Saddam ‘using Tikrit hideout’

SADDAM HUSSEIN has been hiding in his hometown Tikrit and is believed to be exerting influence within the resistance that has been killing American soldiers at a rate of nearly one every two days, according to US officials.

The American casualties continued, with one soldier killed and two wounded when attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their patrol in Tikrit. A second soldier was killed and another wounded when their vehicle struck a land mine in Beiji, 120 miles north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, US officials said they had made arrests in a suicide car bombing that shook central Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least six bystanders and wounding dozens.

US troops have been struggling to put down an insurgent campaign that has targeted American forces and has increasingly turned to using dramatic suicide attacks disrupting efforts at rebuilding Iraq.

The most recent deaths brought to 96 the number of US soldiers known to have been killed in hostile action since May 1, when US President George W Bush declared the end of major combat.

A top American officer in Tikrit said Saddam likely has a "strong influence" on anti-US guerrilla attacks in the area around the city.

"We have clear indication he has been here recently," Major Troy Smith, executive officer of the 1st Brigade told reporters.

"He could be here right now," Mr Smith added. "At the least, he is maintaining a strong influence in the area."

Support for Saddam still runs deep in Tikrit and other parts of the so-called 'Sunni triangle', a region north of Baghdad where Saddam's Ba'athist regime drew much of its power.

Most of the attacks employ rocket propelled grenades or roadside bombs. Saddam's Fedayeen militia and most loyal supporters are believed to be financing and organising attacks.

The US military says it has uncovered scores of bomb-making facilities and weapons caches in private homes across the Sunni region. Saddam, who was born in a village on the southern outskirts of Tikrit, was last seen in Baghdad in early April as the city was falling to American forces.

Mr Smith did not elaborate on intelligence information that has led the military to conclude that Saddam has been in the Tikrit area but expressed confidence in the quality of the information.

Smith said some of the other key regime figures still at large could be in the Tikrit area. Of the 55 Iraqis on the coalition's most wanted list, 38 are in custody, 14 are at large and three are either dead or thought to be dead.

The American administrator in Iraq vowed to hunt down those responsible for Sunday's car bomb outside the Baghdad Hotel.

It was the seventh fatal vehicle bombing in Iraq since early August. The bombings have killed more than 140 people, and so far none of the planners of any of the attacks has been found.

Meanwhile, American stabilisation efforts ran into fresh trouble yesterday with a worsening row over deploying Turkish troops and new anti-occupier attacks.

Iraq's US-backed Governing Council stuck by its opposition to the Turks coming in at all, whilst Ankara's military said it would not decide how many soldiers to send until it knew which part of the country they were going to, which is a sensitive issue.