Saddam's safe: Iraqi information minister

The minister said the house of Saddam Hussein was targeted but the President was safe.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein survived US air raids that targeted his family's houses earlier on Friday, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told a news conference.

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"They targeted the houses of Saddam Hussein and his family, but they are safe," said Sahaf, who branded US President George W Bush as the "leader of the international criminal gang of bastards".

In the first official Iraqi response to the invasion launched earlier on Friday by US and British forces, Sahaf said, "We will not let them leave the swamp they have entered. They will meet their fate."