While the sprawling east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City erupted with joy at the news that the hated despot had been sentenced to hang, there was an angry reaction on Saddam's home turf in Sunni regions in the north and west.
"Give him to us, we will execute him ourselves," chanted the Sadr City mob.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Malki, a Shi'ite and a long-term opponent of Saddam's former Sunni-dominated regime, reflected the mood in his own community when he declared: "The Iraqi martyrs now have the right to smile."
State television intercut repeated images of Saddam's humiliation with footage of wildy cheering crowds and a music video in which a singer dressed in judge's robes stands in a courtroom and celebrates the execution order.
In Sadr City unarmed cadres from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia policed the jubilant crowds and enforced a strict ban on "happy fire".
Sadr's followers did not thank Maliki's government for the verdict, but instead hailed their firebrand leader, chanting: "The one who betrayed the sayyid (Sadr) will be executed, just as the sayyid said he would be executed."
"The verdict is just," said 20-year-old Amjad Hamid. "We hoped that (former vice-president) Taha Yassin Ramadan would get the same thing, but never mind. Thank God we're getting rid of the dictator."
In the northern cities of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, which had long resisted Saddam's rule and suffered greatly from attacks by his armed forces, people supported the verdict but asked for it not to be carried out quickly.
Rights activist Berwa Ali spoke for many when she said the hanging should be put on hold until after Saddam's second trial -- for genocide against the Kurds during the notorious 1988 Anfal campaign.
Others, however, said their victory would not be complete until peace returns to Iraq.
Sunni anger
However the mood in Sunni towns was darker, and talk of conspiracy was rife.
"With our souls and our blood we redeem you, Saddam. Death to traitors and spies. Damn Bush and his agents. Yes, yes to the resistance. No option but to get rid of the occupier," chanted a crowd in Hawija, west of Kirkuk.
Thousands of Sunnis defied a curfew to march in support of
Saddam in his hometown, the northern city of Tikrit, some of them firing wildly in the air as US helicopters circled overhead.
Many Sunnis accused foreign powers, in particular the US, of intervening in the verdict.
"The sentence was pre-prepared in Washington and Tel Aviv," spat Tikrit civil servant Qusay Addai, bitterly.
Sheikh Abdel-Rahman Munshid al-Asi, a leader of the powerful
Sunni Al-Obeidi tribe, branded the verdict "a crime against Iraq, its future and history".
"The Iraqi government and its constituent parties will be held responsible for what will happen to Iraq," he warned. "The risks are catastrophic."
The Iraqi government, fearing a backlash by armed nationalist groups still loyal to Saddam's Baath party, had ordered a curfew in Baghdad, Tikrit and the sectarian battlefields of Diyala province.
There were unconfirmed reports of clashes between US forces and insurgents in Ramadi, a resistance stronghold west of Baghdad, but in the capital itself the sporadic gunfire appeared to be mainly celebratory.