At a garage on the outskirts of Basra, peasants forgot the petrol queues and greeted the news of Saddam Hussein's capture with hugs and celebratory blasts of gunfire. In the city centre, greying communists threw candies through car windows. Students danced into the night. But hospitals reported fewer casualties than after the euphoric gun-pumping that followed the killing of Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, in July. Why? Firstly, because Saddam Hussein is still alive. Iraq remains a vindictive place, and most would prefer him dead. "We are Muslims, we believe in the death penalty," said Wael Abdel Latif, governor of Basra and a representative on the 25-member Governing Council. Others in his entourage wanted Mr Hussein hacked into tiny pieces, one for each of the Iraqis he had killed. "Saddam Hussein has left every family grieving for a relative who has disappeared or been crippled by torture," said Said Hassanein, who runs the Basra mosque, from where the 1991 uprising against Mr Hussein began. "Death for the tyrant is the least of our demands."
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