we have come here and liberation is in our minds as we destroy the regime and proceed to remove the weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. Liberation is the action that will occur by way of what we're doing in this campaign. The potential threats of others coming in from external countries tells you that the problem is not in Iraq, the problem is the regime and trying to protect itself.

We remain convinced from what we're seeing throughout the country, as we are having more and more success, that the Iraqi people are welcoming the departure of the regime and its destruction. Where we attack regime complexes and Ba'ath Party headquarters buildings, the towns people are helping us, and in fact they're very pleased about that. There is, truthfully, still a degree of "let's wait and see." We have to understand that for decades these people have been severely brutalized by this regime, and they have taken risks before that have not proven to be safe for them to do so. And so there's a degree of caution still that's out there and is entirely understandable, but we mean what we say and we're going to continue with that mission. source: centcom.mil

we entered Iraq to remove the regime. The coalition remains robust, with 49 countries supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
We continue to remember those who have lost their lives, and their families.
The coalition attacked regime targets over the last 48 hours in Baghdad and several cities throughout the country. Additionally, there were precision attacks against surface-to-surface missiles and Republican Guard forces. Our efforts are focused on every aspect of the regime. Here are some examples of recent attacks, and they illustrate our approach.
First, we attack the regime directly. This is a strike against an Iraqi television service building in Karbala, and it was attacked two nights ago.
This is a Ba'ath Party headquarters building in al-Hillah.
This is a military headquarters building in western Iraq.
And this is a communications building in western Iraq.
These are all attacks against the regime directly.
We attack forces defending the regime. This first image is a tank in a revetement north of An Nasiriyah.
The next image is an air defense radar in the western desert near H-3 airfield.
As the next video clips show, we also attack the logistics that make it possible for the Iraqi forces to be sustained, and we prevent them from being sustained. The first image is a fuel truck in a revetement near al Kut. The second one is an ammo truck near An Najaf. And the final one is an ammo storage area near Baghdad.
Coalition special operations forces continued their operations and actions throughout Iraq. They're facilitating attacks against regime targets and death squads within urban areas. These attacks are enabled by information provided by the local populations. Special operations forces have also been effective interdicting movements into or out of Iraq, and movements into or out of Iraq, and movements within Iraq by Iraqi commandos, missile units, or others.
This is an example of an encounter that occurred along the highway west of Ar Ramadi. Coalition special operations forces destroyed two convoys of vehicles, including 10 tanks.
We also used special operations gunships with great effectiveness against regime targets and also targets of opportunity, as this next video shows. This is H-2 airfield in the western desert. It had aircraft dispersed on it. Special operations forces observed it, called in AC-130 gunships and destroyed the aircraft on the ground.
Our land component developed the situation on the ground in several areas, seeking out concentrations of terrorist death squads and paramilitaries to further reduce their effect while also attacking divisions of the Republican Guard.
U.K. forces fought near Basra to eliminate enemy positions and succeeded in capturing several hundred enemy prisoners, and attacking some Iraqi gunboats nearby.
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force conducted raids into Al-Fajar (sp), south of al Kut, which you see on the map. They were able to capture several Ba'ath Party members, several weapons caches, destroyed air defense equipment, and exploited a number of documents found nearby.
Near Tallil airfield, southwest of An Nasiriyah, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force seized a large weapons cache, about 40 buildings worth, containing ammunition, chemical decontamination equipment -- and that includes a Samala (sp) decontamination vehicle, chemical suits, and unidentified artillery munitions.
Fifth Corps conducted attacks near An Najaf, near positions east of the river, and captured three small weapons caches. Additionally, Fifth Corps concentrated air attacks and artillery fires against the Medina Division's tanks, artillery systems and command posts.
We continue to see brutal acts by the regime and the forces loyal to it. An example came from an outpost in front of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force a day ago. And the story goes like this. During daylight hours, two vehicles rapidly approached the Marine checkpoint at a high rate of speed. When they failed to stop, having been signaled by a psychological operations loudspeaker team present at the site, they were taken under fire by the checkpoint. The lead vehicle, a sedan, immediately halted, and the second vehicle, a truck, rear-ended it. And adult male, an adult female, and two children exited the sedan. Two Iraqi soldiers exited the truck with weapons and one of the soldiers shot and killed the adult female. After a brief firefight, both Iraqi soldiers and the three surviving civilians lay wounded. As the Marines approached, one of the wounded soldiers pulled out a weapon and was killed on the spot. The Marines evacuated the remaining wounded, and upon searching the truck found 120 millimeter mortars, and mortar ammunition.
The land component continues its efforts to destroy any forces that are encountered, and also any forces that would threaten the supply lines.
Our maritime component continued its work of keeping open the waterways and did find some mines in the shallow waters of Khor Abdullah as we continued expanding the channel way. All those mines have been destroyed.
Also, in an effort to increase the security of the ports, the maritime component is searching any vessels that remain to ensure that there are no threats. And this short video shows a boarding party doing that work. This is a search aboard the deck, and then you'll see them attend -- ascend to clear the rest, the remains of the boat. Dangerous work, but important work, and it's necessary to ensure that anything that's in the ports is safe.
The coalition continues to push information to the Iraqi population, and at this point we've now pushed our ground-based communications capability further forward by moving a ground base into Iraq. Up until this point in time, it was in neighboring countries.
Our coalition forces also continue efforts to preserve Iraq's future resources, and that remains a very, very good news story, and I have a few things to highlight from our actions in that regard.
First, the oil well fighters we've talked about for the several days were successful in extinguishing one of the three fires burning in the Ramallah oil field. The video that I'm about to show you is the moment of truth and mission accomplishment as you see the fire extinguished and then the well being capped. With that -- that one's over. Our efforts continue to extinguish the last two fires in the Ramallah oil field, and we are confident that we will be successful on that in the coming days.
Additional good news, fresh clean water began flowing through the pipeline from Kuwait to Umm Qasr yesterday. The pipeline construction project makes it possible now for over 625,000 gallons of clean drinking water to flow daily. The coalition escorted aid convoys to Umm Qasr, As Zubair, and Safwan, and a local school and market are due to reopen today in Rumaila (?) after a period of closure.
Finally, our civil affairs teams are continuing their assessments amongst the population in the south. These teams provide useful information, training and assistance to the Iraqi people. And they also help to assess the most vital needs of the population. And, of course, they act as the initial goodwill ambassadors on behalf of the coalition. www.centcom.mil