U.S. Marines backed by tanks seized control of the heart of Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit on Monday after an intense firefight with diehard loyalists, television pictures showed. Al-Jazeera television broadcast live pictures of Marines walking through Tikrit as tanks took up position in a central square. "The town is completely closed, nobody is on the streets except for the Marines," al Jazeera's reporter in the town told Reuters. In Baghdad, where U.S. forces are struggling to restore order and end looting, more than 2,000 Iraqi policemen reported back for work on Monday.

Major General Zuhair al-Nuami, head of the police department at the interior ministry under Saddam, urged police to get back to work immediately, patrolling city streets, manning checkpoints and keeping traffic flowing..

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U.S. Marines backed by tanks seized control of the heart of Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit on Monday after an intense firefight with diehard loyalists, television pictures showed.