US STRATEGY: Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, laid out a strategy for the fall of Baghdad yesterday. He indicated that US forces would enter part of the city, take control of water and electricity, and declare themselves the controlling authority, while isolating President Saddam Hussein in another part. Conor O'Clery in New York
President Bush told US troops at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina yesterday that victory was at hand. "A vice is closing, the days of a murderous regime are coming to an end," he told thousands of cheering US Marines and their families.
The general hinted that US forces expected less resistance in the eastern half of Baghdad, where he said the Shia population repressed by Saddam Hussein was concentrated.
"You may have a regime, you may not, they will not be able to communicate in certain parts of Baghdad," the general said. "We will control water, electricity, things like that." Saddam Hussein's regime would become irrelevant and "would not be in charge of anything except their own defence".
With US troops on the outskirts of the city and a sense of imminent victory palpable among US officials, US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld yesterday called on Iraqi soldiers to throw down their arms or be treated as criminals.
"Iraq is running out of real soldiers, soon all that will be left are war criminals," Mr Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing with Gen Myers.
Mr Rumsfeld claimed that US troops were "closer to the centre of Baghdad than many American communities to their downtown offices".
There was "not a chance" that the US would agree to an arrangement that would halt the war and allow Saddam Hussein to survive as Iraq's leader. "It doesn't matter who proposes it, there's not going to be one," he said, adding that it was also too late for Saddam to leave.
He said that any world governments discussing such a deal "provide hope and comfort" to Saddam's regime "and give them ammunition that they can then try to use to retain the loyalty of their forces" and prolong the war.
"Iraqi officers and soldiers can still survive and help to rebuild a free Iraq, if they do the right thing," Mr Rumsfeld said. "They must now decide whether they want to share the fate of Saddam Hussein or whether they'll save themselves, turn on that condemned dictator and help the forces of Iraq's liberation."
Though the day was fast approaching when Saddam's "murderous rule will end", "the most dangerous fighting may very well be ahead of us," he said. The regime was still lethal, and "may prove to be more lethal in the final moments before it meets its end."
Asked about the relatively light resistance near Baghdad, Mr Rumsfeld said: "Some forces have retreated into the cities, others have just left and gone home. Still others are still there and fighting and have been reinforced."
Coalition forces had caused such attrition that the Iraqi forces had been forced to "backfill" its Baghdad defences with regular army units that were less reliable.
He renewed a warning to Syria about allowing military equipment for Iraq to cross the border.