The top U.S. commander in Iraq on Friday urged Saddam Hussein's loyalists to lay down arms and "embrace the future," of a sovereign Iraq, saying they will otherwise end up either dead or in custody.
"We will be relentless in the pursuit of these targets," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, said at a news conference.
"The timing is perfect for the anti-coalition forces and former regime elements to make a decision that it is time to embrace the future," Sanchez said, according to The AP.
"The former regime is never going to come back. We are focused. We are effective in the pursuit of these individuals. We are going to capture them or kill, as is our mission," he stated.
"Those that remain at large, and given the pace that we are moving toward sovereignty, it is time for them to lay down their arms ... we have to embrace the future," he said.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old was killed and five people wounded when a bomb exploded on a busy street in central Baghdad as American troops and Iraqi police were trying to defuse it, according to police.
"People stayed near the bomb, people wouldn't leave. The Americans put something on the bomb to cover it when the soldiers backed off from the bomb, someone detonated it by remote control," said police sergeant Mohi Naimi. (Albawaba.com)
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