Elusive Saddam 'may still be in Baghdad'

With the latest round of highly publicised arrests, the United States now holds 12 of the 55 members of the Iraqi regime on its "most wanted" list. However, their most prized target, Saddam Hussein, still remains elusive.

The Bush administration claims that, with each successive capture and surrender, the noose is tightening around the former Iraqi leader and his two sons, Qusay and Uday. US military officials in Iraq, however, privately admit that they have not yet succeeded in obtaining the one vital lead necessary to focus their hunt.

Details of the interrogation of the regime's senior figures are being kept a closely guarded secret. There is little doubt that their American captors are hoping that one or more of them will deliver information about Saddam's whereabouts in an effort to secure a deal for themselves.

Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, is the highest-profile member of the regime to come into US custody so far. According to senior Baath party sources, however, he was no longer in the innermost circle around Saddam and is unlikely to be privy to where the ex-president is hiding.

All the arrests so far have been inside Iraq, leading to speculation that Saddam is still in the country. The streets of Baghdad are awash with tales that he has been seen in the capital, especially in the Adamiyah district. However, the same rumour mill also holds that he has been given refuge in the US in return for "selling his country".

Teams of US special forces have been carrying out searches for Saddam and his family in and around Baghdad and his home and former powerbase of Tikrit, as well as Ramadi in the west, where his half brother Watban, now in custody, held sway.

As Baghdad fell, roadblocks were set up on the routes to the Syrian, Jordanian and Iranian borders. The latest official to be captured, Faruq Hijazi, a senior diplomat and intelligence officer, was caught near the Syrian frontier.

Most of those detained have, however, been in Baghdad. Apart from Aziz, this includes Amaar al-Saadi, Saddam's chief weapons adviser; General Zuhayr Talib Abd al Sattar al Naquib, the head of military intelligence; Mohammed Mahdi al-Salih, the minister of trade; and Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti, the head of the air force. Even if they fail to get the breakthrough about Saddam's hiding place from these men, the Americans believe they will be able to obtain other valuable information.

Hijazi, most recently ambassador to Tunisia, could prove, US officials claim, the much sought-after link between the Iraqi regime and al-Qa'ida. This is because of a visit to Afghanistan by Hijazi in 1998, when he is believed to have met Osama bin Laden. Hijazi was also the external director of the General Intelligence Service in the mid-1990s, when he allegedly orchestrated a plot to assassinate the former US president, George Bush, during a visit to Kuwait.

The capture of al-Azzawi could help track millions of dollars allegedly transferred abroad by Saddam and his family. The Americans claim that the former president amassed a fortune of $24m (£15m) in his 24 years in power. Further information on this, they hope, will come from Saddam's half-brother, Barzan, once ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, and reputed "banker in the West", who is also in custody.

The Bush administration is preparing the ground for the eventuality that Saddam, like Bin Laden, will remain elusive. US officials have begun to insist that the success of the war did not depend on finding him. They also say that he and his two sons may have been killed in a targeted air strike in the Mansour district of the capital earlier this month.