Ask residents of Baghdad’s Mansur district if they think Saddam Hussein’s remains are at the bottom of a 20-metre pit blasted out of their neighbourhood last week by US bombs, and the answer will probably be no.
It’s not that they believe the president was hiding elsewhere. The US just hit the wrong house, they say.
Right next to the rubble-strewn hole is a two-story white stucco home that has become the focus of intense speculation. Some neighbours believe Saddam was hiding there. No one knows for sure, of course.
But there is evidence, enough to persuade Saad Waali, 51, a retired general who lives nearby, to think it’s “90 per cent” certain Saddam was next door. Exhibit 1: The five telephone lines hooked into the house. This isn’t gossip. Anyone can see the five black wires running off a pole on the street and into the first floor. Five lines may be extravagant even by Western standards for a residence, but here, no one has five lines.
