BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 8:51 a.m. ET Dec. 14, 2003BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eight months after the fall of his government, Saddam Hussein was captured by coalition forces near his hometown of Tikrit, where he was hiding in a farmhouse cellar, U.S. officials said Sunday. The arrest was a major victory for the coalition that has been battling an insurgency for months.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said at a news conference in Baghdad, adding: "The tyrant is a prisoner."
Bremer said the former Iraqi president was captured Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the town of Dour, 10 miles south of Tikrit, ending one of the most intense manhunts in history.
The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader "has been cooperative and is talkative." He described Saddam as "a tired man, a man resigned to his fate."
In the capital, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air in celebration and passengers on buses and trucks shouted, "They got Saddam! They got Saddam!"
At the news conference announcing his capture, U.S. forces aired a video showing a bearded Saddam being examined by a doctor who held his mouth open with a tongue depressor, apparently to get a DNA sample. Then they showed a photograph of Saddam after he was shaved.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez described Saddam's capture MSNBC
Iraqi journalists in the audience stood, pointed and shouted "Death to Saddam!" and "Down with Saddam!"
The former Iraqi leader was being held at an undisclosed location, said the top U.S. soldier in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. He added that U.S. authorities had yet to determine whether to hand him over to a new Iraqi tribunal for trial.
"This success brings closure to the Iraqi people," Sanchez said.
"Saddam Hussein will never return to a position of power from which he can punish, terrorize, intimidate and exploit the Iraqi people as the did for more than 35 years."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the capture. "This is very good news for the people of Iraq. It removes the shadow that has been hanging over them for too long of the nightmare of a return to the Saddam regime," he said in a statement released by his office.
"This fear is now removed," the statement continued. "It also gives an opportunity for Saddam to be tried in Iraqi courts for his crimes against the Iraqi people. We should try now to unite the whole of Iraq in rebuilding the country and offering it a new future."
Blair added, "I pay tribute to the work of the coalition intelligence and military forces in capturing him."
The prime minister faced substantial domestic opposition for his decision to commit British troops to the Iraq war and is sure to get a major political boost from the reported capture.
Operation Red Dawn
Forces from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special Forces captured Saddam, the U.S. military said. There were no shots fired or injuries in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn," Sanchez said.
Trapped in the cellar, Saddam was in a six-to-eight-foot-deep "spider hole" that had been camouflaged with bricks and dirt. The soldiers saw the hole, investigated and found him inside, Sanchez said.
The video showed an air vent and fan inside the hole to allow Saddam to remain hidden for an extended period.
Two men "affiliated with Saddam Hussein" were detained with him, and soldiers confiscated two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and US$750,000 in $100 bills, Sanchez said.
Celebrations in Baghdad
Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital, and shop owners closed their doors, fearful that the shooting would make the streets unsafe.
"I'm very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now," said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. "Now we can start a new beginning."
Reuters file
Saddam Hussein stands on a car in northern Baghdad on April 9 in the last available footage taken of the Iraqi dictator before he went underground following the fall of his capital to U.S.-led coalition forces on the same day.
Earlier in the day, rumors of the capture sent people streaming into the streets of Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, firing guns in the air in celebration.
"We are celebrating like it's a wedding," said Kirkuk resident Mustapha Sheriff. "We are finally rid of that criminal."
"This is the joy of a lifetime," said Ali Al-Bashiri, another resident. "I am speaking on behalf of all the people that suffered under his rule."
In Tikrit, U.S. soldiers lit up cigars after hearing the news of Saddam's capture.
"The intimidation and fear this man generated for over 30 years are now gone," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who commands the division that carried out the raid.
Some skepticism
Despite the celebration throughout Baghdad, many residents were skeptical.
"I heard the news, but I'll believe it when I see it," said Mohaned al-Hasaji, 33. "They need to show us that they really have him." Ayet Bassem, 24, walked out of a shop with her 6-year-old son.
"Things will be better for my son," she said. "Everyone says everything will be better when Saddam is caught. My son now has a future."
From hiding, U.S. commanders have said Saddam played some role in the anti-U.S. resistance that has killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians in Iraq.
In the latest attack, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said.
After invading Iraq on March 20 and setting up their headquarters in Saddam's sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad, U.S. troops launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive leader, placing a US$25 million bounty on his head and sending thousands of soldiers to search for him.
NBC News correspondents, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
vInside Saddam's Hideout
Rotten fruit, Lipton tea bags and religious tapes. The detritus of the dictator's life on the runand the intelligence that caught him WEB EXCLUSIV By Babak Dehghanpisheh
NewsweekDec. 15 - Captain Desmond Bailey tried not to get excited. The Fourth Infantry Division reconnaissance troops under his command had taken part in several joint raids with Special Operations Forces that had come up empty-handed. But last Saturday was different. Rumors had been swirling all day that Operation Red Dawn, named after an '80s movie where American guerrillas fight off a Soviet invasion, would be closing in on HVT1 (High Value Target 1): Saddam Hussein.
At 8 p.m. on Dec. 13, Bailey and 22 recon soldiers under his command, tasked with providing backup for approximately two dozen Special Forces soldiers, moved in on Wolverine 2, a farm a short distance past the town of Ad Dawr, where, luckily for the soldiers, the electricity had coincidentally blacked out less than one hour before. Special Forces soldiers quickly signaled that this wasn't the right target and moved toward a grove of palm trees slightly north, highlighting their trail with chemical lights. Bailey, 31, and his troops followed in four Humvees as the Special Forces soldiers crept down another farm path that snaked between pomegranate trees and dried sunflower plants. It was a chilly, moonless night and the infra-red sights from the Special Forces soldiers' weapons were reflecting off tree branches, fences and the ground. "It was like a laser light show," says Bailey.
There were a few moments of confusion as the Special Forces soldiers stormed into a farmhouse. Then, Bailey's radio crackled, "We found a hole." And a few minutes later, "We have an individual in the hole." Inside, soldiers watched as two raised hands appeared out of the hole, a signal of submission. "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," the bedraggled individual told the soldiers in English. "I'm willing to negotiate." "President Bush sends his regards," one soldier replied.
Within minutes, a helicopter landed in the field in front of the farmhouse, and the former dictator, hidden under a hood, was marched out. From a road adjacent to the farmhouse, Bailey, who had followed the action on his radio, looked through his night-vision goggles in disbelief. "We just caught the man and that's all he had?" Bailey asks, shrugging his shoulders. It was a stunning achievement: the key portion of the operation had lasted less than 30 minutes and not a single shot was fired. Even higher-ups were surprised by the quick success of their mission. "We expected something more elaborate. Something more well-constructed," says Col. James Hickey, commander of the First Brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division. "What we found surprised us."
The Spartan surroundings must have certainly been unpleasant for a man long accustomed to living in opulent palaces. When reporters accompanied soldiers of the Fourth ID back to the hideout today, they found no fortified walls to protect Saddam in the farmhouse, only a fence made up of dried branches and palm fronds strung together with wire. Dried figs and sausages hung in neat rows from a clothesline attached to the roof of the one-room structure inside. Orange trees and palms, some bursting with yellow dates, dotted the yard, which is roughly 400 yards from the banks of the Tigris River.
The Iraqi leader chose to hide at the base of one of those palms. What may go down in history as "Saddam's hole" was elaborately hidden. Military officials say it's likely that soldiers were initially standing on the entrance without realizing what was underneath. The hole itself was plugged with a rectangular block of styrofoam, weighing approximately three pounds, which resembles a rock and has two white cloth handles fixed at each end for easy removal. The styrofoam block was covered with a rubber and cloth mat and a layer of dirt. The hole drops down three feet and leads into a larger chamber approximately six to eight feet across and only four feet deep. The structure forms a T-shape and was dug under the concrete entryway of the house. A neon light is placed at one end, a ventilation vent and fan at the opposite end. Used cotton swabs are scattered across the pebbly bottom of the hideout. It takes some creative wriggling to get inside, and the overall sensation is that of being inside a coffin.
Gary Knight / VII for Newsweek
The entrance to Saddam's hiding hole
Above ground, Saddam's room and attached kitchen clearly hint at a life on the run. Broken egg shells, rotten fruit, Lipton tea bags and small bottles of medicine are scattered across the kitchen. A couple of baseball caps, including a Nike Air Jordan knockoff, have been placed on the counter. A pair of new black loafers and sandals, along with black socks, still sit in their box in the room. If Saddam had found any leisure time, he could have lain on either of the two rickety beds in the room and thumbed through the numerous bound volumes of Arabic poetry. And there are signs that he may have found religion while on the run: there are several Qu'rans and tapes of mosque sermons scattered around the bedroom, a poster of Noah's ark with paired-up animals hangs on the wall, and the phrase "In the name of God the most merciful and kind" has been written in crude Arabic script above the doorway.
That Saddam Hussein was found in a remote hiding spot near his home village points to the quality of intelligence that U.S. forces have been able to gather in recent months. Beginning last summer, American intelligence officials began mapping out and drawing linkages between key Iraqi families who protected Saddam Hussein, including his own. A huge color-coded chart, detailing tribe, position and inter-tribal links, can be seen pasted on the wall of some military commanders at the base of the Fourth Infantry Division in Tikrit.
Col. Hickey, 43, who celebrated Saddam's capture by smoking a Cohiba Cuban cigar, says it was the information gathered about a handful of key families linked to the former regime that led American forces to Saddam Hussein. In particular, Hickey points to one individual whom the American military has been tracking since last July. More than half a dozen raids were carried out in the first week of December in the vicinity of Tikrit and Samarra to track this individual down. One of the raids, on Dec. 5, turned up 1.9 million in U.S. dollars. Word reached Hickey on the morning of Dec. 13 that this fugitive, who isn't among the top 55, had been nabbed in a raid in Baghdad the day before. He was quickly shifted to Tikrit and an intensive interrogation began. At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Dec. 13, the interrogation team made a breakthrough. "There was three or four hours of questioning before he blurted Saddam's location," Hickey says.
For Bailey and other soldiers in the Fourth ID, the capture of Saddam is one more check off the list and, possibly, one step closer to home. But many of the soldiers are still sober about the task that lies ahead. "It's a great feeling that we got Saddam," says Bailey. "I don't think it'll change our mission, though. We still have to finish our job."
Saddam Hussein: Biography
President of Iraq since 1979 (Vice President from 1968-79), Saddam Hussein was born in 1937, and raised near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. At a young age he became an enforcer for the Baath (renaissance) Party, and gained political influence using a combination of intimidation, fear, nepotism, and murder. The Baath party came to political power in Iraq in the 1960s, and by 1969 Saddam had been installed as Chief of Iraq's security services, where he earned the reputation of being a ruthless executioner of opponents and suspected potential rivals. By 1977 the party bureaus, the intelligence mechanisms, and even ministers who should have reported to Iraqi President Ahmad Hasan al Bakr, were reporting to Saddam Hussein. On July 16, 1979, President Bakr resigned, and Saddam Hussein officially replaced him as president of the republic, secretary general of the Baath Party Regional Command, chairman of the RCC, and commander in chief of the armed forces. On July 17, 1979, he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal.
"The intimidation and fear this man generated for over 30 years are now gone. Many will rest much better tonight knowing Iraq is moving forward to a more secure environment."
-- Maj. Gen Raymond T. Odierno, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division
During his tenure, Saddam Hussein's more notorious actions include:
The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, which left 150,000 to 340,000 Iraqis and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians dead
Ordering the use of chemical weapons against Iranian forces in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and against Iraq's Kurdish population in 1988
The invasion and destruction of Kuwait in 1990-91, with 1,000 Kuwaitis killed; this action led to the Gulf War
The 1991 bloody suppression of Kurdish and Shi'a insurgencies in northern and southern Iraq, with at least 30,000 to 60,000 killed
Saddam has been married to the same woman, former schoolteacher Sajida, since 1958. They have five children, three daughters and two sons (both sons deceased).
