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Saddam hurt in attack?
24/03/2003 08:19 - (SA)
Washington - US officials intercepted phone calls following a US-led bombing raid last week on one of Saddam Hussein's palaces, leading them to conclude that the Iraqi President was seriously wounded in the attack, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
US operatives listened in on phone calls made by Baghdad neighbours who witnessed the aftermath of the attack early on Thursday saying Saddam was taken away in an ambulance, the Post reported.
"Whether they (the neighbours) are accurate or not we can't say," the official told the daily.
There have been several statements by US and British officials in recent days that Hussein and his sons were injured in the bombing, but officials have not indicated how the information was obtained.
"We have had people on the ground who have opined and I'm sure very honestly and accurately reflected what they think they saw," secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld said on the CBS television programme Face the Nation.]
Images of Saddam have been broadcast repeatedly on Iraqi television since Thursday's initial missile strikes on Baghdad.
On Saturday, Iraqi television showed Saddam meeting with his son Qussay, vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, but it was not known whether the footage was filmed after Thursday's attack or had been videotapes of films prepared before the war started.
Senior intelligence officials told the Post that covert contacts with Iraqi leaders were continuing in hopes of bringing about the surrender of Iraqi military forces, defections of key individuals, and eventually, the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
- AFX
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