BAGHDAD, Iraq April 8 —
The question of whether Saddam Hussein was alive or dead hung
over the capital Tuesday after a U.S. warplane dropped four
bunker-busting bombs and blasted a smoking crater 60 feet deep at a
restaurant where he was believed to be meeting with his sons.
At least three buildings were destroyed Monday afternoon in the
attempt to kill Saddam. The airstrike in the well-to-do al-Mansour
section of western Baghdad broke windows and doors up to 300 yards
away, ripped orange trees out by the roots and left a heap of
concrete, mangled iron rods and shredded furniture and clothes.
Iraqi rescue workers looking in the rubble for victims said two
bodies had been recovered and the death toll could be as high as 14.
They did not release any names.
A U.S. official familiar with the latest military intelligence
said coalition forces were trying to confirm whether Saddam was
killed.
"There's lots of digging and DNA tests involved," the official
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, speaking to
reporters Tuesday, made no mention of Saddam's fate, and rejected
any suggestion that Iraq would surrender to the American forces
drawing a noose around the regime.
"They will be burnt. We are going to tackle them," he said.
The attack was carried out by a single B-1B bomber, which dropped
four precision-guided, 2,000-pound, bunker-penetrating bombs on a
restaurant after U.S. intelligence was tipped that the Iraqi
president, sons Odai and Qusai and other top leaders might be
meeting there, officials said.
The U.S. official said the Pentagon was confident that Saddam and
his sons were in the building before it was bombed. "Our
intelligence was solid," the official said. He did not elaborate on
the source of the intelligence.
He said Saddam was known to frequent the restaurant, apparently
because he thought coalition forces would not target him so close to
a civilian center.
Those close to Saddam have said the Iraqi leader is so obsessed
with security that very few people would know about his movements.
He maintains dozens of residences and uses doubles to keep people
guessing.
An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only two
people are kept posted about Saddam's whereabouts Qusai, who
commands the Republican Guard and heads the president's security,
and his private secretary, Abed Hameed Hmoud, a member of Saddam's
Tikriti clan. Even Odai is thought to be out of the loop because he
is considered too reckless.
The strike came on a day when U.S. forces also occupied two of
Saddam's palaces southwest of the target zone and knocked down a
statue of the Iraqi leader as they tried to wrest control of Baghdad
from his regime.
Seif Hatef, 21, said some of his friends were among the victims
of the attack on the three buildings. "Such attacks will make Iraqis
more determined to resist. Iraq will remain and this war will never
finish," he said.
Workers at a nearby mall swept the glass and other debris from
the sidewalk.
"When this war will end? It depends on that scum Bush," said Amer
Hamad Abdullah al-Jabouri, who works at the complex.
Coalition strikes have aimed at top Iraqi leaders from the very
start of the war.
On March 19, the opening night of the war, President Bush
authorized a strike on a suburban Baghdad compound where Saddam and
his sons were thought to be staying. But U.S. intelligence officials
suspect he survived.
Earlier Monday, U.S. and British officials said they believed
Saddam's top commander in southern Iraq, his first cousin Ali Hassan
al-Majid, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike at a house in Basra.
Al-Majid, considered one of the most brutal and loyal members of
Saddam's inner circle, was known as "Chemical Ali" for his role a
1988 poison gas attack that killed tens of thousands of Iraqi
Kurds.
A video clip of the U.S. attack on the Basra house was shown at
the Pentagon on Monday.
"We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to
an end. To Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the
last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never
again terrorize you or your families," Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld said.
Associated Press Writers Ron Fournier and Matt Kelley in
Washington contributed to this report.
photo credit
and caption:
Buildings in the al-Mansour
neighborhood of Baghdad lie in ruins Monday afternoon, April
7, 2003 after a U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-busting
bombs on the site where Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was
believed to be meeting with his sons. (AP Photo/Jerome
Delay)
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