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U.S. Doesn't Know if Saddam Alive or Dead

Tuesday, April 8, 2003
(6:19 PM ET)
By John J. Lumpkin
Associated Press Writer



Associated Press writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report



American troops do not control the al-Mansour neighborhood and are therefore unable to search the rubble. Officials dismissed any discussion of forensic investigations of the site as premature and speculative.

WASHINGTON -- AP
For U.S. leaders, the latest airstrike aimed at Saddam Hussein has returned the Iraqi president to the limbo he had occupied after the first bombs nearly three weeks ago. Officials just don't know if he is alive or dead.

After videotapes were aired last week in which Saddam seemed to refer to wartime events, officials said he probably had survived the March 20 strike aimed at killing him.

Then on Monday, U.S. intelligence learned that Saddam and sons were possibly going to attend a meeting with Iraqi intelligence officials in a building in the al-Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad.

The site was in the same general part of Baghdad where Iraqi television had shown Saddam being mobbed by supporters on Friday, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The intelligence information was passed to U.S. Central Command, which directed a B-1B bomber to the site. Forty-five minutes later, it dropped four bombs.
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2003 © The Associated Press

Dan (Saddam Hussein's death is important to media, not military ops)