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Iraqi Regime Disintegration Continues

Friday, April 11, 2003
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Special operations forces continue missions in all parts of Iraq. In Baghdad, special operations personnel and mechanized infantry forces entered one of Saddam's prison complexes. The area could hold up to 15,000 prisoners, and coalition troops found it empty. "There were no coalition prisoners located at that site," Brooks said.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Signs of the disintegration of Saddam Hussein's regime abound in Iraq, U.S. Central Command officials said in a briefing in Qatar today.

Pockets of regime resistance remain, but CENTCOM intelligence reports regime leadership and control systems have been broken, said Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks. "There are increasing indications of regime-associated individuals attempting to escape the coalition by fleeing into other countries," the deputy director of operations at the command noted.

Coalition forces continued combat operations in and around Baghdad and in the north of the country. Forces also worked on creating a climate of security and stability in liberated portions of the country, Brooks said.

There was a suicide bombing in the Saddam City portion of Baghdad that wounded four Marines and a Navy corpsman, Brooks said. In another portion of the city, soldiers cleared a minefield of more than 350 mines.

"That explosion and the clearance of the minefield … serve as reminders to us that Baghdad is still a very dangerous place and that conditions are not set for life to continue," Brooks said.
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2003 © United States Department of Defense.

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