US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is about to lose control of the country as his regime is running out of real soldiers.
"The regime's leaders are increasingly isolated. The circle is closing, and their options are running out," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon press briefing.
"We may not know if or where he is, but we do know that he no longer runs much of Iraq," Rumsfeld said of Saddam. "His forces continue to surrender and capitulate. His regime is running out of real soldiers."
US tanks and armored vehicles rumbled into Baghdad earlier Monday, storming one of Saddam's main presidential palaces and destroying symbols of the Iraqi government.
Iraqis offered little resistance, but later an Iraqi missile slammed into the tactical operations center for the US army's 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, killing at least four people, including two soldiers and two journalists.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2003)
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