'16 cruise missiles' to destroy bunker

TARGETING Saddam Hussein in his presidential bunker will require a concerted attack using 16 cruise missiles directed to the same spot, its designer said yesterday.

Karl Esser claimed the Iraqi dictator was "100 per cent safe" in the steel and concrete structure buried 100 metres below Baghdad.

He said: "I am absolutely certain that Saddam Hussein will not be taken out by a rocket attack on his main palace in Baghdad as long as he remains underground in the bunker I designed."

Mr Esser, 45, of Munich, whose grandmother built the bunker which protected Hitler from attacks, said he was proud of his work, which may prevent the coalition forces’ stated aim of "decapitating" the Iraqi leadership.

The 60 million bunker was built 20 years ago, under the direction of Mr Esser and an Austrian architect, Lorenzo Buffalo, working for Boswau and Knauer of Germany.

Mr Esser said: "I was asked as I had a lot of experience from my family. My grandmother was responsible for Hitler’s bunker under the Berlin Reich chancellery and I have continued the family traditions.

"I built atom bomb-proof bunkers and was then asked to work on the bunker in Iraq."

He said he met Saddam on a number of occasions when construction got under way in the early 1980’s, including one three-hour session where the two discussed in detail the plans for the bunker.

He recalled: "If you see him, he doesn't make much of an impression. He looks like an Arab tax collector or banker.

"But when he speaks, you realise there is more to the man than meets the eye.

"Those around make it really clear that he is a man to be reckoned with. You could hear a needle drop when he walks into the room."

Mr Esser added: "If they want to get at Saddam, they would have to level the palace completely, and get rid of the debris. Then they would need to hit the site with their 80-kilo Tomahawks 16 times at the same spot to get through. That’s 16 times.

"Then they need to know exactly where he is in the bunker. Is he on the toilet, or in bed?"

The Baghdad bunker is hidden beneath the swimming pool, walkways and parking areas of the presidential palace guest house.

The Iraqi leader is protected by 9ft-thick walls designed to withstand a nuclear explosion of the same scale as the bomb which destroyed Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.

The accommodation includes a living room for Saddam and his family, with bathroom taps and finishings in gold.

A Munich-based company was commissioned to provide all the wood and fittings for the rooms - 1,800 square metres of it in all.

Saddam instructed the designers to fit out the bunker as a mini-palace - and to ensure that it reached NATO standards in terms of security.

The command room contains secure communications equipment, allowing access to strategic military information. And an escape tunnel under the Tigris river is protected by three-ton doors.

Mr Esser concluded that it would be almost impossible to penetrate.

"I’m pleased my bunker has proved up to the job," he added.