KUWAIT CITY, 12 April 2003 — It was the birthplace of one of the great figures of Islam, Saladin, who drove the Crusaders out of Jerusalem. Now it might witness the final showdown with Saddam Hussein’s regime. Tikrit, 160 kilometers north of Baghdad, is the last major Iraqi city still in the hands of Saddam loyalists, after Mosul fell to the US-led coalition yesterday.
It is also Saddam’s birthplace, his tribal power base, a stronghold of his minority Sunni Muslims who have ruled the nation’s Shiite majority — and the richest target left on the US battle maps.
A spokesman for US Central Command in Qatar told AFP the coalition was “softening up the battle space,” their code for punishing airstrikes that have pounded Saddam’s once-feared Republican Guard into submission. Some Guard forces are still believed to be around the city, but the command refused to give a figure on how many. A number might have moved south to protect Baghdad, while the road between the two has since been blocked.
Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at the Pentagon on Thursday that the US-led coalition had to be “prepared for a big fight.” Whatever senior regime members remain could reasonably be expected to be in Tikrit, where during his 24-year rule Saddam carefully cultivated support by doling out favors to relatives and fellow tribesmen.
And if Saddam is alive, he might well be inside. In the buildup to the war, he vowed he would die on his native soil.
Once a dusty farming town, Tikrit was transformed into a gleaming modern city with ornate palaces and mosques, and opulent villas for his trusted aides, after Saddam’s Baath Party took power in 1968.
The city throws the biggest party every year on Saddam’s birthday, April 28, but this year the United States is aiming for a very different kind of celebration and may pull out its MOAB to do it.
Saddam called the first Gulf War the Mother of All Battles and US commanders call this the Mother of All Bombs, a 21,000-pound behemoth designed to melt just about everything — including chemical weapons hidden deep underground.
Gen. Vincent Renuart at Central Command this week said he could not rule out using the MOAB, which is officially known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, on the city.
That could simply be more of the psychological campaign that the United States has waged to get remaining Iraqi holdouts to put down their weapons and put up their hands.
