US forces seized three Iraqi presidental palaces, including Saddam Hussein’s main official residence in the heart of Baghdad, in lightning tank raids Monday, a senior US officer said.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Bayer, operations officer for the US army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said US troops had ”secured the main presidential palace” and another palace in the city center as well as a third near the airport.
”There are two palaces (in the city center), we own both of them,” Bayer told reporters.
He said they were captured by the division’s Second Brigade which sent two tank battalions and a mechanized infantry battalion, totaling some 65 tanks and 40 Bradley fighting vehicles, into the city.
The US forces came under attack by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades but no US casualties were reported. There was no word on Iraqi losses.
The palace by the airport, which is southwest of Baghdad, was taken by the division’s First Brigade with no opposition, Bayer said.
”First Brigade attacked out of the airport this morning and has seized the presidential palace” nearby, Bayer said.
The Second Brigade forces in Baghdad were reported to be in the vicinity of Iraq’s tomb of the unknown soldier and the presidential reviewing stand.
Major Mike Birmingham, public affairs officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, said of the incursions: ”The express purpose is to demonstrate to the Iraqi people we are here and the regime is not in control.
”We have the capacity to go where we want and when we want with whatever assets.” Bayer said that the division’s Third Brigade encountered sporadic small arms fire overnight and early Monday after fighting its way around western Baghdad on Sunday as part of a move to encircle the capital. – Sapa-AFP