DUBAI, 20 April 2003 — Arab television channels showed documents yesterday that hinted Saddam Hussein could still be alive — but like previous clues on the fate of Iraq’s deposed leader, the footage raised more questions than it answered.

The Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV channels showed a handwritten document said to be a message from Saddam to Iraq’s secret police telling them to stop fighting US-led forces.

The word “ceasefire” was written in Arabic at the top of the document, but it also said Iraq had been victorious against the invaders. There was nothing to indicate whether the document was genuine or when it had been written.

On Friday, Abu Dhabi TV broadcast video footage of what it said was Saddam saluting a throng of chanting supporters in Baghdad on April 9, the day the capital fell to US forces and a city-center statue of Saddam was symbolically toppled.

The state-run channel also played an audio tape which it said was the last radio speech broadcast by Saddam, but it was not clear when the speech was recorded.

Yesterday, the channel said it had obtained a document written by Saddam’s Information Minister, Muhammad Saeed Al-Sahaf, telling Iraqi officials to broadcast the speech every half hour. The document carried the signature of Al-Sahaf — whose whereabouts are also unknown — and was dated April 9.

Abu Dhabi TV also showed a document said to detail biological and chemical weapons materials hidden in the genetic engineering department of Baghdad University. It said the document was found in Baghdad, but gave no further information.

US forces detained Saddam’s finance minister yesterday, and captured Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hasan Al-Tikriti on Thursday, but there has been no sign of Saddam.

US officials say they do not know whether he is alive or dead. They are studying the Abu Dhabi TV footage to try to determine when it was recorded, and whether it shows Saddam or one of his rumored “doubles”.

US intelligence officials say a previous videotape of Saddam aired on April 4, which showed him greeting a throng of supporters with smoke seen in the distance, was probably shot in early March — before the US-led war began.

On April 7, the US military bombed a restaurant in the Mansur district of Baghdad after receiving reports that Saddam and his two sons Uday and Qusay were inside. But some Iraqis say they saw Saddam and his sons alive after that attack.

The latest Abu Dhabi TV footage matched a report from a man describing himself as a former Iraqi Army officer, who told Reuters earlier this week he saw Saddam at about the time the footage was said to have been shot, outside a mosque in the same northern Baghdad district of Aadhamiya.

The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper also quoted witnesses as saying Saddam had arrived near the mosque on April 9 in a convoy of three cars, accompanied by Qusay and his bodyguard, Al-Amin Abd Hamed Hamoud.

On April 10, US Marines fought a fierce battle at the Al-Adham mosque in Aadhamiya after intelligence reports suggested senior Iraqi leaders were gathered nearby.

But no trace of Saddam was found after the battle was over, and rumors have continued to thrive, fueled by scraps of inconclusive evidence gathered by journalists in Baghdad.

On Thursday, Al-Jazeera showed footage of what it said was Saddam’s hastily abandoned last abode in Baghdad.

A half-filled glass of water and a stained cup stood on a desk next to crudely sketched military plans in an office where Al-Jazeera said the Iraqi leader taped messages entreating his people to fight US invaders.

In one room was a suitcase, next to an unmade bed.