U.S. Marines march on Tikrit; Iraqi cities calmer
U.S. Marines march on Tikrit; Iraqi cities calmer
Agencies, Baghdad
U.S. Marines dashed north on Sunday towards the northern town of Tikrit, the birthplace of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the last major prize yet to fall to the invading forces.
Television pictures suggested that dug-in defenses on the approaches to Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, had been abandoned. However, armed men still guarded the town itself and a CNN crew had to flee the place after coming under fire.
Baghdad and other Iraqi cities under U.S. control returned to a degree of normality after days of anarchy and looting but religious tensions appeared close to boiling point in the central holy city of Najaf.
U.S. Central Command in Qatar said significant elements of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force had left Baghdad and made swift progress up the road to Saddam's hometown.
"Marines are operating in the vicinity of Tikrit," spokesman Capt. Stewart Upton told Reuters, indicating that they were less than 50 km south of the town.
"The order was to attack and destroy regime forces," he said, adding that there were no reports of negotiations for a surrender of the dusty town.
As U.S. troops on Sunday pushed toward Saddam's traditional stronghold of Tikrit, armed civilians said they were ready to conditionally surrender to coalition forces.
Some military officials have speculated that Saddam and his closest advisers might be holed up in Tikrit. Others believe he might have being seriously wounded or died in a air raid on Baghdad last week.
After more than three weeks of fighting, U.S.-led forces have arrested just one senior Iraqi official -- Saddam's top scientific adviser, Gen. Amer Hammoudi al-Saadi, who handed himself in to the new military authorities on Saturday.
U.S. intelligence officials believe he could be the key to unlocking secrets about Iraq's weapons programs. But Saadi insisted Iraq had no banned chemical or biological arms -- the ostensible reason for Washington and London to attack Iraq.
The media have speculated that senior Iraqi figures might have escaped to neighboring Syria. Washington warned Damascus not to become a haven for Saddam supporters or for "terrorists".
In the capital Baghdad, to the south of Tikrit, a U.S. military commander said six U.S. soldiers believed to have been prisoners of war had been rescued from Iraqi forces.
Anxious to restore calm to Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqi police and civil servants responded to U.S. calls to meet in the city center on Sunday and discuss returning to service.
"We want to help the people, not Saddam Hussein," said police Lt. Abdel Wahed Issa Ahmed.
"The first thing we need to do is disarm people. You would not believe how many weapons are around."
Thousands of people who had fled the fighting returned to the Iraqi capital from the east on Sunday, carrying furniture and bulging suitcases on the roofs of their cars.