Yahoo! News - U.S. Marines Rip Down Saddam Portraits





By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer



SAFWAN, Iraq - U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."





Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up, peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame. Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.





"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.





"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time we're here, and Saddam is done."





"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."





Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"





Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.





A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."





An old woman shrouded in black � one of the very few women outside � knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman.



Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople.





"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War.





"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come up there then, and we never did."





The townspeople seemed grateful this time.





"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"