A U.S. tank approches a statue of Saddam Hussein, seen in this image from video, Wednesday, April 9, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq, as  Marines help Iraqis trying to topple the statue. (AP Photo/APTN)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's rule over the capital has ended, U.S. commanders declared Wednesday, and jubilant crowds swarmed into the streets here, dancing, looting, cheering U.S. convoys and defacing images of the Iraqi leader.  U.S. Marines helped bring down a giant statue of Saddam in a central square of Baghdad to the applause of Iraqis standing below. The statue toppled when a rope tied to it was hooked up to a military vehicle that backed away.  Earlier, U.S. troops placed an American flag over the statue's face, but it was quickly removed.

"The capital city is now one of those areas that has been added to the list of where the regime does not have control," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Qatar. 
 

Brooks said that Saddam loyalists were holding out in the north, notably at Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and still posed a threat, including the possible use of weapons of mass destruction  Even as they encountered sniper fire from roving bands of holdout fighters, Marine and Army units swept through Baghdad, seizing or destroying buildings that once housed some of Saddam's most feared security forces. Marine tanks rolled into the heart of the city, on the east bank of the Tigris, greeted by people clapping and waving white flags.  Civilians gestured to the Americans with V-for-victory signs. "We were nearly mobbed by people trying to shake our hands," said Maj. Andy Milburn of the 7th Marines. One Army contingent had to use razor-wire to hold back surging crowds of well-wishers.  Even as most of the populace seemed suddenly to feel free of Saddam's control, U.S. officers said their forces faced continued resistance, fierce but disorganized, from small groups of holdout pro-Saddam fighters. The U.S Central Command reacted cautiously to the euphoria and chaos in Baghdad.  "The regime has lost control in most parts of Iraq," said command spokesman Jim Wilkinson. "There are places up north where they have significant pockets ... so we'll continue to go where those pockets are and reduce them. It'll just take time to find those pockets and destroy them and hopefully they'll surrender."

An Iraqi man throws stones at a statue of Iraqi  President Saddam Hussein as it falls in central  Baghdad April 9, 2003. U.S. troops pulled down a  20-foothigh statue of Saddam and Iraqis danced on  it in contempt for the man who ruled them with an iron grip for 24 years.  Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

Iraqis hit a statue of Saddam Hussein with their sandals in  Baghdad, after it was pulled down as US tanks rolled into the heart of the Iraqi capital.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

At police stations, universities, government ministries, the headquarters of the Iraq Olympic Committee, looters unhindered by any police presence made off with computers, furniture, telephones, even military jeeps. One young man used roller skates to wheel away a refrigerator.  "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Bush," some of the looters shouted. An elderly man beat a portrait of Saddam with his shoe, while a younger man spat on the portrait.  Not everyone rejoiced.  "This is the destruction of Islam," said Qassim al-Shamari, 50, a laborer wearing an Arab robe. "After all, Iraq is our country. And what about all the women and children who died in the bombing?"

U.S. commanders focused attention on Tikrit, still a stronghold of loyalist troops, and the northern city of Mosul. Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command spokesman, said special operations forces and airstrikes were "actively engaging" Iraqi forces in both cities. 

U.S. special forces and Kurdish fighters seized a strategic hilltop near Mosul; senior Kurdish leader Hoshyar Zebari called it the most important gain in the region thus far. 

The fate of Saddam remained unknown. U.S. experts have yet to gain access to the site in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood that was targeted by four 2,000-pound bombs in a U.S. strike aimed at killing him. 

Elsewhere in the capital, U.S. forces steadily expanded their reach, securing a military airport, capturing a prison, setting fire to a Republican Guard barracks. Milburn said the house of Saddam's son Odai was on fire, apparently hit by a bomb. 

The Iraqi government's efforts to sustain its public relations campaign collapsed. State television went off the air Tuesday, and on Wednesday, foreign journalists said their "minders" - government agents who monitor their reporting - did not turn up for work. There was no sign of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose daily briefings had constituted the main public face of the regime during the war. 

While intent on consolidating their hold on Baghdad, U.S. commanders also were turning their attention to Tikrit, Saddam's hometown in the desert about 90 miles to the north. Defended by well-trained troops, and home to many of Saddam's most devoted followers, the city of 260,000 is considered one of the few remaining strongholds of the Iraqi regime. 

The Central Command said coalition airstrikes were targeting the Republican Guard's Adnan division in Tikrit, "shaping the battlefield" before U.S. ground forces move in. Brooks said Iraqi reinforcements were reaching Tikrit, apparently after retreating from positions to the north and south. 

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Iraqi Kurdish groups opposing Saddam, claimed Tuesday that Saddam already was hiding in Tikrit. U.S. officials said they didn't know if he had escaped Monday's bombing of a site in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood where he and at least one of his sons reportedly were meeting. 

The toll of journalists killed in the war reached 10, with three killed in U.S. military strikes in Baghdad on Tuesday 

Two cameramen, one from Ukraine and one from Spain, were killed when a U.S. tank fired into the Palestine Hotel, where hundreds of journalists are based. U.S. officers initially said hostile fire had been coming from the building; journalists said they witnessed none. 

Also, a Jordanian reporter was killed in a U.S. airstrike on the Baghdad office of the Arab television network al-Jazeera, which contended the attack was deliberate. 

On Wednesday, the U.S. branch of Amnesty International joined in the criticism. 

"Unless the U.S. can demonstrate that the Palestine Hotel had been used for military purposes, it was a civilian object protected under international humanitarian law that should not have been attacked," Amnesty said. 

In the southern city of Basra, which was taken over by British forces this week, looters have been plundering government buildings, universities, even hospitals. A Red Cross representative said the looting could delay relief efforts in the city of 1.3 million.