"Clearly we are at a point when the decisive military operations that were focused on removing the regime ... that work is coming to a close," Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks said at the command's war headquarters in Qatar.

"We believe our decisive operations campaign will be measured in weeks not months," he said.

He said US Marines entered Tikrit after launching attacks to isolate the city.

"This morning, the attack entered Tikrit, securing the presidential palace and beginning to search for any regime supporters," he said at Centcom's As-Saliyah forward base.

"This really was the only significant combat action that occurred in last 24 hours," he said.

"There was less resistance than anticipated," Brooks said, adding: "We did not find any forces that were defending the presidential palace."

He said that this was the result of ground battle preparations, including a massive bombing campaign that destroyed Iraqi command and control systems

"Those who were issued orders could not do so and did not do so. We made efforts to isolate units ... and were succesful in doing that. We also attacked their will," he said.

He said that before entering Tikrit the Marine force had destroyed two platoon-size units near the town of Samarra.

He stressed, however, that "military work is not at a close and potential for combat action is not yet over."

"We know there are places where we haven't acounted for all military activity there are still some places in the country we haven't gone to."

But he said any combat "will be much more localized when it occurs, it won't be on a widespread scale."

"We are on plan and we remain on plan," he said, adding that part of our plan is to transition from decisive combat operations into a focus on stability and support."

SPACE.WIRE