Central Command

WASHINGTON - Gen. Tommy Franks, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, retired yesterday, saying that the fight against terrorism has transformed U.S. military operations. At a change of command ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., Franks, 57, noted that at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan was in the grips of the Taliban regime and Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein. "What a difference 22 months make," the 36-year Army veteran said. As head of U.S. Central Command, Franks oversaw military operations in an area stretching from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia.

Sheriff's office to halt serving eviction notices CHICAGO: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said yesterday that his office plans to stop serving eviction notices on people who have fallen behind on mortgage payments as well as renters unaware their buildings have fallen in arrears. He said his action was necessary in light of the national foreclosure crisis that is driving down the American economy. Dart acknowledged that he could be found in contempt of court for ignoring court orders but said he was willing to risk that to carry out "justice."

WASHINGTON - In what officials called a groundbreaking move, a Canadian will serve as co-chairman in the U.S. investigation of a bombing mistake in Afghanistan that killed four Canadian soldiers. Canadian Brig. Gen. Marc Dumais will head the panel with an as-yet-unnamed American. "The intent is for both of us to be co-equals on the American board and to co-sign the report at the end," Dumais said at a news briefing yesterday. Maurice Baril, Canada's former chief of defense staff and head of the Canadian investigation panel, called the Canadian participation as co-chair "unprecedented" and "indicative of the degree of cooperation and trust that the American military authority have extended."

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Central Command has informally asked Army planners for up to five more brigades - about 25,000 troops - to augment the American force of 138,000 soldiers and Marines now in Iraq, military officers and Pentagon officials said. Some officers said any increase might well be lower, perhaps involving 10,000 troops that would be a mix of active-duty and National Guard units. "For a period of time, we may need more people," said a senior officer familiar with the planning, noting the perilous security situation and the needs of Iraq's new interim government, which is to assume sovereignty a week from today.

Comic-strip panels portraying U.S. soldiers in Operation Desert Shield in today's "Doonesbury" are actually the work of "Zorro," a member of the Air Force who is stationed in Saudi Arabia, according to a spokesman for the comic strip's syndicate.The panels deal with the bleak living conditions of troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. In the first panel, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau drew a soldier who tells readers, "Check out these cartoon dispatches from the front, created by 'Zorro,' an airman stationed at Central Command in Saudi Arabia."

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has determined why its new Air Force missile veered off course last week and slammed into a residential neighborhood in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.But it refuses to reveal any specifics of the Jan. 25 incident that, Iraqi officials claimed, killed 11 civilians and wounded 59."Central Command is aware of what happened, but for operational security reasons they're not revealing any information," said Maj. Tyrone M. Woodyard, an Air Force spokesman, referring to the military command responsible for the Persian Gulf region.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's official claims of destruction of Iraqi tanks, artillery and armored vehicles inside Kuwait are at least three times greater than the estimates from U.S. intelligence agencies, a U.S. official who has reviewed the intelligence figures said yesterday."

WASHINGTON -- The Iraqi missile that slammed into an American military barracks in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war, killing 28 people, penetrated air defenses because a computer failure shut down the American missile system designed to counter it, two Army investigations have concluded.The Iraqi Scud missile hit the barracks in Al Khobar near Dhahran on Feb. 25, causing the war's single worst casualty toll for Americans. The allied Central Command said the next day that no Patriot missile had been fired to intercept the Scud, adding that the Scud had broken into pieces as it descended and was not identified as a threat by the Patriot radar system.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is close to an agreement with Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, to establish the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command there, administration and Bahraini officials said yesterday.In another development in the aftermath of the gulf war, U.S. officials said that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, favored reversing policy to allow some U.S. ground forces to be permanently stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of any joint security arrangements in the region with Arab nations.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least six Iraqi civilians were killed on the outskirts of Baghdad yesterday when explosions ripped through an ammunition dump guarded by U.S. troops in their neighborhood. Military officials said a group of attackers had fired a flare into the cache, setting off the blasts. A statement from the U.S. Central Command said six Iraqis had been killed and four wounded. But a military official in Baghdad said the toll could be as high as 40 people killed or wounded in the attack.

Military investigators have exonerated a Marine sniper team that killed a 20-year-old corporal from Pasadena in Iraq last April after mistaking him for an enemy fighter. A report released by the U.S. Central Command concludes that the sniper and spotter had sufficient reason to believe that Marine Cpl. Jason David Mileo was an irregular Iraqi soldier when they shot him in the back a year ago today as he searched for Iraqi fighters from a Baghdad rooftop. Investigators said that Mileo helped cause the confusion by taking off his flak jacket and helmet, a violation of protocol, by smoking a cigarette, and by scaling a domed building that looked like a mosque, typically off-limits to U.S. forces.

WASHINGTON - U.S. military planners are drawing up contingency plans for sending more troops to Iraq, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the top American military commander in the country reported he has a sufficient force to deal with the increased level of violence. Rumsfeld said he spoke with Gen. John Abizaid, commanding officer of U.S. Central Command, and was assured that the 134,000 U.S. troops can quell the recent attacks on coalition forces and the demonstrations that have swept through the country from the Sunni Triangle to the Shiite cities in the south.

WASHINGTON - Gen. Tommy Franks, who led U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, retired yesterday, saying that the fight against terrorism has transformed U.S. military operations. At a change of command ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., Franks, 57, noted that at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan was in the grips of the Taliban regime and Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein. "What a difference 22 months make," the 36-year Army veteran said. As head of U.S. Central Command, Franks oversaw military operations in an area stretching from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least six Iraqi civilians were killed on the outskirts of Baghdad yesterday when explosions ripped through an ammunition dump guarded by U.S. troops in their neighborhood. Military officials said a group of attackers had fired a flare into the cache, setting off the blasts. A statement from the U.S. Central Command said six Iraqis had been killed and four wounded. But a military official in Baghdad said the toll could be as high as 40 people killed or wounded in the attack.

The fate of Gregory and Deadra Lynch's daughter, Jessica, looked grim after her supply convoy was ambushed near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq and the military declared her missing. She was not one of the five prisoners of war paraded on Iraqi television March 23, nor did she seem to be one of the four bodies in what appeared to be American uniforms sprawled in a morgue with bullet wounds in their heads. Her family back home in Palestine, W.Va., feared the worst ("You blank that out," her father said)

WASHINGTON - To add a dash of Hollywood to the military briefings from Central Command in Qatar, the Pentagon enlisted a top art director (fresh from a Michael Douglas movie) to design the high-tech set, with its sleek, futuristic podium and giant plasma screens. It is a far cry from the flip charts that Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf used during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. But the person front and center this time - Gen. Tommy Franks, who as chief of Central Command is directing nearly 300,000 troops in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq - is the antithesis of flash and glamour.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Central Command has informally asked Army planners for up to five more brigades - about 25,000 troops - to augment the American force of 138,000 soldiers and Marines now in Iraq, military officers and Pentagon officials said. Some officers said any increase might well be lower, perhaps involving 10,000 troops that would be a mix of active-duty and National Guard units. "For a period of time, we may need more people," said a senior officer familiar with the planning, noting the perilous security situation and the needs of Iraq's new interim government, which is to assume sovereignty a week from today.

2 dead, 9 injured in allied attack on southern Iraq targets BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Allied planes struck civil and military targets in southern Iraq yesterday, killing two people and wounding nine others, the Iraqi military reported. The U.S. Central Command confirmed that American planes had attacked Iraqi missile batteries 100 miles south of Baghdad, but gave no word of casualties. The attacks were in retaliation for anti-aircraft fire and a surface-to-air missile attack on "coalition aircraft," the Central Command said in a statement from its headquarters in Florida.

WASHINGTON - In what officials called a groundbreaking move, a Canadian will serve as co-chairman in the U.S. investigation of a bombing mistake in Afghanistan that killed four Canadian soldiers. Canadian Brig. Gen. Marc Dumais will head the panel with an as-yet-unnamed American. "The intent is for both of us to be co-equals on the American board and to co-sign the report at the end," Dumais said at a news briefing yesterday. Maurice Baril, Canada's former chief of defense staff and head of the Canadian investigation panel, called the Canadian participation as co-chair "unprecedented" and "indicative of the degree of cooperation and trust that the American military authority have extended."

WASHINGTON - A U.S. military refueling plane crashed into a mountainside in Pakistan yesterday, killing seven Marines, the Pentagon said last night. The crash produced the largest loss of American military personnel in a single incident since the United States began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7. Pentagon officials said the cause of the crash was not known. They said there was no indication that the four-engine KC-130 Hercules was fired upon as it approached a base near Shamsi, a town in southwest Pakistan near the Afghan border.