Belgrade: An Iraqi Envoy loyal to Saddam Hussein said on April 18 he is confident
that the leader of Iraq was killed in the coalition bombing of Baghdad.
"I know his character," Iraq's Ambassador to Belgrade Sami Sadoun said in an
interview. "The defence of Baghdad would not have collapsed so quickly if he was not
dead."
Sadoun, who headed the Cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz for 25 years,
said he lost all contact with his superiors in Baghdad early in April after a US
warplane dropped four bunker-busting bombs at a restaurant where Saddam was believed
to be meeting with his sons.
"Immediately after the bombing, I did not get any instructions. Not even a single
fax,'' Sadoun said.
He said since the April 7 bombing in the al-Mansour neighbourhood of Western
Baghdad "suddenly, there is no more Republican Guard, no more police or defence of
Baghdad".
"Saddam held all those things in his hands," Sadoun said. "He must have been killed,
or everything would not have collapsed so quickly."
Sadoun, who claimed he met with Saddam several times, most recently in December,
said the Iraqi leader might have not been killed in the restaurant bombing, but in
another coalition attack in Baghdad soon thereafter.
"He was a very careful man," Sadoun said. "He moved around often, eluding his
enemies."
Agencies
