A radar-avoiding U.S. B-2 bomber dropped two earth-shattering 4,600-pound 'bunker-buster' bombs on Friday on a major link in Iraq's communications network in downtown Baghdad, defense officials said. It was believed to be the first use of the big bombs on Baghdad. Allied jets have pounded targets in the Iraqi capital with hundreds of bombs and missiles in the week-old war to depose President Saddam Hussein. (Reuters Graphic)
Bombs Can't Bust Saddam Bunker, Builder Says
Fri Mar 28,10:49 AM ET
By David Crossland
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German architect of one of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s main bunkers in Baghdad said on Friday the Iraqi leader can survive anything short of a direct hit with a nuclear bomb if he stays within its four-feet-thick walls.
"It could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear bomb the size of the Hiroshima one detonating 250 meters away," said Karl Esser, a security consultant who designed the bunker underneath Saddam's main presidential palace in Baghdad.
U.S.-led troops will also find it hard to fight their way in through its three-ton Swiss-made doors, Esser told Reuters in an interview.
A retired Yugoslav army officer who helped build other bunkers for Saddam also told Reuters this week that the shelters were impenetrable and could survive an atomic bomb.
CNN reported on Friday that U.S. B-52 bombers dropped a two ton "bunker busting" bomb on the capital for the first time in the campaign.
The palace bunker can accommodate 50 people and has two escape tunnels, one leading 200 meters to the Tigris river.
It was built in 1982 and 1983 by German firm Boswau & Knauer, which merged into what is now the Walter-Bau AG building group.
At the time Esser was a consultant for a German government-sponsored civil protection body and had his own company, Schutzraumtechnik Esser GmbH, which supplied equipment for Saddam's bunker.
Whether Saddam is using the bunker or is even still alive is unclear, with London and Washington saying they were not convinced that television broadcasts he has made since the war started were live.
The U.S. and Britain launched the war on Iraq (news - web sites) last week with a bombing attack on Baghdad intended to target Saddam, and have pounded the city for nine days.
But Esser said "bunker busting" bombs like the one dropped on Friday would fail to penetrate the bunker because they first have to get though the palace built directly above it.
"The presidential palace above gives natural protection so the bunker can only be cracked by ground troops or a tactical nuclear bomb," said Esser.
The bunker ceiling itself, made of steel-reinforced concrete and up to two meters (yards) thick, was designed to withstand the direct impact of a 230 kg bomb, said Esser.
"It's not a combat bunker, it's an air raid shelter, otherwise it would have had to be built with gun slits and a variety of other features," said Esser.
"Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors with bazookas and explosives."
Construction took place at a time when western companies were legally supplying Saddam with arms and equipment during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Esser said he assumes the plans of the bunker had been passed on to Germany's foreign intelligence service.
Esser remembers giving Saddam a personal tour of the bunker's features, which include a water tank, electricity generator, air filter, 30 square meter command center and so-called electromagnetic pulse protection system -- to shield electrical circuits from the impact of an explosion.
"He was satisfied," said Esser. "He was totally friendly. He was wearing civilian clothes and looked like an ordinary civil servant but you could tell he was important because everyone immediately went quiet when he started talking."
Esser said he had no qualms about having helped to protect a dictator likened to Hitler.
"It's not just one person getting protection, it's several people, it's the palace staff as well. I just see it as an achievement of bunker technology," said Esser.