Report: Saddam has cancer, son Kusay on rise

LONDON -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been sidelined by cancer, a newspaper here reported.

Iraqi sources said many of Saddam's duties are being assumed by his younger son, Kusay. They said Kusay heads a committee of family members that are ready to take over leadership should Sadam be incapacitated, Middle East Newsline reported.

So far, Saddam's health is said to have deteriorated. The sources said the president sustains periods of extreme weakness and failure to concentrate.

On Sunday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily reported that Saddam is being treated by a five-member panel of physicans that comprises three French doctors, a German and Swede. The newspaper said Saddam has been diagnosed as having cancer of the endocrinal glands.

No Iraqi doctor was allowed to join the team of physicians, A-Sharq Al Awsat said. Iraqi opposition sources said Saddam fears assassination from his numerous enemies inside and outside Iraq.

Saddam, the newspaper said, headed a recent meeting that included Kusay, his older brother Uday, and three of the president's brothers. Saddam decided that Kusay would head a leadership committee in case the president dies or is incapacitated.

Arab diplomatic sources said they expect a fierce powerful struggle between Kusay and Uday in the aftermath of Saddam's death. Uday was thought to have been Saddam's choice for leadership until he was wounded in an assassination attempt in 1996.

Another scenario, the sources said, is that Saddam will raise tension in the Middle East over the next few months. U.S. officials acknowledge that Washington has placed a Patriot missile battery on alert for possible deployment to Israel out of concern that Baghdad will fire missiles during the U.S. elections in November.

Israel has deployed two Patriot batteries since the Gulf War.

Meanwhile, the United States continues its raids of Iraqi air defense installations. On Saturday, U.S. jets bombed an air defense sites in southern Iraq after its planes came under missile attack.

The United States and Britain have been enforcing no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq.