Military Operations

WASHINGTON -- The White House said yesterday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest since the Sept. 11 attacks. The bulk of the new money would go to pay for the war in Iraq, which already has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. The additional spending, along with other war funds the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation building since Sept.

Army 1st Lt. Edmund Carazo has returned to the United States after his deployment overseas at a forward operating base, serving in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. With eight years of military service, Carazo is an infantry officer assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The son of Nancy Carazo, of Laurel, he is a 1999 graduate of Meade High School and received his bachelor's in 2004 from Towson University and master's in 2008 from Troy University, in Alabama..

WASHINGTON -- Determined to keep up pressure on the White House and congressional Republicans to support a troop withdrawal from Iraq, House Democratic leaders began to coalesce yesterday around a plan that would link continued war funding to progress by the Iraqi government. Under the proposal, which was still being worked out, the bill would guarantee money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan only through July, according to Democratic sources. Under the plan, lawmakers would vote on another war funding bill after Congress received a report from the Bush administration in July on how much progress the Iraqi government had made on a series of benchmarks, including disarming militias and passing laws to share oil wealth.

President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan, was about as cagey as they come last week at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Asked right off the bat by the committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whether he would be more forthcoming than his predecessors in apprising committee members of covert U.S. military operations abroad - particularly the administration's secret drone program of targeted killings - he vigorously affirmed that to be his intention.

As of yesterday, 1,352 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations. Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,214 U.S. soldiers have died. Latest identification Army Pfc. Daniel F. Guastaferro, 27, Las Vegas; died Friday in Ramadi, Iraq, when his vehicle crashed; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Camp Casey, South Korea.

WASHINGTON -- In the worst loss of life for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in almost a year, four Americans were killed yesterday when their Army helicopter crashed near the Bagram air base, defense officials said. There were no indications that the crash of the UH-60 Black Hawk was caused by hostile fire, said Lt. Col. Martin Compton, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which is in charge of military operations in the region. Officials said that the cause of the crash was not clear, but that it appeared to be an accident.

Arlington, Virginia. -- The U.S. defense analytical community is erupting with instant ''lessons learned'' from the recent war against Iraq. Lessons abound about everything from strategy and tactics to the performance of ''smart'' munitions and the All-Volunteer Force.Caution, however, is in order. From a purely military standpoint, it is far from clear just how much Operation Desert Storm ''proved,'' in terms of lessons meaningful for future U.S. military operations.The stunning U.S. and allied victory over Iraqi forces in Kuwait was in large measure the product of a unique set of highly favorable diplomatic, political, strategic, operational and other conditions that are most unlikely ever again to be replicated.

President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan, was about as cagey as they come last week at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Asked right off the bat by the committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whether he would be more forthcoming than his predecessors in apprising committee members of covert U.S. military operations abroad - particularly the administration's secret drone program of targeted killings - he vigorously affirmed that to be his intention.

Army 1st Lt. Edmund Carazo has returned to the United States after his deployment overseas at a forward operating base, serving in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. With eight years of military service, Carazo is an infantry officer assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The son of Nancy Carazo, of Laurel, he is a 1999 graduate of Meade High School and received his bachelor's in 2004 from Towson University and master's in 2008 from Troy University, in Alabama..

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 -- A suicide bomber drove a load of watermelons and vegetables to the center of a village marketplace in northern Iraq yesterday and then detonated his big, yellow truck, killing as many as 150 people in what appeared to be the deadliest attack yet in a year of unremitting violence. Officials said they feared that the region where the blast occurred, a crucible of tension among ethnic groups, had been singled out by insurgents chased from other hot spots around the country by U.S.-led military operations.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military expressed regret yesterday over the deaths of seven Afghan children in an airstrike a day earlier but blamed Islamic insurgents for preventing the youngsters from leaving the compound that was hit. American officials said U.S.-led coalition forces were unaware of the presence of noncombatants inside the compound in Paktika province, which also contained a mosque and a madrassa, or Islamic seminary. Seven boys under the age of 16, including at least one as young as 10, were killed in Sunday's airstrike, according to Afghan officials.

WASHINGTON -- Determined to keep up pressure on the White House and congressional Republicans to support a troop withdrawal from Iraq, House Democratic leaders began to coalesce yesterday around a plan that would link continued war funding to progress by the Iraqi government. Under the proposal, which was still being worked out, the bill would guarantee money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan only through July, according to Democratic sources. Under the plan, lawmakers would vote on another war funding bill after Congress received a report from the Bush administration in July on how much progress the Iraqi government had made on a series of benchmarks, including disarming militias and passing laws to share oil wealth.

Rather than continuing to pursue an elusive military solution in Iraq, the United States should adopt a violence-reduction strategy that encourages cooperation among the country's embattled factions. What Iraq needs is not more U.S. troops, but a new approach that attempts to break the deadly spiral of violence. The U.S. could lead the way by halting offensive operations and initiating a general cease-fire. Given the dismal record of what has been accomplished in nearly four years of combat, it is doubtful that suspending military operations for a few months would make the situation worse or cause irreparable harm.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution yesterday aimed at resolving the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. The measure calls for deploying 15,000 United Nations peacekeepers in south Lebanon to help the Lebanese army take control of the area once Israeli troops withdraw. It is a victory for Lebanon, which rejected a draft resolution unveiled Aug. 5 by the United States and France, saying that it was doomed to fail because it did not require an Israeli pullout.

WASHINGTON -- The White House said yesterday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest since the Sept. 11 attacks. The bulk of the new money would go to pay for the war in Iraq, which already has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. The additional spending, along with other war funds the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation building since Sept.

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives gave a final blessing to Operation Desert Storm yesterday, overwhelmingly approving a resolution expressing solidarity with President Bush and the U.S. forces deployed in the Persian Gulf.On a 399-6 vote, the House approved the same resolution that the Senate unanimously adopted Thursday.The act represented the last presently contemplated war-related action by the full Congress, whose members have been sitting uneasily on the sidelines and watching events unfold, largely beyond their control.

WASHINGTON -- They beckon from the past, the great military battles and their still-stirring code names: Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of Europe. Operation Torch, the U.S. landing in North Africa. Operation Anvil, the Allied liberation of southern France.Now fast-forward to the 1990s:* The U.S. intervention in Somalia was called Operation Restore Hope.* The U.S. rescue effort in Rwanda was named Operation Support Hope.* The American intervention in Haiti is known as Operation Uphold Democracy.

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that, if the military were deployed inside the United States in response to a terrorist attack, his department - not the Pentagon - would exercise overall control. "The Department of Homeland Security has the responsibility under the president's directives to coordinate the entirety of the response to a terrorist act here in the United States," Chertoff said on CNN, responding to news reports that the Pentagon has drawn up plans for military action.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers killed at least 50 purported militants in the town of Karabilah in two days of intense fighting in the volatile western region of Iraq, the U.S. military reported yesterday. American and Iraqi troops have come under heavy small-arms fire in the skirmishes in and around the desolate town but had not reported any casualties from the fighting as of late yesterday, U.S. military officials said. While conducting searches in central Karabilah yesterday, Marines and Iraqi soldiers came upon four Iraqi hostages handcuffed and chained to a wall in a bunker, Marine officials said.