The Bush administration approved a US$30 million payment Thursday to the informant who led US troops to Saddam Hussein's two sons, while two of the ousted dictator's daughters took refuge in Jordan in a sign of further pressure on remnants of the defeated regime.
Two more US soldiers were killed by insurgents, meanwhile, bringing to 51 the number of Americans to die in combat since May 1, when President Bush declared major combat over.
Secretary of State Colin Powell decided that the informant whose tip led to the deaths of Odai and Qusai Hussein in a firefight July 22 in a villa in Mosul in northern Iraq should get both of the US$15 million rewards that had been put on the men's heads.
"It's actually for services rendered," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "It's a lump sum payment of US$30 million."
For his protection, the informant has not been identified, although people in Mosul have speculated it was the owner the house being used as a hideout.
The US military commander for Iraq said he had nothing significant to report about the hunt for Iraq's most wanted man. But some US officers said the daughters' flight to Jordan was another sign that intensified sweeps are squeezing Saddam and other members of the defeated regime.
"It would seem to confirm that his family is on the move, along with his closest associates," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who commands Army troops patrolling Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. "It's good news. Even if it's estranged or extended family, it shows they're on the move."
Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana arrived in Jordan on Thursday with their nine children, Jordanian Information Minister Nabil al-Sharif told The Associated Press. He would not say where they were in the capital, Amman, or where they came from, but he said King Abdullah II decided to offer them refuge.
"They are Arab women who have run out of all options," al-Sharif said.
The whereabouts of Saddam's wife Sajida Khairallah Telfah and his youngest daughter, Hala, were unknown.
Raghad and Rana, whose father ordered their husbands executed in 1996, were long estranged from Saddam but were believed to have reconciled with him. Both lived out of the limelight and neither was linked to the atrocities blamed on their father and brothers.
Earlier in the day, the commander of US ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, was subdued in assessing how the hunt for Saddam was going.
"We remain focused on him and we will find him at some point," Sanchez said.
Despite more than 280 raids across Iraq over the past week, Sanchez said he didn't have "anything really significant to report" on the search for Saddam.
The Army has generated images of what Saddam could look like after three months on the run, although it did not release the pictures.
"Soldiers have been provided with examples of what he might look like," said Lt. Col. Ted Martin, operations officer for the 4th Infantry Division. "Maybe he looks exactly like he did. We explore every possibility."
The Army announced two more deaths. One soldier was killed and three were wounded when an armored personnel carrier ran over a land mine in Baghdad on Thursday, and a soldier died from small-arms fire northeast of the city late Wednesday.
The deaths brought to 166 the number of combat deaths since the invasion began - 19 more than were killed in the 1991 Gulf War.
US commanders blamed the attacks on Saddam loyalists and on foreign terrorists who have come to Iraq to use sophisticated bombing techniques to attack their American enemy.
"We're fighting a low-intensity conflict that is multifaceted," Sanchez said. "It includes criminals. It includes former regime loyalists. It includes Saddam Fedayeen (militia). And some radical extremists that are operating against us."
US commanders in recent days have been stressing the argument that their battle in Iraq is part of the global struggle against terrorism.
"Those terrorist groups that have clearly stated that they are going to conduct operations against the United States, this is the place to come," Sanchez said.
Asked to estimate how many foreign fighters are in Iraq, he said: "Whether it's 10,000 or 10, it's a little difficult for us to establish."
He said they are trained fighters, but added: "It's not an insurmountable problem. We can handle it."
Asked about civilian casualties, Sanchez said he had no estimate. "That's very difficult to establish," he said.
Saddam has been succeeded by a 25-member Governing Council appointed by the US administration. L. Paul Bremer, who is the country's chief US administrator, said Thursday that he believed a new constitution could be written and accepted by the Iraqi people in a referendum, followed by general elections by the middle of next year.
"It is certainly not unrealistic to think that we could have elections by midyear 2004," Bremer said while touring the partially refurbished Iraqi Foreign Ministry with members of the interim government he appointed on July 13.
"And when a sovereign government is installed, the coalition authority will cede authority to the government and my job here will be over."
(China Daily August 1, 2003)
