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Making a point of the US-led coalition's success in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Tuesday that US forces are moving "at will" within and around Baghdad.
"We continue to make progress in the war with the Iraqi regime, which has less control of the country every day," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters at press briefing.
"Our troops are moving at will in Baghdad, including the presidential palaces," she said.
The spokeswoman said the Iraqi military "has lost much of its command and control capability. Most of the opposition is now sporadic attacks from small units."
"We continue to believe that some tough fighting may well still lie ahead, but the forces will not stop until Saddam Hussein and his regime are gone," she said.
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, vice director of joint operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said US forces in and around Baghdad "are spending the night wherever they want to."
"We have, in fact, essentially isolated the capital," McChrystal said.
Heavily armed US troops pushed into the heart of Baghdad with tanks and armored personnel carriers Monday and seized two of President Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces along the Tigris River.
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2003)
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