The Hindu : 'Saddam, sons fled to Syria'

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Sunday, Jun 22, 2003

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International

'Saddam, sons fled to Syria'

Reuters

The former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein's sons Uday (left), and Qusay relax in a field in this undated photo from the private archive of an official photographer for the regime.

Washington June 21. Saddam Hussein has survived the U.S.-led war on Iraq and his sons, Uday and Quasay, have fled to Syria, according to a captured top lieutenant of the toppled dictator.

Abid Hamad Mahmoud al-Tikriti, who was arrested by the American forces in Iraq earlier this week, has told them that he himself fled to Syria with Uday and Qusay, New York Times quoted unnamed defence officials as saying.

Mr. Mahmoud has said that he was forced to return to Iraq but the sons of Mr. Hussein, and perhaps Mr. Hussein himself, are in Syria, according to Pentagon officials.

The officials said they would try to check out whether the report was true.

The paper said the accuracy of the claims made by Mr. Mahmoud, who was arrested in Iraq last Monday, had not been assessed yet. But they said the U.S. regarded the information as having huge potential significance, and that clandestine American military activity aimed at capturing Mr. Hussein and his sons had increased sharply, the paper wrote.

If Mr. Mahmoud's account were true, it would be ``the most authoritative confirmation that neither Saddam nor his sons were killed in American attacks in March and April,'' it added.

Mr. Mahmoud, who ranked behind only Mr. Hussein and his sons in importance in the Iraqi government, has told the interrogators that during the weeks after the war with the United States, he spent time in hiding with the former Iraqi leader himself and then fled to Syria with Uday and Qusay. — PTI

Uranium found

DPA reports:

Almost all the nuclear material reported missing from the al-Tuwaitha storage facility in Iraq has been accounted for by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Science magazine reported today.

``Nearly all the material that went missing has been recovered,'' an IAEA official was quoted as saying in the latest issue of the U.S. magazine.

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