In her first interview, Saddam Hussein’s oldest daughter said last night she is convinced her father is still alive, the London Times reported.
“I know he survived the war,” Raghad, 36, told the London paper.
Raghad said she was with one of her sisters and their children at a family farm on the first night of the war when a torrent of American bombs nearly killed them.
Although she is no longer in touch with her father or brothers Uday and Qusay, she believes they all survived, the Times reported.
“The last time I spoke to my father was five days before the war,” she said. “He was in good spirits. I know he survived the war. But once Baghdad fell it was all so quick, all the family went our own ways. I am not in touch with any of them. But I believe they are still alive.”
 Saddam Hussein’s daughters Raghad, third from left, and Rana, third from right, in 1991 family photo. |
The U.S. “shock and awe” bombing campaign was fearful for her family.
“It was terrifying,” she said. “The first night I was on our farm in Baghdad with my sister and our children and 10 missiles fell all around us. We just got to the shelter so we were not hurt but we were very scared. Every night, the noise.”
The Times said Raghad is still in Iraq, living in a “simple house” with her four children and her sister Rana, 34, and her three children.
The family left Baghdad on April 9 when it fell to U.S. troops.
“We heard on the radio that the Americans had entered the city and occupied it so at noon that day we all left,” she said. “After a few days everyone went their own way. We tried to hide in Baghdad. We had not expected it to happen so quickly.”
The two sisters reportedly have been estranged from their father since the murder of their husbands, Hussein Kamel al-Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel. The men, both cousins of the Iraqi dictator, defected to Jordan with their families in 1995 but returned six months later believing Saddam would forgive the fathers of his grandsons. They were murdered, however, while their wives visited Saddam.
Raghad rejected the notion she cut off relations with Saddam, though she refused to answer questions about her husband’s murder.
“He is my father and I am his daughter,” she told the Times. “He was a good father and a good grandfather.”
Raghad said she stays inside the house.
“I don’t like the situation, the American troops everywhere, seeing the statues of my father broken, his pictures torn down,” she said. “You can imagine how I feel.”
The Times said she realizes she cannot stay in the country, and she is believed to be negotiating for asylum in the United Arab Emirates.
“All I want is to be able to live peacefully with no fear and nobody asking us any awkward questions,” she said. “We have been through a lot and now we just want peace.”
