Pentagon: U.S. forces on high alert

U.S. Soldiers conducting a house-to-house search in Baghdad on Wednesday

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Friday that U.S. forces in Iraq are braced for any violence that may follow the execution of former President Saddam Hussein.

"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation," said spokesman Bryan Whitman. "They'll obviously take into account social dimensions that could potentially led to an increase in violence which certainly would include carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein."

Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003, and his lawyers said Friday that he had been handed over to Iraqi authorities. But there was conflicting information.

Tom Casey, deputy spokesman at the State Department, said in early afternoon that "there has been no change in his status" and that Saddam remained in American hands. In Baghdad, an Iraqi government official who refused to be identified by name because he was not authorized to release the information said authorities there were not yet in control of Saddam.

Casey said the information he had was provided by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

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