Baghdad denies news on Saddam's illness
Iraq, Politics, 1/4/2001

Baghdad on Wednesday denied news circulated by the Iraqi opposition on that President Saddam Hussein had a heart attack during the huge military parade held in the Capital Baghdad on Sunday.

Certain mass media in England and Germany quoted on Tuesday reports for the Iraqi opposition which reside abroad that the Iraqi President is at the intensive care unit at the hospital after he had a heart- attack.

The director general of the media department at the Iraqi ministry of culture and information Salaam Khattab al-Naseri said that these reports are so silly that it do not deserve a reply.

Meantime, the Iraqi news agency said that the Iraqi President presided over a meeting for the Cabinet on Wednesday, which is the first meeting for the Cabinet in 2001. The agency said that the Cabinet praised the courage of the palestinian people in their uprising against the Israeli occupation.

Al-Naseri added that the whole world has seen how Saddam Hussein stood for five hours to greet units of the Iraqi army during a parade " al-Aqsa call" and that the President had fired 140 gun salute by just one hand. A thing which can not be made even by many youngmen and this point, alone is enough to answer such silly news.

On Sunday, President Saddam chaired what seemed to be the greatest military parade to be held in Baghdad since the Gulf war in 1991, haling the army units by gun bullet salutes from a gun he used to carry in one hand.

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