The faces of President Saddam Hussein and 54 other Iraqi regime leaders have been put on playing cards and distributed to coalition forces with instructions to kill or capture them.Deaglán de Bréadún reports from Doha.
The US Central Command spokesman, Gen Vincent Brooks, brought the deck of cards with him to yesterday's daily news briefing.
Although he did not distribute them , some reporters sitting close to the speaker's podium said the Ace of Spades had a picture of Saddam Hussein.
However, one of these reporters cautioned: "There are a lot of people with moustaches."
A Sky News reporter asked if the Iraqi Information Minister, Mr Muhammad al-Sahhaf, well-known for his dubious and far-fetched pronouncements, was included, because "every pack needs a joker".
"Well said," replied Gen Brooks. "Well, there are jokers in this deck, there's no doubt about that."
He said some of those on the list might have already been killed or captured, and part of the reason for the exercise was to ascertain their true status.
Asked if Saddam Hussein was "the Queen of Hearts, the Ace of Spades or one of the Jokers", Gen Brooks said he had not sorted through the deck: "He's in there somewhere, though, I can assure you."
He added: "This list has been provided to coalition forces on the ground in several forms to ease identification when contact does occur.
And this deck of cards is one example of what we provide to soldiers and Marines out in the field, with the faces of the individuals and what their role is. In this case, there are 55 cards in the deck.
"The list is also being distributed throughout the country in other forms, including posters and handbills, and those will become more and more visible over the coming days. The intent here is to help the coalition to gain information from the Iraqi people so that they also know exactly who it is we seek."