*EPF107 03/24/2003
Franks Says Coalition Forces Moving Rapidly Toward Iraqi Capital
(Central Command Report, March 24: Iraq Operational Update) (460)

Coalition forces now engaged in intense combat with Iraqi conventional and irregular forces are moving rapidly toward the Iraqi capital, and in some cases the advances have been dramatic, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition says.

"Our forces are operating throughout Iraq, on the ground and in the air," said Army General Tommy Franks, who commands the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and the allied forces engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom. "United Kingdom and American marine forces are in the southern oil fields as we speak protecting (the) Iraqis' future," he said.

At a 5 p.m. (1400 GMT, 9 a.m. EDT) briefing March 24, Franks said resistance by Iraqi forces has been sporadic in a number of areas in Iraq. And he said coalition forces have taken 3,000 Iraqi soldiers prisoner since the operation began March 19.

"Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic," he said. "We've intentionally bypassed enemy formations, to include paramilitary and the [Saddam] Fedayeen [militia], and so you can expect that our cleanup operations are going to be ongoing across the days in the future."

Franks, briefing from CENTCOM's forward headquarters at Camp As Sayliyah outside Doha, Qatar, said coalition forces are doing their best to protect civilians as the combat operations move ever closer to the Baghdad. Evaluating the military campaign so far, he said he has not seen any surprises.

Franks confirmed that coalition special operations forces -- including British, Australian and U.S. personnel -- are operating in the north and west of Iraq.

"Our special operations forces ... are conducting direct action and strategic reconnaissance operations across the country," he said.

He noted that many orders emanating from the Iraqi capital to its forces elsewhere have not been obeyed by a great number of Saddam Hussein's subordinates.

"The command and control network is much less robust than it was five days ago," he said. "They still do have a means of communication," however, Franks added.

Coalition demining operations have cleared about half of the channel up to the port city of Umm Qasr, Franks said.

"A number of humanitarian assistance ships are loaded, and we'll begin to deliver needed humanitarian assistance -- food, water, medicine -- to Iraqis within the next few days," he said.

Franks was not able to provide any new information on the fate of U.S. soldiers taken prisoner March 23 when a small Army supply convoy was ambushed during the night near the town of An Nasiriyah, where U.S. Marines have been engaged in some of the war's most intense fighting to date.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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