BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eight months after the fall of his government, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces near his hometown, Tikrit, where he was hiding in a farmhouse cellar, U.S. officials said Sunday.
The arrest, which was carried out without a single shot being fired, was a major victory for the coalition, which has been battling an insurgency for months, and for President Bush, who has fended off criticism for failing to find him for almost as long.
Saddam had evaded capture and assassination attempts since the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq on March 20. Despite a $25 million bounty on his head, Saddam remained a political thorn in Bush’s side and an inspiration to anti-U.S. insurgents even as the coalition sent out thousands of soldiers to search for him from its new headquarters in the sprawling, gold-edged Republican Palace compound in Baghdad.
Sunday, Bush was able to make the proclamation that the White House had awaited for months: “Yesterday, December 13th, at around 8:30 p.m. Baghdad time, United States military forces captured Saddam Hussein alive.”