Iraqi leader may be hiding out with supporters

IF Saddam Hussein is still alive, the Iraqi dictator is on the run and probably moving every few hours from house to house deep in the civilian areas of Baghdad still loyal to him, an expert claimed yesterday.

But as the coalition forces tighten their grip on the capital, the odds of him surviving the Allied advance are “shortening dramatically”.

If reports are accurate and the Iraqi tyrant survived a second “decapitation” attack on a restaurant bunker in al-Mansour two days ago, it will be merely a matter of time before he is caught or killed.

Charles Heyman, editor of Jane’s World Armies, believes the Iraqi tyrant is probably still in the city if he is not already dead, preferring not to take the gamble of fleeing north.

He claimed Saddam would be better advised to remain in the capital along with his commanders where he would be able to avoid detection in the areas not yet touched by coalition forces.

By travelling to neighbouring districts, including his home town of Tikrit, it would be harder for him and his entourage of bodyguards to remain undercover, with a number of Iraqis now turning against the regime and plotting its downfall.

“Being in Baghdad is like being in London,” said Mr Heyman. “It will be far easier for him to hide in the civilian areas of the city than going to, say, Tikrit.

“He’s likely to be undercover in the civilian areas. There’s no point in him going to his bunkers because everyone knows where they are.

“But he’ll be lucky to last the next few weeks. At some stage if he stays in Baghdad it’s likely that he will be caught or killed by coalition troops hitting his hideout with high explosives.”

Mr Heyman continued: “The question here is not will he be caught, but how long he will survive.”

He said that even if Saddam disguises himself, he will stand out from the crowd by the sheer number of bodyguards accompanying him.

“Saddam is not a gambling man so the odds stack in favour of him staying in Baghdad. But no one really knows. No one really knows if he survived the restaurant attack.

“If he is alive, I’m fairly confident that he’s still there, moving a reasonable distance every few hours, from house to house.”

Meanwhile, Russia denied reports that it was sheltering Saddam in its embassy in Baghdad and called on the US to ensure the safety of its diplomats in the Iraqi capital.

“The speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri suggested earlier yesterday that Saddam could have found refuge in Russia’s Baghdad embassy, as US forces took control of the Iraqi capital,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said. “This is just another attempt to put our Baghdad embassy under threat,” he added.

The Moscow correspondent of Arab news channel Al-Jazeera quoted a Russian source as saying a US-Iraqi deal for a ceasefire was in the works, and that Saddam’s safe exit from Baghdad had been assured in return for a halt to Iraqi resistance.

The source, a ranking military intelligence officer, said CIA elements who were in Baghdad before the start of the war were trying to arrange the deal, Al-Jazeera reported.

“This type of claim absolutely does not and cannot correspond with reality,” Mr Yakovenko said.