1 BAGHDAD. Iraq says more than 50 people are killed in rocket attacks. Many of the casualties are said to be civilians after marketplace is reportedly hit. City comes under bombardment for much of the day. Raids are sustained well into the night
2 BASRA. British military officials say Iraqi forces shot at about 2,000 civilians trying to flee fighting and a humanitarian crisis in the besieged southern city of Basra, forcing some to turn back. Snipers and artillery from the 1st battalion Black Watch returned fire.
3 NAJAF. American brigades battled around 1,500 Iraqis in the early hours of yesterday near the city. US forces fire rockets towards the city.
4 NASSIRIYA.US marines punched their way across the Euphrates River on Tuesday, pushing on northward towards Baghdad. But three days later troops left behind are still struggling to quell resistance. Street fighting raged. One US marine killed, four missing.
5 CHAMCHAMAL. Kurdish fighters cross Iraqi frontline near Chamchamal for first time after Iraqi troops withdrew towards the oil city of Kirkuk but not before firing on Kurds. The area has been regularly bombed by US warplanes.
6 KHANAQIN. US planes bomb the outskirts of the city
7 UMM QASR. The first aid ship docks after mines are cleared.
For reporters covering this conflict it's been a case of "go embedded or go home". Many of the more experienced war veterans balked at the idea of embedding at the beginning of the conflict, mainly because it meant adhering to a 12-page booklet of rules put forth by US and British forces. Reporting restrictions - frowned upon by the self-respecting media - are also common while embedded.
Yesterday one unnamed US veteran war correspondent told the Times: "We were all too arrogant - we thought we were too good to embed. So we gave the slots to the domestic reporters. Now look at where they are and look at where we are (well away from the action)!"
But while journalists in the field are delivering the goods under severe pressure, some have paid the ultimate price. The death from friendly fire of ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was well documented last week. And while his cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, managed to escape, there have been other tragedies. Australian cameraman Paul Moran was killed, by a car bomb in Northern Iraq, on the same day Lloyd died. And at least 13 others are missing. The Greek government yesterday urged 16 Greek reporters to come home.
They said it would never happen. But it has. For the first time, war has outstripped sex as the most frequent web search term, according to internet service Freeserve. Yahoo! said traffic levels in its sites jumped by a massive 300 per cent in the hour after George Bush told his nation the invasion of Iraq had started.
But while the bigger, more established sites are benefiting from the combat in the Gulf, there are more than a few "small but plucky" outfits doing well. Christopher Allbritton, a former Associated Press reporter, has established www.back-to-iraq. com. He is asking readers to support his attempt to report the war independently of any news organisation by donating cash for his trip. He has just passed the $10,000 mark.
The insurance industry is at it again. And this time it's not young male drivers it has in its sights. The leading Lloyd's insurance syndicate reports premiums for ships calling to Iraqi ports had rocketed 20-fold since the war began. The massive hikes are likely to hit aid agencies desperate to get their humanitarian supplies into the country. Rates are now running at up to 10 per cent of a ship's value, from 0.5 per cent before the war. " 'Rates are based upon the underwriter's fear that there will be losses, the idea isn't to make profits,' said one unnamed leading insurer." Indeed.
An Post has fallen victim to the war in Iraq. Due to the conflict and disruption to air traffic in the region, An Post has said all letter Post and SDS parcel/courier services to Iraq have been suspended with immediate effect. Although it is difficult to imagine any postman enjoying his job enough to run the gauntlet in towns from Basra to Baghdad delivering little envelopes to their intended recipients. Letter post services to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have also been suspended, while SDS services to these countries as well as to Kuwait may be subject to considerable delays.
Debate over the US military's use of Shannon may have dissipated since the beginning of war but at WarBriefing we say it's never too late for a reasoned, well thought out contribution. Today's offering comes from Father John McDonagh, parish priest at Dalkey. In the parish newsletter he writes: "If it is right for us to continue with the present policy on Shannon, and it may well be so, let it be for a principled stand much deeper than 'our friends scratch our backs and we will scratch theirs'. There's many a person in jail because in a time of moral crisis they couldn't rise any higher in moral argument."
The Irish Times website contains freely available coverage of the war, including breaking news, features, analysis, maps, archives and online polls. Go to www.ireland.com/focus/iraq