Task Force Tripoli

The Marines set out on the evening of 12 April and did not make an effort to secure their lines of communication. The task force was going to depend on the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing (3d MAW) and follow on forces from 1st Force Service Support Group to keep it resupplied.[9][10] One of the trickiest parts of the movement north was having to get the entire column of vehicles across the Tigris River over a single decrepit bridge in the town of Al Swash. The bridge had only recently been secured by Marines from Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines and could only hold one vehicle at a time. After the entire convoy had made its way across the river, the decision was made to continue attacking north and keep the advance going through the night.[11]

On April 13, Marines from 3d LAR were tipped off by Iraqi Police about the presence of American prisoners of war (POW) in the area. A lieutenant from the unit handed a commercial GPS receiver to an Iraqi Policeman who used it to acquire an accurate location of the prisoners.[12][13] The Marines quickly made their way to the location and rescued seven American in Samarra.[14][15] Five of the POWs were members of the 507th Maintenance Company that had been ambushed early in the war in An Nasiriyah and the other two were captured Apache pilots.[12] The POWs were immediately flown south by CH-46 Sea Knights from HMM-165 to An Numaniyah where they were transferred to a waiting KC-130 Hercules from VMGR-452 which then flew them to Kuwait International Airport.[16]

As 3d LAR was rescuing Americans in Samarra, 2d LAR was pushing north of Tikrit to seize Al Sahra Airfield and establish a blocking position while 1st LAR pushed up the highway from the south into the city.[17][18] Approximately 1 km before entering the city, task force Marines destroyed five Iraqi tanks and killed at least 15 Iraqi soldiers while fighting through a fedayeen ambush.[19][20] As the Marine ground forces prepared to enter the city, Marines from Marine Wing Support Group 37 and Marine Air Control Group 38 established a Forward arming and refuelling point (FARP) at Tikrit South Air Base. Once established, this FARP supported Marine Corps aircraft from Marine Aircraft Group 29 (MAG-29) in support of the task force.[16]

Saddam Hussein's new palace along the banks of the Tigris where Task Force Tripoli's headquarters was established after seizing Tikrit.

Upon entering Tikrit, Task Force Tripoli headquarters was established at Saddam's palace compound overlooking the Tigris River.[21] The Marines began actively patrolling throughout Tikrit. On April 15, Gen Kelly met with local Sheikhs from the surrounding area for the first time where he stated that Marines would provide local security in return for assistance in helping to find any foreign fighters or regime loyalists still in the area. This was the first of many meetings between the two sides. One of the outcomes from these meetings was the Marines being able to secure the city of Baiji about 25 miles north of Tikrit.[22] From April 19–21 the task force conducted a relief in place with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division led by Major General Raymond T. Odierno.[23][24] On April 21, the Task Force drove south to link up with the rest of the 1st Marine Division at Al Diwaniyah.[25]

On May 2, the task force was reestablished and began preparations to move south to the Iraqi-Saudi border and set into a screen line to prevent Wahabi infiltrators from moving north into Iraq. On May 3, each LAR battalion independently left the 1st Marine Division's assembly area in Al Diwaniyah and moved out to their individual staging areas. On May 4, the task force occupied the screen line just north of the border. On May 5, the task force was recalled due to a lack of activity on the border and proceeded to return to Al Diwaniyah.