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Major
Combat In Iraq Finished, Three U.S. Soldiers Killed
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With the seizure of Tikrit, the U.S. forces said major combat is over
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BAGHDAD,
April 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –As the U.S. and
British officials declared Iraq invasion is now over with the seizure
of Saddam Hussein's last major holdout of Tikrit, three American
soldiers died and three more were injured in apparent accidental
blasts in the last 24 hours, the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday,
April 15.
Two
died when a grenade exploded as they worked on a vehicle south of
Baghdad, a Baghdad datelined statement said, claiming the incident was
not a result of hostile fire.
The
two members of the Fifth Corps were killed in "an apparent
accidental detonation of a grenade while they were performing
maintenance on a vehicle in a checkpoint south of Baghdad," at
1200 GMT on Monday, a statement said.
And
from Camp Virginia in Kuwait, the Central Command said another Fifth
Corps soldier had been killed and another wounded Monday morning in
"an apparent accidental weapons discharge incident in the
vicinity of Baghdad International Airport."
"The
soldiers have been evacuated to a military medical treatment facility
in the Iraqi area of operations. The wounded soldiers condition is
currently unknown," it said.
Investigations
were underway into both incidents, while the names of the dead were
being withheld pending next-of-kin notification, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Combat
"Over"
Meanwhile,
senior Pentagon officials made it clear that major combat in Iraq is
over now and U.S. commanders are starting to send home aircraft
carriers and stealth bombers as Iraqi fighters no longer mounts a
coherent defense and major combat there is essentially over, while
they adjust their ground forces for a changing mission.
"I
would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over because
the major Iraqi units on the ground cease to show coherence,"
said Army Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director of
operations of the Joint Staff.
Tikrit,
the hometown of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was the last
place where U.S. forces thought they might find sizeable units of his
Special Republican Guard forces, he said. But it fell Monday with only
sporadic resistance.
"We
will move into a phase where it will be small, albeit sharp
fights," said the general.
Gen.
Vincent Brooks of U.S. Central Command said the "only significant
combat action" Monday took place in Tikrit.
After
heavy air strikes and sporadic battles Sunday, the U.S.-led forces
from the south, west and north moved
early Monday into the center of the north-central Iraqi city.
Victoria
Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters not to expect a
declaration of victory.
But
a drawdown of the massive 300,000 U.S. force deployed for what turned
out to be a three week war already is in the works, officials said.
Two
U.S. aircraft carriers, the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation,
are due to head home from the Gulf as early as this week, in the first
significant reduction of forces in the region, US defense officials
said.
That
will leave a single carrier in the Gulf, the USS Nimitz, which last
week replaced the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
Two
other carriers remain in the eastern Mediterranean, the USS Theodore
Roosvelt and the USS Harry Truman. But plans are being made to send
one of those home soon, too, Vice Admiral Timothy Keating, the U.S.
naval commander, told reporters on Saturday.
"Redeployment
has already begun of B-2s, F-117s and some F-15C fighters," a
defense official said.
Six
of the F-117 stealth fighters, which opened the war March 20 with a
strike aimed at killing Saddam, returned to the United States on
Monday, their base in New Mexico said. The remaining F-117 jets were
expected back within days.
The
B-2s go back to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and the F-15Cs to
Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, a defense official said.
"Still
Early"
General
Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is free to send
back forces he no longer needs, "and he is doing that," said
McChrystal.
"Clearly
those assets that are focused on a high intensity air campaign would
be the most likely initially," he said.
The
U.S.-led air forces, which were launching more than 1,500 air strikes
a day at the height of the war, dropped only 200 bombs during the
previous day, he said.
"We're
still early in the ground forces," he said, adding that no ground
units have been redeployed so far.
But
a decision has been made to call off the deployment of the 1st Cavalry
Division, a defense official said.
The
1st Armored Division is still in line to deploy from Germany but it
will be heavily weighted with military police, engineering and civil
affairs units, McChrystal said.
The
U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division is now almost entirely deployed
inside Iraq, and other ground forces, including the 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment, continued to flow into the region, he said.
"There
will be a requirement for combat power for some period of time to
maintain or to establish that secure and safe environment," he
said.
"But
clearly the requirement for civil affairs, for engineer organizations,
military police will be significant. In fact, that's designed into the
force flow," he said.
Currently
there are about 300,000 U.S. forces in the region. About 140,000 U.S.
and British troops are inside Iraq, a defense official said.
The
Kitty Hawk, which arrived in the Gulf in February as part of a massive
U.S. military buildup against Iraq, will head back to its homeport in
Yokosuka, Japan, the defense official said.
The
Constellation, which deployed in November as part of a scheduled
rotation in the Gulf, will be going back to its homeport in San Diego,
California. It has about a dozen warships in its battle groups.
Declaring
the U.S. and British forces won victory in the war against Iraq,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that the conflict was not
over.
In
a Commons statement, Blair said: "We are near the end of the
conflict, but the challenge for peace is now beginning."
"There
is a heavy responsibility to make the peace worth the war. We shall
not do so in a spirit of elation, still less of triumphalism, but with
a fixed and steady resolve that the cause was just, the victory right
and the future for us to make in a way to stand the judgment of
history."
Blair
will receive a huge boost after an ICM poll published in today's
Guardian reveals support for the war has risen to 63 per cent, its
highest level since last August, The Mirror reported.
Blair
also dismissed as a "conspiracy theory" growing fears that
the U.S. might attack Syria.
The
PM also told MPs he had been given a personal assurance by President
Bashir Assad of Syria that his nation was not harboring Iraqi leaders.
Blair
spoke as U.S. and British officials tuned up the heat against Damascus
for allegedly giving shelter to Saddam's henchmen and developing
chemical weapons.
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