WASHINGTON, April 10: US officials pressed a search for evidence of the fate of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Thursday, inspecting for the first time the ruins of a Baghdad building where he and his sons were believed to be meeting moments before it was flattened by US bombs, officials said.
A flood of conflicting rumors unleashed by the collapse of the regime in Baghdad have put Saddam variously in his hometown of Tikrit, at the Russian embassy in Baghdad or in a town on the road to Syria that was the scene of fierce fighting.
“Nothing has changed there. His fate is unknown at this point,” said a US official.
“There are just so many rumors going around; they are on the order of Elvis sightings,” he said.
US officials searching for clues visited the wreckage of a bombed-out building in Baghdad’s al-Mansour district which housed a popular restaurant but which officials said also contained offices of Iraqi intelligence.
Tipped off that Saddam and his sons were meeting with senior intelligence officials there on April 7, US commanders had it struck 45 minutes later by a B-1 bomber.
“It was based on human intelligence, multiple human intelligence,” said a US defense official, who asked not to be identified.
British intelligence is reported to believe that Saddam probably left the building minutes before the bombing, either through a tunnel or by car.
A similar “decapitation” strike apparently missed Saddam on March 20, the first night of the war, despite what was believed to be timely, high-quality intelligence that he and his sons were in the targeted compound.
US intelligence, however, became convinced Saddam survived that attempt on his life after Iraqi television aired a videotape of him rallying his supporters in a speech that alluded to the downing of an Apache helicopter, an event that occurred after the first strike.
“If people thought he was killed, they would never have dropped the bombs on the second target,” said the defense official.
It was unclear whether the US officials who inspected the site of the April 7 bombing included forensics experts.
Officials said DNA might help to identify the remains. But confirmation that Saddam is dead or alive may ultimately come from those who were close enough to him to know. —AFP
