US Marines Control Center of Saddam's Hometown
Apr. 14, 2003 03:19 EDT

BAGHDAD - U.S. Marines seized control of the center of Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit on Monday after battling diehard loyalists, al-Jazeera television said.

Jazeera broadcast live pictures of U.S. Marines walking through Tikrit and U.S. tanks taking up positions in a central square.

Its correspondent in the city, Youssef al-Sharif, said: ``Tikrit is totally under U.S. control and they are talking with tribes to control the city and take out all pockets of resistance.''

The city, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, was the last major Iraqi center not yet controlled by U.S.-led forces.

A task force of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, backed by fighter jets and attack helicopters, fought units of the Iraqi Republican Guard on the southern edge of Tikrit earlier in a push toward the town center.

F-18 jets destroyed several Iraqi tanks and at least 15 Iraqi infantry were killed, the U.S. military said in Qatar. British Group Captain Al Lockwood, speaking from Central Command in Qatar, told Britain's Sky television: ``Tikrit is still somewhere from being secure but we are making every effort to ensure that it is for the people of Tikrit as quickly as possible.''

Al-Jazeera TV showed some Marines sitting on pavements in empty streets, others searching a car.

``They entered Tikrit from the south to the north and today they will cross the river...The city is totally quiet now, fighting has stopped,'' Sharif said.

``They...have taken up position on the bridge on the banks of the (river) Tigris. These forces have started to talk to the people. The people are staying in their houses,'' he added.

Saddam's concentration of power among his closest family, and distrust of most people outside his Albu Nasir tribe, meant Tikritis formed the backbone of his most loyal military forces.

U.S. forces had believed as many as 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guard and Saddam Fedayeen militia were in Tikrit and were prepared to defend it.