Saddam Secretly Ill?

The United States has confirmed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is suffering from cancer, a Kuwaiti weekly said on Saturday.

Al-Zamen weekly said Washington first learned of Saddam's illness three years ago, "but the search ended in February, according to informed U.S. sources, after American intelligence obtained confirmed information."

The weekly is owned by Sheikh Nasser, who is an adviser to Kuwait's prime minister and crown prince, Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah. He is also a son to influential Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

"Observers noted that the United States appears to be waiting for Saddam Hussein's death from cancer as an alternative to its failed containment policy which Washington has been a hostage of for a decade," Zamen's report from Washington said.

In recent weeks, some Iraqi opposition sources and regional publications had said that Saddam was suffering from lymphatic cancer, but the Iraqi embassy in Bangladesh denied the reports.

Zamen said a Jordanian official had also received confirmation of Saddam's illness from a visiting Iraqi counterpart, "which explains the rushing of French, Cuban and other doctors to Baghdad through Amman."

The weekly's cover story was prepared ahead of the latest escalation in tension between Kuwait and former occupier Iraq.

Iraq on Thursday accused its much smaller southern neighbour Kuwait of stealing its oil from a border field, triggering a U.S. threat of military action.

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