The agencies were said to have concluded that Saddam was in his house when U.S. cruise missiles and F-117 stealth fighters attacked on late Wednesday in Baghdad. Saddam might have been slightly injured in the attack as well, the agencies reported.

"We've received information that Saddam Hussein left the area in an ambulance," British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien said on Sunday.

"There was some talk that he had been injured, even some suggestion that he had been killed. It seems that is unlikely, that if he was injured it doesn't appear it was a serious injury."

O'Brien told the London-based British Broadcasting Corp. that the information on Saddam's apparent injuries came from at least one eyewitness. Britain has 45,000 troops fighting in Iraq.

The pilot was said to have bailed out of his U.S. fighter-jet on Sunday near the Tigris River. He was soon captured by Iraqi forces.

U.S. officials have confirmed that an air force pilot has gone missing. They said they were checking for more details.

Officials said a U.S. soldier hurled grenades in the command center of the 101st Division's 1st Brigade at Camp Pennsylvania near the Iraqi border. The soldier threw three grenades into three tents filled with sleeping soldiers.

Later, a U.S. soldier was arrested and interrogated. His name was not released, but he was said to have been a Muslim member of the engineering platoon who had been acting strangely over the last week as his unit was preparing to enter Iraq.