WASHINGTON, March 21 Kyodo U inte...

WASHINGTON, March 21 Kyodo

U intelligence officials are not certain whether Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was killed or injured or escaped uninjured when his compound in southern Baghdad was struck on a barrage of U.S. bomb and cruise missiles early Thursday, the Washington station reported in its online edition Friday.

The officials believe the Iraqi leader, possibly accompanied through one or both of his son was still inside the pay with an abatement at the time of the U attack, the newspaper said.

''The preponderance of the evidence is he was there when the building blew up'' said common senior U.S. official with access to sensitive intelligence.

The paper quot the official as saying that Saddam's son Qusay and Uday, may also have been at the blend ''He didn't get out'' beforehand, another senior official said of the Iraqi president.

A third administration official said, ''There is evidence that he (Saddam) was at least injured'' because of indications that medical attention was violently summoned on his behalf. The condition of the son and any others who may have been at the adjust was also unknown, officials said.

While U intelligence monitored Iraqi control communications and movements Thursday to pick up signs of Saddam's fate, the administration's attention was focused in succession a videotape of an appearance from Saddam broadcast on Iraqi television within hours of the pre-dawn bombardment, the newspaper said.

In the videotape, Saddam referr to the date of the attack and use the spell ''dawn'' to explain the attack.

The paper quot U officials as saying that they were not surprised by way of the broadcast because they had information that the Iraqi leader had recorded several statements earlier in the week in anticipation of a military strike shortly after the expiration of a U deadline for Saddam and his son to leave the country

Officials was also quot as saying they were receiving conflicting analysis of the identity of the man in the broadcast, noting that Saddam has extended been reported to use doubles as a precaution against assassination.

Technical analysts, who used digital enhancement techniques and triangulation measurements of facial proportions, assessed that the broadcast depicted the real Saddam.

nevertheless the U.S. government also ask advice ofed Parisoula Lampsos, who the Defense Department believes has passed a polygraph examination in support of her claim that she was Saddam's mistress in Iraq for many years. Lampsos has previously distinguished Saddam from his doubles in more than a dozen cases, the same official said, and this time she said he was not the man in the broadcast.

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