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US troops capture heart of Tilkrit

STAR DESK
US troops yesterday fought pockets of hard-core defenders of Tikrit after they powered into Saddam Hussein's hometown, backed by warplanes and helicopters, to crush the last major stronghold of Iraqi resistance.
The presidential palace was seized without a fight, the US military said, and large numbers of US troops were visible in the central Tikrit, 90 miles north of Baghdad.
US forces suspected about 2,500 diehards of the Republican Guard and the paramilitary Fedayeen -- and possibly officials from the Iraqi president's regime -- were holed up in the city.
The Americans destroyed a tank column moving outside the town Sunday and killed a platoon of 15 to 20 Iraqis who attacked the marines' armoured vehicles, the operation's commander, Brig. Gen. John Kelly,
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told the New York Times correspondent.
Cobra helicopters also destroyed six fully loaded but unmanned anti-aircraft guns on the city outskirts before US troops in light armoured vehicles began moving into Tikrit yesterday morning.
The attack was launched despite an offer from 22 tribal leaders to negotiate peace with US forces and hand over some Baath Party leaders in Tikrit, said the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera.
Many Tikrit streets were almost deserted. Unlike in other major Iraqi cities, many portraits, banners and statues of Saddam remained undamaged.
Businessman Khalef al-Ahbad said Tikrit had endured four days of bombing. "Tikrit is a developed city. It's full of culture," he said. "We don't have a taste for blood, we are not fighters. We are thirsty for peace. America is attacking us for its own purposes. We are a peaceful people."
According to the Pentagon, the toll of US military dead in Iraq rose to 117 on Sunday.
Fighting Continues In Baghdad
Fighting is not over elsewhere in
Iraq. In Baghdad, where US troops are trying to win cooperation of Iraqis to help restore power and water supplies and end looting, a fierce firefight broke out in the city centre near the Palestine Hotel yesterday.
A firefight between Arab volunteers and Iraqi combatants in the northern Baghdad suburb of Saddam City left two dead yesterday morning, Iraqi participants said.
Renamed Al-Sadr City by residents of the impoverished community of two million, it has been the site of pitched battles nearly every day since Baghdad fell to US troops on April 9.
According to Iraqi fighters, the battle was against Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese volunteers who had come to Baghdad to serve the Iraqi army against the US-British invaders.
The fight pitted two rival groups who are struggling for control of the mainly Shiite community against each other, said witnesses.
US television showed footage of marines detaining and leading away three men, thought to be snipers.
Ethnic Tension
The holy city of Najaf was reported to
be dangerously unstable amid signs of a power struggle between rival Shiite factions. The home of a leading Shiite cleric was besieged by an armed mob days after another senior religious figure was hacked to death in the city's main mosque. Ethnic tensions also flared in northern Iraq between Kurds and Arabs.
Basra Volunteers
In Basra, British troops and Iraqi police officers were working side by side in an effort to restore order.
About 300 policemen have volunteered to come back to work, and have begun manning checkpoints.
Officers are being vetted over links to the Ba'ath party before being allowed to return to their old jobs, military officials said.