U.S. intelligence believes Saddam Hussein was inside a compound bombarded by American forces on Thursday night and were examining a request for medical attention that could indicate injuries to senior Iraqi leaders, government officials said, quoted by the Associated Press.

"We have reason to believe he was still in there," one senior U.S. official said.

The officials said they also believed medical attention was urgently summoned to the compound in the aftermath of the attack. One senior military official said the manner in which the help was summoned raised the possibility Saddam himself or someone of high-level importance in the Iraqi leadership was injured.

But other officials cautioned there was nothing definitive. "It is not clear exactly on whose behalf the medical attention was summoned," one U.S. official said.