US LEAVES GERMAN BASES

Residents burned buildings and plundered banks, grabbing wads of money, as Iraq’s third city descended into anarchy today after US and Kurdish forces swept into Mosul and Saddam Hussein’s troops fled.

The Iraqi 5th Corps, charged with defending Mosul, Iraq’s third biggest city still in the hands of Saddam Hussein loyalists, was tonight reported to be negotiating surrender.

IT may be a shadow of its former self, but Iraq's Republican Guard is still a combat-hardened force. And it stands at the gates to Baghdad.