IRAQ: Locals tell of seeing a convoy, writes Lynne O'Donnell, on the Iraq-Syrian border.
The night before Mosul fell a convoy of limousines slid up to the front of the huge sandstone Nebi Yunus temple that holds the bones of the whale that ate Jonah before his prayers were answered and he was returned to dry land and God's graces.
A solitary figure emerged from one of the sleek vehicles and climbed the steps into the old Nestorian building where Muslim and Christian pilgrims alike have for centuries come together to honour the memory of the prophet.
His prayers done, the tall, moustachioed, round-bellied figure in army fatigues climbed back into his car, and the convoy, said to number 35 long, white limos, sped off to the northwest, towards the Syrian border.
This, according to the latest legend of Mosul, is how Saddam Hussein made his escape into the waiting arms of his Baathist brothers over the border, just hours before his own troops fled and the city rejoiced in a new freedom. The rumours that began as looting overtook Mosul in the early hours of April 11th have only intensified in the weeks since. The capture of some of Saddam Hussein's closest aides and relatives, either on their way to Syria or upon their return, has convinced many in Mosul that Saddam was here. That he came, he prayed and he fled.
"Here, he was definitely here, I saw the cars with my own eyes," said Ashti Anwar (25). "First he prayed. And now he is in Syria, along with all his chemicals."
Saddam has an historic affinity with Syria, which shares a long border with Iraq and where the government is dominated by the Baath Party that gave Saddam refuge in 1959 after he tried and failed to assassinate the then-Iraqi president, Abdel Karim Kassem.
The failed dictator's son-in-law, Jamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan al-Tikriti, returned last week from the Syrian capital, Damascus, to give himself up to coalition forces in Baghdad. Number 40 on a list of 55 most wanted officials, Jamal turned up with one of Saddam's most trusted body guards, Khalid Hmood, who headed Iraqi intelligence during the short-lived war and enjoyed the rank of major in his former boss's personal security detail. The two men had reportedly been talked into leaving Damascus after an American tirade against the government of President Basher Assad that implied Syria could be next if it provided asylum to Saddam and his cohorts.
At the Peshabur crossing, nothing comes or goes across the border into Syria unless it is by boat. There is no bridge over the narrow Khabur river, a tributary of the mighty Tigris, and, according to Shwakat Mohammed, the director of the tiny customs point, there's not much traffic either.
"There's no smuggling here, it's not part of our agenda," Shwakat said. "If we knew where Saddam and all the other leaders were, we'd declare it right away."
Shwakat, who represents the Kurdish Democratic Party that controls this part of the country, says he is unaware of Syria's pledges to seal the border and ensure none of the toppled Iraqi leadership attempts to take refuge on its soil.
"They have to seal their border, though, and they have troops to do it. It's a long border here between Turkey, Syria and Iraq and we all have to have troops," he said. There has been no sign, however, of coalition troops, he said.
The Arab tribes that control the regions outside the Kurdish lands have not allowed the Americans, British or Australians to venture off the major roads. Nevertheless, just days after Mosul fell, Watban Ibrahim Hasan, Saddam's half-brother and former interior minister, was captured by coalition forces outside Rabiah, a small town near the Syrian border on Highway 212 from Mosul.
Rabiah sits firmly in Arab territory, despite being on the cusp of Kurdish northern Iraq. It is controlled by the Sunni Shomar tribe, which like many of the Arab tribes on the plain, was co-opted by the regime and helped it maintain its grip on power.
Rabiah is said to still have Saddam statues standing. In the Christian village of Peshabur, just a couple of hundreds metres from the border crossing, it came as no surprise to the local Kurds that some of Saddam's men could have used the area as a passage to safety. "Oh, down there it's all flat like a desert, you can walk across the border," said Yousif Mohamad, who is clearing mines with a UN agency.
"They could easily go across from there because the Iraqi Arabs and the Syrian Arabs have a strong relationship. People do it all the time, especially because you get more money for your sheep on that side of the border than you do on this side," Mr Yousif said.
"There's secret roads all over the place here. I expect Saddam passed through at Rabiah. If not, where is he?"
Speaking in the southern city of Umm Qasr yesterday, the British Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, said he thought Saddam was still alive and in Iraq.