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Forces



WAR UPDATE BATTLEFIELD
GROUND WAR
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
Mosul firefight: A 20- to 30-man Iraqi paramilitary force attacked a coalition patrol northwest of Mosul on Friday, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Coalition forces killed several of the attackers and destroyed two technical vehicles, which are trucks with machine guns mounted on them. Myers also said U.S. troops killed an Iraqi paramilitary and captured another fighter south of Baghdad.
Marines head home: Elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit have begun returning to Camp Patriot in the northern Kuwaiti desert in preparation to return home, said Marine spokesman Capt. Dan McSweeney. The unit's 2,300 Marines will pack up their equipment and gear for the trip back to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, aboard the USS Nassau, USS Austin and USS Tortuga, McSweeney said. Details: 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
Intelligence official caught: Farouk Hijazi, the former intelligence official accused in the plot to kill former President George H.W. Bush in 1993, is in U.S. custody, U.S. officials said Friday. Officials confirm that Hijazi, who was the chief of Saddam Hussein's Mukhabbarat intelligence service, was taken into custody near the Syrian border Thursday evening. Full Story
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. The Marines are under orders to search and interview all people attempting to enter or leave Iraq through Iran. The Marines hope to locate and detain "all former regime officials, third-country nationals and insurgents," according to a U.S. Central Command statement. 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
AIR WAR
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
CASUALTIES
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.
POWs/MIAs
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.

CAUSE OF U.S. WAR DEATHS

Source: CNN, Pentagon. * Number as of April 25, 2003
ON THE SCENE
Brahimi: 'Big catches' in custody
Robertson: Aziz played gatekeeper role
Amin: Garner faces big challenges
Penhaul: Pilgrimage revives Shiite tradition
MacVicar: 'U.S. talk puzzles Syrians
More On the Scene reports
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
Returning refugees: The U.N. refugee agency has prepared a plan for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to return to their war-torn country. Full Story
Shiite pilgrimage: Crowds of Shia Muslims Wednesday chanted and danced in the streets of Karbala on the final day of a pilgrimage long suppressed under Saddam Hussein's rule. Many expressed gratitude to the United States for their newfound freedom but, in the same breath, they warned their liberators to leave Iraq and not divide their country. Full Story | premium content Video
Audio Slide Show: Looting in Iraq
Gallery: A visit to Kifri
STRATEGY
Explore U.S. war plans and tactics
with CNN's military analysts

Kennedy: Gathering intelligence
Shepperd: Efforts imposing order
Shepperd: Freed POWs need help
Shepperd: Cleanup and one last battle
LAST SEVEN DAYS
April 24: Aziz surrenders
April 23: Iranian agents in Iraq
April 22: Ceasefire with Iranian dissidents
April 21: No. 18 most-wanted captured
April 20: Two more Iraqis captured
April 19: Marines leave Baghdad
April 18: New purported Saddam tapes aired
Archive »

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