American Troops

U.S. troops battled street-to-street with paramilitary fighters in the central Iraqi city of Karbala in a fierce assault aimed at protecting supply lines. U.S. officers said the American troops had killed about 75 Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary fighters and said six or seven U.S. soldiers had been wounded. The Iraqi fighters took up positions on rooftops in the narrow streets, firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. U.S.

U.S. military helicopters evacuated three Philippine soldiers wounded in a clash with Muslim extremists, officials said today. It was the closest American troops had come to the government's battle against rebels. A Philippine military spokesman said two U.S. helicopters were deployed to Basilan island late Friday after Abu Sayyaf guerrillas ambushed a Philippine army patrol, killing one soldier and wounding three.

Marine sharpshooters scanned the horizon from sandbagged machine gun nests atop the gutted U.S. Embassy here Tuesday as U.S. special envoy Robert B. Oakley bade farewell to Somalia and the 16,000 American troops he will leave behind today with the first official declaration of success and a personal confession of just one regret. During a brief ceremony under Mogadishu's blistering sun, U.S.

President Obama celebrated the soldiers who fought the Iraq war on Wednesday, marking the fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring home all U.S. forces following a nearly nine-year conflict that killed more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers. "So as your commander in chief, on behalf of a grateful nation, I'm proud to finally say these two words - and I know your families agree," the president said. "Welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home. " Obama, standing before a sea of paratroopers wearing maroon berets, thanked the troops returning from Iraq and hailed the country's steps toward creating an independent, democratic state.

Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that, barring any snags, the last American troops would leave the Persian Gulf region in 2 to 2 1/2 months, which would put their final departure in middle to late June. Speaking to representatives of major wire services and newspapers, Powell said it would be more than a month before the troop level is reduced to the point that President Bush will have to decide if he wants to remove all U.S.

  Lately, it has seemed that the Taliban can just sit back and wait for the next American mistake. Over the last three months, a series of highly damaging events has forced U.S. commanders and officials to adopt a posture of nonstop crisis management. Even so, the insurgents have not taken full advantage of the American setbacks, in part because the movement appears divided over its own strategy. This month, the Taliban leadership abruptly suspended preliminary peace contacts with the Americans, a move seen by some as tactical and temporary, but interpreted by others as reflecting internal argument over whether negotiations were even worthwhile at this point.

Five U.S. service members have been killed in western Iraq's Al Anbar province and the northern region of Kurdistan, military officials announced Friday. On Thursday, two American soldiers assigned to the 2nd Marine Division were shot to death near Fallouja and a Marine was killed by an improvised bomb in Karabila, a village along the Syrian border. Two military statements said all three died in combat.

The United States and Panama announced that they had failed to negotiate an agreement to permit American troops to remain in Panama beyond the end of the century. The Panama Canal treaties require the departure of the soldiers by Dec. 31, 1999, when control over the waterway reverts to Panama. Since 1997, the two countries had sought to agree on establishing a multinational counternarcotics center in which military personnel from the U.S. and other hemispheric countries would take part.