BAGHDAD, 12 April 2003 — US and Kurdish forces took Iraq’s third city of Mosul without a fight yesterday as support for Saddam Hussein collapsed in the north, but shooting and looting plunged Baghdad and other cities into anarchy. In both Baghdad and Mosul, violence and looting took hold as law and order crumbled and pent-up passions spilled on to the streets after 24 years of fearsome iron rule by Saddam.

In Baghdad, where US tanks moved in on Wednesday, gunmen apparently from the downtrodden Shiite community in the east-side slums battled Fedayeen paramilitaries loyal to Saddam overnight, US military sources said. Elsewhere in the capital, armed men roamed the streets, robbing buildings and hijacking cars. “The looters are armed and are shooting at people. There are a lot of guns in the streets,” said Reuters correspondent Hassan Hafidh.

Hundreds of Iraqi civilians stormed the headquarters of Iraq’s military intelligence and dug desperately in search of relatives they believed were trapped in dungeons below. Later, US soldiers in armored vehicles took over the compound. The chaos in Baghdad and elsewhere, and the murder of a religious leader in the holy city of Najaf, highlighted the problems US troops face in restoring order.

In Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, the entire Iraqi 5th Corps surrendered, US Central Command said in Qatar. “We’re in the process of deciding whether they’ll become (prisoners of war) or just go home,” Capt. Frank Thorp said.

Reuters journalists in Mosul said they saw no fighting there but crowds went on a looting rampage, stripping public buildings and even schools and torching a central market. An angry crowd forced journalists to withdraw from the center of the city.

US and Kurdish fighters claimed control of Iraq’s third city of Mosul yesterday, shoring up their foothold in the north. US special forces had entered and taken control of the key northern oil city after Iraqi forces signed a cease-fire, US commanders said.

US troops were also securing Kirkuk after US-backed Kurdish fighters seized the nearby oil-rich city on Thursday, Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green told AFP at US central command in Qatar. An AFP correspondent in Mosul, a majority Arab enclave in the mostly Kurdish north, reported that Kurdish pershmerga fighters were controlling the center of the city, but that there was no sign of the US special forces said to be there.

Kurdish fighters, backed by US special forces, entered the city after seizing the nearby oil city of Kirkuk almost unopposed on Thursday following the withdrawal of Iraqi forces, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.