Saddam Has Changed Appearance
W A S H I N G TO N, Aug. 1 -- Saddam Hussein has been sighted several times with a new appearance, including long gray hair and a gray beard, and he has lost weight, a senior military official told ABCNEWS.
As a result of these reported sightings, the U.S. Central Command handed out doctored photos of Saddam in various guises to coalition troops so that they would be able to recognize the former Iraqi dictator if he has changed his appearance.
• Slideshow: Six Faces of Saddam
The Pentagon is having U.S. soldiers study these different looks because they believe Saddam may once again alter his appearance.
The doctored photographs show Saddam Hussein with a variety of looks: with a dark beard and dark hair, white hair and clean-shaven, and with a gray beard, looking somewhat thinner.
When asked where the sightings occurred, the official would say only, "You'll notice there are a lot of U.S. troops around Tikrit."
Tikrit is the ousted dictator's hometown, and today U.S. troops in the region detained two Saddam loyalists.
"These two individuals are significant because they're suspected of having been former security agents in the Saddam regime and are believed to be helping move money around … for protecting high-level members of the former regime, possibly even Saddam Hussein himself," Time magazine reporter Brian Bennet, who is traveling with the 4th Infantry Division, told ABCNEWS.
Saddam Still Communicating
However Saddam is being protected, he apparently is managing to get his message out. Today Iraqis once again heard what is believed to be the voice of the former Iraqi president, urging them to rise up against American forces.
"I say that the imbalance I referred to will only be stopped by the stance of the faithful mujahedeen who strove to confront the occupation and to expel the invaders so that Iraq can restore its faithful and healed face, following its ordeal which led to the imbalance in some, who were driven by frustration and despair," a purported Saddam said in a new audiotape broadcast by the Arab satellite television network al Jazeera.
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