Saddam is hiding in Iraq, claims aide

A CLOSE associate of Saddam Hussein was quoted yesterday as saying that the deposed president was safe in Iraq, preparing to organise resistance to US-led occupation forces.

Qassem Salam, secretary-general of Yemen’s Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, said he had received a message from the leadership of Saddam’s Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party around mid-April, assuring him of the well-being of fellow party leaders in Iraq.

“The message asserted that ... all the leadership was well and in safe places. The national pan-Arab leadership, including Saddam Hussein, were in safe places, and those who had left Iraq also said they were safe,” Salam told the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi in an interview, without giving details.

“The crux of the message was that the resistance to the Americans will be tough, decisive and historic,” he added, speaking from Yemen.

The whereabouts of Saddam and his two sons are not known, but several of Saddam’s senior aides are in US custody. In April, Al-Quds published a letter allegedly from Saddam, in which he urged his people to rise up against the US and British occupiers.

The former schoolmate of Saddam’s said he last saw the Iraqi leader at an official meeting on March 8.

Salam, who was in Iraq throughout the war, said he left the country on April 12, three days after Baghdad fell, travelling first to Syria and then to Jordan, before flying back to Sanaa.

He said Saddam had himself led a battle against US forces at Baghdad airport, but was later betrayed by Republican Guards commanders who believed the war was already lost.

“The Americans were taken by surprise by the Iraqi tanks and the Fedayeen surrounding them from every corner, and not a single American left the airport,” he said.

US troops seized Baghdad International Airport on April 4, and launched a swift thrust into the capital from there, leading to the swift fall of Saddam’s government.

Asked why Baghdad had fallen so easily, Salam said: “The top chain in the Republican Guards started to get frustrated, and gave the impression to commanders below them that Saddam was over, and that they should disappear until resistance is organised.

“I believe that the resistance has not started yet, and that the battle that Saddam planned for is yet to start.”