Allies take 2 more cities as chaos fills Baghdad

Knight Ridder News Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two more Iraqi strongholds — the northern oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul — fell yesterday as U.S. and allied forces pursued the remnants of Saddam Hussein's army and closed in on his ancestral hometown.

Jubilant residents mount a statue of Saddam Hussein in celebration of the taking of Kirkuk by U.S. Special Forces and Kurdish pesh merga fighters. Allied troops secured the city and Mosul yesterday. Jahi Chikwendiu • Washington Post

• A suicide bomber seriously wounded four U.S. Marines late yesterday in the capital. To the south, an angry crowd hacked to death two clerics at a Shiite Muslim shrine in Najaf. To the north, looting swiftly followed liberation in Kirkuk and Mosul.

• In Kirkuk, anti-Saddam Kurdish forces swept into the city virtually unopposed, followed by U.S. troops. In Mosul, Iraqi forces and Baath Party officials simply slipped away, replaced by U.S. Special Forces.

• Residents mirrored celebrations elsewhere, toppling statues of Saddam, plundering government offices and kissing tough-skinned U.S. Army commandos.

"It is a kind of dream," said Ahmad Sayeed Othman, 30, of Kirkuk.

Defecting Iraqi soldiers trudged unimpeded along local roads. They still wore their uniforms but they did not carry weapons. Some shouted, "Hurray, America and Britain!"

U.S. officers said four Iraqi army divisions, with up to 30,000 men, signaled their readiness to surrender. The northern oil fields were almost entirely undamaged.

By early today, U.S. forces were within 60 miles of Tikrit, Saddam's home city where large numbers of Republican Guard forces and other Saddam loyalists were thought to be gathering for a last stand.

U.S. military strategists concentrated their efforts on tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers said to remain in the north. U.S. warplanes repeatedly struck their units. The Iraqis' will to fight could not be assessed.

"They are the last significant formations on the battlefield that we're aware of," said Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of operations for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We are prepared to be very, very wary of what they may have, and prepared for a big fight."

Wariness was the key word on many fronts.

One day after U.S. Marines and Army soldiers — and the euphoria they delivered — raced through Baghdad, sporadic battles, looting and bloodletting raged in that city and elsewhere in Iraq.

In the capital, at least one Marine was killed and dozens wounded in fierce battles with squads of hard-core Saddam loyalists near a palace, a mosque and other places.

Illustrating the dangers that remain, a lone man walked up to a Marine checkpoint last night and detonated an explosive strapped to his body, seriously wounding four Marines near the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

The U.S. military toll rose to at least 105 dead, with many others wounded. Air Force Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart described the capital as "still an ugly place."

Officials warned that the number of casualties could grow as U.S. warplanes and ground forces attempt to crush remaining Iraqi troop concentrations in the north and eliminate resistance in Baghdad and elsewhere.

"There's still a significant amount of work to do," said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

On the to-do list: Determine if Saddam is dead, and find him if he is alive.

The military moved its newest and most powerful conventional bomb — a 21,500-pound monster — into the region for use against any bunker thought to be harboring Saddam or other top Iraqi officials.

Just before 2 a.m. today in Iraq, coalition forces targeted a building near Ramadi, about 50 miles west of Baghdad on one of the main routes to Syria. A bomber dropped six JDAMs on the building, aiming for Saddam Hussein's half brother Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, former head of intelligence for the regime and former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations. Hours later, the coalition was still assessing the damage and it was unclear whether the attack was successful.

U.S. Special Forces in Baghdad examined the site of an air strike to determine if he was killed in Monday's attack on a residential neighborhood. One of the day's fiercest firefights was sparked by rumors that Saddam and his oldest son, Odai, were hiding in a house near the Azumiyah palace.

If they were, they escaped.

Also in the capital, thousands of looters again exploited the security vacuum created by the rapid collapse of Saddam's regime, swarming through government buildings, private businesses and other facilities.

They torched several government buildings and filled cars, trucks, wheelbarrows and makeshift carts with televisions, furniture, carpets and other booty. Among the targets: the embassy of Germany, a nation that opposed the U.S.-led invasion.

As unease grew over the absence of authority in many regions of Iraq, U.S. officials vowed to deliver the security and stability they promised Iraqis — but they said it would take time to partly convert a military force into a temporary police force.

"All of us understand that it's better to have a safe quiet life in our neighborhoods than not," Renuart said at allied headquarters in Qatar.

A senior Bush administration official who requested anonymity said: "Although the military campaign has gone well, there are bad omens everywhere else you look. This is going to be harder and take longer than some people thought."

Still, some progress was reported: In western Iraq, villagers in Rutbah welcomed allied forces, asking them to stay to keep out the "death squads." The town later appointed a mayor and installed a new government, replacing Saddam's Baath Party.

U.S. military officials also warned again that tough days of fighting loom on the horizon, particularly in northern Iraq.

"There's still a long way to go," Renuart said. "We're not sure when a military victory will be complete."

In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters, backed by U.S. Special Forces, streamed into Kirkuk in a convoy of more than 100 cars, pickup trucks and other vehicles, including a garbage truck.

Kurdish families ran out of their homes to cheer and throw roses at the fighters, known as pesh merga. Officials at the Pentagon said a battalion-size force — about 700 soldiers — of the 173rd Airborne Division entered Kirkuk later in the day.

The cities of Mosul and Kirkuk have been subjected to heavy allied bombing in recent days, and thousands of pesh merga massed for an offensive. In response, Iraqi officers began stripping off uniforms Wednesday night and leaving.

When Iraqi officials and Baath Party members were gone, residents indulged in an orgy of looting against ministry and police buildings, the Baath headquarters, an armory and government warehouses. Some pesh merga participated in the looting.

The arrival of the 173rd Airborne was partly intended to placate Turkish officials. Turkey fears that control of northern oil fields might encourage Iraqi Kurds to declare an independent state, which in turn could inspire Kurds living on the Turkish side of the border to rebel.

Secretary of State Colin Powell assured Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that the United States — rather than the Kurds — would control Kirkuk and that Turkey could send a small number of monitors to the region.