From a field just outside the town, the final battle for the last stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s empire could be seen unfolding.
The attack from the sky was terrifying and relentless. Every few minutes fresh clouds of black smoke puffed above the western bank of the Tigris river, as the bombs fell. American Cobra helicopter gunships and F-18s were eating away at the last remnants of Iraq’s once-mighty army.
By late yesterday afternoon, Saddam’s regime consisted of one provincial city — much of it already destroyed — and a handful of mud villages set amid the rolling brown desert. It was not perhaps the ending he had envisaged.
As American troops last night entered Saddam’s hometown, no one was suggesting that the war in Iraq was over. But it was clear as US warplanes pounded Tikrit that we were now deep into the final act.
US officials at central command in Qatar said 250 US armoured vehicles, backed by air strikes, had pushed into the city from the south, but were encountering some resistance. US troops had destroyed five Iraqi tanks on their way into Tikrit, and killed at least 15 Iraqi soldiers.
The Iraqi army had retreated down the road from Kirkuk to Tikrit three days ago. Nearby, just before an escarpment of low hills, was evidence of their flight. A truck carrying an 8-metre fin-tailed missile lay toppled on its side. The missile was still there but the driver had long fled; inside his shattered cab we found vehicle hire documents covered in blood.
Further on towards Tikrit, giant boxes of ammunition lay abandoned in the desert.
Bedouin tribesmen stood nearby, looking after their sheep, but there was no sign of the Republican Guard. Far from staging a last stand, most of the Iraqi army supposed to defend Tikrit appeared to have already melted away.
”The Iraqi troops have abandoned all their positions and bunkers inside Tikrit,” Hassan Mahmud (25) said after driving out of the city. ”They have slipped into civilian clothes. Some of the Ba’ath party members have fled towards the marshes.”
Who was in control of Tikrit now? ”I don’t know,” he replied. Tikrit’s governor had offered to surrender, he added.
The only people now prepared to die for Saddam, it seemed, were not Iraqis but Syrians. Witnesses said the fighters were preparing to ambush American troops as they penetrated the city centre.
Much of Tikrit was already rubble, and the main military targets flattened, Mahmud said. ”Most people inside Tikrit are happy that Saddam has gone,” said his friend, Siman Ali. ”Those who aren’t have left.”
A mile down the road, just beyond a mural of Saddam and a sign that reads: ”Welcome to Tikrit”, there was turmoil.
A group of Arab youths had taken control of the main bridge. When a Toyota pick-up full of Kurdish peshmerga turned up, the Arabs opened fire. The Arabs also shot at several other cars that tried to pass.
After hearing that Tikrit had fallen, Khalid Salman decided yesterday to visit the place where Saddam was born. The nearby village of Ouja, once a collection of mud huts, has long been a popular tourist destination for ordinary Iraqis.
Salman had got into a car with two friends and set off down the Tikrit road, seemingly oblivious to the aircraft above. ”I spent five minutes in Tikrit and then I left,” a shaken Salman said, after performing a swift u-turn.
”It’s mayhem in there. There are civilians with Kalashnikovs patrolling the streets. Some people are looting the city.
”The Iraqi army has disappeared. The main bridge has been half blown-up. We didn’t see any American troops. It hasn’t fallen yet.”
When Saddam was born nearly 66 years ago, Tikrit was little more than a shabby smuggling outpost on the banks of the Tigris. Over the past 30 years he lavished money on it, and elevated Tikritis to the highest offices of state.
Yesterday, it seemed, most Tikritis were preparing to betray him.
A former Ba’ath party Kurd sent in to negotiate with Tikrit’s Sunni Muslim clan leaders emerged to reveal that 25 out of 28 of them wanted to surrender to coalition forces. Only three reportedly refused, including the head of Saddam’s own clan.
Many of the Arab villagers who live just outside Tikrit shared that hostility yesterday. Najim Abdullah Ahmed, from Terashad, about 30 kilometres away, said: ”A lot of people from here have been taken away and tortured. We are very happy that Saddam is gone. We will cooperate with the British and the Americans.”
Salman, meanwhile, said he would go back and tour Saddam’s birthplace another time. ”The Iraqi people don’t like Saddam,” he said. ”For the past 35 years I have been too poor to afford to eat cheese.
”We have been hungry, and we haven’t had any money.” – Guardian Unlimited Â