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Posted on 04/12/2003 10:22:18 AM PDT by blam
US moves toward Tikrit, more troops enter from Kuwait
AS-SALIYAH, Qatar (AFP) - US commanders said a large number of Marines were heading north of Baghdad toward Tikrit, a traditional stronghold of Saddam Hussein and the last major bastion of his troops.
The push came as forward elements of the 4th Infantry Division crossed from Kuwait into Iraq, according to the US Central Command.
"Tikrit is one of the areas where we still have concerns that there may be presence of regime forces and we have been relentless in our efforts focused at the Tikrit area," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said at the war command's headquarters in Qatar.
Another military spokesman, Captain Frank Thorp said a significant number of US Marines left Baghdad and were heading north.
"We have been using air power on the military forces for more than a week. Only time will tell when we get into Tikrit or any of the other areas," said Thorp.
Saddam's native city, Tikrit is the last major target on US battle maps, though military officials say they are also expect resistance in other parts of Iraq.
With the war on its 24th day, US forces in Iraq were getting reinforcements.
"As of this morning there are lead elements of the 4th Infantry Division on the move," said Thorp.
The soldiers were flown into Kuwait after the Turkish parliament rejected a request to allow 62,000 US troops, including the 4th Infantry Division, to pass through Turkey.
At the same time, the US navy started a gradual withdrawal, with the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its battle group leaving the Gulf.
British commanders, meanwhile, said they deployed a significant number of soldiers to the city of Al Amara, on the Iranian border, where they searched chemical weapons and underground chambers said to be holding Iraqi and Kuwaiti prisoners from the last Gulf War .
Coalition forces detained 59 men who had letters offering rewards for killing US soldiers and carried a total of 630,000 dollars in cash, according to Brooks. He did not specify if they were Iraqis.
He said the United States was offering "appropriate" cash rewards for information that leads to the capture of Saddam, leaders of his regime and to weapons of mass destruction.
The United States on Friday released a list of 52 top regime figures it wants captured or killed, illustrated in a deck of cards being distributed to ground commanders.
German television channel ZDF said it had filmed the surrender of a top Saddam aide, General Amir al-Saadi, to US forces in Baghdad.
In the north, US troops were deployed outside the governor's office in Kirkuk, a sign they were steadily taking control of the oil-rich city from Kurdish forces.
A group of around 20 soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Division, which parachuted into Iraqi Kurdistan late last month, were seen guarding the building's entrance without the presence of Kurdish fighters.
Kirkuk was seized Thursday by Kurdish fighters backed by US special forces who were almost unopposed. Hundreds of Kurdish policemen later arrived to try to restore order when the situation began spinning out of control because of looting.
Turkey, which has a sizeable and restive Kurdish minority, has threatened to intervene militarily if Kurdish forces remained in control of Kirkuk and nearby Mosul, which control access to major oilfields.
In Mosul, which has an Arab rather than Kurdish majority, hospital sources said as many as 20 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded since Friday in fighting between the two ethnic groups.
Sporadic small-arms fire seemed to be intensifying in the city, where the population had been largely loyal to Saddam.
From Mosul's mosques, appeals went out to police officials of the deposed regime to return to their duties.
In Baghdad, Marines stationed near the Palestine Hotel housing foreign journalists exchanged machinegun fire with unidentified gunmen for around 10 minutes.
The capital has been marked by looting and chaos, and hospitals and the UN offices there have been stripped clean.
Most shops kept their shutters down, and armed shopkeepers stood guard outside to defend against looters.
But a police car returned to the streets of downtown Baghdad for the first time since the collapse of Saddam's regime earlier in the week and seven Iraqi police officers as well as some 150 professionals turned up in response to a US appeal to help restore order and services.
US troops discovered a large cache of light weapons in a central Baghdad residence, including gold-plated assault rifles inscribed as gifts from Saddam.
They also secured Baghdad's main water supply station, threatened by looters, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In the southern city of Basra, British forces said they found a huge arms cache believed to have been stored for suicide bombers.
In WWI: The 4ID Liberated France -- Defeated 16 Enemy Divisions
In WWII: Speardheaded D-Day Landing at Utah Beach, Liberated Paris, First to Enter Germany, Involved in Battle of the Bulge
Vietnam: Ia Drang Valley, Plei Trap Valley, Fire Base Gold, Dak To, the Oasis, Kontum, Pleiku, An Khe, and Cambodia
Current: Experimental Division, Force XXI
Historical Casualties (Wounded and Killed): 65,229.
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