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'End game is near'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington April 8. The Pentagon is maintaining that it could take several days before an assessment is made on whether the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, is alive or dead following the latest targeting of a site in Baghdad.

Officials here are saying that the final determination would depend on a lot of digging, forensic and DNA tests.

But at a briefing at the Pentagon, the Vice-Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Gen Stanley McChrystal, said the end game was near. "I think that the end game is the end of the regime and that is much closer than people thought it was," he said adding that some key elements of the Republican Guard were still operating and appeared to be getting orders from the Iraqi leader but not necessarily following them.

Asked about the importance of targeting Saddam and his sons, he said, "As much as they can exert any kind of influence — even if it is limited to Baghdad — we would like to reduce that." He said he could not provide much information at this time on Saddam's whereabouts as the site of the attack remained in the hands of the local authorities.

Aboard Air Force One, the U. S. President's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told reporters the U.S. had no further intelligence to confirm whether Saddam was in the building hit by a B-1B bomber. "What is clear is that this regime is coming down. Iraq is going to be returned to the people of Iraq, but I don't think anyone knows when the regime is finished."

The U.S. President, George W. Bush, also had no information on Saddam's whereabouts. "I don't know whether he survived. The only thing I can tell you is that the grip I used to describe that Saddam Hussein had around the throats of the Iraqi people is loosening. I can't tell you if all ten fingers are off the throat, but finger by finger it's coming off and the people are beginning to realise that," he said.

A member of the fighter aircraft that dropped the lethal bombs has been quoted as saying that the plane was directed to the site after it had finished refuelling over western Iraq. The crew were told that this mission might be the "big one". Some 12 minutes later, the bomber unleashed two 2,000 pound GBU-31s and two special "bunker busters" that penetrate a target before detonation. The bombs were said to be released from an altitude of more than 20,000 feet.

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