Hugs for British troops

A small boy, no older than six, grabbed my hand and pulled me down to give me the warmest of heartfelt, joyous hugs. There could not really be any doubt: Basra was free, freer than it has been for more than 20 years.

Yesterday I was among the first wave of British troops as they drove into the centre of Basra, Iraq's second city and the biggest prize so far to fall to the coalition. They came expecting to fight: instead they were mobbed by a crowd overjoyed to see them.

Thousands of people flocked on to the streets - smiling, waving, chasing the armoured vehicles down the street as they turned out in droves to welcome their liberators.

And yes, liberators is how they see the British forces that have been surrounding their city for the past week. The people of Basra have started taking their revenge on the Saddam loyalists who have repressed them so brutally for so long.

Police, Fedayeen militia - all are now bearing the brunt of the people's anger. One British soldier was told how the people two days ago killed the policeman who worked on the corner of their street.

But yesterday was, above all, a day of celebration, of sheer, unbridled happiness. If the crowds were not quite lining the streets and showering the troops with garlands, that was only to be expected: with Saddam Hussein not yet dead and memories all too fresh of how the West betrayed the uprisings 12 years ago, a certain amount of caution-was understandable. "Is the war finished?" asked one man on a bicycle, his faced clouded with anxiety and doubt. No, not yet, I had to tell him: but soon.

For everyone else, however, the war might just as well have been over, and there was no hiding the fact that they felt pretty good about it.

As the crowds thronged the palmfringed streets on the edge of central Basra, jostling six-deep around the armoured vehicles, one man said: "British good - not enemy." "Welcome to Iraq!" said another. "Saddam is finished."

A third, mistaking me for a soldier, said "Mister, you are a very brave man", and although he was wrong, it is testament to the gratitude felt by many Iraqis that they should praise the courage of the troops who have been bombing and shelling their country so mercilessly for the past two weeks.

Lieutenant John Whelan of the Queen's Dragoon Guards said: "It was amazing. It was like VE Day.

We stopped at junctions and had about 400 or 500 people round the vehicles. We gave them some food and when we drove off they tried running after us until they could no longer keep up. They were all very friendly."

They may be happy, but the people of Basra are in desperate need of aid. They have not had any fresh water for more than a week, and the city's electricity was cut off by coalition bombing.

I was with Spider, Danny, Blackie and Pritch, soldiers of the Queen's Dragoon Guards I have been with almost every day of this war.

A week ago their vehicle was blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade: yesterday they were transformed into liberators - Spider talking to Iraqis from the top of the wagon as they told him how they needed food and water; Danny down below, fending off endless demands from the local youth for cigarettes. "They're all after my cigs!" he said, as he handed over 20 Embassy through a gap in the door. "I've given them some to keep them quiet, now they're all over me."

I tried stepping out of the wagon to hand out a bag of sweets to a group of youngsters, and nearly disappeared beneath a crowd of over-excited children before Danny came to the rescue and pulled me back into the wagon.

Elsewhere in the city, Royal Marines have seized Saddam Hussein's presidential palace. Men from 42 Commando entered the vast complex on the banks of the Shatt Al Arab waterway at first light. What they found was unparalleled ostentation.

Captain Oliver Lee said: "It's striking, the rich-poor divide, having seen the extraordinary poverty in other parts of the city."

Meanwhile, the blood-letting has started. Captain Alex Boissard said: "People are killing the police on the street corners. It started a few days ago. There are also reports that they are hunting Ba'ath Party officials. This has gone on ever since they realised that the British were here."

Lt Whelan said: "There were no soldiers around - at least not in military kit. The locals said all the regular army had left, and they would deal with any Fedayeen."

Major Henry Sugden, commanding C Squadron QDG, said they had gone through the town a lot faster than they expected. "Rather than fighting, we just drove up. Basra has fallen. The Shias say they will kill any Fedayeen they see.

"My reading is that the locals know that there is no co-ordinated regime structure remaining within Basra, which is why they have come out so positively in support of us and why they are determined to settle old scores."