Week's events
Thursday 17 April* The UN boosted its aid deliveries to Iraq, bringing 100 trucks of food from Turkey and opening up a new supply route via Jordan. The convoy carried more than 3,000 metric tons of food to an area believed to be running dangerously low on basic supplies
* Melanie Zipperer, a spokeswoman for the WHO, said the organisation's main office and official vehicles in the Iraqi capital had been pillaged and burnt, in addition to the destruction of valuable information and equipment.
* Barzan Al-Tikriti, half-brother of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was captured in Baghdad. Barzan was 38 on the US's list of the top 55 wanted Iraqis, who are believed to have valuable information on the Iraqi regime. Al-Tikriti was intelligence chief in the early 1980s, but was lately placed under house arrest by Saddam in early March.
Friday 18 April
* Iraqi police arrested Saddam's former finance minister, Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim Al-Azzawi, and turned him over to US Central Command.
* Tens of thousands of Iraqis marched after Friday prayers in protest against the American presence in Iraq. The demonstrators also called for an Islamic state.
* Iraq's neighbouring countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to discuss the future of war-torn Iraq, stressing that Iraq should be led by Iraqis.
* Abu Dhabi TV shows footage of Saddam saluting supporters on 9 April, the day the capital fell to US forces.
* UN's World Food Programme hired a team of experts to assess Iraq's capacity to mill flour after the war.
* US officials said the US plan to restart the Iraqi economy hinges on a fast end to UN sanctions.
* The US Agency for International Development awards the US group, Bechtel, a contract to reconstruct Iraq's power, water and sewage systems worth $35 million. The figure may rise to $680 million over the next 18 months.
* US and British forces released 887 Iraqi prisoners, but continue to hold 7,000 others, believed to be members of regular Iraqi army units.
* Building begins of a tent city to house as many as 24,000 prisoners in the southern port city of Umm Qasr.
* US Central Command in Qatar announced that Iraqi Kurds captured and handed over Samir Abul-Aziz Al-Najim, a senior official of Saddam's Ba'th Party.
Saturday 19 April
* Canada said it may send 200 non-combat military personnel to Iraq in response to a US call for the country's participation in efforts to stabilise the country.
* In Baghdad, four US soldiers on patrol were wounded when an Iraqi girl handed them an explosive that blew up. American military officials believe it was an accident.
* Jordanian customs authorities seized 42 paintings looted from Iraq's national museum.
* Emad Hussein Abdullah Al-Ani, the man known as the mastermind of Iraq's nerve agent programme, turned himself in to coalition forces.
* Shi'ite Muslims marched through the streets of the capital in a prelude to their annual pilgrimage to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala next week.
* Seven former US prisoners of war left a US military base in Germany and headed to the US.
* Looted medical supplies are finding their way back to Baghdad hospitals as residents heed the call of religious leaders to return the plundered material.
Sunday 20 April
* The US military mission in Baghdad shifts from combat to policing as US marines pull out and the US army takes over.
* Turkey said it was considering a US request to send troops to join peacekeeping forces in Iraq.
* The Australian foreign minister said US-led forces in Iraq will proclaim victory in the next few days.
* British forces in southern Iraq re-launch train services in order to use it as aid supply line.
* Iran sent humanitarian aid to southern Iraq that included 500 tons of food and medicine.
* Baghdad's starving zoo animals are getting aid from the US-led military coalition and the government of Kuwait.
Monday 21 April
* The first convoy of humanitarian and medical aid from Saudi Arabia was ordered by King Fahd for neighbouring Iraq. The convoy included 15 truckloads of food, water, milk and blankets.
* Richard Perle, counsellor to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, suggested in an interview published Monday in Moscow that Russia was likely to lose rights to Iraqi oil contracts signed under Saddam.
* Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of a US-backed Iraqi opposition group, said that Saddam is still in Iraq and is moving around the country.
Tuesday 22 April
* Sheikh Mohamed Al-Fartusi, a prominent Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, was released after his detention by US forces sparked angry demonstrations.
* US troops based in a palace on the west bank of the Tigris river in central Baghdad opened fire on targets across the river, but it was not clear what the targets were.
* In Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis lined up at the US army's new civilian operations centre. They were interviewed by the US soldiers about their previous job experiences and given questionnaires to fill in.
* The US military in Iraq has agreed a cease-fire with the People's Mujahideen, an armed group of Iranian dissidents that had been backed by Saddam.
* Jay Garner, the retired US general running post-war Iraq, met with the leaders of the two largest Kurdish factions in the country.
* The UN said dozens of Iraqi refugees, mostly children, have been expelled from a camp in Syria and sent back to their homeland.
* Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, said Arab countries face "dangerous challenges" now that Saddam's regime has fallen and Iraq is under Western occupation.
Wednesday 23 April
* Crude oil from Iraq's southern fields began flowing through pipelines to Zubayr, outside Basra, for the first time since the start of the war.
* Washington has initiated investigations into the deaths of a Ukranian and a Spanish journalist who were killed when a US tank fired on a Baghdad hotel. Both Ukraine and Spain were allies in the US-led coalition against Iraq.
* Germany, which chairs the committee that oversees UN sanctions against Iraq, said it was ready to examine proposals to suspend or lift the embargoes.
* Mass crowds of Shi'as, who make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population, celebrated the end of a pilgrimage which, in the past had been banned by Saddam Hussein.
* Polish Foreign Minister Wlodziemierz Climoszewicz said that Poland's embassy in Iraq would reopen soon.
* British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon visited Iraq's sole deep water port, Umm Qasr, to review efforts by British troops to reopen the harbour.
Compiled by Dena Rashed
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 24 - 30 April 2003 (Issue No. 635)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/635/sc3.htm