They couldn't wait to go in but the American soldiers ordered them to step back.

"I think it is the (deputy) prime minister's house. We spent the night there and we're leaving," said the commander of the unit comprising three armored vehicles.

He was not unduly concerned about what would happen later.

"It is not our job. Let them do what they want. He was a criminal, and we must go," he said.

At 11:30 am (0730 GMT), the convoy sped away, cheered by mobs who promptly stormed into two two-storey premises separated by a garden, carrying hammers, knives and screwdrivers.

In the kitchen, two of the looters tried in vain to get a huge fridge out of the door. They ran away with plates, bottles of liquor and even a statue of the Virgin Mary. Photographs of the Christian Aziz, his wife, their children and grandchildren were pinned on a wood board.

On the ground floor library hit by a missile, another looter filled a plastic bag with Arabic and English books and a variety of magazines, including Vanity Fair.

In the sitting room, yet another looter removed Aziz's picture with Russian President Vladimir Putin and put it next to drawings, while in the cloakroom, a young boy grabbed suits and Baath Party uniforms.

Bedrooms on the first floor were also ransacked. Mrs Aziz's dresses were snapped up from the closet, bottles of perfume were hurled on the floor, and beds were dismantled.

The looting went on systematically, almost without a word being uttered, and without fighting. Each looter simply took whatever came his way.

"We are not stealing. We are taking back what they took from us. All this belongs to the people. They stole it," explained Haidar Abdullah, 18.

A nearby explosion scared away only the less bold. When calm returned, they were back to work.

Aziz's villa is located in a street of the Jadria neighborhood on the east bank of the Tigris which also houses luxury residences of other regime officials. It was closed to traffic before US forces put an end to Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule.

The villa of Saddam's elder son Uday was also 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.

"We found a photo album and an address book of the young women he had brought home," said one of the looters.

Elsewhere, a man in dusty clothes ran away with two carpets from the villa of Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his role in a 1988 poison gas attack on Kurds in Halabja, which had been flattened by a missile.

The same looting frenzy unfolded in the home of Saddam's youngest daughter Hala and that of former army chief of staff Abdul Jabbar Shanshal. A huge villa owned by Saddam's half-brother Watban suffered the same fate before three American tanks drew into the courtyard.

Looters also went on the rampage at the German embassy on Karada street and the French cultural center on Abu Nawwas street, running away with anything they could carry from furniture to sinks.

They drove or rode on horseback into the embassy courtyard and helped themselves to furniture, fridges and video equipment.

At the French cultural center, they threw books on the floor and made away with shelves, chairs, desks and sinks.

US Lieutenant Colonel Brian MacCoy said he was not bothered by the looting of ministries or homes of members of the Saddam regime.

"What we must protect is the civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, power stations and water plants," he told reporters at their headquarters at the Palestine Hotel.

But US troops called in when looters carrying guns stole two ambulances and medicines from one of Baghdad's leading civilian hospitals, al-Kindi, replied that they had no orders to intervene.

SPACE.WIRE