PHOTOS from................Wed April 9, 5:16 PM ET

 
 

A man carries away food from a warehouse at the training facility of the Iraqi Republican Guard in southeast Baghdad, April 9, 2003. Looting has begun after U.S. Marines toppled a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the heart of Baghdad earlier in the day, as Iraqis celebrated the humiliating collapse of his 24-year rule. NO MAGS, NO SALES 
REUTERS/Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle 


 
 
 
 

A man rolls a large truck tire in the south of Baghdad, April 9, 2003. U.S. Marines toppled a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the heart of Baghdad earlier today as Iraqis celebrated the humiliating collapse of his 24-year rule. NO MAGS, NO SALES 
REUTERS/Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A USS Kitty Hawk flight deck crewman gives a thumb up indicating the F/A18 Hornet fighter jet is ready to takeoff from the aircraft carrier, in the northern Gulf April 9, 2003. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday praised the progress of American-led forces fighting in Iraq but warned the fighting would continue and the military still needed to account for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 'There is no question but that there are difficult and very dangerous days ahead and that the fighting will continue for some period,' Rumsfeld said. REUTERS/Yves Herman 


 

U.S. Army divers and chemical weapons experts examine a former base of Saddam Hussein cousin 
Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed 'Chemical Ali', near the city of Basra in southern Iraq, April 9, 2003. British Prime Minister Tony Blair celebrated on Wednesday as jubilant Iraqis danced on a statue of Saddam Hussein toppled by U.S.-led forces in the center of Baghdad, but he cautioned that it was too early to declare military victory in Iraq. 
REUTERS/Dan Chung/POOL 


A U.S. soldier watches as a statue of Iraq President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad April 9, 2003. Iraqis danced on the fallen statue in contempt for the man who ruled them with an iron grip for 24 years. In scenes reminiscent of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Iraqis earlier took a sledgehammer to the marble plinth under the statue of Saddam. Youths had placed a noose around the statue's neck and attached the rope to a U.S. armored recovery vehicle. 
(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters) 

 

U.S. Army soldiers search a building after shooting into it during a firefight, killing three Iraqi civilians who were standing in the area where rocket-propelled grenade fire had just come from, in Baghdad Wednesday, April 9, 2003. The soldiers from the A Company 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment took over a section of northern Baghdad Wednesday under rocket and small arms fire.
(AP Photo/John Moore) 


 
 
 

U.S. Army soldiers are welcomed by residents of Baghdad Wednesday, April 9, 2003. The soldiers from the A Company 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment took over a section of northern Baghdad with a warm welcome from many residents, but under sporadic rocket and small arms fire from irregular Iraqi forces.
(AP Photo/John Moore) 


 
 
 
 
 
 

Iraqi looters carry goods as a government building burns in Basra, April 9, 2003. Arabs watched in disbelief as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, described by one Moroccan as the Arab world's 'best dictator,' lost Baghdad to U.S.-led forces without a fight. 
Photo by Yannis Behrakis/Reuters 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

US Marine Sgt David Sutherland signs autographs for Iraqis on their 250-denomination dinars notes in Baghdad. Cheering crowds of Iraqis welcomed US marines as their tanks and troops poured into the center of Baghdad and the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) collapsed.(AFP/Karim Sahib) 


 
 
 
 
 

US Marines attend a private official ceremony for Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Antonio Gutierrez, 28, one of the first U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, Wednesday April 9, 2003, in Guatemala City. Gutierrez was killed March 21 near the Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr.
(AP Photo/Moises Castillo, POOL) 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Iraqi Kurds wave Iraqi Kurdish flag in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil April 9, 2003, to celebrate the arrival of U.S. led coalition forces' in Baghdad. Iraqi Kurds shouted for joy and fired in the air on Wednesday after U.S. forces entered Baghdad. 'It's all over in Baghdad,' said 29-year-old Rafiq Baway, who heard the news on satellite TV in the city of Sulaimaniya. He believed it would lead to the fall of Kirkuk, the northern oil hub where Kurds accuse Saddam of expelling Kurdish inhabitants and replacing them with Arabs. REUTERS/Str 

U.S. Marines from Lima Company, a part of a 7th Marine Regiment, walk in front of the Martyrs Monument, one of the symbols of the Iraqi capital during the operation to secure the center of Baghdad, April 9, 2003. A senior U.S. commander said on Wednesday that U.S. forces had secured the center of Baghdad and said the combat phase of the Iraqi war would end in a few days' time, at least in the capital and in southern Iraq. REUTERS/Oleg Popov