Tikrit and other northern areas focus of operations: US Central Command

AS-SALIYAH (AFP) Apr 13, 2003
The area around Tikrit and other parts of northern Iraq are the focus of US-led military operations, and coalition forces still face fierce resistance from "leftovers" of the Iraqi army, the US Central Command said here Sunday.

Large parts of the north "have been the focus of our operations in the past days," said Major Rumi Nielson-Green, stressing that the key city of Tikrit was only one of several the US-led forces were targeting.

She declined to comment on reports that coalition forces were negotiating a surrender of the city, the traditional power base of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

A CNN team twice came under fire going through a checkpoint in Tikrit Sunday, but found abandoned barracks of Saddam's elite Republican Guard on the outskirts of the city.

Nielson-Green said the remnants of decimated Republican Guard units had banded together to fight coalition troops.

"Those fights are significant and fierce," she said, adding, however, that the Iraqi units were "just mismatched leftovers with no military command and control".

"A lot of populated areas still have a regime presence," she said of northern Iraq, notably citing the city of Baiji, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Tikrit.

"We will work on those until they fall."

The area around Tikrit has come under intense coalition bombing over the past week, but CNN footage showed no indication of any US or British troop military presence on the ground.

Nielson-Green and other officials at the US forward command headquarters at As-Saliyah declined to say when ground troops would move into the city, but did say a "significant number" of US Marines had left Baghdad this week to head north.

"The number is significant enough that if any forces are encountered they will be sorry," she told AFP.

Tikrit, 150 kilometres (95 miles) north of Baghdad, is Saddam's birthplace, his tribal power base and a stronghold of his minority Sunni Muslims who have ruled the nation's Shiite majority.

Before the war, residents pledged to put up a fierce battle, but coalition leaders are hoping the massive bombing in recent days, and veiled threats of even more lethal attacks will convince the remaining Iraqi holdouts to put down their weapons.

General Vincent Renuart told reporters recently at the war command headquarters that he could not rule out using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) on the city.

Known as the "Mother of All Bombs", the MOAB is an almost 10,000 kilo (21,000-pound) behemoth designed to melt just about everything.

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