Saddam Hussein Captured

Saddam Hussein, Iraq's deposed leader, was last night found by US forces at the bottom of a hole near his home town of Tikrit, it was announced today.

Without a shot being fired, members of the US army's 4th infantry division and special forces closed in at 8.30pm yesterday local time (1730 GMT) on a small walled farming compound 10 miles south of the city where they discovered the hiding place.

Video footage of Saddam's medical inspection after he was pulled from the hole showed a dishevelled figure with unkempt dark hair and a thick beard that had become grey.

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said he offered no resistance and was "cooperative and talkative" in custody. He said he had no idea how long Saddam had been in his final hiding place but he appeared to be a man "resigned to his fate".

$750,000 (£430,000) in $100 notes, two AK47s and a taxi were also found in the compound.

Saddam was with two supporters but Lt Gen Sanchez said DNA tests had not yet proved their identities.

The former Iraqi president had not been seen since US forces entered Baghdad in April. Despite the high profile and bloody operation to kill his sons, and the capture of many of the former regime's most senior figures, Saddam had proved elusive.

From hiding, he kept up a flow of defiant taped messages urging Iraqis to fight US-led forces.

Addressing a press conference in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, the civilian head of Iraq's US-led administration, said "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him" to rapturous cheers from Iraqi journalists.

Reports from Basra and Baghdad say that shots of celebratory gunfire were heard this morning as the news spread through the cities.

"This is a great day in Iraq's history," Mr Bremer said. "For decades hundreds of thousands of Iraqis suffered at the hands of this cruel man.

"Those days are now over forever. Now it is time to look to the future," he told Iraqis. "The tyrant is a prisoner, the economy is moving forward. You have before you the prospect of a sovereign government in a few months."

He said he hoped insurgents battling the US-led occupation would end their struggle and come together in a spirit of "reconciliation and hope" to rebuild the country.

Leaders of US allies in Iraq and nations opposed to the war - including France and Germany - welcomed the capture.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, said Saddam would be put on trial by an Iraqi court. He said his capture "removes the shadow" over Iraq as he gave early confirmation to the arrest.

"We can put the past behind us. Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq," he said in a later address.

The capture may break the spirit of some of his diehard supporters and ease the anxieties of many Iraqis that Saddam would return to suppress them.

"His arrest will put an end to military and terrorist attacks and the Iraqi nation will achieve stability," said Amar al-Hakin, a senior member of the Shia political party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq told Reuters.

But there are also fears it could provoke further attacks by insurgents.

Lt Gen Sanchez said Saddam's capture would not end the campaign against US-led forces in Iraq. "We do not expect at this point in time that we will have a complete elimination of those attacks," he said.

US officials will also hope to extract intelligence on the alleged weapons programmes that Washington and its mainly British allies went to war to neuter but - as yet - have not been discovered.