US Marines Engaging Saddam Loyalists in Tikrit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 14, 2003

US Marines Engaging Saddam Loyalists in Tikrit

US Marines entered Saddam Hussein's hometown and power base Sunday and clashed with some final vestiges of Iraqi resistance, using airstrikes and artillery assaults aimed at overwhelming any plans for a furious last stand.

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US Marines was in combat with Iraqi forces on the southern outskirts of Tikrit on Sunday, a Canadian journalist told CNN.

Matthew Fisher, of Canada's National Post newspaper, said "a significant attack" was underway in the hometown of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The US forces had employed tanks, assault helicopters and fighter planes in the firefights, while five Iraqi tanks had been destroyed, Fisher told CNN in a telephone call.

"Iraqi infantry came out of their holes to fight the Marines in their light armored vehicles. About 15 Iraqis died in that exchange, no Americans," he said.

Fisher said the US forces had been told to get prepared for fighting with remnants of the Iraqi Republican Guard and the Fedayeen fighters in Tikrit.

"They've all been told that it appears that there's a core of about 2,500 Iraqis who are willing to fight in the town," he said.

Tikrit, about 180 km north of Baghdad, was widely regarded as the last stronghold of the Iraqi leader.

US General Tommy Franks, chief of the US Central Command, said earlier Sunday that the US forces will not stop military actions in Iraq until pockets of resistance are thoroughly brought under control.

Franks told CNN that there were pockets of Iraqi resistance, "referred to as everything from paramilitary to death squad to Fedayeen Saddam," and there were also pockets of foreigners in Iraq who were determined to fight to the end.

"I think we would be premature to say well it's all done, it's all finished," he said.

"And until we have a sense that we have all of that (resistance) under control then we will probably not characterize the initial military phase as having been completed and the regime totally gone," said the US war commander.

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