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Marines Sweep Through Tikrit
U.S.: Mobile chemical-biological labs found

Monday, April 14, 2003
(3:01 PM ET) (19:01 GMT)
The Cable News Network



CNN Correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Rula Amin, Jane Arraf, Bob Franken, Michael Holmes, Tom Mintier, Thomas Nybo and Brent Sadler contributed to this report



Central Command spokesman, U.S. Col. Frank Thorp told CNN's Tom Mintier that contrary to earlier media reports, there were no surrender negotiations taking place between local tribal leaders and coalition forces. Thorp said there were discussions to that effect earlier, but "the latest report we have is that those negotiations are not going on and fighting continues," he said.

TIKRIT, Iraq -- CNN
With U.S. Marines working to secure the last major Iraqi city not under coalition control, Pentagon officials announced plans Monday to scale back the American naval presence in the Persian Gulf by bringing home two carrier groups in the coming days.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops believe they have found 11 mobile chemical and biological laboratories buried south of Baghdad outside Karbala, a U.S. general said Monday. (Full story)

No chemical or biological weapons were found along with the labs, but soldiers recovered "about 1,000 pounds" of documents inside them, said Brig. Gen. Benjamin Freakly of the Army's 101st Airborne Division.

U.N. weapons inspectors in February "found nothing untoward" at an ammunition filling plant close to where the United States says troops have found the labs, a U.N. inspection team spokesman said Monday.

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.N. Security Council that Iraq had mobile biological weapons labs on at least 18 flatbed trucks.
(More: CNN.com)
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Dan