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Key developments in the war in Iraq:

The State Department is sending 26 police and judicial officers to Iraq as part of what eventually is expected to be a team of nearly 1,200 to help restore order.

U.S. marines found nearly 50 suicide bomb vests packed with explosives in a school in central Baghdad. In a nearby school, they found crates filled with rocket propelled grenade launchers, surface to air missiles, shoulder launched rockets and ammunition.

In western Iraq, U.S. forces stopped a bus with 59 men of military age who had $650,000 in cash and a letter offering rewards for killing American soldiers. Military officials said the bus was headed for Syria.

Two C-130 transports landed at Baghdad's international airport with 24,000 pounds of medical supplies from the Kuwaiti government and the international Committee for the Red Cross for hospitals in Baghdad.

U.S. forces reopened two strategic bridges in the heart of Baghdad. Looters took advantage and swarmed into the Planning Ministry and other government buildings and emerged with bookshelves, sofas and computers. Aid organizations and many Baghdad residents have pleaded with U.S. officials to crack down on the looting.

The Iraq National Museum was looted. The museum featured priceless artifacts dating back more than 5,000 B.C. Reporters visiting it found empty glass cases, many of them smashed, and bits of broken pottery and sculpture.

Residents in a Baghdad neighborhood complained that U.S. soldiers haven't cleared cluster bombs dropped during the war. The residents said three people were killed and one injured trying to pick up them up.

Looting diminished in the northern city of Mosul, a day after pro-Saddam defense forces dissolved and U.S. special forces moved in. But hospital reported that 10 people had been killed in Arab-Kurdish violence.

The U.S.-led coalition turned its focus to Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, where fighters are believed to be regrouping for a last stand. But after being battered by intensive bombing, the city may fall without much of a fight, U.S. military officials said.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he expected fighting to end soon in Qaim, near the western border with Syria, saying there had been reports that leaders wanted to surrender.

American POW Jessica Lynch left a U.S. military hospital in Germany headed for the United States.

photo credit and caption:

Capt Andy West, second from right, of the British 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment investigates local men attempting to sell Iraqi army bayonnets on the black market in Ad Dayr, north of Basra, southern Iraq, Saturday, April, 2003. (AP Photo/Chris Ison/Pool)

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