April 11 - Friday
Baghdad
Euphoria, vindictiveness, confusion surge in capital city as government offices, hospitals, homes are looted.
Taking the law into their own hands, some Baghdad residents blockaded streets today as disorder spread in the Iraqi capital.
Donald Rumsfeld says Media’s coverage of "chaos" in cities is exaggerated. He said much of the lawlessness was a natural pent up response by people to the end of a repressive regime. Any such transition was inevitably “untidy”.

North of Baghdad
One of the fiercest battles of the war has raged unseen for nearly three weeks near the town of Qaim on the border with Syria. Units of Iraq's Special Republican Guard and Special Security Services have so far fended off attacks by American Special Forces troops and British commandos.

Southern Iraq and Basra
Former American general Jay Garner has arrived in Umm Qasr. He has been called the Viceroy in Waiting, even the president elect of Iraq. ORHA was designed to mirror the structure of Iraqi government ministries.
UK ships, planes, helicopters and field hospital units would shortly be withdrawn from the Gulf region, including HMS Ark Royal and some of her accompanying ships. British law enforcement specialists would be sent to the region. There are vehicle check-points and the 7th Armoured Brigade are pulling over cars to check them for loot.
Aid agencies are waiting until order is restored before they begin bringing in food and water supplies to Basra.
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Basra have shot and killed five Iraqi bank robbers during looting.

Outside Iraq
World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said a U.N. Security Council resolution according legitimacy to a new Iraqi government would be required before the financial institution could lend.
The Bush administration moved yesterday to enlist allied support for postwar reconstruction and financing. Paul Wolfowitz said U.N. agencies would be particularly useful in areas such as refugee assistance and humanitarian relief. But while the United Nations can be a "partner" in that effort, he said, "it can't be the managing partner; it can't be in charge."
Russian, French and German leaders call for a central role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq.
Paul Wolfowitz said a meeting is planned for next week in Nasiriyah with a broad range of Iraqis. The meeting will start a "rolling dialogue" that would "define issues" and enable Iraqis to get a sense of "who are the people that can articulate positions well, who seem to speak for more than just themselves." U.N. officials will be invited as observers but they will not be sending a representative.
Members of the 4th Infantry Division and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment are due to move north into Iraq from Kuwait soon. Next in line is the 1st Armored Division in Germany and possibly the 1st Cavalry Division in Texas.
U.S. military has issued a most-wanted list in the form of a deck of playing cards with pictures of Iraqi leaders that are targets of coalition forces. The deck will be issued to troops to help them remember the faces of personalities they can pursue, capture or kill. [Gotta Catch ‘em All! – Ed.]
Russian President Vladimir Putin asks why coalition forces have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the reason given for going to war.

Meanwhile, What is happening in Afghanistan? The US still has 8500 soldiers there. Troops on search-and-destroy missions regularly fan out in the mountains and villages while medical helicopters ferry wounded or ailing Afghan civilians. On Wednesday, a U.S. bomb killed 11 Afghan civilians on the eastern edges of the country, near the border with Pakistan.