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Tikrit falls
US marines today entered the centre of Tikrit, the final stronghold of Saddam Hussein's leadership, as they battled the last military units loyal to the Iraqi regime. Pan-Arab satellite station al-Jazeera said that the troops had the town under control. The channel broadcast live pictures of marines walking through Tikrit and US tanks taking up position in a central square.
Excellent!
Al-Jazeera's correspondent in the city, Youssef al-Sharif, said: "Tikrit is totally under US control, and they are talking with tribes to control the city and take out all pockets of resistance."
Said pockets being the foreign hard boys, fools and rubes imported from the finer madrassas in Syria, Paleostine, Yemen and Pakland.
A Reuters correspondent in Tikrit today reported that three US Cobra attack helicopters were firing machine guns into the city. The reporter said that he heard four loud explosions in the distance, but could not identify the helicopters' target. A taskforce of the First Marine Expeditionary Force had earlier attacked units of the Iraqi Republican Guard on the southern edge of Tikrit, which lies 110 miles north of Baghdad, in a push towards the town centre. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, at central command in Qatar, said that US forces in Tikrit had encountered "less resistance than anticipated".
| Who wants to be the last one killed when you know the game is lost? |
"This morning, the attack entered Tikrit, securing yet another the presidential palace there and also beginning the search for any remaining regime supporters," Gen Brooks said. "This is really the only significant combat action that occurred within the last 24 hours." He added that military work "is not at a close", but said he expected future confrontations across Iraq to be localised and not centrally organised by Saddam's regime.
| Assuming any have been so far... |
The forces rolled into the centre of Tikrit overnight. Yesterday, they rescued seven US prisoners of war in a push to the outskirts, as warplanes bombarded fighters defending the last major Iraqi centre in the hold of the Ba'ath party. Waves of helicopters and warplanes passed overhead, Matthew Fisher, a correspondent for Canada's National Post, told CNN as the marines went into the city. "It's a very significant attack. They've brought forward a great number of Cobra assault helicopters and there are Marine F-18s overhead," he said.
| They knew it was ripe, but it's still better not to have any unpleasant surprises... |
The 30,000-strong US 4th Infantry Division, known as Taskforce Iron Horse, has also been moving north from Kuwait, and is thought to be advancing on the town.
They'll be happy the war is virtually over, and unhappy that they were late.
| 4th ID is either earmarked as occupation troops now, or there's something else on the back burner that could pop without warning — namely Syria. Having a fresh, highly mechanized division or two (1st Armored) on hand will make the hairs stand up on the back of the collective Syrian neck... |
Posted by: Steve White 2003-04-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13033 |
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