THEY GOT HIM

US troops captured Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit in a major coup for Washington8217;s beleaguered occupation...

US troops captured Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit in a major coup for Washington8217;s beleaguered occupation force in Iraq.

Grubby, bearded and 8216;8216;very disoriented8217;8217;, the 66-year-old fallen dictator was dug out by troops from a cramped hiding pit during a raid on a farm at Ad-Dawr late on Saturday, US Major-General Ray Odierno told a news conference in Tikrit.

8216;8216;He was just caught like a rat,8217;8217; Odierno said on Sunday in one of Saddam8217;s grandiose palaces nearby on the Tigris river.

Saddam may once have seemed almost to believe his own declarations of invincibility and urged his troops to go down fighting the invaders. But though he had a pistol, not a shot was fired.

Gunfire crackled in celebration across the country as Iraqis greeted a US military video showing their once feared leader, dishevelled and sporting a bushy black and grey beard, meekly undergoing a medical examination after eight months on the run.

He now faces a trial for his life before an Iraqi tribunal.

8216;8216;It marks the end of the road for him,8217;8217; said US President George W Bush, for whom the arrest is a boon in a campaign for re-election next year that was imperilled by losses in Iraq.

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In a televised address, he told the Iraqi people: 8216;8216;You will not have to fear the rule of Saddam Hussein ever again8217;8217; 8212; but he warned it would not mean an immediate end to violence.

As if to underline that, an explosion rocked central Baghdad minutes later. Police contested
witness accounts of a car bomb, saying a truck carrying gas had blown up.

Earlier, a car bomb killed at least 17 people at a police station west of Baghdad.

Bush said Saddam would 8216;8216;face the justice he denied to millions8217;8217;.

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In Baghdad, Hamid, a baker, said: 8216;8216;Most of my family are either dead or were forced into the Army because of Saddam.

Every Iraqi should have the right to reclaim justice from him.8217;8217;

The US Commander in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, described Saddam as 8216;8216;talkative8217;8217;.

That could give US officials vital intelligence
on his alleged banned weapons.

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Adnan Pachachi, a senior member of the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council who spoke to Saddam in custody, said: 8216;8216;He seemed rather tired and haggard but he was unrepentant
and defiant at times8230; He tried to justify his crimes.8217;8217;

8216;8216;We got him,8217;8217; US Administrator Paul Bremer jubilantly told a Baghdad news conference. 8216;8216;The tyrant is a prisoner.8217;8217;

Cheering Iraqi journalists shouted 8216;8216;Death to
Saddam!8217;8217;

One, who had been tortured in Saddam8217;s
jails, broke down in tears.Iraqi and US officials said some 750,000 in 100 bills was found near the rat-infested, camouflaged 8216;8216;spider hole8217;8217;, close to the Tigris riverbank.

Saddam had probably not been there long, Odierno said. Two other men, two rifles and a taxi were also seized in what US forces called Operation Red Dawn. Governing Council members said Saddam faces trial under a tribunal agreed
with Washington only last week.

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He may risk the death penalty as he answers for a three-decade reign of terror and for leading his oil-rich nation into three disastrous wars.

8216;8216;We want Saddam to get what he deserves. I believe he will be sentenced to hundreds of death sentences at a fair trial because he8217;s responsible for all the massacres and crimes in Iraq,8217;8217; said Amar al-Hakim, a leader of the powerful Shi8217;ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.8212;Reuters