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Search for Saddam in desert
30/06/2003 15:30 - (SA)
Samara - Saddam Hussein's former military intelligence chief has left for the desert around Samara north of Baghdad to track down Saddam Hussein, who he alleges is hiding out there.
"We have various pieces of information saying he's present in the region, even if no one's seen him," Wafiq al-Samarrai said Sunday. "I'm leaving today to search for Saddam and his partisans."
"We will share information we'll gather with the Americans," said the founder and secretary general of the National Salvation Movement, who has no military forces under his control apart from personal security guards.
Samarrai, who defected in 1994 and became an Iraqi opposition figure, said his decision to launch the hunt was cemented after an overnight attack on his house by "men loyal to Saddam."
"My house was attacked at 23:45 on Saturday with an anti-tank rocket. There was only material damage," said Samarrai, surronded by several tribal chiefs from Samara, 125km north of Baghdad, offering him support.
Samarrai has been accused of denouncing members of the outlawed Baath party of Saddam Hussein, which he denies.
"It may take months to find him, but we'll do it," he said.
The start of Samarrai's hunt coincides with the launch of a new operation by US forces to find members of the toppled regime, concentrating on the area between Baghdad and Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, which includes Samarra.
While the top US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said on Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam was hindering efforts to rebuild the shattered country, Lieutenant Colonel Bill McDonald McDonald said the army hunt was not only for the former dictator.
"This is not specifically for Saddam, but for all his regime" as well as for illegal weapons, equipment and ammunition, he said.
- SAPA
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