Baghdad Slips into Chaos

U.S. marines greeted by flower-throwing, cheering Iraqis early Thursday in Baghdad faced a sobering reality this evening, as several of their number were killed in a suicide bombing at a checkpoint in Baghdad.

An officer told wire service reporters that "some" marines had been killed in the attack, but couldn't say how many. The soldiers were manning one of the many checkpoints U.S. forces have begun setting up around the city, which has turned into a dangerous no-man's land. Alternately cheering and looting crowds tested the nerves of American soldiers on Thursday as coalition troops continued to carry out fierce fire fights against loyal supporters of Saddam Hussein into the evening Thursday.

With cheering crowds pulling down statues of Hussein in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, reporters began heralding the end of the Hussein regime. But military officials were more cautious.

"What you’re seeing in parts of Baghdad is only that, one section of Baghdad. There are many dangerous areas of Baghdad for our armed forces that remain. There are many other cities in Iraq that are dangerous," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

U.S.-backed Sh'ite leader killed by mob in central Iraq

One of those remained Najaf, south of Baghdad, where a mob reportedly killed a U.S.-backed Sh'ite leader and his aide shortly after their return to the city. In a foretaste of the challenges that remain in postwar Iraq, a mob turned on Abdul Majid al-Khoei, whose rapid return to a country he left more than a decade ago sparked violent infighting among the city's Sh'ite community.

Al-Kohei was the son of a local Sh'ite hero, Ayatollah Seyyid Abdulqasim Musawi al-Kohei, who died after being placed on house arrest by Hussein following a Sh'ite uprising after the first Gulf War. Competitors were resentful of Al-Kohei's return, and his apparent backing from the United States, and killed him in the holy Grand Imam Ali Mosque.

Others blamed fighters loyal to Hussein for the murder. Whoever is held responsible in the end, the murder has highlighted the problems that could arise in bringing together Iraq's various ethnic and religious minorities.

Turkey nervous about Kurds in the north

One of those minorities, the Kurds in northern Iraq, raised the hackles of Turkey, one of the United States' key allies by taking the northern city of Kirkurk. Their occupation fed fears by Turkey that the Kurds, a feisty minority in the southeast of the Mediterranean country, might begin to fulfill their ambition of creating their own state.

American government officials called their counterparts on the Turkish side and assured them that wasn't the case, according to White House spokesman Fleischer. By early evening, a Kurdish officer had ordered his soldiers out of Kirkuk, which holds valuable oil reserves. U.S. forces will move in instead.

Iraqis get aid and promises from the coalition

With Baghdad apparently in coalition forces' hands and looters ransacking the mansion of playboy Hussein son, Uday, attention turned towards winning over the Iraqi population. In televised messages subtitled in Arabic, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair assured the Iraqis that the country would remain in Iraqi hands.

"The nightmare that Saddam Hussein has brought to your nation will soon be over," Bush said. "You deserve better than terror and corruption … I assure every citizen of Iraq your nation will soon be free."

The coalition forces will back up those words with increased amounts of food, water and medical supplies into the battered capital and throughout Iraq. A ship from the United Arab Emirates entered the deep water port of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq on Thursday with more than 700 tons of foodstuff. Two Australian ships and a British ship carrying 28,300 tons of food will arrive in the coming days.

Compiled by DW-WORLD staff with information from wire services.

Note: Information on troop movements, victims and damage estimates are based on information from parties involved in the war and cannot be independently verified.