May 27, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24,1424

BAGHDAD, May 26: Former Iraqi officials said on Monday that President Saddam Hussein was betrayed by his own family.

According to the officials, Saddam’s cousins ordered troops not to fight against the invaders and issued reports saying that the Iraqi leader was dead.

“The head of the Republican Guard, Maher Sufian al-Tikriti, who was considered the shadow of Saddam, told the troops not to fight when US forces entered Baghdad on April 8,” one of the sources said.

At the same time a rumour that Saddam was killed in the bombing of the Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Mansur on April 7 began to spread among government members.

The information was spread by a minister, the source said, refusing to identify him. “This minister was then evacuated by American troops along with his family and now lives in a European country.”

And since the occupation, Saddam’s elder son, Uday, has tried to contact US officials in Baghdad through an intermediary to negotiate a safe surrender, Time magazine reported in its latest edition.—AFP