Saddam 'will fall in 15 days'

2003-03-30 21:17

Berlin - The Iraqi regime will fall within the next two weeks, a former aide to President Saddam Hussein, who claims to be in daily contact with senior Iraqi officials, told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag.

"I'm convinced that the regime will fall within the next 15 days," said Hatiham Rashid Wihaib on the 11th day of the US-led war against Iraq.

"Saddam knows that it is only a question of time. That's why he has prepared an exile in luxury," Wihaib added.

The paper did not say where Saddam's exile would be.

Wihaib, Saddam's former protocol chief, who is now 52, settled in London in 1995, according to Bild am Sonntag.

"Saddam Hussein wants to meet up with his family as soon as Baghdad has fallen," he said. "If that's no longer possible, he asked his body guards to shoot him because he does not want to be arrested alive under any circumstances."

The Iraqi leader has said that he wanted to die in his country. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA