KUWAIT CITY April 9 —
Some Arab journalists were subdued and others incredulous as they
watched Iraqis cheering the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baghdad.
"The surreal scene this afternoon was unthinkable until
yesterday," Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera reporter
Maher Abdullah said Wednesday. "Nobody could dream of it. If someone
had told me this, I would have told him 'impossible.'"
At one point, Abdullah referred to a Saddam Hussein monument as a
statue of "the former president."
One Kuwaiti Television presenter called the Iraqi elation and
their thanks to U.S.-led troops who rolled into the capital as a
"slap in the face" to Arabs who had sided with Saddam.
Kuwait, which was occupied by Saddam's troops in 1990, had been
heavily criticized in the Arab world in recent weeks for being the
only Arab country to openly back the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and
for granting the United States use of its territory to launch the
offensive.
On Abu Dhabi TV on Wednesday night, the anchor told his audience:
"This may be the last time we bring you the reports under the
headline, 'On the Front Line.' We wish you and the Iraqis a life
without wars."
The Lebanese channel, Al Hayat-LBC satellite TV, aired an
interview from outside the Palestine Hotel with a British woman who
had come to Iraq to act as human shields against the invasion. She
expressed shock at the speed of the collapse of Saddam's authority,
and said Iraq was free until U.S.-led troops arrived.
A headline from Thursday's early edition of Egypt's al-Gomhuria
newspaper said: "Saddam deceived the Iraqis and the Arabs and
Baghdad fell in seconds."
photo credit
and caption:
Zaarh Al-Salah praises the
prophet for the apparent collapse of Saddam Hussein's
government during a rally in Dearborn, Mich., Wednesday, April
9, 2003. Members of Michigan's Iraqi community stood on car
roofs, cheered and waved American and Iraqi flags as they
heard the news that U.S. troops were in Baghdad's town center.
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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