Iraqis whose lives were destroyed by the 2003 invasion of their country today accused Tony Blair and George Bush of being the architects of their downfall - and called them 'the devil'.

The former Prime Minister's reputation lies in tatters after today's Chilcot's damning report into the Iraq debacal found he toppled tyrant Saddam Hussein with no firm evidence he had weapons of mass destruction.

And today people on the streets of Erbil in northern Iraq celebrated as the report finally tore apart the so-called flawed invasion that killed 179 British troops and their countrymen and women. 

'They removed Saddam Hussein, but they didn't think about the consequences of doing so,' said shopkeeper Selman Hussein.

The businessman, who briefly fled to Europe and lived in Belgium, said Mr Blair had been irresponsible when he claimed he could not have known how difficult the post-invasion situation would be.  

In the report emails from the ex-Labour PM to then US-president George Bush showed unwavering loyalty as he was determined to take military action to topple Saddam.

But the shopkeeper went on:  'They did not plan for the future. We are now living in a destroyed country, Tony Blair did not make anything good for Iraq,' he said.

'Under Saddam we were happier, it was much better. Now, it is Sunni-Shiite and Kurds. Everybody is fighting, now there are bombs everyday. Before we had a strong president. His name was Saddam,' he said.

Selman, also believes Mr Blair twisted intelligence about the threat posed by Saddam to justify the war that led to the deaths of 179 British soldiers and left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead. 

'He said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. What weapons? They lied,' he added.

Other Iraqis hit out at Mr Blair claiming his fawning emails to Bush, where the day after the 9/11 attacks, Blair told Bush they should immediately tackle states and individuals with weapons of mass destruction and justify it later prove he wanted to invade Iraq regardless of the consequences.

'Tony Blair came in 2003…and there was no security afterwards. He thought it was just like a movie,' said Ayad Ibrahim, a university lecturer from Baghdad.

Taking a sip of tea in the local coffee shop in Erbil, in Northern Iraq, he added: 'Look, about two days ago 500 people died and it is not just in one day, it is every day in Iraq.'

The 48-year-old father of three is also not optimistic about the future, saying the country Blair left behind has a bleak future full of bitterness and in-fighting. 

He said: 'The security situation is finished. First it was Al-Qaeda and now it is Daesh. After Daesh nobody knows what will happen.' 

Iraq's Christian community, who have be persecuted heavily in post Saddam, agree with Chilcott's findings that Blair should have more fully explored alternatives to military action that cost lives.

'They did not plan for the future. They just invaded and then destroyed this country,' Albert, 36, a Christian from Baghdad told MailOnline.

'Tony Blair and George Bush they destroyed this country, they are the devil,' he added.

Albert now works in Erbil because he is unable to go back to Baghdad, added: 'I have only one thing I want to ask those who invaded Iraq: If they can manage to repair this country back to they way it was before, I will forgive them, but until then I will not.'

Those Christians who held high positions under Saddam's ruling Ba'ath Party look back fondly on their country under his dictatorship.

'Before 2003 it was safe, in Saddam's time it was good, now there is no security,' Albert, who was too frightened to give his surname, explained.

'Before I could drive from Basra to Baghdad to Mosul. Now that is impossible,' he added.

The father-of-two is most angry that Blair and Bush claimed to be acting in their country's best interests, but now the country is as unsafe as at any point in their lives.

'Now we have zero per cent security in Iraq. In Saddam's time it was much better,' he said.

But Iraq is not entirely hostile to the humbled PM, who today said he expressed more sorrow, regret, and apology than we may ever know or can believe in a grovelling apology to the report's findings.

For those in the Kurdish community said life without the tyrant Saddam, who is believed to have murdered up to 280,000 of their people during the repression of the 1991 rebellion, is better. 

'At the beginning we were happy. The American and the British came to liberate us from Saddam, and we thought the new situation would be much better,' Doctor, Mathum Falluh stated.

But Mathum, 68, a university lecturer, from Sulaymaniyah, still said his country was better before the 2003 invasion.

'It has become a 100 per cent worse than before Saddam was gone, because of the killing, slaughtering [and] murdering now,' he said.

The father-of-four said the invasion has led to the political breakup of Iraq, which has created a violent vacuum in fighting for power.

'People like me thought Britain and the US came to save us. But, they supported a bad leader in Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki when they supported him a Prime Minister,' he said.

He added their continued support of Maliki, and his 'corrupt' government was the biggest problems after the invasion.

'Even Shiite people saw that Maliki and his government were stealing many millions of dollars. But the Americans and the British they did nothing,' he stated.

He, though, does not think the findings of this report as changing anything on the ground in Iraq.

'I don't see anything different with the publication of this report. The situation here is not better [and] all the money is flowing to our leaders, not to the average people,' he said. 

Courtesy DailyMail