- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior
U.S. commander said on Wednesday that U.S. forces had secured the center
of Baghdad and said the combat phase of the Iraqi war would end in a few
days' time, at least in the capital and in southern Iraq.
-
- "Not every area in Baghdad is secure, but the central
part of the city, the heart of the city, is secure," said General
Buford Blount, commander of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.
-
- "We have defeated him (President Saddam Hussein)
militarily. We have taken away his ability to command control," he
told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker.
-
- "The end of the combat phase is days away. There
may be more combat in the north but in Baghdad and the south the end of
the combat phase is days away," Blount added.
-
- Earlier, U.S. soldiers pulled down a huge statue of Saddam
in central Baghdad and ecstatic Iraqis danced on it in contempt for the
man who ruled them with an iron grip for 24 years in scenes that recalled
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
-
- Blount said there were still "some terrorists, Fedayeen
(fighters) and Special Republican Guards" loyal to Saddam holding
out in parts of the capital.
-
- Asked whether Saddam's government was still functioning
in Iraq, Blount said: "We have been in all the government buildings
and there is no government left to speak of."
-
- Blount declined to say whether the United States and
its allies could yet declare victory in the campaign to oust Saddam, but
said the transition from combat to humanitarian operations had begun in
some Iraqi cities.
-
- He said he expected humanitarian flights to Baghdad to
start in "a few days' time."
-
- "We are going to expand the security zone that we
have in downtime Baghdad and we will bring up more logistics people, more
soldiers, and some more aviation," Blount said.
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