ARBIL, Aug 31: US forces backed by helicopters entered the al-Arabi neighbourhood in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, residents told AFP, adding that deposed president Saddam Hussein could be hiding out in the area.

US forces, acting on information that Saddam may be hiding in the district, are deployed there and helicopters are hovering overhead, the witnesses told AFP’s correspondent in this Kurdish city southeast of Mosul.

“There is a heavy presence of US troops, acting on information that Saddam may be hiding in the al-Arabi neighbourhood,” one resident said.

“The word in town is that Saddam is there,” said another.

US forces killed Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay in a raid on a villa in Mosul on July 22.

According to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), it was in Mosul that its fighters captured former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, who is on the US list of 55 most wanted officials of the former regime, on August 18 before handing him over to US forces the next day.

Saddam’s whereabouts have been unknown since his ouster by US-led forces on April 9,

but US intelligence have deemed audiotapes of the toppled leader that have since been occasionally aired on Arab satellite TVs to be probably authentic, suggesting he survived US attempts to kill him during the war.

US forces were reported to have launched hunts for Saddam in Mosul before.—AFP