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US planes attack Tikrit
April 09, 2003

US warplanes have struck Iraqi positions around Tikrit north of Baghdad, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a potent symbol of his 24-year-old rule, a senior US military spokesman said.

"Over the last 24 hours what you have are continuing airstrikes against Iraqi military targets in the area of Tikrit as well as against regime leadership targets," Navy Captain Frank Thorp said at US Central Command's forward planning base here.

Thorp said US forces "continue to move north" from the Iraqi capital and described Tikrit, 200km north of Baghdad, as "first and foremost the next large metropolis in the country as well as recognised to be a very important city for the regime".

A senior US commander in the war on Iraq, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, yesterday said US forces were keeping up the pressure on Tikrit to prevent Iraqi units loyal to Saddam Hussein from reaching the president's hometown.

"We know that there are any number of command and control related facilites in Tikrit," he told reporters here.