Saddam 'may have quit Iraq'
2003-04-03 23:02
Jerusalem - DEBKAfile - known for its accurate intelligence reports - has tracked down the top Iraqi leadership's bolt-hole.
It is a large 1 600-room luxury resort, called Cote d'Azur de Cham Resort, with 600m of private sandy beach in the Mediterranean coastal town of Latakiya. The hotel was prepaid and chartered in toto by Baghdad.
The group may include Saddam Hussein or his sons, but this is not confirmed.
Top Iraqi officials are reported to have been hiding there since March 23, four days after the US-led coalition invaded Iraq.
They are guarded by a Syrian commando unit armed with anti-air missiles while Syrian naval missile boats secure the port.
DEBKA military sources also report: the Iraqi troops sent to reinforce Baghdad's international airport are members of the Iraqi 26th Brigade's special commando unit, whose sole task is to defend the lives of Saddam Hussein and close family.
These commandos take orders from no one but the Iraqi ruler and his sons, who are unlikely to have stripped themselves of this protection if they were still present in the capital.
This outward movement from Baghdad is further indication of drastic changes in the Iraqi government's top level.
Saddam leaves Baghdad
On Wednesday, two weeks after the Iraqi war started, the Saddam regime looked as though it had breathed its last, DEBKA reports.
Its primary military props, the Special Republic Guards divisions, Saddam's Fedayeen suicides and Iraqi intelligence's special commando units, were clearly losing their grip as a functioning command in control of a coherent force of resistance.
Iraqi elite units were letting key positions drop into the hands of the coalition forces already dangerously close to Baghdad, without lifting a finger.
The SRG Baghdad Division did nothing to stop allied forces crossing the Tigris bridges from west to east although it was their job to blow them up and prevent the allied advance.
Commanders were rumoured to have been summarily fired; others disappeared.
During the day, DEBKA's military sources described a procession on Iraqi television of division and brigade commanders who assured the troops that all was well and the battle was going on.
They looked tense and harassed.
This unusual demonstration looked as though it was intended to betoken its participants' loyalty to whoever is in charge in Baghdad, possibly a new ruling clique, or an attempt to draw attention to the men with whom the United States must discuss capitulation terms or deal with as the future leaders of the New Iraq.
In a move that smacked of panic, Iraqi intelligence agents went round the capital impounding cell phones to cut off contact with the outside world as wild rumours swirled around the fate of Saddam Hussein, his sons and his regime.
Saddam left 'days ago'
The little hard information reaching DEBKA's most reliable intelligence sources is that Saddam and his sons departed Baghdad some days ago.
They do not know where he went, or in what state of health, whether he travelled abroad for medical treatment or the family headed for a safe berth prepared in advance, or even if they arrived safely at their destination.
But it is safe to say that Saddam and the senior members of his family are no longer at the helm of government.
Iraq is undoubtedly in the process of regime change, the main objective of the Iraqi War.
Anything beyond that is hazy, DEBKA says.
Other members of the Saddam regime may have seized power after the ruler himself departed.
The new ruling caste may be divided between a faction negotiating terms of surrender with the Americans and a second, which is determined to fight on.