Word: tikrit
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When Saddam Hussein was rousted from his spider hole in Dawr, a town near Tikrit, by U.S. soldiers last December, Iraq's fallen dictator was clutching a pistol. He is now in detention at an undisclosed location, being questioned by American authorities and awaiting charges for war atrocities and crimes against humanity. But what ever happened to the pistol...
...bring the country enough security so that Iraqis can begin to take power after June 30, when a U.N.-anointed caretaker government steps in. Abizaid, accompanied by TIME on a mission to Iraq this month, flies low and fast. When he arrives at a U.S. base in Tikrit, he is determined to exhort the troops to keep the faith, at a time when so many Americans are losing theirs. Back home, Americans "see pictures of burning humvees, they see pictures of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and they see all the negative things that happen," he says, addressing 100 soldiers...
...with "standoff" weapons like roadside bombs--are no match for U.S. firepower. "Look," says a Pentagon official, "Fallujah is a problem right now, but we'll deal with it." In recent months U.S. forces have claimed some success in subduing resistance in other Sunni-triangle hot spots. That includes Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, where the military responded to attacks by demolishing homes and cordoning off the entire city with barbed wire. The military has avoided such blunt tactics in Fallujah, a town 35 miles west of Baghdad that has long been prone to unrest and intense tribal rivalries. Even under...
COVER: Specialist Cody Hoefer in Tikrit, Iraq, on Feb. 23, 2004. Photograph for TIME by Brian Bennett. INSET: Photograph by Julie Jacobson...
Without security, talk of democracy is academic. "If we can't stop people from being shot downtown, it's all just words," says Lieut. Colonel Steve Russell of the 1-22 Infantry Battalion, 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade based in Tikrit. By one measure, at least, security has improved: fewer U.S. troops are dying, at least for now. But other statistics are worrisome. By choosing symbolic moments for maximum psychological impact, suicide bombers and insurgent gunmen have been exacting high tolls from every segment of Iraq's combustible society. Last Tuesday was the deadliest day for Shi'ites since...