The hunt for Saddam

Other top Iraqis have surrendered or been captured

More than two months after the fall of Baghdad, the question is increasingly being asked, "where is Saddam?"

The $25 m reward leading to his capture is just the latest move in a campaign by Washington to get their man - dead or alive.

But so far, despite the intelligence reports, the tip-offs and the capture of the former Iraqi leader's right hand men, the Americans are no closer to their goal.

The bombing of a convoy on the border with Syria two weeks ago was thought to have been aimed at Saddam Hussein.

Five Syrians were wounded in the attack, carried out by American special forces backed by planes.

But despite DNA testing thought to have been carried out at the scene, no sign of the Iraqi leader was found.

Ace of Spades

The attack was the latest of several efforts by the Americans to hunt down the man described as the Ace of Spades in the pack of playing cards used by the military to represent the most wanted Iraqis.

STRIKES ON SADDAM

20 March - In the opening hours of the war, US air strikes target a Baghdad compound where Saddam Hussein is believed to be staying

7 April - Air strikes hit Baghdad's Mansour district amid reports that Saddam Hussein and his two sons are meeting in a restaurant

18 June - US forces attack a convoy near the border with Syria that may have been carrying Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons

The first came on 20 March, in the first salvo of the war, in the hope that Saddam would be killed and the Iraqi regime would topple without having to invade the country.

The second was on 7 April, with Baghdad about to fall, when a building in the Mansour district where Saddam was thought to be eating was bombed.

The best recent break for the Americans was the arrest of one of the Iraqi leader's closest aides, his secretary and bodyguard, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti.

It's understood he told his American interrogators that Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Qusay and Uday, had survived the war.

He also said he went to Syria with Saddam's sons, although they had to return to Iraq after being expelled.

Saddam 'in Iraq'

Mr al-Tikriti's remarks fit with American intelligence reports which appear to show intercepted communications between fugitive members of Saddam Hussein's loyal fedayeen militia and the Iraqi intelligence service.

They indicate that their former leader is still alive and in the country.

If Saddam is on the run in Iraq, experts think he could be hiding in his home town of Tikrit, in a safe house in Baghdad, or even living like a nomadic Bedouin in the desert.

BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says it is thought Iraqi officials had laid careful plans for the top leadership to be dispersed to different locations around the country.

When Saddam Hussein told several foreign visitors that he had been born in Iraq and would die in Iraq, he probably meant it, our analyst says.

The search for the former leader has now been stepped up.

Elite forces from the US Navy Seals, US Army Delta Force and the Central Intelligence Agency are all now involved.