After the initial euphoria with the fall of Baghdad, looters also turned their attention to the German embassy and the French cultural centre, an AFP photographer witnessed.

A stark reminder that not everyone in Baghdad was pleased to see US troops in the city came earlier when marines were attacked by forces loyal to Saddam along the northern banks of the Tigris river.

One marine died and 20 were wounded in the exchange at a mosque and a presidential palace complex after receiving a tip-off that Saddam himself was inside, said Major Rod Legowski, liaison officer of the 3rd Infantry Division.

"That's what we were told. That's why we went after those targets -- Saddam and other top level officials," Legowski said.

Five Iraqi civilians were also killed in the firefight, witnesses said.

US combat helicopters came to the aid of soldiers on the ground battling Iraqi Fedayeen fighters in the afternoon in the Al-Otayfia neighborhood of central Baghdad.

In the southwestern district of Al-Dora, dozens of bodies, including those of children, and burnt-out cars littered the streets.

The putrid, fly-covered corpses were being buried along the sides of the road by volunteers.

A US officer at the scene said Fedayeen fighters attacked an American convoy which retaliated, causing the deaths. But witnesses said US soldiers opened fire on cars carrying civilians they thought posed a threat.

Baghdadis were awakened Thursday to a series of loud blasts on the city's outskirts around 7:30 am (0330 GMT) while US planes roared overhead.

The night, however, was quiet for the first time since the war to oust Saddam's regime began on March 20.

In the Jadria and Hay Babel areas on the eastern bank of the Tigris, the villas of Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Saddam's daughter Hala, his half-brother Watban, and army generals, were systematically ransacked.

Uday's villa was totally stripped except for a fixed wrought iron barbecue in the middle of the garden.

A truck outside Uday's house was laden with a huge oak table and gold chairs, while a painting of Saddam was left abandoned on the ground.

The street leading to Uday's luxury house, which was closed to traffic when the Iraqi regime controlled Baghdad, was clogged with vehicles.

Around midday, a US army unit that had been stationed overnight at Tareq Aziz's home joked with a group of around 20 looters who feverishly waited outside to ransack the house.

As soon as the Americans left, the group rushed in to grab anything that came to hand. US soldiers said the furniture inside the house had been left covered with sheets, as if the owner had been planning to return.

Gun-toting looters, meanwhile, stole two ambulances and medicine from Al-Kindi hospital, one of Baghdad's leading civilian treatment centres.

US troops called to assist said they had no orders to intervene.

Two American troop transporters and a dozen men, however, have been deployed outside the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Iraqi capital.

There was concern about the humanitarian situation after the Red Cross suspended aid deliveries in Baghdad, following the death of a Canadian staff member in crossfire Tuesday.

US forces seized control of most of Baghdad on Wednesday and met surprisingly little resistance.

Jubilant crowds turned out to greet them as Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed as quickly as the American armour was able to push into the heart of the city.

The world watched live the chaotic scenes as Iraqis waged a symbolic struggle to topple a huge statue of Saddam in a central square.

In the end marines brought up a tank recovery vehicle to bring down the bronze statue of Saddam over Al-Fardus (Paradise) Square.

On Thursday, a white-bearded man in his sixties carefully placed the bronze, lopped-off head of his former leader in a wheelbarrow.

"I have dreamed of this day for years," he said.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf, who gave daily briefings denying any advance by US-led forces, and other officials were nowhere to be seen.

Nothing has been heard from Saddam since a US B1 bomber flattened a building he was believed to have entered in the upmarket Al-Mansur district of the capital on Monday.

"He's not been around. He's not active. Therefore, he's dead, or he's incapacitated or he's healthy and he's cowering in some tunnel someplace trying to avoid being caught," US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington.

SPACE.WIRE