An angry hometown crowd

The locals gathered at the “evil mosque,” having just heard the verdict: Saddam Hussein, son of this wealthy city, had just been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang.

Shortly after noon, Sunni Muslim Arabs poured into the streets of Tikrit, headed for the religious site so named by U.S. troops because the Americans believe it to be tied to insurgents.

In Samarra, a mostly Sunni city south of Tikrit, at least 300 marchers filed past the ruins of the Golden Mosque, the Shiite Muslim shrine attacked in February, by now a symbol of Iraq’s civil war. The largely male crowd yelled slogans against the tribunal that tried Hussein and against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite.

“Long live Saddam!” they shouted.

“We’ll sacrifice our blood and soul for you, Saddam!”

At least 50 children walked around Samarra in their own protest demonstration, carrying Iraqi flags.

In Tikrit, at the police chief’s plush headquarters, professor Muhaned Jaseem watched the trial unfold on television. As the judge read the verdict, Hussein defiantly shouted, “Down with the occupation! Long live the people!”

Jaseem, who teaches Islamic history at Tikrit University, shook his head and silently laughed. It was unclear whether he was laughing at Hussein, the Americans or the twists and turns of history.

“He was a legitimate president of a country removed by occupiers,” Jaseem said. The bloodshed of the ongoing civil war has turned even some critics of Hussein into supporters, he said, adding, “Now these people wish that Saddam Hussein would come back and provide security.”

Just minutes after the verdict, a barrage of shooting erupted outside the police headquarters.

“Time to go,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Yuner Olivo, 23, who also was sitting in the chief’s office, watching the judge read the verdict on the pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera.

Olivo and a dozen other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division were in the city Sunday to visit the mayor and the police chief, but by agreement, Iraqi forces were supposed to handle security. The Americans left in a convoy.

In the streets, supporters of Hussein fired handguns and AK-47 assault rifles into the air. They also set tires and trash ablaze. Hundreds arrived in large convoys from outlying villages, disregarding checkpoints and curfews. Others simply walked away from their duty as soldiers or police officers, joining the crowd that made its way south toward the government center.

As the protest swelled, Olivo and his men watched from a bridge outside Tikrit. A dark plume of smoke rose over the city.

Apache helicopters soon hovered over the area, the pilots calling in their observations. Lt. Col. Barry Di Ruzza spread the map of Tikrit on the hood of his Humvee as he listened to the radio.

“Now people in Iraq have three faces: one with the Americans, one with the government and one with themselves,” Tikrit’s mayor, Wael Ibrahim Ali, had said when Di Ruzza and his men visited earlier in the day.

But the commander of Task Force Loyalty, 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, had no illusions.

“They’re in a marriage of convenience with the Americans,” Di Ruzza said, referring to those who cooperate with the U.S. military.

“This is a bastion of Sunni resistance.”

Some residents support the insurgency with money, he said, and others turn a blind eye or harbor rebels.

During Di Ruzza’s midday visit to the mayor’s office, a bomb went off nearby, shaking the windows.

In the late afternoon, a mortar attack narrowly missed brigade headquarters at Camp Speicher outside Tikrit.

About 75 of the average 100 weekly attacks around Tikrit target U.S. forces -- in this case, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which patrols a Vermont-sized area along the Tigris River. Last month, four GIs were killed in action in the brigade’s zone of operation.

Iraqi security forces nominally control the area around Tikrit, but U.S. troops on the ground complain that they are untrustworthy, especially the local police. Many of the Iraqi personnel have links to the insurgency, the Americans believe, and U.S. troops suspect that on at least one occasion recently, Iraqi security forces led their American counterparts into an ambush.

On Sunday, Iraqi police officers, supposedly enforcing the curfew and manning checkpoints around Tikrit, let hundreds of protesters drive into the city.

Yet, Di Ruzza was told the Iraqis would handle the situation themselves, and he could only watch from afar.

In Tikrit, the crowd swelled. Listening to the radio, Di Ruzza traced the demonstrators’ progress on the map. His Iraqi interpreter, nicknamed Jack for security reasons, received real-time updates from the governor of the region and his deputy by phone. They reported protesters carrying grenade launchers and other heavy weapons.

“You knew that was coming,” Sgt. Emil Walsh noted dryly.

“They’re gathering at the ‘evil mosque,’ ” Jack said. “That’s where they get their instructions.”

He conferred with Di Ruzza.

“Are we going back then?” said Walsh, visibly happy at the prospect of getting face to face with armed men in Tikrit.

Di Ruzza listened intently to the reports on the radio. After more than an hour of deliberation, he decided the demonstration was largely peaceful. There wouldn’t be any fighting for Walsh this afternoon.

Di Ruzza told his men to head for Camp Speicher and turn away from Tikrit.

The plume of smoke above the city had disappeared.

louise.roug@latimes.com

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Times special correspondents in Tikrit and Samarra contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

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By the numbers

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The crimes

Saddam Hussein and seven codefendants were charged with crimes against humanity in the deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujayl who were slain by Hussein’s security apparatus after assassins tried to kill the former Iraqi president in the town in 1982.

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The sentences

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Saddam Hussein

Death by hanging for willful killing; 10 years in prison for deportation/forcible transfer of population; 10 years for imprison- ment or other severe deprivation of liberty violating norms of international law; seven years for torture; seven years for other inhumane acts; acquittal on charges relating to enforced disappearance of persons.

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Taha Yassin Ramadan

Former vice president

Life in prison for willful killing; 10 years for deportation/forcible transfer of population; 10 years for imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty violating norms of international law; seven years for torture; seven years for other inhumane acts; acquittal on charges relating to enforced disappearance of persons.

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Barzan Ibrahim Hasan

Former intelligence chief

Death by hanging for willful killing; 10 years in prison for deportation/forcible transfer of population; 10 years for imprison- ment or other severe deprivation of liberty violating norms of international law; seven years for torture; seven years for other inhumane acts; acquittal on charges relating to enforced disappearance of persons.

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Awad Hamed Bandar

Former chief of Revolutionary Court

Death by hanging for willful killing.

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Abdullah Kadhem Ruwayyid, Ali Dayim Ali and Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid

Former Baath Party officials

Fifteen years in prison for willful killing; 10 years for deportation/forcible transfer of population; 10 years for imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty violating norms of international law; seven years for torture; seven years for other inhumane acts of similar nature; acquittal on charges relating to enforced disappearance of persons.

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Mohammed Azzawi Ali

Former Baath Party official

Released because of insufficient evidence.

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Source: Reuters