ASHINGTON, April 14 — The Pentagon declared today that major combat operations in Iraq were over after United States forces took control of Tikrit, the last bastion of the old government. Posted on 04/15/2003 1:26:24 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
ASHINGTON, April 14 — The Pentagon declared today that major combat operations in Iraq were over after United States forces took control of Tikrit, the last bastion of the old government.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, meanwhile, accused Syria of harboring fleeing officials of Saddam Hussein's government and threatened Damascus with economic or diplomatic sanctions. Other administration officials accused Syria of backing terrorists and amassing chemical and biological weapons.
The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, used even harsher language, calling Syria "a rogue nation" and its president, Bashar al-Assad, an "untested leader" who now has his chance "to be a leader who makes the right decisions."
Current and former Bush administration officials said Mr. Hussein's family members have fled Iraq into Syria in recent weeks, a contention Syrian officials have denied.
American officials also expressed alarm that Syria was developing chemical weapons, though Damascus denies that. As an example of the close ties between the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and the Syrian government, they said intelligence showed that some members of Hezbollah had entered Iraq from Syria in recent days.
In Damascus, the administration's warnings, combined with the presence of the American military in neighboring Iraq, left many unsettled.
The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, warned that "the recent statements directed at Syria should not contribute to a wider destabilization in a region already affected heavily by the war in Iraq." He added that "any claim of threats to international peace and security should be addressed in conformity with the provisions" of the United Nations Charter.
Pentagon officials said that there were no plans to attack Syria, and that the military's focus, now that major combat has ended in Iraq, was to send some troops home and reposition others in the country for the long-term mission of making the country stable and secure.
"I would anticipate the major combat engagements are over because the major Iraqi units on the ground cease to show coherence," said Maj. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"There will be a requirement for combat power for some period of time," he added. "But clearly, the requirements for civil affairs, engineer organizations, military police will be significant."
A senior administration official said that Jaffar al-Jaffer, the head of Iraq's nuclear program, had in recent days turned himself in and was now in American custody, though it could not be determined to whom he surrendered, or where he was being held.
With Iraq and its borders still less than secured, Mr. Powell echoed warnings voiced on Sunday by President Bush, who demanded Syrian cooperation in tracking down fugitive Iraqi leaders.
"In light of this new environment they should review their actions and their behavior," Mr. Powell said of the Syrians, after meeting in Washington with the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah, "not only with respect to who gets haven in Syria and weapons of mass destruction but especially the support of terrorist activity."
It was unclear today how many troops would remain in Iraq and for how long. But signs of a shifting mission were already evident, with ground forces increasingly assuming peacekeeping duties even as combat troops rooted out remnants of Iraqi military and irregular forces.
That included those Iraqi forces in Tikrit, a major northern city, where the fierce resistence that American forces had anticipated today largely evaporated after battles that lasted into the night on Sunday.
As part of the ongoing operations to secure the country, military officials said today that the Fourth Infantry Division, which has the Army's most advanced Abrams tanks, would be assigned control over northern Iraq. The Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, a force that includes tanks, attack helicopters and reconnaissance helicopters, will be assigned to protect the western flanks.
Marines in the next few days will relieve a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in southern Iraq, allowing the rapid-response force to head home. Over the next several weeks, the First Armored Division is expected to relieve the Third Infantry Division in and around Baghdad. The Army's V Corps headquarters is likely to move to Tikrit from Kuwait, military officials said.
Pentagon officials warned that some of those assignments could change. There are now 120,000 or so American ground troops in Iraq, and military officials' estimates of what might be needed in a postwar security force have ranged from 75,000 to several hundred thousand.
Many combat forces are already leaving the area. Navy officials said today that two aircraft carriers deployed for the war had received orders to sail for their home ports, leaving three carrier battle groups within striking distance of Iraq.
Air Force officials said four B-2's, half a dozen F-117 stealth fighters and a squadron of F-16C fighters had already flown home. Dozens of the 600 war planes will leave in the coming weeks, officials said.
In an example of the dangers still facing American forces, two Army soldiers were killed and two others were injured in a grenade accident at a checkpoint south of Baghdad today, military officials said. One soldier was killed and another injured near Baghdad's international airport in an accidental weapons discharge.
Given the complicated security situation in Iraq, where military forces may move almost hourly between zones of high threat and areas of relative calm, commanders have not yet ordered a change in the rules of engagement from those that guided forces at the height of the war, a senior Pentagon official said today.
Some senior commanders in Iraq complained, however, that the military was shifting from combat to peacekeeping too quickly, under pressure from Washington.
Senior military officers defended their handling of security in Baghdad as troops moved into the city last week. They argued that some looting was a natural result of the citizenry's pent-up anger toward Mr. Hussein's government, and that commanders did not have enough forces to put troops everywhere while combat operations continued. "Over next week, the situation will dramatically improve," a senior officer predicted.
Mr. Powell promised to help rebuild the city's National Museum and recover stolen Mesopotamian treasures. "The United States understands its obligations and will be taking a leading role with respect to antiquities in general, but this museum in particular," Mr. Powell said.
Clerics have helped to maintain order in cities like Najaf and Karbala. But it has been more difficult elsewhere, where coalition forces are conducting joint patrols with Iraqi police officers who have returned to their jobs.
General McChrystal said the coalition was still in the "organizational phase" of identifying and vetting a credible civilian police force in Baghdad. "This will be a long process," he said.
The State Department has begun recruiting American policemen for Iraq and could eventually field a force of as many as 1,000 police officers, according to a State Department spokesman.
The police officers must be American citizens and have at least 10 years of experience, according to a recruitment notice posted last week on the Web site of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the allied commander in the Persian Gulf, has already turned to fighters assembled by Ahmad Chalabi, a leader of the opposition Iraqi National Congress, for missions to pacify the southern Iraqi town of Shatra.
About 300 of the "Free Iraqi Fighters" operating under the command of American Special Operations forces swept Shatra in recent days, uncovering a large cache of French-made antitank missiles and rounding up a number of fedayeen fighters identified by local residents, a senior Defense Department official said today.
The 300 Iraqis were part of a 700-member force that deployed near Nasiriya just over a week ago. They have been armed with captured weapons and American military equipment, the official said.
The Pentagon official said General Franks was considering deploying the force to help maintain order in Karbala, Najaf and perhaps Kut, although coordination with fighters loyal to Mr. Chalabi has raised concerns that the Pentagon is playing favorites among Iraqi opposition leaders vying for a role in the new government.
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