Baghdad: Iraqis on April 10 looted the deserted luxury homes of senior figures of
Saddam Hussein's regime, including his son Uday, under the watchful eye of joking US
marines after the euphoria of the fall of Baghdad.
Looters also turned their attention to the German Embassy and the French cultural
centre, a photographer witnessed.
But a stark reminder that not everyone in Baghdad is 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 13 were wounded in the exchange.
Baghdadis were awoken to a series of loud blasts on the city's outskirts around 7:30
am (09:00 hours IST) while planes could be heard flying overhead.
The city centre, however, was calm in the morning as it had been throughout the
night for the first time since the war to oust Saddam's regime began on March 20.
"There are small pockets of resistance and we'll continue to root them out," Major
Mike Birmingham of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division said from Baghdad airport, an
installation that is firmly in US hands.
In 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, according to a correspondent at the scene.
Uday's villa was totally stripped except for a fixed wrought iron barbecue in the
middle of the garden.
