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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.

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 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. 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.

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.

Chicago-based alternative country label Bloodshot Records began with a modest ambition: to make good music and maybe sell a few albums along the way. Bloodshot has been issuing recordings since 1994. They recently reached a milestone -- their 100th release. To celebrate, they've compiled a collection of singles and rare recordings titled Making Singles, Drinking Doubles. Meredith Ochs has a review.

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.

An NPR War Diary entry from Lt. Col. Ken Brown, a chaplain with the 101st Airborne Division, in southern Iraq, who is helping young Americans in the armed forces to deal with their first brush with death, close up.

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.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from downtown Baghdad that it was another day of battling in the streets of the Iraqi capital. The fighting and chaos of urban war has blown away the capital's spirit of defiance and is causing a mounting toll of Iraqi casualties.