CIA and military teams in Iraq and surveillance devices set up to monitor Saddam Hussein’s inner circle reported that nearly the entire Iraqi leadership had vanished. US military commanders said they suspected that some leaders had headed to Tikrit for a final bloody showdown and that others had fled to Syria.Dogged fighting by Iraqi forces at Qaim, near the Syrian border, has led US and British officials to suspect that Iraqi troops there may be protecting Iraqi leaders or family members. As Baghdad slipped from Saddam’s control on Wednesday, covert CIA and Special Operations teams dedicated to killing or capturing Saddam and senior leaders discovered that Baath Party, Republican Guard leaders, troops and high-level government officials they had targeted were not at their usual posts.Even the information minister, who had been briefing journalists with outlandish versions of daily events, was missing. ‘‘All of a sudden, all communications ceased and the regime didn’t come to work,’’ was the way a senior administration official described what happened in Baghdad. ‘‘Even the minders for journalists did not go to work,’’ he added.The likely explanation for the sudden dropoff in communications and activity among such a number of key people, according to reports from analysts in the CIA’s Iraq Operation Group at Langley, is that an order to disappear was given in Saddam’s name, and that he is still alive. Another less probable possibility, intelligence sources said, is that the Iraqi leader died in one of the two US air attacks targeted at Saddam — one on March 19, the other on April 8 — and that word of his death finally leaked out. If Saddam is alive, he and his loyalists may have sought refuge in Tikrit. ‘‘We certainly are focused on Tikrit,’’ Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of US’s Central Command said on Wednesday, ‘‘to prevent the regime from using it as a place to command and control, to restore command and control, or to hide.’’Brooks said new Iraqi troops have been deployed to Tikrit to try to ‘‘reinforce those initial defenses.’’ Saddam has been a generous benefactor to the town and has filled key posts in the army, his security apparatus and Baath Party with Tikritis. They, in turn, are loyal to Saddam and are expected to fight hard to protect him.Some Iraq analysts said Saddam is highly conscious of how he will be perceived by history. Therefore, he would be unlikely to leave Iraq, and would prefer to make a last stand in Tikrit. His support is so strong there, said CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack, that ‘‘this could be a Mogadishu. There are civilians willing to assist Saddam’s loyalists.’’Of Saddam’s inner circle, only Ali Hassan Majeed, known as ‘‘Chemical Ali,’’ is believed to have been killed. Saddam’s younger son Qusay has not been heard from for sometime, although ‘‘there have been references about him in traffic within the past few days,’’ an official said.Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility that Iraqi leaders are fleeing to Syria. ‘‘We find it notably unhelpful,’’ he said. The most likely escape routes to Syria include Qaim and Mosul, where fighting also continues. (LAT-WP)
