Saddam Hussein's Regime Collapses
Jubilant crowds fill Baghdad streets, dancing, looting, defacing images of Hussein. Pentagon cautions that serious fighting continues.
BAGHDAD -- Powered by muscle and fueled by passion, crowds of Iraqis set upon the ubiquitous icons -- the statues of Saddam Hussein -- that symbolized Hussein's iron grasp on Iraq, joining in a jubilant uprising today against a falling regime.
Three weeks after the United States signaled the start of its attempt to remove the Iraqi president from power with a sudden attack on one of his bunkers, the image of Baghdad lighted by the flash of massive munitions was replaced by another scene: Crowds of young men attacking the symbols of his power, looting Hussein's ministries, and welcoming U.S. troops.
