World waits to hear if Iraqi leader is dead
The Iraqi leader and his sons, Qusay and Uday, were believed to have been meeting in a bunker under the al-Saa restaurant in the al-Mansour area of Baghdad when the building was reduced to rubble by four 2,000lb "bunker-busting" bombs.
US President George W Bush, yesterday meeting Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland, said: "I don't know if he survived, the only thing I know is he is losing power."
Tip-offs from three sources said Saddam was at the Al Mansour site.
US intelligence services informed Allied Central Command in Qatar and a US B-1B Lancer bomber, which was already in the air, was redirected to launch an attack.
A military source said: "When we found this out there was no hanging around It was a big strike and if they were in there then they're gone."
The bombing left a 60ft crater and there were local reports that surrounding homes were destroyed. Iraqi rescue workers said up to 14 civilians were killed, including a child.
Iraqi authorities denied any leadership figures were hit in the attack.
The man who may have killed Saddam, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Swan, weapons system officer on the bomber, described how he and his crew felt when the order came through.
"We knew it was important and that it might be the big one," he said.
Just 12 minutes after the order, the bombs were dropped from an altitude of 20,000ft, flattening the building.
Establishing whether Saddam escaped or sent a double to the meeting may rest on DNA sampling.
US authorities are rumoured to have already obtained samples of his DNA, or they could take samples from close relatives to identify his corpse.
Pentagon officials said last night they do not know if Saddam was killed in the bunker-buster bombing, but that command orders are still being issued to key elements of Iraq's military.
"I think the end game is the end of the regime and that's much closer than people thought it was," said Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director of joint operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Maj Gen McChrystal told a Pentagon briefing that some key elements of Saddam's Republican Guard were still operating and appeared to be following orders, possibly from the Iraqi leader.
"The Republican Guard are receiving instructions, but in many cases not following them and not capable any more so they're not an effective fighting force," he said.
In Baghdad, heavy fighting continued as US Marines bridged a river to the south-east, taking the Rashid military airport and pushing towards the centre of the city. Ir raqi forces offered resistance, with fighters in buses and trucks sent across the Tigris to attack US troops and regime snipers took potshots from rooftops. Thousands of civilians continued to pour out of the city in buses and pickup trucks, mostly heading to the north.
During the fighting in Baghdad, a US tank fired a round at the Palestine Hotel, the base for most Western journalists. Two journalists Taras Protsyuk of Reuters and Jose Couso of Spain's Tele 5 were killed.
In a separate incident, US ground forces fired on the Baghdad offices of Arabic satellite network al-Jazeera, killing one of their correspondents, Tareq Ayoub, a Jordanian. Central Command spokesman Brigadier General Vince Brooks said the deaths were "most unfortunate."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
