Posted on 04/12/2003 12:58:38 PM PDT by knak
AP[ SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2003 10:11:09 PM ]
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar: US officials said Saturday that coalition forces found a phosphate plant in western Iraq where they discovered two drone aircraft - the type that could be used to spread chemical or biological agents.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, deputy director of operations at US Central Command, said he didn't have any more information on the drones, but said the area, around al-Qaim, remains of high concern to coalition forces because of its potential as a weapons of mass destruction site.
US airstrikes have been pounding the al-Qaim region, and the Iraqi resistance that had been in the area "has been much defeated," Brooks said.
He said coalition troops would continue to hunt down weapons, using information provided by Iraqis to go to storage sites and other leads. "That's already beginning, and we'll follow every lead that we can as we go through this deliberate process," he said.
Also in western Iraq, special operations forces stopped a bus with 59 "military-aged men" carrying letters offering rewards for killing American soldiers and US$630,000 in one-hundred-dollar bills, Brooks said. They were taken into custody.
Brooks said Central Command was still concerned there might be regime forces in and around Tikrit, Saddam's power base, and said areas east and west of there must be searched because military equipment remains.
US Marines would head north toward Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein and his power base, working to rout any remaining supporters and destroy military equipment, Brooks said.
Pointing to Tikrit and its environs on a map, Brooks said land forces were continuing to attack any remaining Iraqi forces north of Baghdad.
Earlier, a US Central Command spokesman said a "significant-sized force" of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was pressing north outside Baghdad toward Tikrit, although he refused to say how far north they had moved.
"We may find that there's not much fight left, but some of the recent operations indicate that there's still some fighting to do even in those areas," around Tikrit, Brooks said.
Central Command wouldn't comment on what recent operations had occurred in the area. Previously, only Special Forces were known to have been near Tikrit, and Central Command has only reported on a single, small firefight that occurred Thursday.
There were other indications the Iraqis were putting up a fight elsewhere: around Kut, southeast of Baghdad. "We are turning our attention in that direction," Brooks said.
He said operations in the past day had focused on "removing any remaining chance of the regime returning to power," - an apparent reference to coalition efforts to prevent regime leaders from fleeing the country to regroup.
"What we do know is that the regime is not in power, that regime members have tried to flee areas where they previously were. Some of them have been killed. Their forces have been killed in many cases or captured. Some have simply gone back home, as we requested," he said, without elaborating.
CNN's been taking a beating ratings-wise for two years, that hasn't changed their attitude much. They're still as much of a leftist-shill network as they were at their peak in '91.
The people at CNN are in it for the cause, just like the folks at NPR. This is what Communists do. They agressively spread Communism via relentless anti-Americanism.
They haven't sold their souls. They gave them away, like good little Marxists.
Was there once a hint that Saddam had a forgery scheme ? I recall something along those lines in my distant memory.
And those missile's do a bang up job delivering them.
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