the invasion of Iraq. Previously unseen Whitehall documents have revealed that the British Government held talks with oil giants about the control of and access to Iraqi oil, well before the invasion in 2003. The evidence suggests that -despite the insistence of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and his ministers- Iraq's oil reserves did play a part in justifying the invasion and toppling the dictator Saddam Hussein.

Britain's eight years of military commitment in Iraq will finally and formally come to an end on Sunday May 22, 2011, when the remaining forces in the south of the country will withdraw. The announcement to bring to an end one of the most controversial military campaigns in recent history was made on Wednesday May 18, 2011, in a statement to the Commons by the defence secretary, Liam Fox. In total, the UK still has about 170 mostly naval personnel in Iraq, helping to train the fledgling Iraqi navy from the port of Umm Qasr. The contingent includes a few Royal Marines. That compares with the 46,000 British troops and other military personnel that were committed to the first phase of Operation Telic, the name given to the campaign to remove Saddam Hussein. In all, 178 UK service personnel, and one Ministry of Defence civilian, died in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. UK combat forces, primarily based in the southern city of Basra, withdrew in July 2009 but since then the Royal Navy has continued working alongside US forces to train 1,800 Iraqis.

Almost 450 drones operated by the British military have crashed, broken down or been lost in action during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years we were told on Wednesday February 13, 2013. The Ministry of Defence has disclosed for the first time the five Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in the conflicts and the number that have perished due to pilot error, technical faults or the undesirability of retrieving them from hostile areas. The figures highlight the military's increasing reliance on technologies that are regarded as a way of minimising risks to frontline troops. Officials say the UAVs have operated for thousands of hours on sensitive operations.