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Reuters
www.reuters.com
Mon April 28, 2003

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, has told U.S. interrogators that Saddam Hussein survived two air strikes launched to kill the ousted Iraqi president, USA Today reported on Monday.

But the newspaper also quoted a senior defense official as saying that interrogators had concluded that Aziz was lying about other matters that had come up in questioning. Aziz, who is being questioned at an undisclosed location, said he saw Saddam alive after the March 19 and April 7 air strikes on Baghdad targeting the former Iraqi leaders and his two sons, USA Today said, citing the senior defense official.

Aziz, the most recognizable of the 13 former Iraqi officials known to be in U.S. custody, surrendered to U.S. forces last Thursday. He was No. 43 on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's administration.

U.S. officials have said the fate of the toppled Iraqi president remains unknown amid mixed reports about whether Saddam was dead or alive. If he is alive, Saddam would mark his 66th birthday on Monday.

U.S. war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said on Sunday Aziz was providing a lot of information to U.S. intelligence interrogators. He did not elaborate.

"What we don't know is the veracity of it. It will take time," Franks was quoted as saying.

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Direct Link:
--http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2641033

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