Reposrts suggest Ex-Iraqi information minister commits suicide

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday April 17, 2003 15:18 by Comical Ali - Iraqi Information Ministry

Reports suggest the Iraqi information minister knicknamed 'comical Ali' has killed himself.

Allied military chiefs were today looking at reports that the Iraqi information minister dubbed "Comical Ali" had committed suicide.

Newspaper reports in Iran said Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who repeatedly claimed that Iraq was winning the war, had hanged himself.

Military sources treated the reports with caution, suggesting they could have been spread by the fleeing Iraqi propagandist to throw special forces off his trail.

Mr al-Sahhaf is not on the US list of Saddam Hussein's 55 most-wanted henchmen, but he is still being sought, after becoming the mouthpiece for the Iraqi regime during the war.

Despite having one of the most recognised faces in the Middle East he has not been seen since he vanished just before the fall of Baghdad.

Two Iranian newspapers said he killed himself in the hours before the capital was taken by US forces, and refugees coming across the Iranian border said he had committed suicide.