US troops hunt Saddam

US forces kept up the hunt for Saddam Hussein yesterday as an Iraqi crowd gloated over an apparent roadside bomb attack that gutted a US truck.

"Destroy America! Destroy it!" yelled one man, as the crowd swung stones to smash the headlights of the military truck, smouldering on the western edge of Baghdad. Locals said the vehicle had hit a tripwire that set off explosives.

There was no word on casualties and the US military had no immediate comment.

Most Iraqis say they are glad Saddam has been removed, but many angrily demand the departure of US-led occupying forces.

Undeterred by postwar insecurity and economic paralysis, a first group of more than 200 Iraqis set foot in their homeland yesterday after 13 years of exile in Saudi Arabia.

"I feel like my soul has returned to my body," said Ali Salman, his eyes swimming with tears at the Umm Qasr border crossing in southern Iraq. "I can't believe I am actually home and that I will see my family again. I just can't believe it."

Like most of the 240 men, women and children who were repatriated by the UN refugee agency Salman is a Shi'ite Muslim who fled to Saudi Arabia after a failed 1991 uprising.

Other returnees were former Iraqi soldiers who defected during the 1991 Gulf War. They were among 5,200 refugees who had lived in physical comfort but psychological distress at the frontier Rafha camp in Saudi Arabia. Their hopes of returning home remained a remote dream until US-led forces ousted Saddam in April.