"I am sure he is in Russia right now," said Talaat, a taxi driver, taking a sip of his tea in a coffee in the Agoza neighbourhood.

"He had taken refuge in the Russian embassy and the Russian envoy took him when he left to Russia," he said.

The convoy carrying Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, and other diplomats came under fire -- apparently from US troops -- last weekend as they were evacuating to Syria from Baghdad.

Ahmad, a clerk, hoped from behind the smoke of a water-pipe that Saddam was alive, preparing to fight the US-led coalition that captured Baghdad Wednesday.

"He will appear again. He is still in Iraq and he will emerge again to fight back," he said.

"Well either he (Saddam) has the magic ring of King Solomon, or he is the invisible man", replied a sarcastic customer.

Nothing has been heard of Saddam since a US B1 bomber flattened a building he was believed to have entered in the Al-Mansur residential district of the capital on Monday. Witnesses said 14 civilians were killed in the raid.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was unsure whether Saddam survived, but that in any case the Iraqi leader, who turns 66 later this month, was no longer "active."

Newspapers across the Arab world speculated on the fate of Saddam, whether he was killed, fled to his hometown of Tikrit or negotiated his departure into exile in return for leaving the keys of his capital in the door.

The easy fall of Baghdad and the disppearance of the regime's symbols was mystifying for many in the coffee shop.

What happened to the much taunted elite Republican Guard divisions, Saddam's Fedayeens ("those who sacrifice themselves for Saddam") and the Al-Quds army ("the army of Jerusalem"), who were supposed to fight to the last man?

"It is a surprise, they all vanished and there is no sign of them. There is no sign even of (Mohamed Said) al-Sahhaf," said Amjad, a 25 year empolyee, referring to the Iraqi information minister, who had made defiant speechs every single day of the war until disappearing on Tuesday afternoon.

"The last thing he announced is that the Iraqi army was surrounding the US troops and that they will die in their tanks. Most probably he is now disguised as a woman," said Amjad, triggering laughter.

"The Americans now have the upper hand in the region and I would not be surprised if one day they will ask for the return of King's Farouq's son to rule Egypt," he said.

Farouq was toppled in a bloodless coup in 1952. His son, Ahmad Fouad, still lives in exile in Switzerland.

SPACE.WIRE