http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/14/1071336803092.html?from=top5
Saddam captured alive in Tikrit
December 14, 2003 - 10:30PM
Moving target ... the many faces of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein was captured in his home town of Tikrit today in a major coup for the beleaguered US occupation forces.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed the arrest, Sky News television said.
The Pentagon was cautious, saying only that it believed its troops had probably caught the former dictator.
But Washington's Iraqi allies, including Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi as well as a British diplomatic source told Reuters that Saddam was in US custody.
A US-led civil administration news conference in Baghdad was due at 3pm (2300 AEDT).
The 66-year-old former leader, who has been on the run since US forces took Baghdad on April 9, was dug out from a cellar in Tikrit, Chalabi said. US soldiers removed a beard and took samples for DNA testing.
Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, killed by US troops in July, were identified after comparisons with family DNA samples.
Saddam would be put on trial, Chalabi added. A tribunal system for Iraqis to try Saddam and fellow Baathist leaders was set up only last week.
"This is good for Iraq. He will be put on trial. Let him face justice," Chalabi, who returned after the invasion from years in US exile, told Reuters in Baghdad.
The word came just hours after the latest major attack on Washington's Iraqi allies, with a suspected suicide car bomber killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 at an Iraqi police station in the restive town of Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad.
In early afternoon, gunfire broke out across the capital as news filtered through that Saddam was in US custody.
In Washington, a defense official said: "We think we have him ... We are still working through the identity issue."
The official would provide no details of the overnight raid near Tikrit other than to say it was conducted against what were believed to be senior officials of the former government.
Earlier, a member of Iraq's Governing Council said US administrator Paul Bremer has told them former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been detained in Iraq.
Dara Noor Al-Din says the council was informed of the former dictator's capture in a telephone call Bremer.
He says Bremer spoke on the phone to several members, including Ahmad Chalabi, a leading member of the council.
A representative in Iran of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan also confirmed the arrest of the former Iraqi dictator.
"I confirm that Saddam has been arrested," Nazem Dabag, representative in Iran of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told Reuters.
Kurdish sources have told the Arabic television channel al-Jazeera that the military wing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan joined US forces in the raid which captured the former Iraqi leader.
CNN quoted US sources as saying several high-profile Iraqis were arrested in a raid in Tikrit, without elaborating.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan spokesman Adel Murad told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that Saddam was arrested today by US forces in the city. "We were in a meeting of the Iraqi Governing Council when a secretary came in to give us the news," Murad said.
Reuters reported that ordinary Iraqis fired into the air and took to the streets of some cities in Iraq to celebrate reports that Saddam had been captured.
Volleys of automatic rifle fire echoed across Baghdad as Iraqis drove around town honking their car horns and giving the V for victory sign, witnesses said.
In the northern city of Kirkuk in the Kurdish north, thousands took to the streets to celebrate.
Similar scenes were reported in the mainly Shi'ite southern port city of Basra
"We are celebrating like it's a wedding," said Mustapha Sheriff, a resident of Kirkuk. "We are finally rid of that criminal."
"This is the joy of a lifetime," said Ali Al-Bashiri, another Kirkuk resident. "I am speaking on behalf of all the people that suffered under his rule."
Saddam, who ruled Iraq for 23 years until his ouster in April, has been a fugitive since then with a $US25 million ($34 million) bounty on his head.
Rumours about Saddam's capture or death periodically surface, and a hotline set up by the occupation authorities for tips on his whereabouts is flooded with callers.
AFP
NOW we understand why they were having all those house to house raids 
They paid off!
