Coalition wraps up 'major combat'

Associated Press

U.S. soldiers arrest a group of men Monday in the streets of Baghdad, accusing them of driving a vehicle full of weapons and attempting to ambush U.S. troops. American soldiers and local residents claimed the men were non-Iraqi Arab fighters.

Wire services
Apr. 15, 2003 12:00 AM

BAGHDAD - U.S. Marines seized control of Tikrit on Monday, wrapping up the last significant Baath Party stronghold in Iraq and marking a shift in the U.S. campaign from grabbing territory to targeting pockets of resistance, rebuilding war-ravaged infrastructure and creating a new system of government.

U.S. officials said the Marines who captured Tikrit, a small farming community 90 miles northwest of Baghdad and the ancestral region of former President Saddam Hussein, encountered lighter-than-expected resistance, mostly from paramilitary Baath loyalists instead of the organized military defenses some had feared. By the end of the day, U.S. troops patrolled the city center and set up checkpoints, receiving a calm, if sometimes reserved, welcome from the population.

Marines in Baghdad, the capital, also refocused their duties from fighting to peacekeeping, sending out more troops to apprehend looters and starting joint patrols with Iraqi police officers. The tide of lawlessness that had enveloped the city for the past five days appeared to ebb.

Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that the fall of Tikrit means "major combat operations are over" in the 26-day military campaign to take out Saddam's government. But the challenge of restoring civil order and searching for pro-Saddam militiamen remained formidable in this still-chaotic country of 24 million people.

To help with those tasks, thousands of soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division moved into southern Iraq from their staging areas in Kuwait. At the same time, Pentagon officials announced that two aircraft carriers, the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation - each with about 80 warplanes - will depart the Persian Gulf this week and return to their home ports.

Government talks begin

Meanwhile, the United States will take the first steps toward creation of a new Iraqi government today, convening a meeting of 75 Iraqi community leaders and exile figures in a newly pacified town on the Euphrates River.

Even before the conference in Nasiriyah begins, the challenges it faces have become clear: Some former opposition groups have refused to attend, and officials from the State Department and Pentagon are offering different views over how much leeway the delegates should get in charting the country's future.

The meeting is "the start of a national dialogue among Iraqis about the future of their country," a senior U.S. official said. It is designed "for them to get together to talk about their aspirations and plans and processes to move toward the establishment of an Iraqi interim authority. Our role is to facilitate, given the security situation . . . that conversation."

Many delegates are being transported to Nasiriyah by the U.S. military. Despite the absence of some groups, the meeting will represent diverse visions for Iraq. "This is a big-tent concept, a town-hall meeting," one official said.

Bush administration officials hope the process launched in Nasiriyah could lead to the creation of an interim Iraqi administration within weeks. Iraqi authorities would gradually assume powers from U.S. reconstruction officials led by retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner.

In other developments Monday:

Two soldiers with the Army's V Corps were killed and two wounded when a grenade exploded accidentally at a checkpoint south of Baghdad. A third soldier was killed and another wounded in an accidental shooting near Baghdad International Airport, Central Command said.

U.S. troops found 11 containers buried close to an artillery ammunition plant about 50 miles south of Baghdad that could be dual-use chemical and biological laboratories, Army Brig. Gen. Ben Freakley told CNN. American forces have uncovered suspect sites before, but none has produced hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

A scientist described as the father of Iraq's nuclear weapons program has surrendered in a Middle Eastern country and is being questioned, U.S. officials said. The capture of Jaffar al-Jaffer, who is believed to know key people and locations of facilities connected to Iraq's nuclear weapons program, could provide U.S. officials with a wealth of information on Iraq's purported stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Police return to work

In Baghdad, more than 2,000 policemen reported back for work after requests from U.S. officials. The officers showed up at the city's Police College, where they were urged by Maj. Gen. Zuhair Nuaimi, the city police chief, to work with Marines in patrolling streets, manning checkpoints and directing traffic. By the afternoon, a few policemen were standing alongside Marines at checkpoints in downtown Baghdad.

A Marine spokesman said several hundred policemen would join Marines as they patrol the eastern side of Baghdad today.

One problem, however, appears to be a lack of police cars. Several were looted and many others were taken home by officers fleeing as U.S. tanks entered the capital.

Restoring some order

The looting that devastated this city during the first few days after Saddam's government fell appeared to further ease as many bare ministry buildings offered no more loot and Marine patrols increased in frequency.

Several hundred Iraqis held a demonstration in a traffic circle in front of the Palestine Hotel, where many foreign journalists are staying. The protesters complained about the lack of security and disruption of public services in the city, demanding that U.S. troops address their concerns, but also urging them to depart quickly.

"Islamic state! Islamic state! Not American, not American!" several of them chanted.

In Kirkuk, the ethnically diverse and politically sensitive northern Iraq oil center, electricity was restored to portions of the city, while U.S. troops patrolled to ensure that civil order continued to take root.