Modest last stand for leader

Al-Jazeera TV yesterday showed a relatively modest Baghdad home where the Iraqi leader, who had built himself sumptuous palaces, was said to have spent the last days of his rule.

A sitting room ringed with yellow-and-green striped sofas was where al-Jazeera said Saddam held his last meetings with the Revolutionary Council and senior aides.

An adjacent room, sparsely furnished with a conference table covered in white fabric and surrounded by white plastic chairs, appeared to be the room where Saddam was shown in a videotape meeting with his sons and advisers in the days after the war began.

Al-Jazeera said the room was also where Saddam’s last speech was recorded.

An office seemed to be the one where Saddam, looking tired and wearing large glasses, filmed a statement aired on March 20, three hours after being targeted by the US air raids that opened the war.

An Iraqi flag stood in the small office, an Iraqi eagle symbol hung on drawn blue curtains. A presidential stamp on an ink pad rested on a sturdy desk near a piece of white paper that read in Arabic: “The president orders the Revolutionary Council ...”