Americans deny saving Saddam

The US embassy in Bahrain yesterday denied that American officials had betrayed a plot to assassinate President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in July, AFP reports from Manama.

It issued a statement from the State Department saying: 'While we would not normally comment at all on stories about intelligence matters, this accusation is so baseless and harmful that it must be denied.' Last week, the Sunday Times said that secret negotiations over a plot to kill the Iraqi leader were held in London between the CIA and leading Iraqi dissidents. But the plot was 'cancelled and then betrayed by Washington'. The paper said that after the US betrayal conspirators inside Iraq were arrested and, in most cases, probably executed.