Chrenkoff

Having spent the past two years in Iraq, first as an Army officer and now as the head of the Iraq office of the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, I am struck by the determination and steadiness of Iraqis as they struggle to build a stable, democratic country, and by the continuing, firm commitment of Iraqis to participate in - and manage - that process.

In spite of a constant threat from the various insurgencies over the past year, Iraqi government agencies, political parties, and civil society organizations have gradually expanded their capabilities and activities. They will tell you how much more they could have done had they not been constrained by security threats or - almost as important - the lack of reliable infrastructure, but what they have accomplished already is admirable, as is their unflagging determination in the face of these threats and constraints.

There is a phrase I hear in almost every conversation with Iraqis that captures the mood of this process: hutwa bi hutwa, or "step by step."

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said...

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said.

Shiite legislators have decided not to push for a greater role for Islam in the new Iraqi constitution out of concern that the contentious issue will inflame religious sentiments and deepen sectarian tensions.

Instead, the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition that won the most seats in January’s elections, will advocate retaining the moderate language of Iraq’s temporary constitution that was drawn up under the auspices of the American occupation authority.

Humam Hamoudi, the Shiite cleric who heads the 55-member constitutional committee that will draft the new document, said that any attempt to debate the issue of Islamic law could ignite a firestorm of competing sectarian demands and that the brief references to Islam in three paragraphs of the temporary constitution should be left untouched.

"These paragraphs represent the middle ground between the secularists and those who want Islamic government, and I think the wisest course of action is to keep them as they are," he said in an interview at his Baghdad home. "Opening up the subject for discussion would provoke religious sentiments in the street."

Parliament in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq has held its first session in the northern city of Irbil.

After recitations from the Koran, all 111 deputies took oaths of office under Kurdish national flags.

Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, attended the session, as well as the newly-elected President of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani.

The two men who lead rival parties have effectively ruled the Kurdish region since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

The newly created Sunni alliance, which has not adopted a name, will open its first office in Baghdad, with branches later in other cities.

"The decisions taken by this body will be shared by all Sunnis parties and movements, Islamists, independents, merchants, military officers, heads of tribes and workers," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of the Sunni Endowment.

The charitable organization was one of three main Sunni groups to back the formation of the new organization. The others were the influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party.

"We decided to establish this Sunni political and religious organization to speak on behalf the Arab Sunnis. We all have to work for the sake of Iraq to get this country out of this hard situation," said Sheik Lawrence Abid Ibrahim al-Hardan, 47, who is from restive Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Sunnis said they hope the organization will give them more of a say in Shi'ite-dominated Iraq and help bring the minority together ahead of new elections in December.

The six men seated around the white classroom table -- including the pudgy Foreign Ministry attache, the former army captain, the man with the sad, brown eyes who introduced himself vaguely as a "director general" -- were the unlikely vanguard of Iraq's bold new experiment in democracy.

"What's most important are the principles," said Jean-Pierre Massias, the head of this University of Auvergne training program for senior Iraqi officials. "The rule of law. Checks and balances. Compromise. How local governments can be a tool to prevent conflicts. How to administer a country."

After bitterly dividing over the war, Europe is uniting to help reconstruct Iraq, and these civics lessons in central France are part of that effort. Plans are in the works to coach about 750 Iraqi judges and prison guards on Western law and to hold an international conference in Brussels. European programs to train Iraqi security forces are mostly taking place outside the turmoil-torn country. The same stipulation is tied to a French offer to drill 1,500 Iraqi troops and police.

- Specialists from the Ministries of Education (MoE) and Health (MoH) participated in a week-long training workshop on school sanitation and hygiene education.

- 16 female staff members from the MoE and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) undertook a 20-day study tour in Egypt, looking at all aspects of Early Childhood Development programmes.

- MoE participants developed a pilot project to cater for the learning needs of 50,000 children during a 3-day workshop on the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP). This was a first opportunity for ministry staff from Baghdad and Northern Iraq to meet with each other and share experiences.

- 20 MOLSA social workers from 3 northern Governorates took part in a 2-week course representing the fourth phase in the Social Workers Training Course.

- 14 Iraqi journalists completed a four week intense journalism course from the American University of Cairo, increasing to 67 the total number of journalists who have participated in this course.

- 22 staff from the Ministry of Electricity participated in a training course in Japan and Korea. The engineers and technicians were trained in maintenance and assessment techniques for thermal generating power units; the backbone of Iraq’s power system.

- 4 staff from the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works completed an inter-country training on emergency water & sanitation disinfection.

- The Mine Risk Education Operational Plan for the Centre and South of Iraq resulted from a 3-day workshop held in Amman. The MRE Operational plan to be overseen by the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) represented an important contribution to educating Iraqis to live safely in contaminated areas.

- 17 participants from 8 Governorates learned to develop rainfall and run off models for watershed catchments at a week long workshop held in Cairo with visiting American professors.

- Iraqi government administrators and policy makers from the water sector and the Ministry of Environment attended a workshop sharing the Jordanian water governance experience with participants from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Central Asia.

- 20 senior staff from the Ministry of Water Resources benefited from a project cycle workshop to enhance their water-related project management techniques.

- 23 representatives from the region including 2 Iraqi staff from the Ministry of Planning completed a workshop in Amman to enhance their skills and expertise in resource capacity management within the Contract Research and Development field.

More than 23 years ago, Basam Ridha Alhussaini escaped Iraq, fleeing the regime that had killed his two brothers for refusing to join the ruling Baath Party.

Today, Alhussaini returns to his homeland to begin working as an adviser to new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.

The San Dimas resident will play a role in the future of the wounded country, in its democracy, its rebuilding and its new beginning.

Alhussaini, 42, politically active in Iraqi-American relations, plans to remain in Iraq for at least six months, until a constitution is approved and a permanent national assembly is elected.

"Iraq is making a big turn historically, and I want to be a part of this," Alhussaini said. "I'm leaving my family and going to a hostile environment, but to me it's worth being part of that."

USAID’s Iraq Economic Governance II (IEG II) program is working closely with Iraqi government counterparts to reform taxes and install a new, computerized budget system across the country. A transparent and functioning tax and budget system is essential to ensuring equitable collection and use of tax revenues. The Financial Management Information System (FMIS) has been installed at 44 government sites across Iraq, with staff fully trained in the new equipment’s use. The system is an online, automated accounting and budget system with a constantly updated database that is used by all branches of the Iraqi government. By July, FMIS will be up and running at 57 sites. IEG II recently completed all software training in Amman for technicians from nearly all the FMIS Phase I sites. Hardware was also recently installed in the Ministry of Planning and data center build-out work was completed for the Ministry of Finance.

A former Iraqi minister will appear in court on Wednesday in the first government corruption case to be brought since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Layla Abdul Latif, labour minister in Iyad Allawi's interim government, faces a preliminary hearing into allegations that she misused public money. She denies any wrongdoing.

The case is one of five to emerge so far from investigations conducted by Iraq's anti-corruption authorities as they try to tackle what international watchdogs have described as rampant corruption in post-war Iraq.

When he belches around Baghdad's old quarter on his spotless Harley Davidson, Kadhem Sharif, a powerlifting champion sporting wrap-around sunglasses, makes for an unlikely sight. And the 53-year-old is fully aware that his passion for one of the most recognizable symbols of the American way of life is not to everybody's liking in post-war Iraq.

But his garage is a carbon copy of any Harley aficionado's den in the United States, complete with posters of naked "babes on bikes." And his collection of 40-plus motorbikes provides a condensed history of 100 years of national turmoil.

Despite the intimidating size of his chest and forearms, the former Iraqi bench-press champion, known to his friends as "Mr. Muscle," now risks an icy reception in insurgent strongholds as his face has become one of the symbols of the overthrow of Saddam's regime.

On April 9, 2003, Kadhem was one of the first to rush to Baghdad's Fardus Square and pictures of the burly Shiite hacking away at the marble plinth of Saddam's giant statue were beamed live around the world in one of the most enduring images of the regime's ouster.

"People in the neighborhood know me. I get on with everybody. U.S. soldiers used to block the road so they could spend some time in my garage," Sharif says.

"They sometimes bring me copies of motorcycling magazines and even bought me leather boots. I'm still in touch with one of them who is saving up all his money to buy my Harley chopper."

The upsurge in violence has worsened conditions for almost everyone and everything in Iraq, but the new currency. The Iraqi dinar is the winner as it has so far weathered the impact of mounting violence and car bombs that would have sent any other country’s currency tumbling.

Since its launch in October, 2003, the new dinar has preserved its value vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar and other major countries. It is probably the only symbol of stability in a car torn by wars, civil strife and violence.

However, Iraqi economists are not surprised to see the currency fending off the political turmoil and the descent into violence, a major characteristic of the past two years.

Thanks, they say, are mainly due to the Central Bank, which is one of the few government branches of the post-war era untainted by corruption. “The (central) bank has pursued sound monetary policies,” says Thuraya Khazraji, Baghdad University’s professors of economics. Other factors leading to the currency’s stability, in her opinion, include “the slight improvement in oil exports and the writing off of 90% of Iraq’s foreign debts.”

Sadoon Hamoud Kathir, professor of economics and administration at the University of Baghdad, attributes this remarkable level of stability to sound government policies – specifically the transformation of the Central Bank of Iraq, CBI, into an independent body, which took place at the same time the new banknotes were issued.

“The most important move the cabinet made was to separate the authority responsible for monetary emission from the government and to make it independent,” said Kathir.

Under Saddam Hussein, the CBI was simply an arm of the executive authority, churning out more banknotes or extending unlimited credit to the government whenever the latter needed money.

International banks are proceeding with caution in Iraq, building tie-ups with Iraqi partners and slowly expanding operations constrained by security and communications.

Financiers whose banks were awarded postwar licences say the lack of security has prevented a full-scale entry into Iraq but takeovers of local banks have helped handle risk and keep a low profile in country where suspicion of foreigners runs high.

"The game in Iraq now is positioning," said Karim Souaid, head of corporate finance at HSBC, which has been negotiating to acquire the Dar al-Salam bank.

"You won't see Chase Manhattan opening tomorrow on Baghdad square. The business so far has not been lucrative and there is no retail banking or project finance but this could begin in more stable regions," Souaid told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.

Iraq's banks was nationalised in the 1960s, and most of the 27 million population still keep their cash abroad, especially in the country's main hub Jordan, or under the mattress, although former president Saddam Hussein let private local banks open in the late 1990s.

Efforts are underway to overhaul the system, helped by lifting of the crushing 1990-2003 sanctions, permits for foreign banks and capital requirements for local banks that encouraged them to seek outside investors.

All 17 private banks remain small and deposits of individual banks do not exceed tens of millions of dollars.

But unlike the cash basis of the pre-sanctions era, funds can now be transferred in and out and Iraqi traders have access to letters of credit and letters of guarantee, mainly through the few local banks that have ventures with foreign investors.

Shoppers in Baghdad no longer need to carry plastic bags full of cash, as they did after years of international sanctions reduced the value of a 10,000-dinar note with Saddam Hussein's likeness to less than $5.

A year-and-a-half ago, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) began issuing higher-value currency notes. And it is now trying to help stimulate business around the country by reintroducing coins.

But finance officials eager to move Iraq away from a heavily cash-based society have set their sights on a more ambitious goal: developing banking networks that will allow a shift to an electronic, largely credit-based economy.

Doing away with cash as the main form of payment would reduce the threat of highway robbery, which hinders fund transfers within the country, some bankers say. And in turn, a reliable network for electronic transactions would undercut an insurgency eager to deal in cash and spur reconstruction, finance officials say.

"Your money can't really be stolen when you carry it as a credit card," says CBI governor Sinan al-Shabibi.

Credit cards, like electronic fund transfers, are still a largely theoretical concept here. But with the CBI's help, many of Iraq's banks are buying computers for the first time, while staff members are being trained in Dubai and Jordan in global banking practices.

The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, will provide a $12 million loan to support the SME lending operations of National Bank of Iraq, also known as Al-Ahli Bank of Iraq. The financing represents IFC’s first investment under the Iraq Small Business Finance Facility, which seeks to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises in Iraq through local financial institutions.

Funded by IFC and donor agencies representing the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and Spain, the $105 million Iraq Small Business Finance Facility provides technical assistance funding to develop Iraqi banks’ capacity for lending to smaller businesses. It also extends term loans to certain Iraqi partner banks for on-lending to small local enterprises.

The Trade Bank of Iraq... issued the country's first credit and debit cards, from Visa International Inc., at a ceremony in Baghdad.

Visa cards were given to cabinet ministers, government officials and financial professionals, the bank said. Bank Chairman Hussein al-Uzri presented the first card to Adel Abdul Mehdi, one of two vice presidents and a former finance minister.

The bank said it would issue 30,000 Visa cards in Iraq by the end of the year. The company also plans to install the country's first network of automated teller machines, which would enable cardholders to withdraw Iraqi dinars or U.S. dollars from their accounts.

It's not Wall Street, but it does have its moments. If the concept of buying low and selling high ever excited people, it excites them in Baghdad.

In less than one year, the newly formed Iraqi Stock Exchange has tripled its trading volume, with growth rates unheard of nearly anywhere else.

"The market since it's opening last year is doing very, very well," said Talab Tabuy, a trader. "Excellent, actually."

Tabuy is betting on companies like Baghdad Soda, Hader Marble and Thesar Agriculture. But the real excitement is over Iraq's banking sector, especially Basra Bank.

"When we choose to start our business here, demand was very high so we began just with 15 companies ... now we have about 88," said Taha Abdul Salam, CEO of the exchange.

In just the first seven months, nearly 14 billion shares have been traded, and the number is growing amid hopes foreign investment could drive the market even higher.

The trading frenzy has prompted key upgrades. A new facility is currently under construction about a block from the current location, and magic markers will be replaced by an electronic ticker and a much larger trading floor.

Though barely over 30, Ahmad Walid al-Said has already become the biggest of the hotshots on the noisy floor of the Iraqi Stock Exchange.

As head broker at al-Fawz Co., one of the country's most respected brokerages, and chairman of the Iraqi Association of Securities, he eats, drinks and sleeps the stock market, even when he's not roaming the floor and putting through orders.

"After I finish all this, we go to lunch," he says after the close of the session. "During lunch, we talk about what we're going (to) do the next session. We can't talk about anything but the stock market all day long."

This is one place in Iraq where go-getters are abundant and no one is waiting for a handout. Unlike much of the rest of Iraq, the men -- and a considerable number of women -- who ply their trade here live by a bootstraps philosophy, eagerly profiting from an equities market where daily trading volume has grown twelvefold since Saddam Hussein's fall.

The growing number of people investing in Iraq is staggering, but even more surprising is that the majority of these investors are greenhorns, or rookie investors, with little or no experience in foreign or even domestic markets.

The buying and selling of Iraqi dinar is no small market. At least 60 internet sites have been selling dinar by the millions for about a year. A million dinar can cost anywhere from $800 to $1600 USD. EBay.com has hundreds of active dinar auctions listed each day.

Many investors have chosen to open Iraqi bank accounts, rather than hold physical dinar. Yet others have opened brokerage accounts in Iraq, waiting for the ISX, or Iraq Stock Exchange, to allow foreigners to trade shares.

After considering buying Iraq’s currency, many of these inexperienced investors have researched deeply into economic, monetary, and investment issues. Most of them can explain a peg versus a basket peg versus a float, as well as the roles of the IMF, WTO, World Bank, Iraq Central Bank, the Interbank or ForEx market, and foreign taxes. Many of them have made wire transfers into Iraq and communicate with bank and stock exchange representatives. They have researched the companies on the ISX, even having contests to see who can pick the stocks that will rise in value the most.

In the late 1970s, Basra was a thriving economic gateway to the rest of the Middle East. But the city, along with much of the rest of southern Iraq, was badly damaged during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). Economic progress was further hindered by centrally controlled political and economic structures and discrimination against the south by Saddam Hussein's regime.

One of the keys to reducing the current high levels of poverty in the southern governorates and promoting local business initiatives is to remove institutional barriers to private sector growth. Some of the particular problems facing entrepreneurs are:

- Inadequate legislative and tax support to promote economic development.

- A lack of business awareness and management skills after years of isolation from the international business community.

- A lack of business information and services to support and advise new initiatives.

Part of DFID's £20.5m [$37.3 million] "Governorates Capacity Building Programme" focuses on tackling these barriers to economic growth. Private sector advisers are working with governorate administrations, business organisations and individual entrepreneurs to promote the economic environment, and the business skills, that are needed to transform the regional economy. Potential entrepreneurs identify good business principles during a DFID-funded workshop in Basra.

The Basra Business Centre has been set up to provide information and training materials for new and growing businesses in southern Iraq. The Centre also aims to improve the flow of communication between the business community and government, in order to stimulate pro-enterprise lobbying of government and promote much needed regulatory reforms. So far, over 150 business information factsheets have been produced, focusing on topics such as marketing, financial management, legal issues, and information technology. The Basra Business Journal, a monthly bi-lingual Arabic/English magazine focusing on local business activities, will be launched in June.

Enterprise workshops "Introduction to Enterprise" workshops have so far been delivered to 2,000 young adults in Basra and Maysan Governorates. Drawn mostly from Basra University and local schools, the participants are given the opportunity to test their ideas and skills, and build up their networks of business contacts. Follow-up workshops focusing on team-building, problem solving and trade promotion are now running, with 100 young people trained so far and many more signed up for the coming months.

This initiative offers tailored support for women seeking to establish small businesses. It has so far delivered enterprise skills sessions to more than 285 women in Basra, Az Zubayr and Umm Qasr. Women in Enterprise (WIE) has also developed partnerships with the Iraqi Business Women's Association, the Basra College of Engineering, the Basra Widows Committee and the Az Zubayr Technical Institute. With these organisations, WIE will run weekly workshops and business mentoring sessions. WIE is also developing a package of support to help women move on from developing a business idea to establishing a fully registered and trading business activity.

Some 42 passengers made the 50-minute trip from the Iraqi capital to the southern city, including airways officials and the transport minister. Iraqi Airways intends to operate four flights a week on the route.

Airline officials are encouraging the public to use the flight, which avoids a six-to-seven hour drive through dangerous parts of the country.

Iraqi Airways flight 015 is the first scheduled passenger service to come into operation between Iraqi cities since the end of the war. A return flight on the Boeing 727 will cost passengers $150 (£83).

Projects were moving ahead despite soaring security costs, which U.S. auditors say can chew up half of the funding. Taylor... gave a more modest estimate and said security costs amounted to an average 10-15 percent of the overall price...

Taylor strongly rejects suggestions the rebuilding program has not had an impact and points to completed projects as proof. He said the United States was paying out about $200 million a week to contractors and $5.3 billion had been disbursed in total of the $18.4 billion. A further $12.9 billion had been "obligated," or put under contract...

Taylor said in the past 10 months, 57 U.S.-funded electricity projects, ranging from big to small, had been completed and 103 more were in progress.

Although the area is still relatively hostile, as is all of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force is extending power lines and laying water and sewage pipes at a steady pace. Rubble and explosive ordinance - some left over from the fighting and some freshly laid by the insurgents - is being removed. Schoolhouses and hospitals are being fixed and erected. As a bonus, military-age males are receiving good wages to build things instead of blowing up people.

As I traveled through the slowly repopulating city - about half of the original 250,000 are believed to have returned - I saw awesome scenes of destruction. But I also saw thriving markets, stores selling candy and ice cream, and scores of children delighted to see Americans. I did more waving than the beauty queen in the 4th of July parade and the kids squealed with delight when I took their picture - or pretended to.

A new project to increase much-needed water supplies is underway in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, by diversifying the existing supply system and reducing wasteful water usage.

"Baghdad has always suffered from water shortages during the summer season of around 50 percent," Baghdad Mayor Ala'a al-Temeemi told IRIN in the capital.

"Our plan is to activate different water resources, like building more water treatment plants, maintenance works for the old systems and operating or expanding old water canals in the army district east of Baghdad. We will also stop people from wasting water on washing cars or watering plants," al-Temeemi explained.

The project, which was implemented by the government at the start of May, is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Red Cross (IRC) and other NGOs in Japan and Germany. An anticipated 11.8 million Iraqis will benefit from USAID's US $600 million in water and sanitation projects countrywide.

"Before we applied this plan, we had two million cubic [cu] metres a day and we are working to reach three million cubic metres," the operating manager at Baghdad's directorate for water, Abdul-Kareem Aba'as, told IRIN. He added that the World Bank and other countries such as the UK, Australia and Japan had allocated $82 million to finance water projects in Baghdad over the next two years.

"There is a shortage in our neighbourhood every day. We do not have water for three to four hours a day. But it is better now than before when it would continue for two to three days," said May Hussein, who lives in the Bayaah district of Baghdad.

USAID supplies potable water to rural Iraqis by digging wells in mid-sized communities. So far, the program has constructed wells at 81 sites; 69 of those sites are now active and 12 have been abandoned due to dry wells or other issues. Operating under the Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Program, this initiative will drill approximately 110 wells in remote locations throughout Iraq. Operations and Maintenance training will be provided to ensure the sustainability of the wells and treatment systems. The project will benefit about 550,000 rural Iraqis at 110 sites.

USAID partners implementing the rehabilitation of Baghdad’s power distribution substations are focusing their efforts on completing work at eight high priority summer response city substations in order to increase reliable power by the end of June 2005. The two Iraqi subcontractors are making good progress and have completed the installation of one of the mobile substations...

USAID has provided equipment for 37 sites total, of which Bechtel and its subcontractors are working at 25 sites and Ministry of Electricity (MoE) at 12. Some of these new facilities will replace existing substations while others are expansions of the distribution network. Four mobile substations are being provided to support substation loads while the stations are being rehabilitated.

Ten years ago, the Al-Thakafa al-Arabia elementary school had broken windows, a shortage of textbooks, and kids whose extracurricular activity was begging on the streets. Pro-Saddam Hussein slogans adorned the walls.

Today it's still a squalid place with filthy toilets and crumbling walls, but at least the teachers have chalk and erasers supplied by the government, and the kids have pencils, notebooks and satchels.

As Iraq battles its insurgency and lurches toward democracy, many judge its future by the strength of its security forces and new government. But another powerful measure is the optimism of the children at schools such as Al-Thakafa in one of Baghdad's poorest areas.

When The Associated Press visited 10 years ago, Iraqis were being impoverished by sanctions and Saddam Hussein was holding a presidential election in which he was the only candidate. In a country where free speech didn't exist, Saddam had opened the doors to foreign journalists to show off the vote, but under stringent supervision.

Returning to the same school more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam, the AP saw striking change.

Kassim used to teach geography in the morning and spend afternoons repairing shoes in the streets of the central Iraqi town of Azizyah. Those days are over.

Iraq's 300,000 teachers have seen vast changes since the regime of
Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003, and Kassim can now feed his four children without having to cobble a living together.

From an average monthly salary of 10,000 dinars (around two-three dollars at the time) plus food subsidies, they can now earn 300,000-400,000 (200-270 dollars).

The result, says 40-year-old English teacher Jawad Mizhr, is that they can now do their job.

Such is the difference that retired teachers want their old jobs back, if only for a year or two so they can qualify for vastly improved pensions.

Groups like the United Nations children's fund UNICEF and USAID are renewing infrastructure and training teachers to get the level of Iraqi education beyond where it was 25 years ago.

"Iraq's educational system used to be among the best in the region," the UN Development Program (UNDP) said in its 2004 survey of living conditions in Iraq.

But though deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein initially sought to eradicate illiteracy, the combined effects of wars and economic sanctions since 1980 took their toll on teachers and students alike.

In rural areas and among girls in particular, illiteracy is now widespread, but a 5.8-million-dollar USAID program is aimed at turning things around at 84 "model" primary and secondary schools across the country.

In-service training of 100,000 teachers and administrators will "promote child-centered teaching techniques, and introduce state-of-the-art instructional methods in science, math, English and social studies," a statement by the group said.

- A technical university in Baghdad constructed a Geographic and Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing Laboratory on campus...

- Ten faculty and graduate students from universities in Baghdad and Mosul attended the first International Conference on Islamic Archaeology...

- The Ministry of Education delivered 433,524 school supply kits to 1,870 Iraqi schools. More than 80,000 additional kits have arrived in governorate warehouses and will be distributed to schools in the coming weeks...

- Four Iraqi universities are using resource centers to build the ability of their public health and medical school faculty and staff to measure malnutrition...

- Ninety-four workshops were held throughout Iraq to organize the replacement of rural schools made of mud and reeds with concrete facilities...

- DePaul University has undertaken three law library renovations. This is part of the $3.8 million legal education reform component of USAID’s HEAD program...

- Iraqi law students participated in a post-conflict justice seminar in Dokan. Through assistance from the International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) at DePaul University, the two-day seminar included more than 100 participants from Iraqi law schools and nearly a dozen national and international experts in the field of post-conflict justice.

More results are in from agricultural research conducted by Iraqi scholars with the support of USAID’s Higher Education and Development (HEAD) program. A research grant program enabled Iraqi scholars to enhance their expertise in agricultural studies. This research addresses high priority needs for the Iraqi agriculture industry. The 18 grants awarded ranged from $5,000 to $30,000 (totaling $205,500) and funded equipment, supplies and support services not otherwise available to Iraqi scientists...

HEAD partner the University of Hawaii recently delivered a shipment of seventeen boxes of current agriculture and forestry publications to strengthen the research resources at two agricultural colleges in Mosul and Dohuk. These publications discuss subjects including soil, agronomy, nutrition, plant protection, agricultural economics and statistics.

- Seven trash collection projects were recently completed in Baghdad neighborhoods. Following the work, USAID’s Community Action Program (CAP) took several steps to help keep the neighborhoods clean in the future...

- Winter temperatures rarely rise above zero in the mountainous areas of As Sulaymaniyah governorate, and very few schools are heated in winter, leading some children to skip school rather than sit in the cold and drafty schoolrooms. CAP will help one community in the area to buy 300 kerosene oil stove heaters for one of the towns and the surrounding village schools. The heaters will warm schoolrooms and help draw back students...

- After the first Gulf War, Ansar al Islam—a Kurdish terrorist organization took control of a large area in As Sulaymaniyah on the border with Iran. Women and girls were then restricted in their movement and activities and, for more than a decade, girls rarely continued school after the sixth grade. Now, a small town in the governorate, working with CAP, is helping girls and women regain control of their future with the establishment of a women’s center. The Center will be used for classes in sewing, computers, and rug making.

A mountain of boxes rises from the flat and dusty landscape of western Iraq but it will be quickly razed by the Marines of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The boxes, more than 60 of them, are compliments of the Rotarians of the Wilmington (Downtown) Rotary Club in Wilmington, N.C. The boxes, filled with everything from essentials like soap to luxuries like the latest in digital entertainment. It is also interspersed with jerked meat and snacks of every variety. The many goodies will quickly disappear across the dusty expanse of the Al Anbar province.

The task of seeing that the mountain is distributed to those in want - and need - falls to Staff Sgt. Rodney K. Forte, the close battle coordinator here. Who better than the man who controls aircraft in the heat of battle to figure out how to get a mountain of fun distributed throughout hundreds of miles of Iraqi desert - during a war.

Late last year Wilbur D. Jones Jr., director of the Wilmington Rotary Club invited Gen. Robert Milstead Jr., commanding general of 2nd MAW, Forte and a few other Marines to be their guests at a club function. That visit is just one of many elements upon which the Rotary Club’s "Mission Iraq Marine," which currently targets the forward deployed Marine air wing, is built.

Butch Folsom is assigned to the Programs and Contracting Office Facilities and Transportation Sector, managing the health and education programs in southern Iraq. The unit has already built 600 schools, 50 clinics and two hospitals. According to Folsom, the PCO's goal is to build/rebuild 800 schools in Iraq, most of which will be renovations of existing schools.

In rural areas, Folsom found schools that were literally made out of mud and straw, buildings that would more accurately be called huts - with no running water or power.

Although money has been appropriated to rebuild 40 of the "mud schools," the funds do not cover any school supplies or furniture to be used in the schools. The teachers and students in these mud schools for the most part do not have any school supplies. There are no pencils, rulers, pens, nothing.

So while Butch Folsom's job is to build schools, he has taken on as his personal mission to build kids.

Folsom created a group called Mud Schools to help enlist support for the education of Iraqi children and to collect supplies that the children need in the schools. His wife and daughter are heading up the effort here in Warner Robins. Daughter Krista designed a Web site, mudschools.org to help get the word out.

Amid his dangerous duties as an infantry machine gunner with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, Caleb Wilson finds time to spread a little cheer to the children of Iraq.

It started when the 23-year-old native of the small northeast Missouri town Philadelphia shared with children some of the treats he received in care packages from home. In a letter to his family, he asked for crayons, pencils and coloring books he could pass out to the children.

The response was quick and overwhelming. Relatives, friends and members of his church, Bethel Baptist of Smileyville, sent a box filled with giveaways. Wilson shared it with other soldiers, who passed out the small gifts to children they encountered on the streets.

Patrolling the streets of downtown Baghdad, Army 1st Lt. Kevin Norton has learned a couple of facts about Iraqi families.

Parents, he says, are fiercely protective of their children.

And the children are a great source of information on what is happening in each neighborhood.

So to help protect lives and rebuild the country, Norton, a 27-year-old White Plains native, has been leading a charge back home to donate notebooks, footballs and diapers to Iraqi children in need.

Students at his alma mater, Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, have responded to the call with boxes worth of materials to ship overseas.

Their work has helped soldiers gain the trust of local Iraqis. Just a few days ago, a group of Sunni men detained a Syrian suicide bomber and called the Army to pick him up, Norton wrote in an e-mail from Iraq last week.

"In short, our ability to provide for the children is saving our lives," he said.

Pupils at Wells Middle School buy a lot of school supplies. But they're not for an upcoming English or art project — they're for children in Iraq.

For the second year in a row, the school has spent a month collecting school supplies to send to U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq, who will in turn pass them along to Iraqi children.

"I think it helps our children very much to become part of something bigger than they are," said Marilyn Carter, chairwoman for Adopt-a-Unit Tri-Valley.

While Mississippi soldiers patrol Iraq's war-torn terrain, Jackson County residents have launched a goodwill mission to make the soldiers' job a little easier.

Jackson County employees, District Attorney Tony Lawrence's Office and Singing River Soccer Club in Pascagoula joined efforts to collect 200 soccer balls for Iraqi children.

The drive started when Staff Sgt. Terry Armstrong, a member of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Combat Team, described his experiences to his boss in Jackson County.

Armstrong, who works in the appraisal maintenance division of the Tax Assessor's Office, told his director Kevin Hindmarch about the many children who approached his unit asking for "futbol" like the ones Marines had passed out before the 155th arrived, Hindmarch said.

Instead of the usual care package of personal items and goodies, Armstrong asked Hindmarch and his family to send a few soccer balls for the Iraqi children.

The family of an Iraqi man shot after helping North Dakota National Guard soldiers find roadside bombs is settling near Fargo, with help from a relative and the soldiers themselves.

"The emotions are just starting to set in," said Sgt. 1st Class Shayne Beckert, who has been working to relocate the man's widow and seven children to the United States. "It's the beginning of a new life."

The woman and her children, who are not being identified because of potential danger to their relatives in Iraq, arrived in Fargo on two flights late Friday night and early Saturday.

One of the children is 1 month old, and a 2-year-old girl suffered severe injuries to her right eye April 30, when she was hit by bomb shrapnel as her mother was waiting in line to get a passport for her newborn.

[Sgt. 1st Class Shayne] Beckert and a fellow guardsman, Capt. Grant Wilz, worked for months to bring the family to the United States, appealing for help on radio and television and contacting Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota, who helped arrange the trip.

Pomeroy, who met the family earlier this month during a trip to Iraq, described them as "bright and strong and wonderful," and said their resourcefulness would help them adjust to life in the United States.

Pomeroy said the mother described the journey as "her birthday ... the beginning of a new life."

"This isn't the end of the story. This is the beginning of the story," Pomeroy said. "They don't know English. They have never seen winter."

Engineers in Iraq marked their 1000th reconstruction project with the completion of work at a school in the northern-most province of Dahuk.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division, responsible for oversight of reconstruction in Iraq, renovated the Betas School on the outskirts of the town of Zahko. The school serves 60 students with seven classroom teachers...

Engineers have 840 planned school projects throughout Iraq. To date, 580 school projects are finished and 171 are underway.

Spending on reconstruction projects in Iraq has reached over $5.5B. There are a total of 3,200 total GRD planned projects countrywide, of which 2,389 have begun.

In the 9 Nissan District of Eastern Baghdad, two major sewer and water projects are gaining momentum as crews break ground in Kamaliya and Oubaidi.

After completing a thorough site survey, work has begun on a project that will ultimately create a sewer network serving 8,870 homes in Kamaliya, Iraq.

The area has never had underground sewage lines and relies on slit trenches, which leads to sewage pooling in the streets.

"People in Kamaliya are seeing heavy work being done, trenches being dug for the pipes, and it gives them confidence about the city’s future," said Maj. Alexander Fullerton, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Infrastructure Cell officer-in-charge. "The project will really improve public health and help cut down on disease-carrying mosquitoes."

The project will cost about $27 million and will employ 600 local workers at peak construction times.

“In short, if you need a construction project done, we do it all,” said Maj. Thomas Niichel, 732nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron’s Detachment 2 deputy commander here. He is deployed from the Colorado Air National Guard’s 240th Civil Engineer Flight at Buckley Air Force Base...

Part engineer and humanitarian enthusiast, the seamless crew had worked off base on more than 50 missions in the past three months. They have installed water supply pumps and electricity, paved roads and helped Iraqis maintain their water canals.

And they helped deliver tents to Iraqis and coordinate medical attention for injured Iraqi children.

Airman Washington said a memorable job for him was installing electricity in an Army-sponsored doctor’s office in a small Iraqi town.

Before their visit, the doctor was examining and providing health care to local children without lighting and with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees. The Soldiers stationed there did not have a washer, and their bathroom facilities were outhouses.

After the job was finished, the Army doctor thanked them, Airman Washington said. “It felt good, because I knew I made a difference to him.”

Schoolchildren in the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City would bring boxes to school - not to use for a diorama or to carry supplies, U.S. Army Lt. Henry M. Jaen explained, but so they would not have to rest their feet in sewage while sitting in class.

Jaen, a Catskill resident, returned in March from a six-month tour in Sadr City and an adjacent group of communities known as 9 Nisan, among the Iraqi capital's poorest and most violent areas.

As the officer in charge, attached to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unit, the 42-year-old reservist helped manage more than $300 million in infrastructure projects in Iraq, including pumping standing sewage out of in-use classrooms.

Jaen, an engineering supervisor at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's Kingston office, also oversaw sewer system installation, street paving, health clinic construction and the implementation of trash-collection services, all the while contending with car bombings and other insurgent attacks.

Iraqi laborers and General Electric employees recently completed eight months of work on a power plant project which will bring additional electricity to Baghdad.

This project at the Qudas Power Plant outside of Baghdad was supported by Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division and the Army Corps of Engineers.

"We added 90 megawatts of electricity to the Baghdad power grid. That's huge," said Capt. Steve Heinz commander of 3rd Bde., 1st Armor Div.’s Brigade Engineering Supervisory Team.

The project provided jobs for about 50 Iraqi workers and will help bolster the Iraqi economy.

Reliable electric service is high on any Baghdad resident’s wish list and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working hard to accomplish that task.

The electric grid in Baghdad was built in the 1950s and 60s, and is in desperate need of modernization and repair, according Henry Shelton, an ACOE engineer who has been working in Iraq since February 2004.

His team’s latest accomplishment was to bring a large electrical substation on-line in East Baghdad, which he said is a big step in the right direction...

The Al Ameen substation is a 400-kilovolt gas-insulated system—a fully-enclosed system that is more durable and reliable than older, open-air substations...

The project cost approximately $100 million to complete, and employed 600 people at its peak...

Substations the size of Al Ameen do not produce electricity or deliver it directly to people’s homes. They distribute power to smaller substations, which are located all over Baghdad, said Shelton.

As such, he said residents will not initially see any difference in the power grid, but that the substation will be a solid foundation that the rest of the grid can be built upon.

Coalition forces, along with Iraqi leaders, completed a road project here that spans more than four kilometers and cost about $565,000.

"The paving of the Hamourabi village road is great for the community," said Capt. Christian Neels, civil-military operations officer for the Army's 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment. "The completion of the road will offer a quicker means of allowing farmers and the local population to get to the market and in the long run, contribute to the economic progress of the area."

Neels added that unemployment in the surrounding towns and the Hey Al Askari area is high. With few jobs available in the community, the roadway will allow the population to get into Baghdad, where employment opportunities are greater, he explained.

Jim Beardsley the former Chief Executive Officer of Master Lock visited 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division as a consultant to help identify ways to kick start Iraq's developing economy.

Beardsley, now an independent business consultant and member of Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance, traveled to several sites in Iraq.

"This is something I volunteered for because I'm very interested in the economic development of Iraq," said Beardsley. "I feel they're [the Iraqi people] at a point where I can help."

These visits allow Iraqi business owners and entrepreneurs to discuss the development of their businesses in a free economy with subject matter experts and worldwide leaders in industry.

Headmasters at three mud schools took charge of their new brick and concrete replacement schools as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Southern District signed the schools over to the education minister in the Babil Province after local laborers completed the three projects May 15.

All three mud school replacement schools boast 12 classrooms instead of the usual six, according to Valerie Schaffner, Buildings, Health and Education project manager for the mud school replacement projects. The usual six-classroom design was geared to smaller rural areas, servicing about 100 students, and the schools in Babil - Yaum Al Huria; Al Masoodi and Al Ma’rij - serve 275, 370 and 590 students respectively.

“The cost was about $160,000 per school,” said Schaffner. “That includes storage space, student and teachers’ bathrooms, electricity for fans, a partially paved playground area and a security fence around the school.”

Iraqi and U.S. Army medical officers examined more than 500 residents who came to a Salman Pak clinic, providing medical advice, treatment, and prescription medication in a medical civil action project May 12.

“The main purpose of a MEDCAP is to provide simple medicines and treatment for simple wounds and conditions, while assessing the overall health of the people,” said Maj. Rick Smudin, 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion, team leader. “It’s a good opportunity to build trust and support for our Soldiers and the Iraqi forces in the neighborhood.”

The clinic was run by Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, Iraqi Intervention Forces and C Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry at a forward observation building about a mile outside the main city of Salman Pak. Several of the rooms were cleaned and furnished in order to accommodate the mission and, although space was limited, all residents who came to the clinic were able to receive medical care.

Since the middle of March, Team 4, Detachment 4, 5th Civil Affairs Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD), has played a vital role in Haditha. The city is known as one of the hottest spots in western Iraq.

During Operation New Market, which began on the night of May 23, the main objective of the CAG team, led by Maj. Matthew D. Chisholm, Team 4 leader, was to assess recent damages done to Haditha Hospital. The hospital was damaged earlier in the month when insurgents occupied the building. The team also wanted to talk to the staff to see how the hospital was functioning and ask locals their opinions about personal care.

"It is very unfortunate that the hospital was involved in the situation," said Chisholm, a San Diego native. "After an attack such as this one, the CAG team has to stop and look at the overall situation. We immediately begin to get things running, like communications and laboratory capabilities. The next closest hospital is Hit, so people need this hospital to get care."

Damage to the one-story hospital occurred when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was driven into an outside wall during a firefight with Marines from 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Only the service wing, kitchen, laundry, storage room and private patient ward sustained severe fire damage and no civilian casualties occurred.

The two young boys had terrible medical problems.

They urgently needed heart surgery, which requires skilled surgeons with modern technology in a sterile hospital setting. But such things are not available in Baghdad, where they live.

So their sorrowful families watched in despair and frustration as both boys -- Fadi, 3, and Sajab, 9 -- began turning blue because of inadequate blood circulation in their small bodies. They were dying and there seemingly was nothing to do.

Until Col. Chet Wernicki stepped in.

He arranged to have them bused last month to Amman in neighboring Jordan, where doctors donated their services, a hospital charged minimal fees and several wealthy Iraqi businessmen handled the bills.

One small European country is playing a major role in keeping supply convoys safe while moving through Iraq.

Each day, hundreds of trucks travel the streets of Iraq carrying cargo bound for military installations and forward operating posts.

One of the ways the Army is minimizing the risk involved in delivering supplies to Soldiers in Iraq is through a joint operation that includes Soldiers from 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y., and a platoon of Estonian infantrymen.

The two units work together keeping each other safe while patrolling Gazalia Village, a 15-kilometer section of road in the heart of Western Baghdad that is known to be a hot spot for improvised explosive devices.

A combat training and assessment detachment from the 7th Ukrainian Detached Mechanized Brigade (DMB) in Iraq conducted a combat efficiency analysis of Iraqi military units, deployed in the area of responsibility of the Ukrainian Army. About 1,000-soldier-strong Ukrainian contingent is located in the province of Wazit, in southwest Iraq.

At the beginning of his assignment to Iraq in October 2004, Colonel Serhii Chuchula, chief of the detachment said, “the 800-man unit of the Iraqi National Guard (ING) was badly equipped and poorly trained.”

Under the Ukrainian soldiers’ or peacekeepers’ initiatives a decision about the formation of additional ING units was taken. Due to the efforts of Ukrainian instructors, the Iraqi Armed Forces’ 27th Infantry brigade battalions were fully manned and trained (Iraqi National Guard troops were renamed to the Armed Forces of Iraq on February 8, 2005).

Serbs, Croats and Muslims who completed training this month for the first army unit bringing together Bosnia's warring factions of 10 years ago leave for Iraq on Wednesday to join U.S.-led coalition forces.

The 36 volunteers -- including one woman -- are their country's future joint army in embryo, trained to destroy unexploded ordnance and ammunition in a mission expected to last two turns of six months.

Sifet Podzic, head of the Bosnian armed forces general staff, said that after a 10-day acclimatisation in Kuwait, the platoon will be deployed in Iraq's Sector West near the city of Falluja, under the U.S. 8th Marine Engineering Battalion.

Australian troops stationed in southern Iraq were welcomed with open arms when they visited a market in the village of As Samawah.

Australia has 450 troops deployed in al-Muthanna Province to assist a contingent of engineers from the Japanese self defence force and provide training for local security forces.

The commanding officer of the al-Muthanna Task Group, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Noble, said last night a dozen personnel had been mobbed by friendly locals on their first visit to the village.

"There was genuine warmth from the people, (who) reacted to Australian soldiers and they have welcomed us in the best way," Lieutenant Colonel Noble told The Australian.

An Iraqi official survey showed that 40% of Iraqi women considered the criminals represent an actual danger for their lives, while 12% of them considered that the coalition forces represent their main threat. 46% of the surveyees did not point out any direct threat for them...

As for the provinces, 85% of women in provinces of Al Selaimania, Arbil, the Kurdish Dahuk (north) and Al Mothana (south), pointed out that they were not exposed to any direct threat against them, while 91% of women in Maisan province (south) considered that criminals are the only source of threat for women in Iraq, compared to 73% in Zi Qar (south) and 65% in the capital of Baghdad. More than 40% of women in Waset and Karbala (center) confirmed that criminals represent a danger against them. More than half of the women of Al Anbar province (west) and Salah Eddin (north) considered that the coalition forces are the greatest danger against them.

Former electricity minister Ayham al-Samarie told The Associated Press the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of Mujahedeen or holy warriors were ready to open talks with the Shiite-led government aimed at eventually joining the political process.

The claim appears consistent with comments from a senior Shiite legislator, Hummam Hammoudi, who told the AP last week the government had opened indirect channels of communication with some insurgent groups.

The contacts were "becoming more promising and they give us reason to continue," Hammoudi said without providing details.

Al-Samarie, an Illinois Institute of Technology graduate who holds dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, said the two groups represent more than 50 percent of the "resistance."

Since the elections, kids have been going to school on a regular basis. Their laughter fills the air while they play, as we pull guard duty on our towers. People are able to go to work. People's attitudes change when they are able to work and support their families instead of cowering in their homes.

Most of the bullet holes have been covered up and the city has a different look and feel. It feels awkward, however, as we all grew up in combat here in the city. It is a good awkward. Now the people talk to us about how their area is free of terrorists and criminals. And for the first time, I believe them.

One of the strangest occurrences happened on a night mission about a month ago when we rolled out of our gates on the way to a raid target. Our lead vehicle became stuck in a volleyball net. There were people out playing soccer and volleyball in the streets.

People were gathered and talking story around their houses. A couple of months ago, people gathering during darkness were considered to be possible enemy.

We went out a couple days later to remind the people that there was an Iraqi-imposed curfew still in place. However, at house after house, we were told they were out because they felt safe. They were out doing normal things because we had taken the bad guys off of the street. And we were thanked for our efforts.

Gain the trust of the people, and you’ve won more than half the battle. At least that’s what soldiers in Mosul say. In an evolving quest to defeat insurgents in Iraq, soldiers must find a balance between hard fighting and soft handshakes.

“We’re out building a rapport with the population and that is turning into intelligence that we use to track down the enemy,” said Capt. Jeff Vanantwerp, commander of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team).

Over a lunch of piping hot pita bread, roasted chicken, potatoes, eggplant and lamb-topped pizza, Vanantwerp, 29, sat with a restaurant owner to learn of new developments.

“All the men in your neighborhood need to make an agreement that if you ever see foreigners committing a crime, you have to go out and scare them off,” he said through a translator. “And you need to call us.”

The tall, lanky, blond-haired captain has largely gained the residents’ trust, and they sometimes quip that “on the streets, he’s a Mosuli,” the restaurateur said, laughing...

“This neighborhood is what we’d like to see the rest of Mosul become,” 2nd Lt. Dave Beaudoin, 23, said of the al-Mansoor area of about 6,000 residents, whose polling place had the highest voter turnout for the Jan. 30 elections. The few bombings and small-arms fire encountered when they first arrived in October have all but stopped, he said.

Abul Waleed rifled through a pile of papers, considering the latest accusations against the elite brigade of Iraqi police commandos he leads from a dusty fortress.

The complaints against the Wolf Brigade were the usual: excessive force, renegade patrols, kidnapping, murder. The charges came from Iraq's most powerful Sunni Muslim leaders, and Waleed clearly relished reading them. It's precisely this take-no-prisoners reputation that has made his unit the most feared and revered of all of Iraq's nascent security forces.

"The Muslim Scholars Association? They're infidels," Waleed said, tossing his detractors' complaints into the wastebasket. "The Islamic Party? Humph. More like the Fascist Party."

No matter how many complaints about heavy-handedness pile up on Waleed's desk, there's no changing the fact that the Wolf Brigade rules public opinion in a country desperate for Iraqi heroes. With its televised humiliation of terror suspects and its dapper uniforms, the brigade restores some of the national pride stripped away by war and foreign occupation.

Yesterday, eight members of the elite unit were killed in a pre-dawn ambush on their 20-vehicle convoy in downtown Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police 1st Lt. Nadar Adil said.

While the nation's fledgling police and armed forces are derided as corrupt or incompetent, the Wolf Brigade is the exception. Its logo is a snarling wolf, and its TV show, "Terrorists in the Grip of Justice," is the most watched program in the country. Harassed parents silence noisy children with threats to call the Wolves. Housewives swoon over their "broad shoulders" and "toughness."

"Every time I see them in the street, I feel safe," said Ahmed Kanan, 25, who works at a menswear shop in Baghdad. "I feel that we have a country with a government."

More than 23,000 young Iraqis in the southern province of Dhiqar have responded to a call to set up a new battalion to protect the province.

The provincial authorities have been swamped with applications, Governor Aziz Kadhem told the newspaper.

He said the authorities had asked for maximum 1,000 volunteers but “we have received more than 23,000 applications so far.”

The new force will be based in Nasiriya, the province’s capital and home to more than 550,000 people.

Nasiriya, on the Euphrates River, is relatively quiet but, according to Kadhem, the new force is needed to bring stability across the province.

The Iraqi Military Academy Al Rustamiyah re-established its training and educational programs last January with a class of 135 cadets...

The Iraqi leadership modeled IMAR after England’s famous Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where its training and curriculum produce some of the world’s finest officers. The British and the Iraqi military have very old ties here – the British oversaw the construction of IMAR’s first buildings in 1924. When the first Gulf War began in 1991, the British and Iraqis were forced to break their long-standing professional relationship.

The academy is located six miles southeast of Baghdad. With a $100 million budget and detailed planning, IMAR will develop into a great training environment, according to Academy officials. The academy’s over-arching priorities include the completion of all building projects with the assistance of over 1,000 Iraqi workers and contractors; the training of the Iraqi staff to take over all logistics functions; the deployment of selected cadets and instructors to British military schools for eight to 12 week courses; and the commitment to training excellence within the instruction.

The rigorous training happens over a concentrated one-year period with three phases. Once the cadets complete the first four-month phase, they are given increased privileges such as moving into four to six-man room barracks.

54 elite Iraqi soldiers... have begun explosives ordnance disposal school, the first group to enter the school since the free elections in January. The soldiers will learn how to deal with ever-increasing attacks on civilians, government officials and coalition forces by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.

Once they complete the three-month training, the soldiers will begin taking over explosives disposal responsibilities for coalition EOD troops who are supporting the war on terrorism.

The EOD training is just one more step in what has been a long road for the soldiers who are making history in Iraq. Assigned to the 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, a National Guard unit, they began basic training in November and then took over sector responsibilities near the Tigris River and then here.

Military law enforcement has instituted a police officer survival course to hone the skills of Iraqi police and further establish an emergency response force in Baghdad.

Many of the police officers who are going through the course will become part of the Emergency Response Force. These teams will be specially trained in reacting to special situations in Baghdad.

“We are training the response team to be able to respond and control emergency situations,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Starsky Smith, non-commissioned officer-in-charge of training, 401st Military Police Company, Fort Hood, Texas.

The beginning phase is a five-day course and is taught by a military police squad from the 401st MP Co., 720th MP Battalion, 42nd MP Brigade. The course involves first aid, searching vehicles, removing suspects from vehicles, handcuffing techniques and improvised explosive device and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device awareness.

Officials from the Gulf Region South (GRS), the Iraqi Border Patrol (IBP), Multi-National Forces Southeast (MND-SE), the Project Contracting Office (PCO) and the contractor celebrated the first border fort opening in southern Iraq May 10 at Al Zaid, on the Iran-Iraq border.

The border fort, turned over to the IBP last week, had been 80 percent renovated and was completed in the middle of March. Renovations included new sanitary facilities, living quarters for the border guards, several guard towers and a renovated roof. There are 23 border forts in the Basrah Province, with an additional six scheduled to be completed and turned over this week. The southern district currently has 59 border posts slated for renovation.

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Basra Palace Resident Office, in conjunction with representatives of the Iraqi Police Department, the Iraqi National Guard and members of the Danish Police Department, celebrated the Al-Hartha Police Station opening on April 23 with a traditional Iraqi ceremony and beginning of renovations at the Qarmat Ali Police Station April 24 with donations to the police force in honor of the effort. A third police station opened April 25 in the Missan Province...

The two openings complete 31 finishes of GRS’ successful police station renovation program, now with 167 project awards and 191 assessments completed.

Seabees assisted in the construction of 19 major Iraqi military facilities and more than 60 smaller bases in support of Iraqi Security Forces engaged in defending their homeland from terrorists, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Hicks, Engineering Director, Coalition Military Assistance Training Team...

Most Seabees work as project managers on major construction projects such as the $64 million contract at the Baghdad Police College. The College is a major compound undergoing many projects while still functioning as a training facility, said U.S. Navy Lt. Tamanh Duong, a Seabee project manager. Low water pressure on the entire campus forced officials to pursue contract bids to tap into a new water line from off-site, according to a multinational forces report.

Sulaimaniyah security officials credit vigilant residents for ensuring this northern city stays free of the violence that plagues the rest of Iraq.

Up to 70 people call the authorities each day to report suspicious incidents. Though some tips don’t check out – such as the car with blood on its tires that turned out to be from the chicken slaughtered in honour of the new vehicle – others have saved lives .

In August 2004, a suicide bomber in a black BMW was planning to hit the popular Sulaimaniyah Palace hotel where many foreigners stay, IWPR was told by a security official who wished to remain anonymous. It was information from hotel guards, residents and security forces that foiled the attack, the source said.

“The citizens contact [us] when they observe any abnormal, suspicious acts and we respond to their call very quickly,” said Brigadier-General Khoshawist Jamal, who manages the communications centre for the Sulaimaniyah administration's security department. “The citizens are like an alert eye for us in protecting Sulaimaniyah.”

Shop owner Raheem Sabir is typical of those determined to keep the city, the seat of the administration run by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties, free of bombings and bloodshed.

“If I have the slightest suspicion about any strange or abnormal car or person, I will inform security officials immediately,” said Sabir.

I don’t see what you see on the news... As I travel hundreds of miles each night, I don’t see the violence that you see in the media. Sure, it exists, and is very real to those near it. But it is sporadic, unorganized, and often isolated. It is not everywhere. There are not great pillars of smoke peppering the landscape. There are no riots or mass panic sweeping through the towns. There are no fiery infernos burning houses and schools to the ground, no barrages of mortar fire raining destruction upon the communities, and no raging mobs displaying hate or screaming anti-American propaganda. Sure, it is out there. But it is in small pockets, concentrated in small areas. Overall the country is quiet, silently and eagerly trying to repair an infrastructure damaged by war and neglect and trying to return to some sort of normalcy not seen in decades.