Print This Page Email This Page See Most Sent

• U.S. Marines Elated to Reach Central Baghdad • Persecuted Iraqis Consider Their Future • Why Can't the IRS Collect Unpaid Taxes?

Key developments in the war in Iraq:

Gun battles continued in the capital even as residents celebrated the fall of the regime. Marines seized one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palaces north of Baghdad, but not without cost one Marine was killed and up to 20 wounded.

Thousands of youths from run-down Baghdad suburbs poured into the city for a new round of looting.

Joyous residents in cities taken by the coalition tore down statues and posters of Saddam, potent symbols of the defunct regime.

U.S. commanders shifted their focus from Baghdad to remaining regime strongholds in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish and American forces met no resistance as they pushed to the edge of the oilfields at the government-held city of Kirkuk.

Disarray swept through Iraqi embassies around the world. Diplomats in Tokyo shredded documents and embassy officials in Brazil burned boxes of papers. Iraq's U.N. ambassador reportedly fled to Paris.

In an effort to restore order, British troops asked residents of Basra, Iraq's second city, to hand in guns with no questions asked.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the coalition still must "account for" Saddam and other top Iraqi leaders. He compared Saddam to notorious dictators such as Hitler and Stalin.

The Bush administration moves to assemble a wide range of Iraqi exiles and critics of Saddam for an interim government.

photo credit and caption:

An unnamed American soldier searches an Iraqi man as women and children from a bus stand by watching at a checkpoint 280 km (170 miles), half way between the Kuwaiti boarder and Iraqi capital Baghdad Wednesday April 9, 2003. (AP Photo/Adam Butler)

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.