July 1, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1424

SAMARA, June 30: Saddam Hussein’s former military intelligence chief has left for the desert around Samara north of Baghdad to track down Saddam Hussein, who he alleges is hiding out there.

“We have various pieces of information saying he’s present in the region, even if no one’s seen him,” Wafiq al-Samarrai said Sunday. “I’m leaving today to search for Saddam and his partisans.”

“We will share information we’ll gather with the Americans,” said the founder and secretary general of the National Salvation Movement, who has no military forces under his control apart from personal security guards.

Samarrai, who defected in 1994 and became an Iraqi opposition figure, said his decision to launch the hunt was cemented after an overnight attack on his house by “men loyal to Saddam.”

“My house was attacked at 01:45 am with an anti-tank rocket. There was only material damage,” said Samarrai, surronded by several tribal chiefs from Samara, 125 kilometres north of Baghdad, offering him support.

Samarrai has been accused of denouncing members of the outlawed Baath party of Saddam Hussein, which he denies.

“It may take months to find him, but we’ll do it,” he said.

TECHNOLOGY: Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, was crawling on Monday with US military who have brought in their most technologically advanced units in the hunt for members of the toppled regime.

With the start on Sunday of Operation Desert Sidewinder, the US army is hoping to wipe out Fedayeen militia fighters and diehards from the ousted Baath party.

“The goal is to catch former regime loyalists, former Republican Guards and paramilitary troops,” Lieutenant Colonel Bill McDonald said in Tikrit, around 175 kilometres north of the capital.

The area of operations is “mostly in the region from Tikrit to the north of Baghdad. It’s mostly up and down the river Tigris in Saddam’s backyard,” he said, describing the campaign as an ongoing operation with no fixed timeline.

The operation has already yielded more than 60 arrests, McDonald said, adding that about 10 people had already been released, while declining to identify any of those still being held in various locations.—AFP