Hiding in a hole

HE was grubby, dishevelled and appeared compliant. Those who loved or hated Saddam Hussein could not believe that the man who for decades terrorised his people and neighbours could surrender to US troops without even firing a shot.

On the contrary, the Iraqi dictator appeared submissive and obedient in a videotape showing his capture by US soldiers yesterday.

They combed fingers through his hair and beard, prised open his mouth, poked into his ears and took swabs from his cheek.

The once ruthless ruler did what he was told. He opened his mouth wide for medical checks and moved his head accordingly.

To Arabs across the world, the image of the once smartly-dressed Arab leader puffing arrogantly on his cigar and presiding over his commanders was shattered beyond recognition.

He was shown yesterday as a grubby, bearded prisoner, exhausted and resigned to his fate.

"This is the joy of a lifetime. I am speaking on behalf of all the people that suffered under his rule," said Ali Al-Bashiri, a resident of Kirkuk.

"He lived in a hole underground, isolated from the world, without light and air. He looked barbaric like a beast. They humiliated him the same way he humiliated others," added Fouad Saleh, 50, a financial consultant. "The tyrant got his punishment in the end."

The fugitive dictator was dug out by US troops from a narrow, man-sized pit, some two-three metres deep during a raid on a farm on Saturday.

The capture took place at 8.30pm at one of dozens of safehouses Saddam is thought to have a walled compound on a farm in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, not far from one of Saddam's former palaces.

Some 600 troops and special forces were involved in the raid that netted Saddam though not all were aware beforehand that the objective was "High Value Target No 1," said Major General Ray Odierno.

Troops found the ousted leader, armed with a pistol, hiding in an underground crawl space at the walled compound, he added.

"He was just caught like a rat," he said in one of Saddam's palaces nearby. "It is rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces he built, where he robbed all the money from the Iraqi people."

The entrance to the hiding place, covered with rugs and dirt, was a few feet from small, mud-brick hut where Saddam had been staying.

The hut consisted of two rooms, a bedroom with clothes scattered about and a "rudimentary kitchen".

US headquarters in Baghdad played the video of the 66-year-old ousted leader, in a heavy black and gray beard, undergoing medical examination. They also showed a still photo, apparently taken later, of a shaven Saddam.

His captors said the former Iraqi president, who had a revolver and automatic rifles on his side, did not put up resistance after eight months on the run. "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," US administrator Paul Bremer told a news conference yesterday.

"The tyrant is a prisoner."

The arrest was a huge victory for coalition forces battling an insurgency by the ousted dictator's followers.

"The former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions," US President George W Bush said in a midday televised address from the White House, eight months after American troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam's regime.

"In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived."

Washington hopes Saddam's capture will help break the organised Iraqi resistance that has killed more than 190 American soldiers since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1 and has set back efforts at reconstruction.

But Major General Odierno said the ousted leader did not appear to be directly organising resistance noting no communication devices were found in his hiding place.

"I believe he was there more for moral support," he said.

Saddam's capture was based on information from a family member "close to him", he told reporters in Tikrit. "Finally, we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he added.

Saddam's capture comes almost five months after his sons, Qusay and Oday, were killed on July 22 in a four-hour gun battle with US troops in a hideout in the northern city of Mosul.

"What a coward. I wish he had killed himself ... that would have been more honourable than seeing him like this," said Nahla Zaher, aged 60, a Palestinian housewife.

Many Arabs who saw Saddam as a champion of Arab rights did not want to believe it was really him in custody.

"If it were really Saddam, he would have resisted capture. But if in the end, it is proven that it is really him then these pictures are humiliating for every Arab and Muslim," said Yemeni salesman Ali al-Zebaidi.

"I still think the pictures are of a Saddam lookalike. They don't prove it's really him," added fellow Yemeni Badr Obadi.

Others were appalled that US forces used the footage to humiliate the former Iraqi leader.

"The cheap manner in which they showed Saddam made me pity him when I once thought he was the lowest of the low. But I now think America is lower," said Saudi national Sultan Mahmoud.