Mourning capture of man seen as Arab hero

The sentiment was echoed in other parts of the West Bank, but Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who incurred Washington's wrath in 1991 by backing Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, made no comment on the US operation.

Israel welcomed the news and said it sent a signal to other dictators who support terrorism in the region. Some Israeli commentators suggested Hussein's incarceration might help lift the sagging peace process with the Palestinians.

But in al-Amari, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, residents mainly grieved. Several men gathered around a television set at the Abul-Abed barbershop, shaking their heads at pictures of Hussein being examined by an American doctor after troops pulled him from a hovel near his hometown of Tikrit.

"I'm shocked by this. I didn't expect him to be captured this way," said Mohammed Hamad, who owns the barbershop and visited Iraq five years ago.

"We Palestinians like Saddam because he's the only Arab leader who managed to scare Israel and the United States. He made Israelis hide in shelters and cover their faces with gas masks," Hamad said, referring to the 1991 Gulf war.

Iraq fired dozens of Scud missiles at Israel during that conflict, spurring some Palestinians to celebrate on rooftops across the West Bank. When the second Palestinian uprising against the Jewish state began nine years later, Hussein sent thousands of dollars to the families of suicide bombers and other militants killed by Israeli forces.

Hamad said he was surprised Hussein did not put up a fight when American soldiers came to get him. "I expected him to die like a martyr," he said. But others in the barbershop speculated that the Americans used a gas to drug Hussein and then seized him.

"He is a brave man. I swear by God, this is a big loss," said Daoud Abu Alez, who came to the barbershop for a shave.

Al-Amari, home to about 11,000 Palestinians, was the scene of several major clashes between militants and Israeli troops during more than three years of fighting. Wafa Idris, the first female suicide bomber in the conflict, came from this camp.

"I watched television for three hours and cried," said a 55-year-old shop owner who gave her name as Fatima. She predicted Iraqi fighters would step up their campaign to oust American soldiers.

Others gathered around American visitors to the camp and groused at the policies of President George W. Bush. "He hates Arabs. He is the real terrorist," one man said.

But not all Palestinians were lamenting Hussein's incarceration. In East Jerusalem, 25-year-old Imad Jbour described the fallen Iraqi leader as an aggressor who "committed a lot of injustice against his people.

"He was selling us words and slogans. He was using the Palestinian cause. But it was all political propaganda," said Jbour, a resident of the village of Yata, south of Hebron.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel phoned Bush yesterday to congratulate him on the American operation. In a statement issued by his office, Sharon described yesterday as "a great day for the democratic world, for fighters for freedom and justice and for those who fight against terror."

Some Israelis speculated that Iran would foment continued anti-US violence in Iraq, leading to more American casualties.

But Eran Lerman, a retired intelligence colonel who monitored Iraq and other Arab regimes until recently, said Hussein's capture would seriously undermine the resistance.

"It will certainly not disappear overnight. Some of the elements here are Islamist. But I think it's going to make a profound difference," said Lerman, who now heads the Israel office of the American Jewish Committee.

Lerman said Arafat had much to lose from Hussein's incarceration and possible trial for war crimes. "He was always hoping to see Saddam reemerging so that he could play him off against the Americans. That's why this is a very somber day for Arafat.

"But this could help clear up some of the clutter here and could give momentum to the peace process," he said.

Lerman said it was hard to understand why Palestinians had backed Hussein again and again at the price of American support and the financial backing of the Gulf states.

But Sa'id Aburish, a Palestinian biographer who wrote a scathing book about Hussein, said the former Iraqi leader appealed to the downtrodden by thumbing his nose at Israel and America.

"From day one, Saddam's prominence and his position in terms of the Arab street has depended on the fact that he's the man who stood up to the West, in particular in the United States," Aburish said.

"That hasn't changed to this day," he said.

Globe correspondent Sa'id Ghazali contributed to this report.