Saddam International Airport, the target of a U.S. assault around nightfall, has been shut since U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20.
But a Reuters journalist who visited the airport on Thursday with Iraqi officials said it appeared empty. Two Iraqi planes were parked on the tarmac. Soldiers manned the usual checkpoint at the entrance.
At Mansour square on the west bank of the Tigris, a huge bronze statue of Saddam looks toward the horizon.
