"We're ecstatic to get rid of him after all these years of war and deprivation," said Dinkha Khosina, an Assyrian Christian who joined hundreds of Iraqis to greet American troops racing from Baghdad's northern entrance to the heart of the capital.

"Welcome, welcome!" Baghdadis cried out in English, as young people took off their T-shirts and waved them in joy in front of the US soldiers.

"This is the greatest feeling I've had in my life, after spending 11 years in military service because of all the wars Saddam has put us through," said Ayub, who did not want his family name used.

Yasser, a former member of the security services, said he spent seven and a half years in prison "after I was falsely accused of stealing weapons."

He was freed by an amnesty which Saddam proclaimed in October as war clouds loomed, but Yasser has not forgiven the president for all the years of his life wasted behind bars.

"Saddam was merciless to his people. He tortured us," Yasser said.

In the northern areas of the capital where Saddam's top ministries are based and looting broke out with the arrival of US troops, a young man dressed in old clothes shouted out triumphantly: "Saddam is no more, Saddam is no more!"

In the view of 28-year-old Ryad, Saddam Hussein, who has given no sign of life since Monday, "is a coward who betrayed his own people."

"He gave us nothing except wars and an embargo," said Qasem, 54. "With the Americans, we'll fare well."

Mohammad Wali, about 40 years old, showed an AFP reporter that one of his arms was shorter than the other. It was due to wounds he suffered in the bloody 1980-88 war with Iran, launched shortly after Saddam took power, he said.

"Splinters are still stuck in my legs," he said. "Saddam was a dictator for all Iraqis."

"We like (US President George W.) Bush. We don't like Saddam," a young boy said. "And we're hungry."

Nearby, an army of looters ransacked the oil and irrigation ministries and the office of Iraq's Olympic committee. They packed their trolleys and wheelbarrows with furniture, computers, heaters and fans, rolling them off to their waiting vans.

Some men raced out with boxes on their shoulders, while others made use of cars that until Wednesday were property of the state.

In the nearby Zayuna area, US troops took up covering positions on the roof of the headquarters of the Saddam Fedayeen, a dreaded paramilitary force headed by the president's son, and tanks were stationed in the courtyard.

A massive portrait of Saddam Hussein at the entrance had not been taken down yet. Small groups of men passed by, flashing white banners to show their good intentions, while other went by in cars, stretching their bodies out of the windows and waving at the troops.

Nearby residents, some still in their nightwear, ventured out of their homes shyly, and then waved to welcome their new American neighbors.

SPACE.WIRE