Iraqis are now trying to pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's main square.
Posted on 04/09/2003 7:09:22 AM PDT by kattracks
US forces welcomed in Baghdad, Saddam's rule ends
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD, April 9 (Reuters) - U.S. troops swept into the heart of Baghdad to an ecstatic welcome on Wednesday, as Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule crumbled into chaos and looting.
As U.S. Marines rolled in from the east on day 21 of the war, hundreds of people gutted official buildings, hauling off anything from airconditioners to flowers.
"People, if you only knew what this man did to Iraq," yelled an old man standing in the road, thrashing at a torn portrait of Saddam with his shoe. "He killed our youth, he killed millions."
There was no word on the fate of Saddam or his sons, targeted by U.S. planes that dropped four 2,000-pound (900-kg) bombs on a western residential area of the city on Monday.
"It is not known whether Saddam and sons were present and whether they survived the attack," a CIA official said.
Marines seized a headquarters of Saddam's feared secret police, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire reported. The deserted Directorate of General Security building in an eastern district was already being looted when the Marines arrived.
U.S. troops deployed in Tahrir Square, in the core of this sprawling city of five million, and at the Palestine Hotel, base for media covering the war, on the east bank of the Tigris.
In a deeply insulting Arab gesture, people hurled shoes at a giant statue of Saddam outside the hotel. They rigged ropes to haul it down and hacked at the base with a sledgehammer.
President George W. Bush was heartened by "very good" progress in Iraq, a senior administration official said.
Sporadic shooting in parts of Baghdad prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to suspend its operations, citing "chaotic and unpredictable" conditions.
It said Canadian ICRC staffer Vatche Arslanian had been missing since Tuesday. He was feared wounded when his vehicle came under fire. Two other ICRC staffers in the vehicle escaped.
GREETING THE MARINES
Jubilant crowds threw flowers and cheered as Marines drove into the city from the vast eastern township of Saddam City, home to about two million impoverished Shi'ite Muslims.
"No more Saddam Hussein," chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. "We love you, we love you."
Some Shi'ites, part of a majority community largely hostile to Saddam's Sunni-led Baathist government, beat their chests as they do during the Shi'ite religious festival of Ashoura.
As word of events in Baghdad spread, rejoicing crowds took to the streets in the Kurdish-held northern city of Arbil.
Iraqi Kurds hate Saddam for his ferocious campaigns against them. His forces used poison gas on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 at the height of a crackdown that killed tens of thousands, and crushed a Kurdish revolt after the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraqi troops also brutally suppressed Shi'ite uprisings after the Gulf War, when U.S. forces failed to intervene.
U.S. war ally Britain said Iraqi "command and control" of Baghdad seemed to have disintegrated. But Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said Saddam loyalists might still resist.
Reuters Television crews watched cheering crowds sack U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel and drive off in U.N. cars. The building had housed U.N. aid workers as well as arms inspectors, who were withdrawn shortly before the war began on March 20.
Invasion forces have yet to find any banned chemical or biological arms, a key justification for the war. Saddam's government denied possessing them.
U.S. troops stood by as looters raided sports shops around the bombed headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, headed by Saddam's elder son Uday, who also led the Fedayeen militia.
Elsewhere, an Iraqi waving a rifle yelled: "We are Americans, we are USA." Another screamed: "Thank you Mr Bush."
U.S. FORCES PUSH IN
Thousands of U.S. troops moved towards the centre overnight from the west, northeast and south, meeting little resistance.
Residents woke to the sound of birdsong and only occasional shooting after one of calmest nights in three weeks of war.
There were no signs of Iraqi police or uniformed men on the main streets. Information Ministry officials who have shadowed reporters through the conflict were nowhere to be seen.
Even Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who has turned up daily to pour abuse on the Americans and deny all their reports of advances, failed to make an appearance.
The U.S. military said a crucial point had been reached at which ordinary people realised Saddam's rule was over.
Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks also said the war would go on to pursue "regime appendages" in various parts of Iraq.
U.S.-led forces have yet to occupy northern cities such as Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace and tribal power base, 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital.
U.S. and Kurdish forces dislodged Iraqis from a mountain used to defend Mosul, their biggest victory yet in the north.
"That area was heavily defended by Iraqis throughout the campaign. From our perspective this is the most important gain of the northern front so far," said Hoshiyar Zebari, political adviser to Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani.
POSTWAR IRAQ
On world markets, European stocks reversed losses and Wall Street looked set for a positive start on the news from Iraq. Oil prices steadied after an early rise on a possible OPEC output cut. Safe-haven government debt prices pared early gains.
With the battle for Baghdad almost over, the issue of ruling and reconstructing a post-Saddam Iraq loomed larger.
France and Britain, papering over their differences on the war, agreed on the need for international involvement.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said after meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that he backed a U.S.-British pledge to give the United Nations a vital role.
"The more united the international community is, the better the chances of the process being successful," Villepin added.
France is concerned about how much control Washington will have over postwar Iraq.
Straw said U.S. and British troops were likely to remain in place immediately after the war to assure security.
"Britain and the United States want to see the creation of a representative, democratic Iraqi government as fast as possible, but it can't happen overnight," he said.
A fledgling U.S.-led civil administration preparing to steer Iraq through the immediate postwar period said it wanted to earn Iraqis' trust by keeping up a steady flow of aid.
"In many ways we are learning as we go," said Major Jeff Jurgensen of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), speaking a day after an ORHA team arrived in the southern port of Umm Qasr to set up operations.
ORHA is headed by retired General Jay Garner, who reports to U.S. war commander General Tommy Franks.
04/09/03 10:03 ET
A singularly stupid thing to do.
Iraqis are now trying to pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's main square.
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Does anyone else wonder if *any* of the news agencies and stations would be covering this accurately if Fox weren't out there showing us what is REALLY happening?
At last, this equipment is being put to good use.
And tell them "NOT IN YOUR NAME!"
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