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A Marine task force headed north from Baghdad on Sunday, seeking to destroy any Iraqi forces remaining on the route to Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The first TV news footage of Tikrit indicated its defenses had already dissolved.

The footage, aired by CNN, showed no signs of active Iraqi army defenses around Tikrit and suggested that intensive U.S. airstrikes had taken a heavy toll on the desert city's military forces.

CNN correspondent Brent Sadler reported that U.S. military officers were negotiating with tribal chiefs in Tikrit for a peaceful surrender of the city. Sadler said he encountered no checkpoints around Tikrit, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad, and was told by local residents that pro-Saddam militiamen had fled.

Asked about the CNN footage, Maj. Randi Steffy, a spokeswoman from U.S. Central Command, said, "That would be considered an ongoing operation. We don't have any information for you at this time."

She added that U.S. forces are "pleased with the progress we're making in the north."

Though Tikrit has been depicted as a possible locale for a last stand by Saddam's loyalists, U.S. officials in the past few days have been playing down the prospect of an all-out battle there because of desertions and damage from the sustained airstrikes.

Nonetheless, a task force from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was moving northward from Baghdad. Named Task Force Tripoli, it included several regimental combat teams and light-armor reconnaissance battalions.

With combat in most of Iraq over or winding down, the U.S. military was shifting its focus to stabilizing the country. One project is to establish joint patrols by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police, aimed at curbing the rampant looting that has wracked Baghdad, Mosul and other cities.

In another sign that the war's end is near, U.S. commanders are preparing to send home some of their warplanes.

Vice Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of naval forces in the war, said two or three of the five U.S. aircraft carriers launching planes on missions over Iraq may head home soon. Each carrier has about 80 planes aboard, including about 50 strike aircraft.

He said the USS Kitty Hawk, which has operated in the Persian Gulf since February, probably would be the first to leave. The USS Constellation, also in the Gulf, probably would go next, he said.

Once the combat ends, U.S. officials will focus on Iraq's postwar reconstruction. Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general who will run the initial Iraqi civil administration under American occupation, said it was difficult to predict the duration of his task.

"We are starting on a journey," he said in an interview aired Sunday by Sky Television. "I don't quite know when it's going to end. It will end as soon as we hand this nation back to the Iraqis."

One of the remaining missions for U.S. forces is to track down the 12 American soldiers still listed as missing or captured. With the Iraqi government gone and its the army dispersed, finding Iraqis who know where the POWs are has proved difficult so far.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, expressed hope that more people would be willing to share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam's regime has collapsed.

Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in southern Iraq after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday. The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.

After a flight from a military base in Germany, Lynch who has extensive injuries was taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington.

"Our medical team finds Pfc. Lynch to be in satisfactory condition so far," said Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, commander of the facility.

The war continued to be hazardous for those reporting it. Gunmen ambushed and kidnapped three Malaysian journalists driving through Baghdad and killed their Iraqi interpreter, officials said Sunday. There were no reports of any communication from the abductors.

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, two Turkish journalists were injured Saturday after assailants opened fire on their car. One suffered a gunshot wound to the hand and the other was hit in the head by shrapnel.

photo credit and caption:

A U.S. marine shouts orders as they take positions on the east bank of Tigris river during a firefight in Baghdad, Saturday, April 12, 2003. ( AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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