...There were no exuberant scenes of jubilation which greeted the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue on Firdous Square on April 9, 2003, when U.S. troops swept into the capital.

I think what they meant to say was that there were no cheering crowds now, as opposed to the statue incident, but then, having seen the overhead shot of the statue coming down, there weren't any crowds then either, so oddly, they got this right even though it's not what was meant.