Intelligence indicates Saddam may be in Iraq ~Tyr

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two U.S. intelligence agencies have made an assessment that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is alive and inside Iraq, intelligence officials told CNN.

The assessment -- which officials stress is not proven fact -- was based on recent intercepted communications among Saddam loyalists, as well as interviews with individuals in custody, Iraqis on the street and plausible accounts of Saddam sightings, the officials said.

They said they are very wary, however, that some intercepts and information could have been faked in order to lead the United States astray.

The White House said Friday it remains unsure of the Iraqi leader's status and that his whereabouts still are unknown.

"We don't know whether he's alive or dead," deputy spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

"Of course there's going to be different views within the intelligence community. But again, one thing is for certain that is he and his brutal regime are no longer a threat to the region or the world, no longer a threat to the Iraqi people," he said.

Intelligence sources also told CNN that Gen. Abid Hamid Mahmud Al Tikriti, the top aide to Saddam who was captured Monday, is now offering some information. Mahmud is the highest-ranking member of Saddam's former regime in coalition custody, behind the deposed leader and his sons Uday and Qusay on the U.S. military's most-wanted list

Officials would not specify what Mahmud is telling them, but they believe he may have been one of the last people to see the Iraqi leader. Information from Mahmud will also be used to verify statements coming from others in U.S. custody.

The officials also said they have at least one credible report that Saddam may not have been at the Mansour District building in Baghdad bombed by the United States on April 7, as was hoped, and may have escaped from a site south of Baghdad bombed by the United States at the start of the war.

None of the high-level Iraqis on the most-wanted list who have been captured or surrendered has so far offered significant intelligence information regarding weapons of mass destruction, according to officials from at least two U.S. intelligence agencies. Officials say that may change if Saddam is captured, but there are no guarantees.

Intelligence officials have told Bush administration policymakers that some of the low-level officials may be more willing to offer information if and when Saddam is captured, or in exchange for deal protecting them from war crimes charges. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated Wednesday that the notion of offering "plea bargains" had been discussed.

Soldiers attacked In Fallujah, which has been the scene of several attacks on U.S. forces, two U.S. soldiers were wounded in an attack late Thursday, coalition military sources said.

Witnesses described attackers as Islamic fighters and said they used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in the assault, hitting a U.S. military vehicle and sparking a fire in a power station.

"They shot at Americans, I saw it," a witness told CNN. "The mujahedeens shot toward the Americans. I saw one of the RPGs hit the American armored car."

According to the military sources, one of the soldiers suffered a concussion. The other was bruised.

"I've seen at least one U.S. soldier injured," a witness said. "There were several of them crouching over there and one looked injured. There were a lot of Americans running around and I have seen injured Americans being evacuated."

The power plant burst into flames after the attack.

Fallujah is 35 miles (55 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is considered a hotbed for Saddam loyalists.

The USS Pearl Harbour enters Sydney Harbor in Australia on Friday as it takes U.S. servicepeople home from Iraq to the United States. U.S. troops are in the middle of Operation Desert Scorpion -- the largest military deployment since the height of the Iraq war in early April.

The operation has involved dozens of raids since it began Sunday, focusing largely on areas in and around Baghdad and central Iraq near Fallujah, Tikrit and Kirkuk, according to U.S Central Commmand

One U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded Thursday when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed a U.S. military ambulance in the town of Al Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad. The soldiers were members of the 804th Medical Brigade and were transporting a patient injured in another incident to the 28th Combat Army Support Hospital, Central Command said.

Eighteen U.S. troops have been killed in attacks since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. Another 37 have died in what are described as non-hostile incidents.

Meanwhile, crude oil -- stored since the start of the Iraq war -- will be loaded onto tankers beginning Sunday, clearing the way for an oil pipeline from northern Iraq to resume operations, Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization said Thursday. Eight million barrels of oil have been stored in tanks at the end of the pipeline at Ceyhan, Turkey. They will be loaded on tankers for delivery to refineries that have purchased the crude.