April 10 – Thursday
Casualties:
US (Source Pentagon)
101 killed
399 wounded
7 POWs

In Baghdad
Marines continue to fight in Baghdad near a presidential palace on the Tigris near a mosque. One marine died.
There is a connection in the minds of the US Marines between the regime of Saddam and what happened on September 11. They think this war is all about defeating terrorism, they will tell you that over and over again.
It's still pretty restrained here today - the euphoria of yesterday hasn't been repeated yet. It's mostly the Shia areas that are celebrating. An Iraqi went up to an American marine and said to him: "I'm going to exercise my right of free speech for the first time in my life - we want you out of here as soon as possible."
There continues to be quite a lot of fighting just across the Euphrates on the west side of the city with the 3rd Infantry Division. The Mansour neighborhood seems to have been taken over to some extent by non-Iraqi Arab fighters, including Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, and Albanians. In other areas there are pockets of what are presumed to be Fedayeen or Republican Guard elements.
1600GMT Four marines wounded in suicide bomb attack on a marine checkpoint near Palestine hotel.

North of Baghdad
0735: Continued bombing of Iraqi forces near Kirkuk
Kurdish fighters (peshmergas) and US special forces enter Kirkuk in the morning. The fighters say they control city centre, but pockets of Iraqi resistance from the Baath party remain. Truckloads of Kurds flooded into the city. Kurds seen looting buildings.
1240: Turkish military observers will be send to Kirkuk soon to monitor the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the northern Iraqi town.
Ari Fleischer reassures Turkey by saying that US forces "will be in control of Kirkuk". A battalion from the 173rd Airborne Brigade has reinforced U.S. Special Forces and Kurdish forces in Kirkuk The two main Iraqi Kurdish parties have agreed to withdraw their forces from Kirkuk, starting on Friday. A senior Pentagon official says Kurdish forces went into Kirkuk against a specific US request not to.
Iraqi forces have retreated on the road towards Tikrit and have bunkered up in an Iraqi position about 5km outside Kirkuk on the road to Tikrit. A column of dark smoke is going up from one of the nearest oil wells to the city. US bombs Adnan Division of the Republican Guard in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, "shaping the battlefield" before American ground forces move in, U.S. officials say.
Iraqi Army 5th Corps commander and the governor-general were expected to surrender to the U.S. Special Operations Joint Task Force
Kurdish and Shia opposition sources say they believe Saddam Hussein is in Tikrit.
Kurdish fighters and U.S. Special Forces take St. Matthew Monastery, a 1,600-year-old shrine 20 miles north of Mosul.
U.S. forces and Peshmerga fighters are moving into Mosul. Iraqi army forces have been given an opportunity to lay down their arms and surrender.

South of Baghdad & Basra
A crowd rushed and hacked to death two Shiite Muslim clerics inside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf -- Haider al-Kadar, of Saddam's Ministry of religion, and Iraqi Shia Muslim leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a returning exile who had urged support for U.S. troops. A meeting was being held among leading mullahs about how to control the shrine. Members of another faction loyal to a different mullah, Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, verbally assailed al-Kadar. Apparently feeling threatened, al-Khoei pulled a gun and fired one or two shots. The crowd then rushed both men hacked them to death with swords and knives.
The British forces in Basra are being drawn into becoming a de-facto police force and also a humanitarian aid agency. British forces are trying to deal with the looting.
Locals protest British-tapped interim leaders in Basra.

Outside Iraq
French President Jacques Chirac voices "satisfaction" at downfall of Saddam Hussein and hopes for quick end to fighting.
Syria calls for an "end of the occupation" of Iraq "so that the people of Iraq can choose their government freely”
Kofi Annan says the main priority now is the restoration of law and order in the country.