Acknowledging for the first time the role of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in organizing anti-US resistance, US President George W. Bush vowed Tuesday that the US troops will "get him."

Bush, on a tour of fire-torn southern California, made the remarks when asked about the shooting down of a US helicopter in Iraq Monday that killed 15 soldiers and wounded 20 others in the most fatal attack launched by anti-US Iraqi militants.

"Oh, I'm sure he's trying to stir up trouble," said Bush when asked if Saddam was behind the attacks against Americans. But he stressed that the former Iraqi leader was "no longer threatening people, he is no longer in power." 

Bush went on to say that Saddam loyalists and others were trying to create havoc and conditions that would prompt US troops to leave.

"I can't tell you what he's doing," Bush said. "All I can tell you is he's not running Iraq. And all I can tell you, as well, there's a lot of -- some people who are upset by the fact that he's no longer in power."

"We'll get him, we'll find him," Bush vowed.

This is the most unequivocal US acknowledgment that it believes Saddam is still alive and playing some sort of role in the armed opposition.

Six months after declaring an end to major combat, Bush seemed to have changed his assessment of the Iraqi situation. "We are at war," he said.

One more US soldier was killed Tuesday, bringing to 141 the death toll of US soldiers killed in Iraq since May 1, when Bush declared victory of the Iraqi war during a visit to an aircraft carrier returning from the Gulf.

The US government had been reluctant to acknowledge that Saddam is alive until the recent surge of deadly attacks against US troops in Iraq.

US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week that attacks against Americans were practically inevitable as long as Saddam remained on the loose. "The fact that he's alive is unhelpful," Rumsfeld said.

Bush said he would sign the newly approved US$87.5 billion package he requested for Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that the US-led reconstruction of Iraq "will help change the world in a positive way."

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2003)