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| GROUND WAR |
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• Aziz surrender: Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of Iraq, surrendered to coalition forces after organizing the handover for several days to ensure the process was dignified, his family told CNN. The surrender took place late Thursday, U.S. officials and Aziz family members said. Full Story | Aziz profile
• Marine patrols:U.S. Marines from the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, attached to Task Force Tarawa, are patrolling the Iraqi-Iranian border along the length of the Wasit Province east of Kut. The patrols are designed to keep Iranian-backed dissidents from coming into Iraq. Full Story
• Warning prepared: Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of ground forces in Iraq, plans to issue a proclamation reminding Iraqi politicians that coalition forces are the sole authority in the country until a new government is put in place, U.S. military sources told CNN. The proclamation is part of an effort to ensure Iraqi politicians don't attempt to fill a power vacuum left by the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime. Full Story
• Iraqis captured: Three of the U.S. Central Command's top 55 most wanted former members of the Iraqi regime were captured Wednesday, including former Air Defense Force commander Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al Tikriti -- the highest-ranking official taken into custody so far. Full Story
• Marines killed: Three U.S. Marines were killed and seven others injured when a rocket-propelled grenade launcher malfunctioned during a practice exercise, Central Command said Wednesday. The Marines killed and injured in the incident, which occurred Tuesday night local time, were from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Central Command said. No other details of the incident were given.
• Where's Saddam?: Britain's defense minister said Wednesday he believed Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein was probably still alive and hiding in Iraq, two weeks after Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces. In an interview with British Forces Broadcast Services, Geoff Hoon said there were no conclusive reports about the fate of Iraq's dictator. Full Story
• Iranian agents: A Pentagon officials told CNN Wednesday that intelligence reports received in the last few days indicate an unknown number of Iranian backed agents have moved into southern Iraq to promote Shiite and Iranian interests within the Shi'a community. Full Story
Unexpected fighting: The fierce fighting between coalition forces and Iraqi irregulars was not what U.S. ground commanders fully expected during the U.S.-led war with Iraq, according to the U.S. commander in charge of all coalition land forces. Paramilitary forces that attacked U.S. troops in urban areas in southern Iraq were not the most likely option that the U.S. war-gamed against, according to Lt. Gen David McKiernan, the commander of coalition land forces under U.S. Central Command.
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| AIR WAR |
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• Speicher clue: After an initial search of several sites in Iraq, U.S. investigators have found a clue indicating a U.S. Navy pilot who was shot down in the first Gulf war may have been alive years after the fact, Pentagon officials told CNN Wednesday. A team of U.S. specialists looking for Capt. Michael Scott Speicher found what appears to be the initials "M.S.S." scratched into a wall of a cell in the Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad, an official tells CNN. Full Story |
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| CASUALTIES |
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• Coalition: 164 coalition deaths reported, including 132 U.S. troops and 32 British soldiers and marines.
List of coalition fatalities | Coalition deaths fewer than in 1991
• Wounded: At least 495 U.S. service members have been wounded. No numbers are available for British forces.
• Iraq: Iraq has not released details of military casualties. U.S. military officials have reported thousands of Iraqi military deaths. Abu Dhabi TV, quoting official Iraqi sources, reported that 1,252 Iraqi civilians have been killed and 5,103 wounded. CNN cannot verify those figures.
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| POWs/MIAs |
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• Missing or captured: One U.S. soldier remains listed as missing in action.
Coalition POWs/MIAs
• Iraqi POWs: Roughly 6,800 Iraqi soldiers remain in coalition custody, according to U.S. Central Command.
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Penhaul: 
• Warm welcome: Touring Iraq to assess its post-war needs, Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general who will run Iraq until a new government is established, received warm welcomes for a second day in the Kurdish north. Garner, who heads the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, was greeted Wednesday by Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani. 
Explore U.S. war plans and tactics
