Saddam 'in disguise and near Tikrit'

Saddam Hussein has disguised himself and has been moving around the areas outside of his hometown of Tikrit, but not in the city itself, where he would be too easily recognised, an Iraqi police official said.

Hamed Muzhir, police chief of Salah ad-Din province, which includes Tikrit, did not say when Saddam was last seen or how he knew that the former dictator was in the area.

Muzhir’s forces yesterday conducted house-to-house searches in a suburb of Tikrit, looking for weapons and insurgents.

Saddam “has covered himself up to be a completely different person,” Muzhir told reporters in a news conference. “He passed through these areas very fast, around the area of Tikrit, not inside.”

The United States regards the capture of Saddam as crucial to breaking the growing insurgency in Sunni Muslim central Iraq, the region that was most loyal to Saddam. Most top officials in Saddam’s government were members of his Sunni minority.

The hunt for the deposed leader is being spearheaded by the top secret US Special Operations Task Force 20 and American officials in Iraq have said little about any progress.

Washington has offered a €23m reward for Saddam’s capture. Saddam was last seen in public on April 9, the day US forces took Baghdad.

Lt Col Steven Russell, a US military official in Tikrit, said it was unlikely Saddam would be active inside of Tikrit, because he could be easily recognised in the area.

He added that the continuing arrest of Saddam’s supporters had been eroding his core of supporters and could lead to his capture.

“We continue to drain the swamp,” Russell said. “As the swamp drains, the eyes and the nose and the tail begin to appear, eventually, the whole alligator will be there.”

Asked how long that could take, Russell replied: “That’s the 25 million dollar (€23m) question, isn’t it?”

Much of the hunt for Saddam appears to be focused in the areas around Tikrit, where Saddam and other key members of his former leadership could find shelter among family and clansmen.