Saddam On TV: Seeing Double?

3:04am UK, Saturday April 05, 2003

Saddam Hussein has appeared on television in a residential area of Baghdad - but was it really him?

The two TV appearances

The pictures show what is apparently the Iraqi leader being cheered and praised as he walked through the streets in an impromptu visit to bomb-damaged areas of the capital.

As he walked he was mobbed by passers-by who began chanting his name.

Iraqi state television claims the pictures were recorded today.

Saddam is known to have at least five lookalikes of himself but if real, the video would quash rumours that the leader was killed or injured during the first days of the war.

It was the first footage of what appears to be the president in public since the beginning of the war on March 20.

The US military, which is analysing the evidence, tried to downplay the significance of the footage.

"We find it interesting that Saddam Hussein, if he is alive, feels a need to walk in the streets to prove that," Major General Stanley McChrystal said in Washington.

"What we don't see is effective command and control at his level," he said.

Debating whether or not the man could be the real Saddam Hussein, Sky News' foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said: "You just have to make your own mind up."

He added: "What is important is that these images have been shown - even if it is a body double."

Speaking from Baghdad, Sky News correspondent David Chater told of the propaganda value of seeing the head of the Ba'ath Party at a time when Coalition forces are closing in on the capital city.

He said: "This man hasn't been seen doing this for absolutely years.

"That has a huge impact. For him to be shown with the people on the streets at this moment of crisis is electrifying."

He added: "It has been timed very specifically after the information minister warned there would be martyrdom operations on forces in Baghdad International Airport."

Chater scrutinised the footage, saying: "You actually see the oil fires burning in the background so it is contemporary footage.

"He is alive and well - if this is the man. Whether he is or not, these pictures will have a reinvigorating effect at this moment in the crisis."

Earlier, Saddam appeared on Iraqi TV mentioning for the first time a specific event that happened after the start of the war.

It is not known whether the footage was live or a recording but US intelligence says it could indicate that Saddam survived the heavy assault on Baghdad at the start of the war.

There had been rumours that the Iraqi leader was taken away on a stretcher and had been killed or wounded in the raid.

But in this afternoon's message, Saddam asked his people to remember the villager who he said had shot down an Apache helicopter last week.

During the address the Iraqi president also spoke of the invaders "by-passing the defensive lines around Baghdad" and called on the people to "hit them hard".

Saddam told his people they would be victorious over invaders.