By Jim Garamone

There are no towns under Iraqi regime control now, according to the commander of US Central Command, Gen Tommy Franks.

But this did not mean the fighting had ended.

Gen Franks said he was not ready to declare victory, even though the Iraqi regime is destroyed.
“We believe that there are a number of military objectives in this country,” he said.

“One of them for sure is to remove the regime. And we believe this regime is no longer in charge. In fact, it is an ex-regime.”
The United States still must find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, root out terrorist cells and then move to an ‘end state’ where the Iraqi people choose their government.

He noted that Coalition forces, in their rush to Baghdad, had bypassed a number of villages and cities. Coalition forces would now go into those towns and cities and there may be fighting by ‘dead-enders’.

“Resistance is spotty. We have had our people in a number of places where they have had a hell of a fight. We have had our people go to other places where we were ready for a huge fight and been greeted by people saying all the regular army people have left.”

Gen Franks said there would be more fighting in the capital. Baghdad had been divided into 55 or 60 block zones and that coalition forces could expect fighting in 10 to 15 of them.

The general said that village and city officials in some places were working with coalition forces to help restore their areas.
These actions are coming about now because the Iraqis finally believed Saddam Hussein is gone.

– American Forces Press Service.

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