IRAQ/Northern Front: Euphoria at the departure of Iraqi troops swiftly gave way to looting by men, women and children, writes Lynne O'Donnell.
American Special Forces were fired upon as they moved into the centre of Mosul in northern Iraq late yesterday in an attempt to take control and bring an end to anarchy and looting that enveloped the ancient city.
Earlier loyalist resistance appeared to dissolve and many in the local population took the law into their own hands.
In a sign that the invisibility of soldiers loyal to Saddam Hussein does not necessarily mean they no longer present a threat, US troops and Kurdish militia under their command, were forced to abandon the centre of Mosul after at least one person was injured by sniper fire.
It was not possible to immediately determine if the casualty was an American or one of the Kurdish fighters.
The incident occurred late in the afternoon after around three dozen Americans arrived in Mosul following a day that saw many of the city's public buildings stripped by citizens who claimed decades of suffering caused by the Saddam regime had given them the right to help themselves.
Accompanied by a strong contingent of militiamen wearing the red berets of the Kurdish Democratic Party's Special Forces, the Americans, who flew the US flag on their lead jeep, took up positions outside the governate as senior officers inspected the building to assess its suitability as a command headquarters.
The KDP men fanned out, closed off surrounding streets, took positions on the roofs of the governate and nearby buildings, and stationed themselves on street corners in the sandbag igloos left behind by government troops.
Within half-an-hour, as crowds swelled at the sealed-off intersections, gunfire that had peppered the air throughout the day - a sign of happiness, said Kalabb Assi, a returned dissident who hopes to be part of the city's future government - shots began whizzing in the direction of the Americans outside the governate and in the square opposite.
Under orders, the Americans raced to their jeeps and sped from the area. Their departure removed what many in the city had hoped would be a stabilising force as Mosul has been without such basic public services as a police force, a fire department and garbage collection for weeks.
Looting erupted at 7 a.m. after it became evident that the forces of the former Saddam regime were not going to offer any resistance as Americans and Kurds gathered at points around the city and prepared to enter.
Across the city, men, women and children ransacked offices of the Baathist authorities, loading anything they could remove into their cars, onto donkey carts, the backs of bicycles, on their heads or, in the case of curtains and carpets, draped over their shoulders.
"We are repeating what Saddam did to us. He took money from the people. Now we are taking some of it back," said Qusay Fouzi (24). He pushed a cart along a boulevard skirting the Tigris river and proudly pointed out the three office chairs, glass-topped desk and two printers he had just hauled from the office of a state-run cement company.
His euphoria and sense of entitlement was shared by hundreds of men who looted the Mosul branch of the Iraqi Central Bank.
Notes rendered useless by shredders carpeted the street outside, as men smashed windows and broke into vaults to carry away huge wads of new notes. The currency that bears the likeness of Saddam Hussein, however, may soon be worthless, and some people worried what to do for money as the value of the Iraqi dinar plummets.
"We don't know who will be coming to Iraq to lead our country. This will decide what currency we have," said worker Adrea Mohammed Simai (61), through whose white kaftan a wad of Saddam notes could be seen in his pocket.
"I have been buying and selling US dollars recently to give myself some sort of guarantee but for now we just don't know," he said. There was also widespread confusion about just what had happened to the 80,000 or so Iraqi troops who had been in and around the city preparing to defend it against a coalition attack.
"They disappeared in a moment," said Alim Mohammed (18), a medical student. "One minute they were here, and the next minute they weren't." The sniper fire directed at the Americans ignited concerns that some may remain loyal to Saddam - perhaps cut off from information about his demise, or members of fiercely loyal detachments - and having donned civilian clothes have melted into the citizenry.
Mosul fell to the forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom late on Wednesday after government troops began to surrender themselves to Kurdish commanders on nearby frontlines.
Militiamen of the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the other main Kurdish group of the north, began moving into the city immediately, but they appeared to make little effort to bring a sense of security with them.
Their incompetence was compounded by the day-tripping mentality that gripped people in nearby cities and towns who took the opportunity of the Friday holiday to drive into Mosul, and nearby Kirkuk, and join the looting free-for-all.
Their presence threatened to ignite ethnic tensions, with some residents of Mosul, a mostly Arab city, expressing hostility towards Kurds for taking advantage of and contributing to the lawlessness.
Nevertheless, there were some signs that efforts were being made by local people themselves to bring calm to their city.
Sheikh Abdul Karim Salleh Al Altala, leader of the one million-strong Al Jaboureh tribe, said he had been contacted by an American he declined to identify early yesterday and asked to meet with the Special Forces at the governate.
"We will co-operate with the Americans. We will work together to make sure that all the Arabs in Mosul co-operate with military rule," he said . "It is very necessary that all people work together so we can ensure everything returns to normal."
By evening, the mullahs of local mosques and leaders of other regional tribes were meeting to discuss setting up citizens' committees that it was hoped would bring an end to the spreading anarchy.