Tikrit, Iraq — As gunfire resounded in celebration in parts of Iraq early Sunday afternoon, a clutch of young men stood glumly outside a cordon of U.S. Army Humvees in tiny Ad-Dawr, near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, and tried to absorb the fact that the former dictator had been caught in their very own orange groves.
Their village, nestled among palm trees along the Tigris River, is a few kilometres from the former president's birthplace — he used to come here to swim. The area remains fiercely loyal to the old regime.
"It's a sad day in Ad-Dawr," one of the men said.
From Mr. Hussein's heartland to the suburbs of Baghdad, the news of his capture struck a deep chord befitting the end of what U.S. President George W. Bush called a "dark and painful era." But unlike the general public rapture that greeted the deaths of Mr. Hussein's reviled sons Uday and Qusay, Sunday's events brought mixed feelings and regrets.
"Saddam killed our people, I know that," said Osama Khaled, a Kurdish Iraqi journalist covering the event. "But still, I am sad."
Mr. Hussein's capture brought the most elation in Baghdad, where Iraqi reporters covering the announcement cheered and shouted "Death to Saddam!" One who had been tortured under the old regime broke into tears.
Outside, residents pulled out their AK-47s and began shooting into the air as radio and television began broadcasting the news. Spent shells soon littered the streets by the thousands
Nowhere was the joy more obvious than in Sadr City, the poor Shia district whose residents were long oppressed by Mr. Hussein's minority-Sunni regime.
Many displayed U.S. and British flags to make their feelings absolutely clear, while radio stations played festive music and clerics were spotted offering sweets to worshippers at afternoon prayers.
"This is the happiest day ever for the Iraqi people," said Ibrahim Dulaimi, a Shia hotel manager in central Baghdad.
The reaction was similar in the predominately Kurdish city of Kirkuk in the north, where eight people were reported killed and 80 wounded from celebratory gunfire.
"The capture of the former dictator Saddam Hussein is a momentous event for all Iraqis," Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi announced in a statement.
But even many of those who had reason to cheer Mr. Hussein's ouster were stunned by the manner of the deposed president's capture, and by the video footage showing the feared dictator looking haggard and compliant.
"I am from the Jabbouri tribe and my tribe suffered greatly at the hands of Saddam," said Luay Ibrahim Abdullah, an Iraqi policeman. "But there is not a stone which won't shed a tear today. He was an Iraqi man, after all."
In Tikrit, hometown to Mr. Hussein and many members of his regime, a hush fell over the city as initial news reports were confirmed. Women in office buildings reportedly cried as they went about their work.
Around 3:00 p.m., a group of men stared gravely at a television set through the window of a Tikrit electronics goods shop as the U.S.-led coalition's chief administrator, Paul Bremer, and military commander General Ricardo Sanchez made the formal announcement of the capture.
"We are more than sad," said an ashen-faced Imad Aziz. "He was the greatest leader of Iraq."
A few kilometres to the southeast, at the site of Mr. Hussein's last refuge, residents of Ad-Dawr were still staring in disbelief, hours after the raid.
"We heard three helicopters land between our homes and the orchard last night," said Osama Ziyad, whose house sits on a hill next to the farm where Mr. Hussein was caught.
After the U.S. soldiers threw their cordon around the neighbourhood and imposed a curfew, "they took some men and the rumour went around that they had caught the president," he said.
"I hope it's not him," said a man who called himself Abdullah.
"He was a great man."
Special to The Globe and Mail
