TV shows Saddam cheered in the streets

IRAQI television yesterday showed President Saddam Hussein being cheered on the streets, in the first footage of the Iraqi leader in public aired since the start of the war on March 20.

Saddam appeared in olive green military garb on the main square of the al-Mansour residential neighbourhood of Baghdad, flanked by just a few bodyguards but with a firearm in a holster.

Smiling broadly, the Iraqi leader accepted several kisses of his hand from the jubilant crowd, which chanted "With our blood and our souls, we shall redeem you" and "Bush, Bush, listen well, we all love Saddam Hussein".