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| Iraq |
| Pentagon: No Major Iraqi Forces Remain |
| 2003-04-11 |
| Fierce fighting and air strikes have completely destroyed the ability of Iraq's regular army and Republican Guard to mount conventional fighting, and no major military forces remain in the country, the Pentagon said Friday. Though parts of forces and pockets of resistance remain, military officials were detecting no indications of any remaining command and control ability on the part of Saddam Hussein's forces, nor any communication between remnants of forces, a Defense Department official said. Looks like the Adnan Mechanized Division of the RG is gone. The assessment follows the Pentagon's aggressive targeting Thursday of remaining Iraqi army units in the northern part of the country. "They are the last significant formations on the battlefield that we're aware of," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference Thursday. He said the Iraqi forces' capability has dropped significantly "both from casualties and from people just leaving the battlefield." Nobody wants to be the last guy to die for Saddam. On Friday, officials said that Ba'ath Party officials had either fled or gone underground and that there were no clues on the whereabouts of Saddam, his sons or any other regime leadership. There was no obvious or significant force in Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace and the power base where some believed regime leaders might make a last stand. Wonder if the Tikritis will celebrate when we arrive? |
| Posted by:Steve White |