... the task after years of training. Privately, many U.S. officers worry the Iraqis will be overwhelmed if violence surges ... with signs to show they are noncombat forces. One U.S. officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue ...

BAGHDAD Iraqi forces assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities Tuesday after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a defining step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country.

... example, not yet in place. Iraqi officers also complain of the time it takes to repair broken vehicles. Privately, U.S. officers also fault the Iraqis for focusing too much on stationary checkpoints and not enough on foot patrols. They also speak ...

... decisive factor in ground combat and that planes could sink warships during battles at sea. Mitchell was the first U.S. officer to fly over enemy lines. Returning home a much-decorated hero in March 1919, he was made assistant chief of air ...

... decade. "With every day that goes by, the odds ... of losing an aircraft go up," said Col. Maury Forsyth, the U.S. officer who draws up the allied flight plans for the northern no-fly zone. He spoke from his concrete command bunker in ...

... found guilty Tuesday of selling Cold War military secrets to Moscow over two decades, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. officer to be convicted of espionage. George Trofimoff, 74, could get up to life in prison. The retired colonel in the ...

... divisions, whose officers can operate almost any kind of vehicle. They can infiltrate hostile countries and rescue U.S. officers or friendly foreign agents. "These intelligence officers relish the peril of unmarked air flights behind enemy lines ...

... the rugged terrain in eastern Afghanistan and some U.S. officers predicted the operation could be wrapped up in days ... opposition strength at 150 to 200 fighters. Subsequently, U.S. officers revised those numbers to "the neighborhood of 600 ...

... us to try to positively identify them," said Hagenbeck, the commander of all coalition troops in Afghanistan. A U.S. officer estimated as many as 500 al-Qaida fighters were killed in the 12-day offensive in eastern Afghanistan. But Afghan ...

... Commander Abdul Wali Zardran. "They do what they want. Most people escaped. You can't call that a success." U.S. officers have publicly downplayed the significance of body counts, perhaps trying to avoid a repetition of the Vietnam experience ...