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AMMAN, Jordan - Two of Saddam Hussein's daughters and their nine children received sanctuary Thursday in Jordan on humanitarian grounds, granted by King Abdullah II.
Raghad Saddam Hussein and Rana Saddam Hussein - who had reportedly been living in humble circumstances in Baghdad since their father's ouster - arrived in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Thursday, Information Minister Nabil al-Sharif told the Associated Press. He refused to say if they traveled through a third country.
U.S. officials say they are closing in on Hussein, but it was not clear if his daughters' departure from Iraq indicated the hunt for their father was nearing an end. Word of the arrival in Jordan of two of Hussein's five children came after his sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed in a July 22 firefight with U.S. troops.
Some U.S. military officers in Iraq said the daughters' flight to Jordan was another sign that intensified sweeps are squeezing Hussein and other members of the defeated regime.
"It's good news. Even if it's estranged or extended family, it shows they're on the move," said Army Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who commands soldiers patrolling Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
It was not clear whether the Americans had sought the daughters for questioning about their father.
The two daughters had lived private lives and - unlike their brothers - were not believed to be wanted for crimes linked to their father's brutal regime. Instead, the women were seen by some as victims of Hussein, who ordered their husbands killed in 1996.
Al-Sharif said Hussein's daughters were allowed to come to the kingdom because they had "run out of all options."
The daughters had been estranged from their father for a time but were believed to have reconciled with Hussein in recent years.