Using sledgehammers, crowbars, explosives and armoured vehicles, US forces smashed down the gates of homes and the doors of workshops and junkyards in Samarra to attack the Iraqi resistance that has persisted despite the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein loyalists rioted in Baghdad, ambushed a US patrol in Samarra, stormed the office of a US-backed mayor in Fallujah and battled American troops in Ramadi as cities in Iraq’s “Sunni Triangle” region seethed over the ex-dictator’s capture.