NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, April 9, 2003

As U.S. troops advanced in Baghdad, there was no sign of Baath Party officials, nor of any valid resistance from Iraqi elite troops or paramilitary units.

Jubilation by large crowds could be seen in parts of east Baghdad, in the area known as Saddam City and inhabited mostly by Shiite Muslims, where residents could be seen dancing in the streets, raising their hands, making V-for-victory signs.

Hey, Peaceniks: This Is What
the People Think of Saddam

In other parts of the capital, residents looted government buildings and tore down portraits of Saddam. Television images showed Iraqis hitting pictures of Saddam with their shoes and spitting at the pictures. A day earlier, such conduct would have been punishable by death.

Reports said crowds were toppling statues of Saddam in central Baghdad.

Hundreds of impoverished citizens rushed into vacated government building, offices and palaces to remove everything they could carry, from chairs to refrigerators to flower vases.

There were no signs of police patrolling in Baghdad today.

U.S. military sources, however, caution that it was premature to say the fighting in Baghdad is over. Small pockets of resistance slowed the coalition advance.

There are no reports on the whereabouts of Saddam, his two sons or any of the Baath high command. U.S. officials were checking the wreckage of a bombed-out bunker attacked earlier in the week after reports that Saddam was in the fortification.

Saddam Has Left the Building?

British intelligence sources say they believe Saddam escaped the attack by mere minutes. According to the London Times, British intelligence told the CIA that Saddam left the building in Baghdad's al-Mansour district just before four U.S. 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs hit.

For the first time since the start of the war three weeks ago, "Information Minister" Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf failed to show up this morning for his usual lie-filled "media briefing" at Palestine Hotel, where foreign corresponds are based.

Oh, They're Not Afraid, You Twit

On Tuesday, al-Sahhaf told the international media at the hotel in Baghdad "not to be afraid," that the "enemy would be defeated."

In another indication that Saddam's regime was crumbling, Western correspondents in Baghdad report that their usual "minders" - government-appointed officials meant to shadow their every move - did not report for duty today.

U.S. forces, however, report continued to clash in some parts of Baghdad with reports of U.S. tanks entering Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, jubilant Kurds in the northern city of Erbil also took to the streets by the thousands to express their joy. News of U.S. military advances in Baghdad elated the Kurds, who were the victims of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction in 1987 in Halabja.

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Middle East
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
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