LONDON, July 25: Saddam Hussein and his two sons did not leave Baghdad until mid-April, when US tanks were already in the heart of the city, a former bodyguard of Uday, the Iraqi leader’s eldest son, said on Friday in an interview with The Times newspaper.

“They could have left Baghdad any time but it was their intention to fight,” Uday’s former bodyguard said, speaking on condition that the Times used a pseudonym, Abu Tiba.

The former bodyguard said that a “decapitating” strike during the invasion came very close to killing Saddam Hussein and he suspected an informant had tipped off the US troops.

According to Mr Tiba, Saddam asked the suspect to prepare a safe house in the Mansour district of Baghdad for a meeting. They arrived, and left again, almost immediately, by the back door.

“Ten minutes after they went out of the door, it was bombed,” said Tiba, 28.

The informer was summarily executed while the Pentagon was claiming that the strike had probably finished off Uday and Qusay.

Tiba also said that he witnessed Saddam and his sons appear together in public for the final time, a few days after the Iraqi leader had been on a televised walkabout.

On April 11, the three astonishingly appeared at Friday prayers at a mosque in the suburb of Adhamiya, a few kilometres from where American troops were patrolling, he said.—AFP