The regime members on the cards "may be pursued, killed or captured," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters .

"There are jokers in this deck," he added.

Saddam himself is on the ace of spades. His son Qusai appears on the ace of clubs, and the particularly brutal son Odai is the ace of hearts.

President Bush said the war would go on until the regime is completely vanquished.

"The priority of this campaign is to rid Iraq and the Iraqi people of the vestiges of Saddam Hussein's regime," Bush told reporters at Bethesda Medical center in Maryland after visiting injured U.S. soldiers there and at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. "I don't know the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein. I don't know if he's dead or alive. I do know he's no longer in power."

Bush has stopped short of declaring victory and said today the war will end when Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander in charge of operations in Iraq, tells him coalition forces have achieved all the objectives of the campaign, including removing and holding all the vestiges of Saddam's regime accountable for crimes against their people.

When asked if the administration believes that senior Iraqi political and military leaders may have escaped coalition forces and are taking refuge in neighboring Syria, Bush said he hoped officials there would not harbor the wanted regime leaders.

"We expect them [Syrian officials] to do everything they can to prevent people who should be held to account from escaping in their country," Bush said. "And if they [Iraqi leaders] are in their country, we expect the Syrian authorities to turn them over to the proper folks."

Last Town Standing

Since the regime's collapse, U.S.-led forces have taken two cities, the oil-rich Kirkuk on Thursday and Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, today. Mosul fell to Kurdish and U.S. troops, Central Command said, when the 5th Corps of the Iraqi army in Mosul surrendered to coalition forces and agreed to a cease-fire.

This left Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace, as the last major city under the control of what was left of his regime. Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam were heading south toward Tikrit amid reports that thousands of Iraqi army regulars, some of them barefoot, were fleeing south, officials said. However, U.S. military sources told ABCNEWS there was little visible sign of military organization around Tikrit.

U.S. military officials have indicated that coalition troops were likely to launch an attack on the Tikrit region "very quickly" before an organized Iraqi resistance could be put together, said ABCNEWS' John McWethy. Air bombardments have already begun.

	Decks of playing cards depicting the most-wanted Iraqi leaders are handed out to soldiers to help identify them. Speaking about Saddam Hussein, President Bush says: "I don't know if he's dead or alive. I do know he's no longer in power." Intelligence sources say there are intercepts saying Saddam is dead, but warn the information is coming from the edge of the power structure. U.S. military officials say coalition troops are likely to launch an attack on Tikrit "very quickly" and air bombardment has already begun. Aid agencies warn that Baghdad hospitals are unable to function because of looting, and the U.S. military announces a curfew.