Marines take control of Saddam's last bastion

Baghdad - US tanks and troops took control of the centre of Tikrit today as US forces fought hard-core loyalist defenders in Saddam Hussein's home town

The Al-Jazeera satellite TV station reported that local tribal groups had offered to negotiate a "peaceful solution" with the Americans and hand over some Ba'ath Party leaders in the town. The tribal groups said the regular army, Republican Guards and Saddam's Fedayeen, left the city five days ago, according to Al-Jazeera.

Journalists 'embedded' with the American troops reported that large numbers of residents were leaving the city, in northern Iraq

Many of Tikrit's streets were almost deserted. Unlike in other major Iraqi cities, the many portraits, banners and statues of Saddam remained undamaged.

Businessman Khalef al-Ahbad said Tikrit had endured four days of bombing. "Tikrit is a developed city. It's full of culture," he said. "We do not have a taste for blood, we are not fighters. We are thirsty for peace. America is attacking us for its own purposes. We are a peaceful people."

Battles between Iraqi troops and US Marines supported by Cobra assault helicopters and F/A-18aircraft were reported on the southern outskirts. General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces, said militiamen, death squads and foreign fighters were holding out. "Until we have a sense that we have all of that under control, then we will probably not characterise the initial military phase as having been completed and the regime totally gone," he said.

Although Baghdad was still not under full American control – the streets of the capital remain chaotic and dangerous – the Americans had swept north up the Tigris river to the last major centre of President Saddam's support and the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Muslims.

The taking of Tikrit is considered by the US and British as critical. More than three weeks after Britain and America launched a war on the grounds that Iraq possessed chemical or biological arms or weapons of mass destruction, evidence of these has yet to be found. George Bush, Tony Blair and their generals are hoping that President Saddam chose to locate them in his home town, a nondescript textile city of 350,000. They will be hoping, too, that Tikrit yields the whereabouts of President Saddam and some of his top officials.

The dictator's concentration of power among his closest family, and distrust of most people outside his clan, meant that Tikrit was the backbone of his security apparatus. US forces have equipped themselves with samples of President Saddam's DNA to confirm his identity if he is found.

The ground assault on Tikrit began in the form of a so-called "task force" from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force which approached the town from the south, along Route 1.

Reports differed last night over the level of Iraqi resistance. The Americans were hoping that prolonged air strikes had broken the back of the Iraqi army.

Reports from the area suggested severe damage to its defences. But the readiness of some Iraqis to fight was established by CNN's Brent Sadler and his crew, who came under fire after passing through a checkpoint inside the town early yesterday. A CNN security "adviser" returned fire as they sped away. The news channel had earlier broadcast live footage shot by Sadler and his team as they passed through the deserted outskirts of Tikrit.

Statues and posters of President Saddam remained intact, indicating that the Baath party was still in control.

In Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities, US and British forces consolidated their control and seized on first signs of a return to normality after days of looting. In the capital, Iraqis volunteered to help rebuild public services, including water and policing.

But the holy city of Najaf was reported to be dangerously unstable amid signs of a power struggle between rival Shia factions. The home of a leading Shia cleric was besieged by an armed mob days after another senior religious figure was hacked to death in the city's main mosque. Ethnic tensions also flared in northern Iraq between Kurds and Arabs. -- Independent News

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