Now you see him, now you don't

Where is Saddam?

Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen were out in force in Baghdad yesterday, but where was their ultimate director?

A day after Iraqi television carried morale-boosting footage of the President taking a stroll in the capital, the leader was lying low after the enemy's daring incursion into the heart of the citadel.

It was left to the Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, to read out yet another message to the nation that the invisible Saddam has allegedly composed in his bunker, urging Iraqis to step up their attacks on the Americans.

"The criminals will be humiliated," Mr Sahaf assured the world.

"You must inflict more wounds on this enemy and fight it and deprive it of the victories it has achieved. You must rattle their joints and terrify them and speedily defeat them in and around Baghdad."

Mr Sahaf quoted the President as saying – implausibly – that the invaders' grip on Iraq was weakening. "The enemy finds itself lost," Mr Sahaf said – surely the triumph of hope over conviction.

Last night Iraqi television again showed footage of the President in company with his two sons, Uday and Qusay, smiling at military commanders in a windowless room.

Neither the latest footage, nor the statement relayed by Mr Sahaf, will entirely assuage speculation that President Saddam and his sons have fled the capital or are lying injured in a closely guarded hospital.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, ran with the theme yesterday, saying there were unconfirmed reports that members of Saddam's family, including his first wife, the mother of his two sons, had fled. "Where is Saddam Hussein? Where is Qusay? Where is Uday – his sons? They're not talking," Mr Rumsfeld said on television.

Even the veracity of Friday's TV shots of the President's walkabout has been questioned. Some observers have claimed the crowd wore cold winter clothing – evidence that it could not have been filmed in Friday's summer heat.

The Americans profess a degree of nonchalance about whether they capture him. But it would embarrass the coalition if he did elude Iraq's invaders. Saddam Hussein would then go to the top of the list of America's most wanted suspects on the run. Move over Osama bin Laden.