Saddam probably survived cruise missile attack

IRAQI leader Saddam Hussein probably survived a cruise missile attack on leadership compounds in Baghdad but was reportedly taken away in an ambulance, British Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien has said.

“All I can tell you is this: that it appears that after the event (Thursday) we received information that Saddam Hussein left the area in an ambulance,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.

“There was some talk that he had been injured, even some suggestion that he had been killed.

“It seems that is unlikely, that if he was injured it doesn’t appear that it was a serious injury,” O’Brien said.

“But in a sense much of that is speculation. All we can say is that the information we had from at least one eyewitness was that he was taken away in an ambulance,” O’Brien said.

The information was based on British and US intelligence reports, O’Brien said.

Saddam was shown on state TV yesterday, meeting with senior political and military officials.

Military Industrialisation Minister Abdul Tawab al-Mulla Howeish, the head of Iraq’s atomic energy agency Fadhel al-Janabi and Mozahem Saab al-Hassan, head of Iraqi anti-aircraft defences, attended the meeting.

Higher Education Minister Humam Abdul Khaleq, the interim foreign minister, was also on hand.

Since the start of the US-led invasion to unseat him, Iraqi Saddam has repeatedly been shown on television with the aim of showing he is alive, healthy and in command.

A few hours after Thursday’s dawn offensive to “decapitate” the Iraqi leadership with a targeted attack on one of his Baghdad bunkers, Saddam appeared on the airwaves in military uniform, telling the nation that Iraq would triumph over its aggressors.

CIA analyses of the TV broadcast determined that it was likely authentic but could not determine whether the speech was pre-recorded.

Since then, state television and Youth TV, run by Saddam’s elder son Uday, have shown images of the mustachioed president several times a day, meeting with top aides at undisclosed locations to monitor the progress of the war.

Smiling and appearing relaxed, Saddam has seemed determined to boost the morale of the troops and the Iraqi people with the repeated cameos.

Since the start of hostilities, he polished his image as supreme commander of the armed forces and took to donning his olive green military uniform which he had largely abandoned for civil dress since early 1998.

In meetings with officers, Saddam has appeared flanked by his younger son Qussay, who is entrusted with the defence of Baghdad. The images have been set to a rousing musical accompaniment and a presenter’s fawning commentary.

While Western media tracked the advance of American and British troops in southern Iraq and bombing targets in Baghdad Saturday, Iraqi viewers saw a series of meetings between Saddam and his inner circle in which they declared their ‘satisfaction’ with their defence of the country.