Saddam is 'failed brutal dictator': Rumsfeld

US led forces are liberating Baghdad and removing the Saddam Hussein regime “from its seat of power,” Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared tonight.

“Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing.

“This is a very good day,” Rumsfeld said as U.S. forces stormed through the streets of the Iraqi capital and were greeted by jubilant Baghdad residents.

Rumsfeld called such images, broadcast around the world, ”breathtaking.”