BAGHDAD, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A member of Iraq's governing council said Saddam Hussein was seen in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk five days ago, the London Guardian reported Friday.
Jalal Talabani, who also heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main groups controlling the Kurdish north of the country, told the Guardian he had received unconfirmed reports the ousted Iraqi dictator had sheltered last weekend among a Sunni Arab community on the outskirts of Kirkuk.
"Saddam has good relations with those Arabs whom he brought to Kirkuk to ethnically cleanse the city of Kurds and Turkomens," Talabani said.
Talabani said capturing Saddam was crucial because the uncertainty surrounding his fate continues to be used as a rallying point for the anti-democratic forces.
Saddam was last seen in the war's final days in northeast Baghdad. Last week, the former Iraq information minister, Mohamed Sahaf, told an Arab satellite television network a U.S. bomb had missed the former Iraqi leader by just a few hundred yards.
