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US facing forces loyal to Saddam Hussein in Tikrit

US troops yesterday pushed toward President Saddam Hussein's traditional stronghold of Tikrit in northern Iraq, where armed civilians said they were ready to conditionally surrender to coalition forces.

In the capital Baghdad, to the south of Tikrit, a US military commander said seven US soldiers believed to have been prisoners of war had been rescued from Iraqi forces.

In the streets of Tikrit -- the last major Iraqi city not controlled by US forces -- no regular Iraqi soldiers were seen, but tensions were running high as residents toted Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenades.

The armed men told a reporter they were ready to surrender to advancing US forces, but only if Iraqi opponents of Saddam's regime -- notably Kurds and Shiites -- didn't accompany them into the city, 180km north of Baghdad.

Saying that much of the city's population of 100,000 had fled, the residents said they were carrying weapons to protect themselves from looters.

Fifteen tribal leaders called for an end to US bombardment of the city, the Iraqi leader's hometown, so that the peaceful surrender of pro-Saddam militia there could be negotiated, one of them said.

Earlier yesterday, a team of journalists from the CNN news network twice came under fire from unidentified gunmen, once as they passed through a checkpoint and a second time as they raced out of town, in a dramatic scene seen live.

The firefight seemed to indicate that at least part of Tikrit was still under the control of Saddam's regime, on day 25 of the US-led war in Iraq to oust him and strip Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Once a dusty farming town, Tikrit was transformed into a gleaming modern city with ornate palaces and mosques, and opulent villas for Saddam's trusted aides, after his Baath party took power in 1968.

The fall of the city to US-led forces would mark a significant step towards the end of the conflict in Iraq.

In good news for the US forces, military officials said six US soldiers had been rescued from Iraqi forces north of Baghad.

"They are being ferried now to a shock trauma platoon in Baghdad urgently for attention," said a commander in Baghdad asking not to be named.

The rescue of the six unidentified soldiers was confirmed by US General Tommy Franks who told CNN they were in good shape.

But lawlessness and looting continued to plague much of the country, stoking a sense in insecurity in Baghdad, the northern oil-rich towns of Kirkuk and Mosul, and Basra in the south.

US forces, facing mounting anger among Baghdadis for failing to stem looting since taking the capital, set up an operations center in the city center to recruit Iraqi workers for key sectors.

"We want workers, not only senior officials," said Gunnery Sergeant Claudia Lamantia, of the First Marines Expeditionary Force. "The idea obviously is to get everything back running."

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