US marines at Tikrit, report of ceasefire talks

8.00am

BAGHDAD - US and Iraqi troops fought sporadic battles in Saddam Hussein's stronghold of Tikrit on Sunday as tribal leaders in the town said they were meeting American representatives to negotiate a ceasefire.

US military planners had expected remnants of the Iraqi army and Baath party might mount a last stand in Tikrit, dominated by the clan of Saddam, who was born in the area.

The town, 175km north of Baghdad, is the last major Iraqi centre not yet controlled by US forces.

In a report from the northern part of Tikrit, al-Jazeera television correspondent Youssef al-Sharif interviewed armed men who said they represented leaders of the 15 main tribal family groups in the city.

They told him they were negotiating a ceasefire with US forces and that Iraqi troops and paramilitaries were long gone.

"We have 15 tribes here and the leaders of the tribes are negotiating with the Americans. We don't want to fight the Americans. The Iraqi military left the city five days ago," one unidentified man told Sharif.

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.

Earlier on Sunday US Marines battled Iraqi forces, including tanks, on the southern outskirts of Tikrit, a journalist travelling with the US forces told CNN. Sporadic clashes continued, with long lulls, into the evening.

Matthew Fisher of Canada's National Post newspaper told the channel in a live telephone call from the area that US forces were pushing into the town on Sunday evening, backed by Cobra attack helicopters and aircraft.

"It's a very, very significant attack," he said. "They are right now moving into the urban area in force."

Fisher said US forces had swept north overnight.

"There is a very large amount of armour moving in. The US jumped forward 160 km overnight and surprised many of the Iraqi forces. At least that's the American interpretation," he said.

US forces believed as many as 2500 Iraqi Republican Guard and Saddam Fedayeen militia were in Tikrit and prepared to defend it, he said.

The armed Tikrit resident told Jazeera the militia had left the town and that the fighting in the south earlier in the day occurred "because the Americans opened fire first".

The tribal leaders said they had taken up arms to protect the town from possible attack by Iraqi Kurdish fighters who on Thursday swept into Kirkuk, 110km, to the northeast.

"We are carrying arms to defend our city from the Kurds. We do not want them in our city. We have no problems with the Americans. We want peace but we will not allow the Kurds to come in," one unidentified man told Sharif.

General Tommy Franks, commander of the US war on Iraq, said the "decisive military operations" phase of the war was moving towards the end but the fighting was not over yet.

"I wouldn't say it's over but I will say we have American forces in Tikrit right now," Franks told CNN in an interview monitored at war headquarters in Qatar.

Despite apparent progress in Tikrit, Franks said military action would not end until pockets of Iraqi resistance were under control.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war