Free Republic

The latest addition to the Iraqi Navy fleet, Patrol Ship “The Fatah,” arrives at the Port of Umm Qasr, June 21. Courtesy photo. UMM QASR — Leading a procession of Iraqi Navy (IqN) ships and escorted by three MI-17 helicopters, the latest addition to the Iraqi fleet, Patrol Ship “The Fatah,� arrived in port here, June 21. Fatah is the first of four ships contracted from the Fincantieri Shipyard in La Spezia, Italy, and is being designated as the flagship of the IqN. The 34-member Iraqi crew sailed the Fatah here from La Spezia, completing a 5,100-nautical mile, 26-day voyage....

An Iraqi Sailor looks on from the pier as USS Firebolt transits the Khawr Abd Allah River towards the port of Umm Qasr, Iraq. As part of Iraq Navy Day celebrations, Firebolt made a port visit to Umm Qasr, Iraq, Aug. 13, marking the first visit by a U.S. ship to Iraq in more than 15 months. Photo by Lt. Nathan Christensen. UMM QASR — As part of Iraq Navy Day celebrations, USS Firebolt made a port visit to Umm Qasr, Iraq, Aug. 13, marking the first visit by a U.S. ship to Iraq in more than 15 months. “Our...

New Berth Increases Umm Qasr Port Capacity Army engineers oversee berth project that was designed and built by Iraqis. By Mohammed AliwiU.S. Army Corps of EngineersGulf Region South District BASRAH, Iraq, Sept. 28, 2007 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has turned control over the newly completed “roll-on/roll-off� berth at Umm Qasr Port to the Iraqi Port Authority. "The Iraqi people can be proud of this project because it is theirs alone."Rebecca Wingfield, project engineer Known as a RoRo because it serves “roll-on/roll-off� ships that share the acronym, the $2.7 million berth project doubles the number of the...

Iraqi Coast Guard Commordore Tariq Jabbar Hammodi and COL Gary Johnston cut the ribbon to officially open the Umm Qasr Iraqi Coast Guard Forward operating Base. PORT OF UMM QASR -- The Iraqi people recently received a new $3.26 million Forward Operating Base at the port of Umm Qasr, courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The base will aid Iraqis in securing waterways and creating stability.“Stability is something that Iraq is trying very hard to accomplish,” said Colonel Gary Johnston, Commander, USACE, Gulf Region South. “They won’t be able to do that unless they have all the elements...

  Dave Gaubatz A former U.S. federal agent and counter-terrorism specialist deployed to Iraq before the war says he waged a three-year, unsuccessful battle to get officials to search four sites where he believes the former Saddam regime buried weapons of mass destruction. Dave Gaubatz, an Arabic linguist who now serves as chief investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner, told his story to Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com. Gaubatz said the suspected sites have never been searched by the Iraq Survey Group, the fact-finding mission dispatched by the U.S.-led multinational force. Two sites are within the city limits of Nasariyah,...

The Bush administration's pro-business domestic priorities look set to be mirrored in the reconstruction of Iraq. By Andrew Tait, ISN News Editor A US stevedoring company that was at the forefront of last year’s lockout at ports on the west coast of the US has been awarded the US$4.8m contract to manage Umm Qasr port in southern Iraq. The flow of food, medicine and other supplies through the port is considered by US war planners to be essential to their effort to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) "will provide an...

BASE CAMP ADDER, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 21, 2005) – With help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Iraqi seaport of Umm Qasr is closing in on final certification to become fully operational as an international transfer point for shipping goods. For Iraq to be a competitor in the global market place, the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code certification is necessary. Certification requires port facilities to have security assessments, security plans, trained security staffs, security drills, coast guardsmen, and communication links to ships. A coast guard forward operating base, security operation center, electrical upgrades, and...

A package is in the mail on its way to Sgt. Steve Morin in Iraq. The Eagle Scout, husband and father of two won't know the joy of opening it as his mother imagined when she wrapped a recorded video of a Dallas Cowboys game into the package after talking with the sergeant Sunday. On Wednesday, Morin was killed west of Umm Qasr, Iraq. According to a Thursday announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense, an improvised explosive detonated near his military vehicle, overturning it. "He said he would get bored some days on his days off," said Audrey Morin...

UMM QASR, Iraq - (KRT) - The weight of a fuel truck collapsed the roof of an escape tunnel being dug out of Camp Bucca, where more than 6,000 suspected terrorists and insurgents are being held. Prison authorities said Sunday the shaft was discovered Thursday when one of the truck's tires plunged into the earth between the two main fences on the camp's perimeter. No one escaped. A small number of ringleaders involved in the attempt were placed in isolation, authorities said. The 300-foot burrow, about wide enough for a man to crawl through, was four feet underground and poorly...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet accused a Dubai-based ferry operator Tuesday of breaking U.N. sanctions by smuggling banned chemicals into Iraq that it said could be used to make high-grade explosives. It said the industrial-grade alcohol and polymers, which can also be used for industrial cleaning agents and cosmetics, could also be used to manufacture chemical weapons agents. Naif Marine Services had been caught shipping the chemicals aboard ferries it operates into Umm Qasr, close to the Kuwaiti border in recent months, said Fifth Fleet public affairs officer Lt. Garret Kaspar. "In the wrong hands, quantity aside,...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/20/04 -Samarra, Fallujah, Ramadi, Baghdad, Sadr City, Bile, Umm Qasr, Al Asad Air Base, USS John F. Kennedy BREAKING: Samarra - Fighting Terrorists BREAKING: Fallujah, Ramadi - Search for Terrorists BREAKING: Baghdad, Sadr City - Iraqi children freed by the USA attend classes BREAKING: Bile - Kurds freed by the USA BREAKING: Umm Qasr, Al Asad Air Base, USS John F. Kennedy QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS Exclusive to FReerepublic PICTURES YOU MAY NEVER SEE IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA (PR Arm of the DNC) ========= Samarra ========= In Samarra, ~125 kilometers north of...

TEN Royal Australian Navy personnel were welcomed home by family and friends today after eight months in Iraq training and rebuilding the country's maritime forces. Based in the port of Umm Qasr, the Iraqi Coastal Defence Force Training Team played a key role in rehabilitating the Iraqi navy. Working with other coalition partners including the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and the Netherlands, the team trained the new Iraqi Coastal Defence Force (ICDF) to take over responsibility for policing its coastline and waterways in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The ICDF will protect the ports of Umm Qasr and Az...

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it was interrogating and could prosecute eight members of Britain's Royal Navy who strayed into Iranian waters on the border with Iraq (news - web sites), as the incident threatened to spiral into a major crisis. Rejecting appeals from Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for the sailors and Royal Marines to be freed quickly, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi replied that Iran had yet to finish questioning the trespassers. "After interrogating these people and after we are sure of how this matter happened, we will take the necessary measures," Kharazi said in a statement. State television,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Suicide attackers detonated explosive-laden boats near oil facilities in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, killing two U.S. Navy sailors in a new tactic against Iraq's vital oil industry. Elsewhere, violence across Iraq killed at least 33 Iraqis and four American soldiers. It was the first such maritime attack against oil facilities since U.S. troops invaded Iraqi more than a year ago. The blasts resembled attacks in 2000 and 2002 - blamed on al-Qaida - against the USS Cole and a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen that killed 17 American sailors and a tanker...

Three suspected suicide speedboats have launched attacks on Iraq's key Basra offshore oil terminal. The boats exploded near an oil platform and two oil tankers off southern Iraq. The first blast came when a Coalition warship patrolling the Gulf sighted a small boat near an oil platform. The warship sent a team to the boat, but when they boarded it, the vessel exploded. The other boats exploded alongside two oil tankers near the Abbott oil facility south of Iraq's main port, Umm Qasr. The extent of the damage or casualties is not known. Iraq is completely dependent on the Basra...

BASRA (Reuters) - At least one boat attacked Iraq's main oil terminal offshore in the Gulf on Saturday, a British military spokesman said. Asked about an unconfirmed report that two boats exploded at the Basra terminal in suicide attacks, Major Ian Clooey told Reuters: "We are just getting reports that there has been an incident at the Basra offshore terminal. There are no firm details yet but we know of at least one vessel involved."

Umm Qasr, Iraq — Fadi Wasi may the luckiest man in Umm Qasr. A year ago, the 18-year-old was terrified and near starvation. Conscripted into Saddam Hussein's army, he deserted from his army unit in the early hours of the war and ran into hiding in an empty building in Umm Qasr with his brother. After eight days with almost no food or water, they surrendered to a Globe and Mail reporter, thinking that his jeep was a military vehicle. They were skinny and miserable and resigned to years in prison. A few weeks after the war, he was released...

354th Civil Affairs Brigade Wraps Up its Baghdad Mission BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The 354th Civil Affairs Brigade officially concluded its role in rebuilding Iraq during transfer-of-authority ceremonies Feb. 28. The 354th, a U.S. Army Reserve unit based in Riverdale, Md., provided civil affairs command and control in the Baghdad area of operations for the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division. The brigade is comprised of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion, 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion and the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion. The brigade worked with the divisions' maneuver brigades, the Government Support Team, the Coalition Provisional Authority, international...

Australia is to increase its military presence in Iraq, sending 12 sailors to help rebuild the Iraqi Navy. The Australian sailors will be deployed to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr next month to help establish a coastal defence force. They will work with British and US Navy personnel in training Iraqi sailors and navy personnel in patrol boat and small vessel operations. Defence Minister Robert Hill has also announced that Australian air traffic controllers deployed at Baghdad International Airport in the wake of the Iraq war will now stay until May. But 61 members of the security team that...

AMMAN, Jordan -- Twenty Jordanians arrived home Sunday after spending up to nine months in a U.S.-British detention camp in Iraq. "I'm happy to return home and to reunite with my family," Raed Abdullah Abul-Saqer told The Associated Press at Amman airport after alighting from an aircraft owned by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Abul-Saqer, 22, a trader, was released Saturday from a detention camp outside the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. He said he was arrested in Baghdad on April 10 on suspicion of links with President Saddam Hussein's guerrillas who were fighting the U.S.-led coalition...

Headquarters (Multi National Division) South East British Forces Post Office 641 PRESS INFORMATION CENTRE Telephone 00870 600 322 756 00870763 665 814 Mobile: 00965 9113350 Email: picbasrah@defencemediaops.co.uk PRESS RELEASE 1Dec 03 UMM QASR- GIFTS FOR THE CHILDREN Although the festivities normally associated with this time of year are not celebrated in Iraq, the spirit of Christmas was very much in the air for some very lucky children living in the southern Iraqi village of Umm Qasr. Soldiers from 100 Pioneer Squadron based at Cramlington near Newcastle assisted by colleagues from 45 Signal Squadron ‘Tiger Team’ based at Worcester visited three...

Port Open, Schools Renovated as Iraq Reconstruction Continues By K.L. VantranAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2003 – The work of Bechtel International Systems Inc., under contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development in support of the Coalition Provisional Authority's reconstruction effort in Iraq, is well under way. The Port of Umm Qasr can receive large grain-bearing ships. More than 1,200 schools were renovated in time for the new school year. The water and wastewater facilities at Baghdad and Basrah international airports have been updated. Three bridges – Khazir, Al Mat and Tikrit – are under re-construction....

UMM QASR, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military opened a hearing Wednesday into allegations that four U.S. Army reservists abused Iraqi prisoners of war at a camp in this southern port city. Possible charges include dereliction of duty, assault and maltreatment of prisoners. Three of the soldiers also could be charged with making a false official statement and one faces possible obstruction of justice counts. The hearing, being held at Camp Bucca, is the equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation that will produce a nonbinding recommendation to be forwarded to senior military officials for a final judgment. The four...

<p>The intercepted vessel belongs to a United Arab Emirates company based in Dubai, British Navy Cmdr. Graeme Mackay said.</p> <p>The UAE vessel, Navstar 1, ignored three warnings from the HMS Sutherland to return to the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, prompting the Royal Marines to board the ship and arrest the master and crew.</p>

It still may be an experimental ship, but a new, high-tech support vessel the Corps is testing for future amphibious operations already has gotten its first taste of combat operations. Just hours after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the High Speed Vessel X-1 “Joint Venture” sped into the shallow Persian Gulf waters near the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, acting as an afloat forward staging base for Marine Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Teams and Navy SEAL commandos. In one of the first raids of the war, the HSV deployed a commando team March 20 in Mark V and Rigid Hull Inflatable...

<p>BASRA, Iraq — British forces formally handed over control of the port city of Umm Qasr to a civilian government yesterday, the first such turnover since the war in Iraq ended.</p> <p>The handing over to a 12-member council in Umm Qasr was done in a small ceremony in the town, with the former military governor, Lt. Col. Peter Jones, presiding.</p>

US Troops Release Another 250 Iraqi POWs In So. Iraq UMM QASR, Iraq (AP)--U.S. forces released another 250 Iraqi war prisoners Tuesday in southern Iraq, as they continued to empty out U.S.-run detention camps which once housed some 7,000 men. In the past two weeks, more than 5,000 prisoners of war as well as civilian detainees have been released from Camp Bucca after a military tribunal determined they posed no threat, said Sgt. Maj. Ambrose Michelino, a U.S. military policeman. About 1,800 to 1,900 prisoners remain in captivity in this southern Iraqi port city, he said. He said most of...

<p>Chanting "Saddam no, Bush yes," some 200 Iraqi prisoners of war were let go Sunday at the coalition's main internment camp in the desert near the southern port of Umm Qasr.</p> <p>The men, many of them barefooted, shook hands with the American soldiers guarding the camp before boarding buses and trucks to be driven to nearby Basra, southern Iraq's largest city.</p>

CAMP BUCCA, Iraq April 27 — Chanting "Saddam no, Bush yes," some 200 Iraqi prisoners of war were let go Sunday at the coalition's main internment camp in the desert near the southern port of Umm Qasr.The men, many of them barefooted, shook hands with the American soldiers guarding the camp before boarding buses and trucks to be driven to nearby Basra, southern Iraq's largest city.Their departure brought to 700 the number of POWs released since Friday, said Maj. Stacy Garrity of the U.S. Army's 800th Military Police Brigade, which runs the camp. Around 5,800 more prisoners, including some from...

<p>Carolyn McIntyre can hardly wait to go back to Iraq.</p> <p>The Middle East director for San Francisco adventure travel company Geographic Expeditions last saw Baghdad in the late 1970s, just as Saddam Hussein was taking over and long before the first Gulf War and trade sanctions put Iraq off-limits for U.S. companies.</p>

From whiskey to religion, Iraqis tasted freedoms denied for years Saturday in a slow climb back to a normalcy an entire generation never knew. Completing their own journey to freedom, seven U.S. captives from the war flew to a Texas homecoming. In a widening sweep of officials from Saddam Hussein's toppled government, authorities arrested his former finance minister, hoping he can lead them to the former dictatorship's hidden wealth. They also took custody of the suspected mastermind of Iraq's nerve agent program, who gave up.Postwar recovery advanced in scattered steps.Thousands of Shiite pilgrims renewed a tradition banned for decades as...

A RAIL link between Iraq's only deep water port and Basra has formally reopened, paving the way for the swift delivery of aid to Iraq's second city, a British military spokeswoman said. Local railway workers and British army engineers had been working to mend the track between Umm Qasr and Basra which had fallen into disrepair and had not been used since the start of the war a month ago. Captain Jo Bowlt said today's trial run should be the precursor for trainloads of aid to be ferried down the track within the next few days. The route was "the...

All aboard the Basra express By Rupert Wingfield Hayes and Jennifer Glass BBC correspondents in Umm Qasr The first train of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has left the southern port of Umm Qasr on a journey to Iraq's second city, Basra. On board to test the railway line were local dignitaries, British military brass and a large contingent of international media. The largely ceremonial train journey began amid much fanfare to the strains of a British military band. It is part of an effort by British and American forces to get Iraq's infrastructure working again and to help Iraqis get their...

THE first stop for any dignitary visiting Iraq is the sparsely furnished office of a British officer who has presided over this country’s most successful regime change. Taking control of Umm Qasr was a thankless task. This nasty little border port town of 45,000 people, home to gun-runners and bootleggers, took far longer for the allied armies to subdue than Baghdad did. When the British Army was given the job of running it, some in Whitehall suggested that a sheriff would have been a better bet than a military governor for Iraq’s answer to Dodge City. Everyone seems to have...

As Berlin Walls go, the 20-foot-high dirt berm around Iraq's southern port of Umm Qasr — the first wall to fall in the liberation of Iraq — isn't much to look at, but it's a fitting symbol for this war. It is a sand wall, easily breached by American power, exposing a rotten dictatorship with little popular support on the other side. This area is full of regimes protected by such sand walls. But unlike the Berlin Wall, whose fall unleashed a flowering of freedom all across Eastern Europe, the fall of the Sand Wall alone will not do that....

Filed at 2:56 p.m. ET UMM QASR, Iraq (Reuters) - Hurling rocks, bottles filled with sand and wooden stakes, detainees at the only permanent U.S. prisoner-of-war camp in Iraq riot almost daily, military officials said on Sunday. Anger over slow food lines or disputes between different ethnic groups can spark uprisings -- especially with ringleaders quick to incite riots inside the prison that houses about 6,000 Iraqis under long white open tents, they said. ``Pretty much every day there's a riot. It can get real ugly in there for the MPs (military police),'' said Maj. Joel Droba of the 13th...

Navy NewStand Story Number: NNS030411-08 Release Date: 4/11/2003 12:43:00 PM From Coast Guard Forces Southwest Asia, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs ARABIAN GULF (NNS) -- Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell (WPB 1332) and Navy Patrol Coastal ship USS Firebolt (PC 10), with embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 406, escorted the first commercially transported humanitarian aid shipment into the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr April 11. The Motor Vessel Manar, owned by Manar Marine Services of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), delivered almost 700 tons of humanitarian aid including food, water, first aid and transport vehicles. This aid...

<p>American soldiers have been disobeying orders. According to The Washington Times, some members of the Army's Civil Affairs Brigade stationed at Umm Qasr are routinely tucking extra cases of bottled water into their Humvees to distribute to thirsty Iraqi civilians. This is against regulations, as rations for soldiers are meant to be kept separate from relief to the civilian population.</p>

Al Faw, Umm Qasr Resistance May Be Thorn in Coalition's SideApr 08, 2003 Summary If it continues much longer, Iraqi resistance in the Al Faw Peninsula and the port city of Umm Qasr could become a major problem for coalition supply lines, denying them the use of Iraqi ports -- and possibly hindering future oil exports from Iraq. Analysis The war in Iraq now is three weeks old, and Iraqi forces still control a large portion of the Al Faw Peninsula, Iraq's southernmost port, which coalition forces attacked on the first day of the war. Urban guerrilla fighting continues...

<p>UMM QASR, Iraq — When some members of the U.S. Army's Civil Affairs Brigade prepare to leave camp, they tuck a case of bottled water in the back of their Humvee to be discreetly rolled in the direction of barefoot children and black-robed women who beseech them on streets packed with dirt.</p>

Children enjoy a new swing as a US Navy soldier guards a playground during a visit by a US Navy admiral hours after a team of Seabees set up the playground in Umm Qasr, Iraq Sunday April 6, 2003. The Seabees have started working with locals in repairing roads, setting up playgrounds and helping in the distribution of potable water in an effort to return life to normal, following two weeks of battles against Iraqi forces, which culminated in coalition forces invading and taking over the town. (AP Photo/Roberto Schmidt/Pool) A member of the U.S. Navy Seabees is hugged...

AUSTRALIAN navy boarding teams have uncovered chilling evidence suggesting Iraqi soldiers may be plotting chemical attacks on shipping around Iraq's key port of Umm Qasr. And it comes as coalition naval forces found what appeared to be an abandoned suicide boat packed with explosives and weapons on the banks of a key waterway near the port on Wednesday. The highly-trained teams have found gas masks and diagrams detailing how to launch an attack from a small ship against a larger vessel. The sketches, gas masks, several army uniforms and a machine gun were found in a secret observation post on...

Umm Qasr, IraqTHE WHEELS of the four Humvees in our convoy had not stopped turning when Ali al-Ethari jumped out of the back of the second vehicle and sprinted toward the front of the Port Authority building here in Umm Qasr, Iraq. The 15 others in the convoy--11 American soldiers, two Iraqi Americans, and two reporters--knew where he was headed. Tributes to Saddam Hussein appear everywhere in this southern port town. A smiling, avuncular Saddam hovers over a corner market on a plastic plug-in sign, like the ones that advertise cheap beer in bars throughout America. A few feet later,...

An Australian clearance diver, Leading Seaman Jason (surname withheld) on watch patrol at Umm Qasr Lock and load ... Chief Petty Officer Mark, Leading Seaman Shaun and Petty Officer Billy (surnames withheld) keep the guns on board the HMAS Kanimbla at full strength Ready and willing ... the flight deck crew of the HMAS Kanimbla, which is patrolling the Gulf, await orders An Australian sub lieutenant on patrol watch at the port of Umm Qasr during Operation Falconer Wing Commander Alan (left) and Lieutenant Colonel Phil (surnames withheld) read letters from their children at a military base in Qatar Nerves...

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States plans to install the first stages of a civil administration to run post-War Iraq (news - web sites) in the southern port of Umm Qasr within days, a U.S. official said on Saturday. Members of the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) are scheduled to start operating in the port as early as Tuesday, the official said. "What we are going to start trying to do, even before the fighting is over in Iraq, is to move to the areas in Iraq that are relatively peaceful, places like...

ZUBAYR, Iraq - The cables slipped, and a sea mine carrying 320 pounds of high explosives plummeted the last 10 feet into a pit already packed with other mines. Nobody moved as the mine bounced and settled into place. "Why run? You'd just die tired," said Navy Seabee Michael Midonia, 41, of Forked River, N.J., who used a time-honored military pleasantry for relieving the tension of a tragedy that comes close but doesn't happen. Midonia, an equipment operator 1st class, was part of a team of Australian, British and U.S. divers and explosives-clearing personnel who had the job of destroying...

Welcome to the Republic of Umm Qasr. Water comes out the end of a jerry-rigged pipeline from Kuwait. Security is provided by the British Royal Marines. There's a deep-water port, one of the finest in the Middle East, but only one ship has called so far--and no others seem on the horizon. ELECTRICITY IS NONEXISTENT. The nights are dark and dangerous. The town's 40,000 residents are scared and angry. And this is what free Iraq consists of so far, after two weeks of war.

Shi'ites defy Saddam with ritual in streets By Michael Georgy UMM QASR, Iraq, April 4 (Reuters) - Shi'ites in the southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr performed a public ritual of self flagellation, a move they said would have meant death if President Saddam Hussein was still in control there. The ritual, performed at a funeral on Thursday night, was the first open sign of defiance of the Iraqi president by Shi'ite Muslims in the port town since it was captured by U.S. and British troops. "Saddam your days are numbered," the marchers chanted, as religious ritual turned into broader...

<p>April 2, 2003 -- UMM QASR, Iraq - Two Iraqi soldiers who said they were sent on a mission to blow themselves up in the country's largest port have surrendered - while British troops arrested four busloads of suspected would-be homicide bombers and other volunteer fighters.</p>

UMM QASR, Iraq - To the squawk of radios and the cheers of residents, British military engineers restored power to Iraq's major seaport for the first time in weeks, a major step in reopening the harbor and funneling desperately needed humanitarian aid deeper into the war-torn country. British engineers and U.S. Navy Seabees, working into the night, replaced batteries stolen by fleeing Iraqis before the invasion to fire up back-up generators that quickly bathed 75 percent of the town in electrical lighting. "A lot of things must have been left on when the power was cut, because suddenly you heard...