With the US capture of Hilla and the ancient ruins of Babylon the coalition consolidated its hold on southern Iraq yesterday and the military focus shifted to the north — in particular to Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit.
Almost all coalition bombing sorties were directed at the north, where US special forces tried to stop elements of the ousted regime entering the city and attacked the Republican Guard leadership coordinating its defence.
US tanks and armoured vehicles of the 1st Infantry Division, flown into the Kurdish-controlled Harir airfield from Germany earlier in the week, were seen moving towards the northern town of Mosul, the first American armoured offensive on the northern front.
There were preliminary reports last night that Iraqi troops in Mosul and the city’s governor were ready to surrender to US special forces.
Until recent days the US military presence in the Kurdish areas has been limited to special forces and lightly armed paratroopers of the 173rd Air borne Brigade. They have been advancing on Mosul alongside peshmerga fighters for several days, but Iraqi forces making a phased retreat were fighting them all the way along the road.
Reuters news agency reported yesterday that the joint US-Kurdish force had reached Mount Maqloub, about 20 kilometres north-east of Mosul.
After the fall of Kirkuk to peshmerga fighters, Mosul and Tikrit are the last two big strongholds of Saddam loyalists outside Baghdad.
US officers said the Republican Guard’s Adnan Division was dug in around Tikrit, and that thousands of Iraqi regular troops were deployed along the road to Mosul. Those forces came under intense aerial bombardment yesterday. The Pentagon said naval planes had taken part, along with B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers.
The Arabic television network al-Arabiya said its correspondent on highlands overlooking Mosul had seen air strikes on the frontlines there.
The shift to the north came after the fall of Hilla, the last town in the Euphrates valley holding out against the coalition forces.
Members of the 101st Airborne moved into its presidential palace overlooking the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, the birthplace of Mesopotamian culture.
There were reports of US troops fanning out to villages along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to talk to local leaders.
The original battleplan envisaged bypassing Euphrates towns such as Nassiriya and Najaf in a headlong rush to Baghdad, but the persis tence of guerrilla attacks on the coalition supply line prompted a readjustment of the plan. Marines and airborne troops were sent to attack Fedayeen bases in the towns.
The Pentagon said there were still bands of Fedayeen guerrillas and Ba’ath party activists operating in the western desert, setting up checkpoints on the road from Amman to Baghdad.
”It’s not a safe place to be,” a defence official said. ”We’ve got SOF [special operations forces] out there dealing with them.”
Lieutenant Mark Kitchens, a central command representative, said the special operations forces were ”actively engaging” Iraqi forces in Tikrit, but another central command spokesman said the air strikes on the Republican Guard defences were ”shaping the battlefield” before US ground forces moved in.
A Pentagon official said an all-out offensive on Tikrit, about 145 kilometres north of Baghdad, might have to wait for the arrival of armoured reinforcements. The 20 000-strong 4th Infantry Division has been flying into Kuwait for the past three weeks, and is unloading its tanks and armoured cars, the most modern in the US army, at the port.
One or more of its brigades could be sent into the battle before the whole division is equipped, military sources said. But past predictions by American US officers of a pause in operations have been overtaken by events. – Guardian Unlimited Â