Baghdad reaction: Michael Jansen, who was driving through Baghdad when the first reports of Saddam Hussein's capture began to spread, reports on how the city reacted to the news.
News of Saddam Hussein's capture began to percolate at about half-past one in the afternoon. Odd shots bubbled from the smooth surface of a sunny Sunday. There was a rush of automatic fire in the distance. Nothing to worry about.
Yaqthan Chadirji and I were driving to a lunch party when he received a call from his daughter in Amman. He listened to what she had to say. "They've got Saddam," he observed gravely.
There was more firing, again far away. He rang his brother, Nasir, a member of the Governing Council. "He confirms the news. He and Adnan Pachachi [the acting president of the Council] are going to Tikrit to meet Saddam this afternoon."
People around us in the traffic jam clearly did not know.
Our driver switched on the BBC in Arabic, which carried the news.
The jam began to shift and move forward. We broke free.
The news of the former president's seizure crept, then ran, across the face of the city. By two o'clock people who had electricity and satellite dishes were glued to the screens of their television sets.
The first channel to broadcast the news was Al-Arabia, based in Dubai.
Everyone in Iraq was stunned and shocked. Saddam Hussein has been a firm fixture on the country's political stage since the Baath Party took power in 1968. After he assumed the presidency in 1979, he was the sole power in the land.
Now that he is well and truly gone, most people do not know what to think.
While the vast Shia slum district called Sadr City went wild with joy over news of Saddam's capture, with long bursts of machine-gun fire raking the air, the mood in Sunni neighbourhoods was more sombre as the streets emptied as people went home to lunch.
"They must show us Saddam on television," said one doubting Iraqi through his car window as we waited for a policeman to give us the sign to proceed. "We want to make certain that they have the real Saddam." While in power he had at least two doubles.
During the afternoon Iraqis were able to see for themselves on the local "American channel" video clips broadcast by international satellite stations. Then they could decide for themselves. Pictures of Saddam Hussein having his long hair cut and his mouth swabbed for DNA samples angered some.
"What a humiliation. He was a man who was never touched," remarked one woman. "It's a humiliation for all of us to see him treated like this." When he was shown with his beard shorn, she remarked, "Look at how he has aged."
While some sectors of the city shut down as soon as the news broke, others remained open.
In Mansur, a quarter inhabited by professionals and diplomats, some streets bravely remained open, lights blazing and generators roaring, but others were shut down tight, and had their metal shutters rolled down and screens barred in case of looting. Traffic there was lighter than usual for fear of bullets from random shootings nearby.
Across the street from an internet café on a busy street in Mansur, women continued to shop for wedding dresses, unfazed by the news of Saddam's capture. In Iraq marriages take place war or peace, Saddam or no Saddam. The Sa'a (Clock) restaurant next door to the internet café continued to serve its customers. Traffic was normal.
Iraqis at the internet centre expressed differing opinions. Several said they wished he had been killed rather than taken alive.
But one man, typing an email, said, "I am glad that he has been captured. Now they must give him a fair trial. People must see what he has done to the Iraqi people. All the mass graves. The horrible tortures. He must pay, but everything must be done according to the law. The trial must not last two minutes before the verdict is delivered."
A man recently returned after 38 years in London said, "Most Iraqis are happy." But a woman who has been here throughout Saddam's rule disagreed. "Most Iraqis are unhappy. Most loved Saddam." The man countered by saying, "It is not the moment to make opinions public."
Clearly, the detention of Saddam did not instantly dissipate the climate of fear which has ruled Iraq for decades. Since the man was more forthcoming when he learned that he was not speaking to someone from the US media, it is clear that the US occupation has sparked new fears and reticence.
According to several in the café who preferred not to be named, it will take time and radical improvements on the ground before Iraqis are confident about those who govern the country. They have no expectation that the US occupation authority and the US-appointed Governing Council will deliver democracy, peace and prosperity.
Lamia Ghaylani, an archaeologist and granddaughter of Iraq's first prime minister, Abdel Rahman al-Naqib, appointed by the British in 1923, said Saddam Hussein's seizure "is a big relief".
"There was the lurking feeling that he might come back. Now we will be able to work [to rebuild the country]. Quite a lot of employees did not work because they were afraid he would come back and they would be punished. His sympathisers also made people believe this. A few days ago there was a demonstration for Saddam [in the Suleiq quarter]. People were chanting, 'With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice, yah, Saddam'."
For many Iraqis, Saddam Hussein provided psychological stability and security. His ousting in April gave rise to uncertainty and fear of the future. His capture yesterday has increased such uncertainty.
There will be no more demonstrations, no more pro-Saddam slogans written on the walls. But people will continue to complain, "Under Saddam we had security, we had power, we had petrol."
There could be some "terrorist attacks", remarked Khaled, an Iraqi businessman. "They may want to show the Americans that the resistance is not finished. They may do something big in coming days. They may try to punish the Americans and their friends in Iraq."
Raed, another businessman, said with some passion, "Now that Saddam is gone for good, they must stop marginalising the Sunnis [the Orthodox sect in Islam seen as being favoured by his regime].
"If they don't change their policy of favouring the Shias [the heterodox sect], we will end up with Ayatollah [Ali] Sistani as the ruler of Iraq. We will become just like Iran."