Saddam talks about final moments before capture

I have been betrayed,” were the words that came into Saddam Hussain’s mind moments before the American troops nabbed the Iraqi dic...

I have been betrayed,” were the words that came into Saddam Hussain’s mind moments before the American troops nabbed the Iraqi dictator from the underground bunker where he was in hiding.

In an interview to The Sun from his cell, he described how he looked for his motorbike to flee from US combat forces minutes before they surrounded him.

‘‘I came out of the house where I was hiding by this hole. I went through the trap door. I went down the hole, through the tunnel then lost consciousness,’’ Saddam said through his lawyer.

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Hoping to emerge out of the tunnel unnoticed, Saddam initially planned to make a ‘‘great escape riding a motorcycle’’, when he realised the vehicle was not there and that he suspected he was ‘‘betrayed’’.

‘‘I believe I was betrayed. I have been set up,’’ his lawyer Ramsey Clark, 78, a former US Attorney General said quoting the 68-year-old dictator. ‘‘Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel.’’

‘‘When he started to get out there were soldiers around that area. There was supposed to be a motorcycle there. It was gone. Saddam knew the person who owned the house wasn’t there. He knew he had been betrayed,’’ Clark said.

Saddam also praised his ‘‘longtime friend’’ French President Jacques Chirac. ‘‘Chirac has been a longtime friend,’’ he boasted from his jail cell.

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Currently on trial charged with killing 140 people in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982, Saddam was captured with two AK 47s and 420,000 pounds by the US 4th infantry division’s 1st brigade combat team who acted on a tip-off, The Sun reported.

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