The U.S.-led forces turned its focus to Saddam Hussein's hometown on Saturday, where fighters are believed to be regrouping for a last stand. But after the peaceful handover of northern Iraq's two largest cities and intensive bombing of Tikrit, the city may fall without much of a fight.
Tikrit has been so battered by U.S. airstrikes that Central Command officials said Friday that it seems unlikely the fighters left there will be able to muster an effective force. Many Iraqi troops may have already fled.
One of Saddam's longtime confidants, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is believed to have moved missiles into the Tikrit area to bolster its defenses, AP reported.
U.S. officials have seen remnants of Republican Guard and other Iraqi army units join up with other stragglers in and around Tikrit, about 140 kms northwest of Baghdad.
"You have elements, remnants of that that are coalescing and forming composite units," said Navy Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command spokesman.
However, after weeks of airstrikes and the collapse of the regime in Baghdad and other parts of the country, the units reforming in Tikrit are not believed to be an effective fighting force, Kitchens said.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that ground forces and special forces are "degrading regime forces in and near Tikrit." He told reporters at the Pentagon that there are "still enemy targets north of Baghdad, in Tikrit and some of the other major cities up there that we're going to have to deal with."
Meanwhile, US forces are trying to get Iraqi police officers back on the streets of Baghdad to restore order amid scenes of looting and lawlessness.
US Marine Colonel Peter Zarcone, in charge of civil affairs in Baghdad, said: "We've been trying to contact police officials, we've put out the word over the airways, we've talked to three individuals.
"What we are reassured by is that most of the people we've spoken to, who have been living here, say the local police are not closely allied to the former regime and the atrocities committed by them.
"Its a fairly complex task. Communications are a serious problem, trying to get the word out - there's no phone system for instance." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
