WASHINGTON, March 21: US intelligence sources say Saddam Hussein was seen being wheeled out of a Baghdad residential complex on a stretcher after the complex was struck in “decapitation attacks” by the United States, the ABC News reported on Friday.

Eyewitnesses saw the Iraqi leader being taken from the complex on a “gurney, with an oxygen mask over his face,” Thursday morning, the officials told ABCNEWS. Sources said there was clearly a US observer nearby, watching the complex.

When asked on Friday whether Saddam may have been injured in the attack, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he wouldn’t address rumours, but added ambiguously, “I don’t know how Saddam Hussein is feeling today.”

Intelligence sources also said there has been a significant lack of communications between Saddam and his military structure since the airstrike.

They are optimistic that the attack injured Saddam, though they are cautious about the extent.

The US officials believe that one or both of Saddam’s sons were also in the complex when it was struck. The attack was “massive, catastrophic,” the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward told ABCNEWS.