Relief, joy and hope swept across northern Iraq yesterday as reports that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, was no longer in control of the country brought people rushing into the streets to celebrate their new freedom and reclaim the green, white and red flag of a united nation.
Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish north, erupted in a cacophony of car horns, trumpets, bells and whistles as people flooded the city centre to hug each other, kiss strangers and hand out yellow daisies.
"Saddam is dead, Saddam is gone. He was an animal, he was a savage," screamed an ecstatic Fawzia Ali (45), as she marched down Irbil's Halabja Street, her full-length black chardor billowing behind her.
Grabbing a foreign reporter and kissing her on the cheek, Mrs Ali waved a picture of the local Kurdish warlord, Massoud Barzani, and declared him the "real president" of Iraq.
For Kurds, who have for decades been the target of Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaigns, news of the dictator's demise was doubly euphoric.
It has brought closer an end to a decade of isolation from the rest of Iraq, during which time they have become accustomed to a level of autonomy that has allowed them to build a semblance of democratic and representative government.
But that self-sufficiency, protected by American and British fighter bombers that have kept Saddam at bay, has been accompanied by constant fear of attack with chemical and biological weapons.
The memory of Halabja, where 15 years ago a gas attack killed an estimated 5,000 people, is a vivid one for Kurds and few families have been untouched by the atrocities of the Ba'athist regime.
But yesterday, as Kurdish television broadcast footage from Baghdad showing statues of Saddam being torn down by American troops and Iraqi citizens working together, the cloud lifted.
"Thank God it all ended without chemical weapons," said 28-year-old Tara Mansour. "The fear has totally gone from us, and I hope from America and Israel also."
A flatbed truck roared around a nearby roundabout carrying a dozen teenagers clanging symbols, banging big bass drums and shouting: "Saddam is dead, Saddam is dead."
Everywhere, people pinned yellow ribbons, symbolising the Kurdish nation, to their clothing. Many waved the red, white and blue stars and stripes of the United States - some hand-drawn - as they shouted their thanks to the American leader for ridding Iraq of tyranny.
"It's a great day, long live George Bush, he is a gift from God," said Tahaga Jahn, a well-known television actor who was driving around Irbil with friends.
"We are looking for a disco so we can go and dance, we are so happy," Mr Jahn said.
"Saddam is dead to us now, he was a terrorist, I am very happy, so happy that Saddam has fallen."
Mr Jahn's friend, Dago Hassan, waved a cartoon showing Saddam Hussein being thrown into a giant rubbish bin. "He is garbage, this is where he belongs," he said.
Nearby, sitting in a row on a grassy knoll in the shadow of Irbil's Citadel, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited settlements, six Kurdish peshmerga militiamen waved as they shouted: "Tomorrow, Kirkuk," referring to the nearby oil town that remains under Ba'athist control.
"Thank you George Bush. Thank you Tony Blair, Thank you Kuwait," shouted a teenager on a bicycle. "Hey, hey, George Bush, well done, well done."
While northern Iraq remains cut off from the rest of the country, the frontlines held for more than a decade by Saddam's loyalist troops have been melting back in recent days towards the oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.
Around 120,000 Iraqi troops, backed by tanks and heavy artillery, have been massing around the two cities for the past three weeks, occupying people's homes and preparing for a siege.
With the fall of Baghdad, however, few people in the Kurdish zones believed that Mosul and Kirkuk would put up much of a fight, despite reports of heavy fighting between peshmerga, backed by US Special Forces, and Iraqi troops 6 km outside Kirkuk.
"Once people know that Saddam is no longer in control of the capital, they will rise up," said Neruddin Mohammed.
"The hard part for them is finding out, as satellite television and any outside information is banned."
Indeed, satellite dishes have become the hottest item in newly-liberated towns and villages across northern Iraq, with prices doubling to around $1,000, or 5,000-6,000 Iraqi dinars, in just three days.
At the newly-liberated town of Shekahn, 240 km north of Irbil, peshmerga wrapped yellow scarves around their necks to celebrate the news from Baghdad, but said they remained vigilant as artillery fire was still incoming from Iraqi positions just a few kilometres away.
"Now I can speak what is in my heart," said 24-year-old Govan Tahar as he surveyed a bomb site on the outskirts of town, evidence of the fierce fighting here just two days ago.
"Some of Saddam's men were here, firing an anti-aircraft gun at the American planes to draw bombing into the residential areas," Mr Tahar said as he pointed to a sandbagged foxhole beneath a gum tree on the corner of Yarmuk and Saddam Street.
"They wanted to get the planes to bomb the houses and kill people, all for propaganda, so they can accuse the Americans of killing innocent Iraqi people," he said.
The 1,000-pound bomb that was dropped on the corner did kill the owner of 16 Yarmuk Street, Abdul Rahman, and injured many others.
'Everywhere people pinned yellow ribbons, symbolising the Kurdish nation, to their clothing. Many waved the red, white and blue stars and stripes of the United States as they shouted their thanks to the American leader'