MADELEINE BRAND, host: From the studios of NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY. I'm Madeleine Brand.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: And I'm Alex Chadwick. Coming up views on the Iraq war from the American town near the home base of the Army's 101st Airborne Division.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: First, in Iraq a large military offensive continues for a second day around Samarra. The Pentagon says 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops are involved in that operation. It's an effort to break up a concentration of suspected insurgents 60 miles north of Baghdad.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Earlier today, Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli briefed reporters from Baghdad. He said this operation was primarily conducted by Iraqi forces.</s>Lieutenant General PETER CHIARELLI (U.S. Army): The amount of resistance we had was very, very light. I think the last count I had is that we have 31 individuals that we have detained. We found what you would expect to find out there, and we'll continue to look for caches and any other terrorists and foreign fighters that might be in the area.
As the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq approaches, a look back at the first days of the war and an update on the latest news out of the country.