April 9, 2003
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See also April 8, 2003 - April 2003 - April 10, 2003
- At the International Science Festival at Edinburgh's Royal Museum, the stuffed remains of Dolly the sheep are for the first time displayed. [1]
- Baghdad falls to coalition forces. American infantrymen seize deserted Ba'ath Party ministries and pull down a huge iron statue of Saddam Hussein at the Fardus square in front of the Palestine Hotel, as a symbolic ending his autocratic rule of Iraq. Baghdad citizens then dragged the severed head of the statue through the streets of the city. Dozens of people there cheer U.S. soldiers, according to BBC. Much looting of cars and buildings is seen in Baghdad and other cities as the government and police lost control. [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]
- The fate of Saddam Hussein remains unknown after a U.S. B-1B bomber dropped four 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs on a building where Hussein was thought to be meeting with his sons and senior aides on April 7. The bombs blew a 60-foot-deep crater in a residential neighborhood that is not under coalition control, refueling speculation about the possible death of Saddam Hussein. British intelligence officials said that they believed Hussein left the targeted building just minutes before it was destroyed, and that he probably survived the attack. [7] [8] [9] [10]
- Iraq's ambassador to the U.N. Muhammad Ali al-Douri tells reporters that "the game is over." [11]
- U.S. Undersecretary of State, John R. Bolton, warns Iran, Syria, and North Korea that they should "draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq". [12]