"They are not anywhere. They are like a snake moving in the desert. They have no foothold in Iraq. Their lies are endless."
-- Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf
New fighting erupts at Baghdad airport
U.S. forces sprinted to Saddam Hussein International Airport Thursday night and captured some of its facilities. Later, however, U.S. troops reportedly were engaged in a fierce battle with entrenched Iraqi forces dug in around the facility.
The airport is a strategically important target because securing it and the surrounding area would clear the way for airlifts of supplies to U.S. troops.
In addition, MSNBC reported, the airport is located near the terminus of a special tunnel to central Baghdad used by high Iraqi leaders.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported that the Iraqi government was ordering civilians to go to the airport and defend it.
U.S. may pause before battle of Baghdad
After their quick advance to the outskirts of Baghdad, U.S. troops are likely to take a breather before they enter the city.
Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke of a more deliberate pace to set the proper conditions for the final stage of the campaign.
"Patience is the one element of the current plan," said earlier this week, "and it is paying off more and more dividends as the days go by."
Baghdad orientation
The war is moving from the macro level of the Iraqi desert to the micro level of the streets of the nation’s capital. Here’s a site where you can view good maps of Baghdad to orient yourself.
The Iraqi who saved Pvt. Lynch
But for the decision of an Iraqi man to risk his own life and that of his family, the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch might never have happened.
For Arabs, it's the killing fields
Susan Sachs of the New York Times reports an urgent and, for the U.S., threatening theme of the war: "As the Iraq war moved into its third week, the media in the region have increasingly fused images and enemies from this and other conflicts into a single bloodstained tableau of Arab grievance.
At the Wal-Mart near Camp Lejeune it's a disaster, too
Practically all the employees and customers are related to someone in the Marines, and the casualties in Iraq hit hard.
The new U.S. government of Iraq is waiting in Kuwait
Several hundred Americans, who are supposed to be part of the government the U.S. plans to install in Iraq after Saddam is out of the way, are biding their time in Kuwait – and feuding among themselves.
One of the key officials of the shadow government is former CIA director James Woolsey, who told a group of college students that we’re now in World War IV (III was the Cold War by his count). He said we’re fighting this conflict, which could last for years, against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda.
It’s only rock ‘n roll
Eddie Vedder, lead singer of the Seattle band Pearl Jam, joined the parade of celebrity protesters against the war in a way that outraged some of his fans – he impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand.
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