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Tribes are an integral part of the social and political fabric in Iraq. Saddam Hussein courted the sheikhs of the major tribes, and gained support. Will the American interim government be able to do the same? NPR's Jacki Northam has a report.

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with Cox Newspapers reporter Craig Nelson in Baghdad.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University and a columnist for the Jordan Times and the Jerusalem Post. Kuttab talks about how Al Jazeera and other Arab language satellite news services are covering Baghdad.

U.S. forces move to secure cities and oil fields in the north, attacking the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace and base of power. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says much work remains in Iraq, including recovering prisoners of war, searching for weapons of mass destruction and capturing or accounting for the Iraqi leader. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley.

NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports on the call for Jihad among international Muslim communities. Jihad by definition means "Holy War," but some experts say the idea of jihad is open for interpretation.

Two Shia clerics, one returning from exile and the other a Saddam loyalist, are hacked to death in the holiest mosque in Najaf. Observers fear the deaths could be the first round of bloodletting among rival Shia groups jockeying for power in post-Saddam Iraq. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

Commentator David Ropeik says SARS might not be as much of a health threat as the unbridled fear it's causing among the world's populations.

U.S. officials say Saddam Hussein's regime appears to have lost hold of Baghdad, but caution there may be additional fighting ahead. From Qatar, U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks says the situation in Iraq has reached a "tipping point" and that the population is beginning to recognize the Iraqi regime is "coming to an end." Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

NPR's Eric Westervelt is at the Parade Grounds in Baghdad with units of the 3rd Infantry Division. They're securing and consolidating their hold on Baghdad. Resistance today was moderate. Nonetheless, one officer says this is the longest and most tense warfare the U.S. Army has seen since Vietnam.

U.S. Military officials say they don't know yet if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was killed in an airstrike on Monday. U.S. fighter jets dropped bombs on a Baghdad building after intelligence sources said Saddam was inside. NPR's John Burnett, with the 1st Marine Division in eastern Baghdad, reports.

U.S. military strategy for controlling Baghdad appears to involve the Army moving in from the west and the Marines from the east. But it was another day of bloody urban warfare in the capital. Hundreds of civilians are reported wounded or killed, and three journalists die. Hear reports from NPR's Anne Garrels and NPR's Mike Shuster.

As signs of government authority in Baghdad disappear, hundreds of Iraqi civilians take to the streets, cheering U.S. soldiers and ripping up posters of Saddam Hussein. But many loot government buildings throughout the Iraqi capital. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels and NPR's Nick Spicer.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks to John Keegan, defense editor for the Daily Telegraph, about how the collapse of Saddam's regime is due to the complete ineptitude of the Iraqi military, which made no use of the country's natural defenses. He says whatever advantages they had were thrown away.

Kurdish fighters and U.S. Special Forces take control of a key mountaintop overlooking the Iraqi-held city of Mosul, a senior Kurdish official says. He says it is the most important gain in the region thus far, and has opened the way for troops to enter Mosul. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

Special forces have been playing a low-key but important part in the war in Iraq. Perhaps the most notable special forces operation was the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Michael Vickers to learn more about special ops. Vickers is director of Strategic Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is a former Special Forces Capt. and CIA operations officer.

U.S. officials say Saddam Hussein's regime appears to have lost hold of Baghdad. Security forces desert the streets, replaced by looters, and government officials have disappeared, though some fighting continues. From Qatar, U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks says the regime "is in disarray and much of Iraq is free from years of oppression." Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

Commentator Margaret Erhart talks about the way schoolchildren on an Indian reservation near Tuba City, Ariz., reacted to the news that Pfc. Lori Piestewa was killed in the war in Iraq. Some of the second graders were related to Piestewa, and all of them knew she was from their hometown. Erhart is artist-in-residence at the school.

Images of Kurdish militias in control of the streets of the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk are making Turkey nervous. Fearing that Turkish Kurds might now rise up against the government, Turkey again threatens to send troops into northern Iraq. U.S. diplomats are working to keep that from happening. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

U.S. Marines will begin enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew in eastern Baghdad starting Friday. It's an attempt to control widespread looting in a city lacking all signs of Saddam Hussein's authoritarian regime. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels.

The northern city of Mosul, Iraq, falls peacefully after being abandoned by Iraqi forces early today. Kurdish militiamen and small numbers of U.S. troops entered Mosul following the Iraqi withdrawal. But the city, like others in the country, has been overtaken by a wave of looting and near-anarchy. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

The Bush administration is warning Syria not to offer a haven to any fleeing members of the Iraqi regime. Speculation that Syria might be the next nation to attract U.S. military attention is debated on Capitol Hill. But the Pentagon and some analysts downplay the possibility. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

The distribution of humanitarian aid is just now getting started in the port town of Umm Qasr, the first Iraqi town taken by U.S. and British forces. The U.S. hope for establishing a provisional civil administration in Iraq is starting there as well. NPR's Mike Shuster has the story.

A day after Baghdad collapses, leaders in Europe and the Arab world say attention must shift to the future. France and Germany issue no official statements, but say humanitarian aid is now a priority. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak calls for Iraqi self-governance as quickly as possible. Hear NPR's Sylvia Poggioli and NPR's Michael Sullivan.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports on the events of the day in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Marines swept into the heart of the city from the east, meeting little resistance as they linked up with Army units that had entered western Baghdad earlier in the week.

Former Iraqi information Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf has surfaced on Arab television, claiming he turned himself into U.S. troops but was let go. Sahhaf's wildly implausible claims of victory during the war earned him a cult following of sorts online. Hear D.J. Lachapelle, co-creator of WeLovetheIRaqiInformationMinister.com.