Hamza Hendawi

But Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which captured Saddam, said the ousted leader did not appear to be directly organizing resistance — noting no communication devices were found in his hiding place. “I believe he was there more for moral support,” Odierno said.

Saddam’s capture was based on information from a member of a family “close to him,” Odierno told reporters in Tikrit. “Finally we got the ultimate information from one of these individuals,” he said.

The capture took place at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at one of dozens of safehouses Saddam is thought to have: a walled compound on a farm in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, not far from one of Saddam’s former palaces, Odierno said.

“I think it’s rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces that he built,” Odierno told reporters in Tikrit.

The event comes almost five months after his sons, Qusai and Odai, were killed July 22 in a four-hour gunbattle with U.S. troops in a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. There was hope at the time that the sons’ deaths would dampen the Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. But since then, the guerrilla campaign has mounted dramatically.

In the latest attack, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station Sunday morning west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said. Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier died while trying to disarm a roadside bomb south of the capital — the 452nd soldier to die in Iraq.

Saddam was one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, along with Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network who has not been caught despite a manhunt since November 2001, when the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. “The tyrant is a prisoner.”

Some 600 troops and special forces were involved in the raid that netted Saddam — though not all were aware beforehand that the objective was “High Value Target No. 1,” Odierno said.

Troops found the ousted leader, armed with a pistol, hiding in an underground crawl space at the walled compound, Odierno said. The entrance to the hiding place, covered with rugs and dirt, was a few feet from small, mud-brick hut where Saddam had been staying.

The hut consisted of two rooms, a bedroom with clothes scattered about and a “rudimentary kitchen,” Odierno said. The commander said Saddam likely had been there only a short time, noting that new shirts, still unwrapped, were found in the bedroom.

Saddam was “very disoriented” as soldiers brought him out of the hole, Odierno said. A Pentagon diagram showed the hiding place as a 6-foot-deep vertical tunnel, with a shorter tunnel branching out horizontally from one side. A pipe to the concrete surface at ground level provided air.

Saddam didn’t fire his weapon. “There was no way he could fight back so he was just caught like a rat,” Odierno said.

Two other Iraqis — described as low-level regime figures — were arrested in the raid, and soldiers found two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in $100 bills.

A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saddam admitted his identity when captured.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader “has been cooperative and is talkative.” He described Saddam as “a tired man, a man resigned to his fate.”

“He was unrepentant and defiant,” said Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shiite Muslim political party who, along with other Iraqi leaders, visited Saddam in captivity.

“When we told him, ‘If you go to the streets now, you will see the people celebrating,”‘ Abdel-Mahdi said. “He answered, ‘Those are mobs.’ When we told him about the mass graves, he replied, ‘Those are thieves.”‘

The official added: “He didn’t seem apologetic. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past.”

The White House said Saddam’s capture assures the Iraqi people that the deposed leader is gone from power for good.

“The Iraqi people can finally be assured that Saddam Hussein will not be coming back — they can see it for themselves,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Eager to prove to Iraqis that Saddam was in custody, Sanchez played a video at the news conference showing the 66-year-old Saddam in custody.

Saddam, with a thick, graying beard and bushy, disheveled hair, was seen as doctor examined him, feeling his scalp and holding his mouth open with a tongue depressor, apparently to get a DNA sample. Saddam blinked and touched his beard during the exam. Then the video showed a picture of Saddam after he was shaved, juxtaposed for comparison with an old photo of the Iraqi leader while in power.

Iraqi journalists at the press conference stood, pointed and shouted “Death to Saddam!” and “Down with Saddam!”

Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam’s identity.

DNA tests confirmed Saddam’s identity, said the president of Iraqi Governing Council, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim.

Saddam was being held at an undisclosed location, and U.S. authorities have not yet determined whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial or what his status would be. Iraqi officials want him to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal created last week.

Amnesty International said Sunday that Saddam should be given POW status and allowed visits by the international Red Cross.

Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council, said Saddam will be put on trial.

“Saddam will stand a public trial so that the Iraqi people will know his crimes,” Chalabi told Al-Iraqiya, a Pentagon-funded TV station.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the capture, saying the deposed leader “has gone from power, he won’t be coming back.”

“Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq,” Blair said.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital, and shop owners closed their doors, fearful that the shooting would make the streets unsafe.

“I’m very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now,” said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. “Now we can start a new beginning.”

Earlier in the day, rumors of the capture sent people streaming into the streets of Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, firing guns in the air in celebration.

“We are celebrating like it’s a wedding,” said Kirkuk resident Mustapha Sheriff. “We are finally rid of that criminal.”

Still, many Baghdadis were skeptical.

“I heard the news, but I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mohaned al-Hasaji, 33. “They need to show us that they really have him.”

Ayet Bassem, 24, walked out of a shop with her 6-year-old son.

“Things will be better for my son,” she said. “Everyone says everything will be better when Saddam is caught. My son now has a future.”

After invading Iraq on March 20 and setting up their headquarters in Saddam’s sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad, U.S. troops launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive leader, placing a $25 million bounty on his head and sending thousands of soldiers to search for him.

Saddam proved elusive during the war, when at least two dramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to assassinate him. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1 on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the Ace of Spades in a special deck of most-wanted cards.

Saddam’s capture leaves 13 figures still at large from the list. The highest ranking figure among them is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a close Saddam aide who U.S. officials have said may be directly organizing resistance.

Still, some of the activists who helped topple him are skeptical the sentence would ever be carried out, if he is convicted. A conviction would be followed by a possibly lengthy appeals process that the ailing Mubarak’s lawyer would likely draw out, and Egypt’s new rulers — the military — have the power to veto a death sentence.

Mubarak has been brought to every hearing since his trial began on Aug. 3 on a hospital gurney, wheeled into the courtroom cage where defendants are held, alongside his two sons, former security chief and six top police commanders.

On Thursday, prosecutor Mustafa Khater gave a passionate speech demanding the death penalty for Mubarak, former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and four of the police commanders. They are charged with complicity in the deaths of some 800 protesters during the 18-day uprising that led to Mubarak’s fall on Feb. 11.

“Retribution is the solution. Any fair judge must issue a death sentence for these defendants,” said Khater, one of five prosecutors in the case.

“We feel the spirits of the martyrs flying over this hall of sacred justice, and those who lost their sight by the bullets of the defendants are stumbling around it to reach the judge and demand fair retribution from those who attacked them,” he said. “The nation and the people are awaiting a word of justice and righteousness.”

For separate corruption charges leveled against Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal, and a close family friend on the run, Khater demanded unspecified prison sentences with hard labor. Two police commanders charged with gross negligence face prison terms.

Khater’s speech came on the last of three days of sessions in which the prosecution lay out its case, following months of testimony by witnesses, aiming to show that Mubarak and el-Adly — who was in charge of the police — ordered security forces to use deadly force against protesters.

Chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said earlier in Thursday’s session that Mubarak was “politically and legally” responsible for the killing of the protesters. He charged that Mubarak was aware from meetings with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies that the killings were taking place but did nothing to stop them.

El-Adly authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak, he said. “He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was going on,” Suleiman told the court.

“He is responsible for what happened and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did not know that protesters were being targeted.”

Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman said, “If you had not issued these orders yourself, then where was your outburst of rage over the loss of the lives of your people?”

The trial’s presiding judge, Ahmed Rifaat, adjourned the hearings until Monday, the first of two days he said would be assigned to the lawyers for the victims’ families to state their case. Next would be the turn of the defense for all 11 defendants.

The timeline has led to speculation in the courtroom that Rifaat wanted to wrap up the case and issue a verdict before Jan. 25, the first anniversary of the start of the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule. The youth groups behind the uprising are planning mass protests across the nation, not to celebrate the day, but to demand that the generals who took over from Mubarak step down.

“It will not be a second revolution as some are saying,” prominent protest leader Shadi Ghazali Harb said. “The first revolution is not over yet. On January 25 we will continue our struggle on a special day. “

Harb, like other activists, suspects that a death sentence may be announced before Jan. 25, but only to appease the revolutionaries who maintain that Mubarak and his two sons were only arrested and brought to trial after a series of mass protests that followed Mubarak’s Feb. 11 ouster. The Mubaraks were arrested in April.

Harb said he was skeptical a death sentence would be carried out.

“It will be a political sentence that will most likely be overturned on appeal,” Harb said.

Even if Mubarak is convicted and sentenced to death by Jan. 25, the former leader has a lengthy recourse to appeal that could last months, said Omar Hagag el-Shal, who represents several victims’ families in the Mubarak trial.

He also held out the possibility that Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, would try to draw out of the appeal process.

There is also the possibility that Mubarak will be cleared of the protester killing charges and convicted on corruption accusations, bringing him a prison sentence but sparing him the noose. The corruption charges emanate from his association with friend and business tycoon Hussein Thabet, who allegedly sold Mubarak and his family five luxury villas at a fraction of their market price in return for Thabet landing a lucrative deal to export natural gas to Israel.

Even if a death sentence is upheld throughout the appeal process, the nation’s head of state — a position currently held by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces — could veto the execution.

The nation’s ruling generals are highly unlikely to allow his execution if his sentence was upheld on their watch.

The Supreme Council is led by Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years. The generals on the council are beholden to Mubarak since their rise through the ranks was only possible with his approval. Mubarak is a former air force chief and a decorated war hero. Already, several of the generals have publicly commended Mubarak for stepping down rather than see the country plunging into prolonged bloodshed like Libya’s civil war and the continuing bloodshed in Syria.

The military has said that presidential elections would be held before the end of June and that it would step down when the new head of state is sworn in. It has yet to announce dates.

Mubarak’s trial is without precedent in the Arab world and is an Arab Spring landmark.

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was tried, convicted and hanged in an Iraqi court, but the process was guided by American legal experts. Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the North African nation in the face of a popular uprising, taking refuge in Saudi Arabia. Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, after a 42-year reign, was captured and killed by revolutionaries in October after a monthslong civil war. Yemen’s leader Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to step down after 33 years in power, but there is no sign the turmoil in his Arabian peninsula nation is ending any time soon.

Many Egyptians have grown exasperated with the turmoil in their nation since Mubarak’s ouster, particularly over a worsening economy and precarious security. Though some voices are against executing Mubarak, many will find satisfaction in the punishment of a man they believed ruled Egypt like it was his personal property and planned to pass it to his son.

Suleiman, the chief prosecutor, summed up these sentiments in comments he made in court on Tuesday.

“He deserves to end in humiliation and indignity: From the presidential palace to the defendants’ cage and then the harshest penalty,” he said. “He refused to willingly relinquish power in response to the will of his own people, so it was forcefully taken from him.”

Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, told Thursday’s hearing that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — personally gave orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails across the nation during the Jan. 25-Feb 11. uprising.

The thousands of escaped prisoners have been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed. Most of the inmates have since been captured and returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.

The other three generals facing a possible death sentence are: Adly Fayed, chief of general security, Ismail el-Shaer, Cairo’s security chief, and Ahmed Ramzy, chief of the central security forces, or riot police.

“The nation and the people are awaiting a word of justice and righteousness.”

Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and Alaa, face corruption charges in the same trial along with their father and a close family friend who is a fugitive. Also in the same case are two police commanders charged with gross negligence, who face prison sentences if convicted.

An 18-day uprising forced Mubarak, 83, to step down on Feb. 11 after a nearly 30-year rule. The military, led by a general who served as defense minister under Mubarak for 20 years, replaced him in power.

Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Mubarak was “politically and legally” responsible for the killing of the protesters and charged that the former president did nothing to stop the killings that he was aware of from meetings with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies.

He said Mubarak’s security chief and co-defendant, former interior minister Habib el-Adly, authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak.

“He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was going on,” Suleiman told the court. “He is responsible for what happened and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did not know that protesters were being targeted.”

Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman said, “If you had not issued these orders yourself, then where was your outburst of rage over the lives of your people?” Testimonies by two interior ministers who succeeded el-Adly, he said, pointed out that the defendant could not have given the order to use live ammunition against the protesters without Mubarak’s personal approval, said Suleiman.

Suleiman said Mubarak told investigators he decided to step down after the military refused to intervene to “immediately and urgently” help the security forces contain the protests. Mubarak called out the army on Jan. 28 — three days into the uprising and on the day when security forces disappeared from the streets in circumstances that have yet to be fully explained.

“He (Mubarak) fully knew what was happening but he did nothing,” said Suleiman.

Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, said that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — has personally given orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails across the nation during the uprising. The escapees, who numbered in the thousands, have been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed.

Most of the inmates have since been captured and returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.

Judge Ahmed Rifaat adjourned the hearing until Monday when the court is due to hear lawyers for the victims over two days.

(This version corrects that the prosecution is demanding death sentences for 4 police commanders instead of 6.)

“The nation and the people are awaiting a word of justice and righteousness.”

Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and Alaa, face corruption charges in the same trial along with their father and a close family friend who is a fugitive. Also in the same case are two police commanders charged with gross negligence, who face prison sentences if convicted.

An 18-day uprising forced Mubarak, 83, to step down on Feb. 11 after a nearly 30-year rule. The military, led by a general who served as defense minister under Mubarak for 20 years, replaced him in power.

Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Mubarak was “politically and legally” responsible for the killing of the protesters and charged that the former president did nothing to stop the killings that he was aware of from meetings with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies.

He said Mubarak’s security chief and co-defendant, former interior minister Habib el-Adly, authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak.

“He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was going on,” Suleiman told the court. “He is responsible for what happened and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did not know that protesters were being targeted.”

Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman said, “If you had not issued these orders yourself, then where was your outburst of rage over the lives of your people?” Testimonies by two interior ministers who succeeded el-Adly, he said, pointed out that the defendant could not have given the order to use live ammunition against the protesters without Mubarak’s personal approval, said Suleiman.

Suleiman said Mubarak told investigators he decided to step down after the military refused to intervene to “immediately and urgently” help the security forces contain the protests. Mubarak called out the army on Jan. 28 — three days into the uprising and on the day when security forces disappeared from the streets in circumstances that have yet to be fully explained.

“He (Mubarak) fully knew what was happening but he did nothing,” said Suleiman.

Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, said that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — has personally given orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails across the nation during the uprising. The escapees, who numbered in the thousands, have been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed.

Most of the inmates have since been captured and returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.

Judge Ahmed Rifaat adjourned the hearing until Monday when the court is due to hear lawyers for the victims over two days.

(This version corrects that the prosecution is demanding death sentences for 4 police commanders instead of 6.)

“The nation and the people are awaiting a word of justice and righteousness.”

Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and Alaa, face corruption charges in the same trial along with their father and a close family friend who is a fugitive.

An 18-day uprising forced Mubarak, 83, to step down on Feb. 11 after a nearly 30-year rule. The military, led by a general who served as defense minister under Mubarak for 20 years, replaced him in power.

Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Mubarak was “politically and legally” responsible for the killing of the protesters and charged that the former president did nothing to stop the killings that he was aware of from meetings with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies.

He said Mubarak’s security chief and co-defendant, former interior minister Habib el-Adly, authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak.

“He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was going on,” Suleiman told the court. “He is responsible for what happened and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did not know that protesters were being targeted.”

Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman said, “If you had not issued these orders yourself, then where was your outburst of rage over the lives of your people?” Testimonies by two interior ministers who succeeded el-Adly, he said, pointed out that the defendant could not have given the order to use live ammunition against the protesters without Mubarak’s personal approval, said Suleiman.

Suleiman said Mubarak told investigators he decided to step down after the military refused to intervene to “immediately and urgently” help the security forces contain the protests. Mubarak called out the army on Jan. 28 — three days into the uprising and on the day when security forces disappeared from the streets in circumstances that have yet to be fully explained.

“He (Mubarak) fully knew what was happening but he did nothing,” said Suleiman.

Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, said that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — has personally given orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails across the nation during the uprising. The escapees, who numbered in the thousands, have been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed.

Most of the inmates have since been captured and returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.

Mubarak’s two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and Alaa, face corruption charges in the same trial along with their father and a close family friend who is a fugitive.

An 18-day uprising forced Mubarak, 83, to step down on Feb. 11 after a nearly 30-year rule. The military, led by a general who served as defense minister under Mubarak for 20 years, replaced him in power.

Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Mubarak was “politically and legally” responsible for the killing of the protesters and charged that the former president did nothing to stop the killings that he was aware of from meetings with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies.

He said Mubarak’s security chief and co-defendant, former interior minister Habib el-Adly, authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak.

“He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was going on,” Suleiman told the court. “He is responsible for what happened and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did not know that protesters were being targeted.”

Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman said, “If you had not issued these orders yourself, then where was your outburst of rage over the lives of your people?” Testimonies by two interior ministers who succeeded el-Adly, he said, pointed out that the defendant could not have given the order to use live ammunition against the protesters without Mubarak’s personal approval, said Suleiman.

Suleiman said Mubarak told investigators he decided to step down after the military refused to intervene to “immediately and urgently” help the security forces contain the protests. Mubarak called out the army on Jan. 28 — three days into the uprising and on the day when security forces disappeared from the streets in circumstances that have yet to be fully explained.

“He (Mubarak) fully knew what was happening but he did nothing,” said Suleiman.

Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, said that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — has personally given orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails across the nation during the uprising. The escapees, who numbered in the thousands, have been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed.

Most of the inmates have since been captured and returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.