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.