American tanks reached Wednesday the center of Baghdad for the first time. And a U.S. military spokesman said Saddam Hussein's government is no longer in control of Baghdad.
"The capital city is now one of those areas that has been added to the list of where the regime does not have control," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
However, Brooks said that Saddam loyalists were holding out in the north, including Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and still posed a threat, including the possible use of weapons of mass destruction. "Today the regime is in disarray and much of Iraq is free from years of oppression," Brooks said.
He said the coalition was planning for possible resistance in other cities. U.S. troops have tried to block the roads from Baghdad to Tikrit to stop Iraqi leaders from fleeing there.
A mix of Republican Guards and militia fighters were also holding out in the oil centers of Mosul and Kirkuk, he said. "We certainly are focused on Tikrit," Brooks said at the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar "I'm not going to predispose to say when will go in. "There is still work to be done."
Brooks said there were still some "engagements" in the center of the city around bridges. "We're not finding hostile behavior from the population," he said. "We believe the population recognizes that the end is near (for Saddam's government)."
In the north, Special Operations troops and Kurdish soldiers seized a small town approximately 15 miles north of Mosul and captured 200 fighters, Brooks said.
He said there was also attacks on Iraqi positions 20 miles south of Irbil, and that special operations forces supported by aircraft destroyed tanks and cargo trucks there. In all, US forces have taken more than 7,000 Iraqi prisoners of war, he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
