saddam hussein dead, page-6

Ahh, that handy out - the word unconfirmed...

US bombers target Saddam: result unknown
US warplanes struck a building in Baghdad where intelligence information led them to believe that Iraqi leaders including Saddam Hussein and his sons were staying, according to a US official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not say whether the Iraqi leaders were killed in the attack.

Earlier, the US television news channel MSNBC reported that US officials believed that Saddam and his two sons may have been killed in the attack.

"There was an emerging leadership target bombed during the day," a US official said, without identifying the bombs used.

"We have been doing that throughout the war, going after any kind of leadership target, whether regime or military leadership," the official said.

CNN reports the building targeted in the bombing was destroyed.

Another US official says US forces struck "leadership targets of opportunity" in Baghdad, but declined to say who was the target, or whether Saddam and his two sons were believed dead or alive.

The fate of Saddam and those of his sons, Qusay and Uday, have been the subject of intense speculation since they were targeted in an initial US strike on March 19 on a residential compound on the outskirts of Baghdad.

That initial bombing started the US-led war against Iraq.

A man believed to be Saddam has been seen on videotapes aired on Iraqi television since that first strike but it has been unclear when those tapes were made, shedding little light on whether the Iraqi president had survived that first strike.