Bounties offered for Saddam and henchmen

Allied military chiefs are offering bounties for information leading to the capture of Saddam Hussein and his leading henchmen, they said today.

Officials refused to disclose the price on Saddam’s head but anyone telling the coalition where he is would be able to claim a huge sum, feasibly millions of dollars.

US Brigadier General Vince Brooks said: “A rewards programme has been established for information leading to the capture of regime leaders.”

As the hunt for weapons of mass destruction remained fruitless the coalition is also offering financial rewards to any Iraqi leading them to the “smoking gun“.

General Brooks, speaking at Central Command in Qatar, again refused to say how much was being offered, but added: “We think it’s appropriate prices.”

The offer of money also applies to conventional weapons caches and is partly designed to stop dangerous materials and equipment being sold on the black market.

General Brooks admitted there was still a “tremendous amount of work” to be done on weapons of mass destruction which would last well after the conflict.

So far there have been a number of “false positive” tests for banned substances, including sarin, but none have been found.

General Brooks also said today that allied forces had captured what appeared to be a 59-strong group of contract killers trying to leave Iraq.

The men were all on a bus which was stopped at a checkpoint heading west towards the border.

They were carrying 630,000 dollars (€587,000) in 100 dollar bills and documents offering rewards for killing allied soldiers.

“The men and all their possessions have been taken into coalition control,” General Brooks said.

At Al Qaim on the Syrian border, where there has been fierce fighting, US forces raided a phosphate plant where they found two fixed wing unmanned drones, which could potentially be used to deliver chemical weapons.

In Baghdad five mobile missile launchers and an Al-Samoud missile were found.

General Brooks also said ground forces had now been to the site of Monday’s “decapitation” missile strike against Saddam in a restaurant in the Al Mansour area of Baghdad.

“We are not searching rock by rock through the rubble and that’s not going to happen any time soon,” he said.

He played down the importance of Tikrit as a final stronghold of Saddam’s regime.

“If Tikrit falls, then that’s just one more city,” he said.

“There may be other areas. Tikrit is not the only place.”