In Baghdad, Celebration and Mockery of a Captured Leader

December 14, 2003
By JOHN F. BURNS and EDWARD WONG

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 14 — Gunfire resounded in the streets and Iraqis danced and waved flags in Baghdad's teeming neighborhoods in celebration of the capture of their former leader, Saddam Hussein, by American forces.

On Karada Street, a busy commercial strip in central Baghdad, Iraqi men pulled out AK-47's and pistols and squeezed off shots into the air, littering the streets with hundreds of bullet casings.

On one corner, an impromptu band formed, with men banging on drums while their friends fired guns in front of them. Cars raced down the street and men with AK-47's leaned out the windows, spraying the air with gunfire, while others fired from balconies.

Iraqis said they had not seen such celebrations in the streets since perhaps the end in the late 1980's of the disastrous Iran-Iraq War.

"It will be a new start for peace," said Said Jassim al-Yasseri, 34, the imam, or head cleric, of a Shiite mosque. "This is a new day for the country. Saddam should at least get the death penalty."

More than a hundred Shiites marched down the middle of one street, carrying red and green flags with the names of the most famous Shiite clerics.

"Saddam has been captured, death to the Baathists," they chanted, referring to Mr. Hussein's much-feared political party. One man broke away from the march and ran up to a reporter, yelling, "This is the greatest day in Iraq."

Under Mr. Hussein's rule, Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of the population, were persecuted. Mr. Hussein was a Sunni, and he was intent on keeping followers of that branch of Islam in power. The greatest resistance to the American occupation has come from towns in the so-called Sunni Triangle in central Iraq.

While the celebrations were chaotic in most of the city, stunned residents in at least one Sunni neighborhood reacted with sullen disbelief at the initial reports of the capture.

"Let them show us it is real," said Abu Mohammad, a resident of Adhamiya, where last April Iraqis had recounted a tale of how Mr. Hussein paid a visit to the local mosque and greeted a throng of well-wishers who kissed his feet.

Abu Mohammad's Sunni-dominated neighborhood was a Baathist stronghold where Mr. Hussein had found much of his support. But as he continued to express that support — "All the people in Iraq love Saddam Hussein," he said — celebratory gunfire rang out in the distance from Iraqis overjoyed by the news of the capture.

"Let them put pictures of Saddam Hussein on television so that we know it's him," Abu Mohammad said.

The United States military broadcast footage of the man who had ruled Iraq for decades with an iron fist. But instead of Mr. Hussein sitting proudly at a conference table in military uniform, as Iraqis had grown accustomed to seeing during his rule, the footage showed him disheveled, rubbing his hands down his bearded cheeks, and throwing back his head as an American medic pressed a tongue depressor into his open mouth.

The gunfire started sporadically at around 3:00 p.m. Baghdad time when rumors of the capture by American forces near the Iraqi leader's hometown of Tikrit emerged. As the news spread and gained credibility, Iraqis poured into the streets in many neighborhoods to show their support.

Thousands of Iraqis gathered on street corners, cheering and dancing. Children waved American flags. Men tossed sweets to the crowds.

In the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, not many of the residents have satellite television, so the news did not spread as quickly. But when it did, residents wasted no time in mocking the man who they blame for the disappearance and execution of thousands of Shiites.

"I am very happy because Saddam was a bad leader," said 26-year-old Hanaa Abdul Hussein. "It is a new birth for all of us."

Young men who had seen the video footage of the dishevelled Iraqi leader mimicked the way he stroked his beard, or rubbed the side of his face, or they mocked him for being plucked from his underground hiding place by the American forces.

"He is a coward. Just like a rat!" shouted one man.

"He looks like a beggar!" said another.

"He is finished!" said a third.

While many also shouted "yes, yes," some people questioned how the Iraqi leader would be put on trial.

"Saddam destroyed us and destroyed the Iraqi people," said Hussein Nasar Jassim, 20, as he pulled a fistful of candy out of a cardboard box. "I hope he's tried in public, and all the Iraqi people will see this."

Others questioned whether the capture would mean an end to the attacks on American and other forces attributed to pro-Saddam loyalists

"The arrest of Saddam will make the resistance weaker," Mr. Yasseri said. "`But it will still take a long time for America to get rid of them. The Americans need support from the Iraqi people, and they need to respect their promises to the people. They must quickly establish a new Iraqi government."

And after the celebrations are over, the United States still has its work cut out for it as it works on promises that it would make life better for Iraqis in the post-Saddam era and hand over power to Iraqis.

"American is very good but we still want salaries," said one man.

Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York for this article.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company