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Key developments in
Iraq
Latest developments in the Iraq crisis as of 5:25 EST. -- The United States and Britain escalated the war by launching their long-awaited massive campaign from the air, and pushed ground troops one-third of the way to Baghdad. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his lieutenants are ``starting to lose control of their country.'' -- Two U.S. marines died in combat in southern Iraq. One was battling Iraqi infantry to secure an oil pumping station. The second was fighting near the strategic port of Umm Qasr, which the U.S. marines eventually controlled. -- Eight British and four U.S. marines died when their helicopter crashed south of Umm Qasr. The cause was under investigation. No hostile fire had been reported. -- Iraq fired its sixth missile into Kuwait, but it was shot down by Patriot missiles. The Kuwaiti military identified the latest as an al-Fatah missile, among the banned weaponry UN inspectors were hunting for. -- Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have surrendered to coalition forces in southern Iraq. -- Turkey agreed to allow U.S. warplanes to fly over its territory after an initial delay while the two sides worked out a disagreement over whether Turkey can move its own troops into northern Iraq. It was not immediately clear how the issue was resolved. -- Police clashed with anti-war demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, triggering an exchange of gunfire that killed three people and injured dozens as outrage over the war erupted in cities around the world. © Copyright 2003 Canadian Press
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