Daily Record April 10, 2003
Operation Mop - Up
Yanks Crush Feeble Iraqi Opposition In Capital As Republican Guard Just Melt Away
By Steve Smith
BURSTS of gunfire echoed across Baghdad last night as Allied troops hunted down roving bands of fanatics loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Small groups of Iraqi fighters continued to hold out in the north-east of the capital.
Snipers holed up near the Interior Ministry were firing at US Marines. But with the battle for Baghdad wrapped up, coalition commanders were concentrating their attention on the war in north of the country.
US Central Command said that coalition airstrikes were targeting the Republican Guard's Adnan division in Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.
The city, 90 miles to the north of the capital, is home to many of his most devoted followers.
Further north, Kurdish forces, including some peshmerga militia fighters, have tightened their ring around the key oil centre of Kirkuk.
They were within sight of the city following heavy coalition air strikes on frontline Iraqi positions.
Meanwhile, American and Kurdish troops seized a key mountaintop base outside Mosul.
Inside the city, American special forces continued to fight Saddam loyalists.
Senior Kurdish leader Hoshyar Zebari hailed the seizure of of the mountain- top base near Mosul as the most important gain of the conflict in the region.
He said Iraqi forces put up little resistance, suggesting "the demoralising situation of the Iraqi army."
The peak had been heavily defended by Iraqi forces and was a hub for air defences against coalition air strikes as well as a munitions centre.
Zebari added: "From our perspective it was the most important gain ... so far.
"This shows the crumbling of the northern front."
Zebari explained that control of the base means that no Iraqi defences remain between Kurdish- US forces and the centre of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Kurdish commander Sarbest Barbiri said some Republican Guard remnants and Fedayeen were still believed to be defending Mosul.
But regular army units had been defeated or had given up.
He said: "This was the place where Saddam's forces looked down on Mosul.
"Now we are looking down on what's left of Saddam's army."
Control over Mosul and Kirkuk and the oilfields that lie between them is the main objective in the northern campaign.
But US commanders believe that Tikrit could be the battleground for the Iraqi regime's last stand.
It is defended by well-trained troops, but coalition troops have yet to arrive in the area.
A spokesman for US Central Command said the bombardment was "shaping the battlefield" for their ground forces.
US spokesman Captain Frank Thorp said: "It's a little too early to assess the resistance in Tikrit as, at this time, operations are mostly from the air in our effort to shape the battlefield."
Along with the garrison for the Republican Guard, Iraq's best-trained troops, Tikrit hosts an air base and air force academy.
Saddam has also studded the area with some of his largest and most elaborate presidential compounds.
The city sits above a labyrinth of underground tunnels.
America fears that regime hardliners may be able to organise resistance groups and launch a guerrilla war against coalition troops similar to the one his ruling Baath Party waged in the 1950s.
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said: "We certainly are focused on Tikrit to prevent the regime from being able to use it as a place to command and control, to restore command and control, or to hide."
Military analyst John Pike said: "It is entirely possible that some elements of the Baath Party will reconstitute themselves as an underground revolutionary armed struggle party that will launch terrorist attacks against US forces and the interim authority."
Copyright © 2003, Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
