TIKRIT, Iraq, Dec 22: Saddam Hussein protected himself during eight months on the run, with key help most likely coming from four family members who served in his elite Special Security Organization, tribal leaders from the captive strongman’s home region said

Sheikhs around Tikrit said the men who aided Saddam Hussein probably included Mohammad Hadosh, a bodyguard for Saddam in Tikrit and a relative on his father’s side, and Mohammed Omar Ibrahim al Muslat, a bodyguard for him in Baghdad and a relative on his mother’s side.

The other two men were probably brothers Akrama al Salah and Habib al Salah, also bodyguards and related to the former president on his father’s side.

The accounts by tribal leaders dovetailed with the US military’s theory that Saddam relied on four or five key aides who facilitated his travel and relayed his instructions for battling the Americans over the past eight months.

While the military has not released the names of Saddam’s top lieutenants, it has described all of them as coming from five families around Tikrit who had served in his government or security forces.

The military has said all but one of Saddam’s top lieutenants have now been captured, including the man who led US troops to Saddam’s hiding place after himself being detained.

“What facilitated and eased Saddam’s capture was his bad relations with the people, even with some of his own tribe,” said Sheikh Naji al-Jabbara, head of the US-installed interim council for Tikrit.

A source of ill-will for Saddam in his own Bejat tribe was his replacement of its ruling sheikh, Mahmoud al-Nida, in the 1980s, with his own candidate and his confiscation of much of Nida’s land.

With such an ugly past, Saddam had to count on relatives from his mother’s Albu Omar clan and his father’s Albu Ghafur — particularly those who had enjoyed the pleasure of his patronage and had served in the uppermost ranks of his secretive security services.

Those not on the Americans’ list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis like Hadosh, Muslat and the Salah brothers were the best candidates to help their old boss.—AFP