Saddam Hussein’s eldest daughter wants to return home from her Jordanian exile, saying her life has been full of emotional suffering.

Gunmen killed the brother of the man who told the US Army where to find Saddam Hussein’s sons, who were killed in a hail of gunfire last July, witnesses and hospital officials said today.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S family wants the former Iraqi leader to be tried by an international court instead of a special tribunal set up by the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council, one of his daughters said yesterday.

Saddam Hussein’s family wants the former Iraqi leader to be tried by an international court instead of a special tribunal set up by the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council, one of his daughters said today.

A glance at the life of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

American soldiers arrested a suspected former Ba’ath Party official in northern Iraq today as three American soldiers were killed in separate attacks.

Baghdad

Saddam Hussein’s daughters have expressed deep affection for their father in interviews, but said they did not know where he was and that they last saw him a week before the Iraqi war started.

A FIREFIGHT erupted when US forces surrounded the home of a cousin of Saddam Hussein in the northern city of Mosul yesterday, apparently searching for the deposed dictator’s sons. The building later burned to the ground.

A MAN claiming to be Saddam Hussein said in a tape aired on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera yesterday he is in Iraq directing attacks on US forces.

The US government has put a $25m (€21m) price on Saddam Hussein’s head and has offered $15m (€13m) for information leading to the capture of either of his sons.

AMERICAN forces have taken into custody Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's presidential secretary and number four on the US most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, a US official said yesterday.

US officials in Iraq believe they have recovered most of the €851m stolen from the central bank by one of Saddam Hussein’s sons before the regime collapsed.

SADDAM HUSSEIN and his family took about one billion dollars from Iraq’s central bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad, US government officials confirmed yesterday.

Saddam Hussein ordered that nearly $1bn (€882m) be taken from Iraq’s Central Bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad and sent his son Qusai to grab the cash in the middle of the night, a newspaper reported today.

COALITION forces have captured one of Iraq’s top biological weapons scientists dubbed “Chemical Sally”.

ABU DHABI TV yesterday screened pictures that appeared to show Saddam Hussein in the streets of Baghdad, being mobbed

US military officials have denied that American marines shot into a crowd of civilians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing as many as 10 people.

A top Iraqi nuclear scientist recently spent time in Syria, and Saddam Hussein’s first wife may be there now, US intelligence officials said.

ALLIED warplanes and special forces were yesterday targeting Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace and stronghold.

Air strikes were continuing today over Baghdad as US officials revealed a renewed attempt had been made to kill Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Key developments in the war against Iraq.

Seven women and children died after US troops fired at a van which failed to stop at an army checkpoint in southern Iraq.

IRAQI President Saddam Hussein chaired a meeting of top aides, including his elder son, Uday, making his first televised appearance since the outbreak of the US-led war, state television showed.

Thunderous explosions rocked Baghdad today and a towering column of orange smoke rose over the city as the coalition forces unleashed their most powerful bombardment in days.

Special operations units in the US military have contacted Iraq’s notorious secret police to attempt to acquire documents showing Baghdad’s links with al-Qaida, it was reported today.

Clouds of thick smoke hung over Baghdad this morning as a series of explosions sounded in the distance and US troops advanced to within 150 miles of the city.

Saddam Hussein was inside the compound destroyed by cruise missiles in the attempted “decapitation strike”, US intelligence officials believe.

JUST hours before the attack on Iraq began, the CIA reportedly told US President George Bush that the spy agency believed it had a fix on Saddam Hussein’s location.

Iraqi troops may be too scared of Saddam Hussein to abandon him and surrender to advancing American and British forces.

The Baghdad streets were eerily quiet today as the US deadline approached for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face a massive military onslaught.

In an edgy prelude to war, Saddam Hussein has mocked a US ultimatum to surrender power, and Washington's claim of public support from 30 nations for its international coalition supporting Iraq’s disarmament.

Iraq said most of the helicopters used by United Nations weapons inspectors were flown out to Syria today en route to Cyprus after a Western insurance company suspended its cover for the aircraft.

Saddam Hussein has placed Iraq on a war footing, placing his son and three trusted lieutenants in charge of four military regions to defend against a US-led invasion.

Saddam Hussein has taken an advanced and powerful nation and plunged it into a dark era of two devastating wars and 12 years of misery under UN sanctions.

There were indications from Baghdad tonight that Saddam Hussein is prepared to obey UN instructions and destroy his al Samoud missiles.

US President George Bush last night scoffed at the Iraqi parliament’s recommendation that the latest United Nations arms-inspection resolution be rejected, calling it “nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein.”

President George Bush tonight scoffed at the Iraqi parliament’s recommendation that the latest United Nations arms-inspection resolution be rejected, calling it “nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein.”

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son told MPs today that Iraq should accept a UN resolution strengthening the mandate of international arms inspectors, but should require the inspection teams include Arabs.

Saddam Hussein’s second son Qusai has been elected to the ruling party’s leadership, significantly boosting his chances of succeeding his father.