Reports and rumours that the Iraqi dictator, Mr Saddam Hussein, was on his death bed appeared yesterday to have proven false once again.
Iraq's opposition, quoting a Damascus-based dissident group, had reported earlier this week that Mr Saddam had suffered a "severe stroke" and by Wednesday rumours were rife of his death.
Mr Bayan Jaber of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution had said on Monday that Mr Saddam had suffered a severe stroke. By Wednesday, however, he was simply saying that he had been taken ill and treated in the capital's Ibn Sina hospital.
The London-based Iraqi National Congress claimed to have many sources saying Mr Saddam had collapsed. But a spokesman, Mr Sharif Ali, admitted it was impossible to nail down the truth.
"There are many different sources saying that he did collapse, that he was taken to hospital. Through second or third hand sources, that is what we are hearing." But he added: "We can't confirm that."
Official Iraqi sources mocked the illness reports on Wednesday and by evening the INA news agency said that Mr Saddam - whose military rank of "Al-Muhib" translates as "he who inspires fear" - had chaired the first cabinet meeting of the year and he was shown on television.
Meanwhile, a London-based Arabic newspaper reported yesterday that two Iraqi army generals, including an officer involved in the July 1968 coup that brought President Saddam Hussein's Baath party to power, have been executed.
Al-Zaman, a paper close to the Iraqi opposition, named the two officers as Gen. Ossama Hassan al-Yawer, brother of a former finance minister, and Gen. Taleb al-Saadun, a senior military official of the party.
Gen. Saadun was executed allegedly for annoying President Saddam Hussein by expressing regret that he had ever participated in the 1968 revolution.