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No Part of Iraq Under Regime Control, Franks Says

Sunday, April 13, 2003
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Franks said there will be more fighting in the capital. He told Fox interviewer Tony Snow that Baghdad has been divided into 55 or 60 block zones, and that coalition forces can expect fighting in 10 to 15 of them. He said coalition forces had "a heck of a fight" around a mosque in eastern Baghdad.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
There are no towns under Iraqi regime control now, Army Gen. Tommy Franks said on Fox News Sunday today.

Saddam Hussein's regime cannot exercise control over any portion of the country, the U.S. Central Command commander said, but this does not mean the fighting has ended.

Franks also appeared on CNN's "Late Edition," where he said he is 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, Franks said.

He noted that coalition forces, in their rush to Baghdad, had bypassed a number of villages and cities. Coalition forces will now go into those towns and cities, and there may be fighting by "dead-enders."
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2003 © United States Department of Defense.

Dan