Saddam Hussein has been captured alive near his hometown of Tikrit in a major coup for the beleaguered US-led occupation forces in Iraq. US occupying administrator Paul Bremer said Hussein was captured late on Saturday 13 December after more than eights months of searching for him. Bremer began the press conference with the dramatic announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." His statement was greeted by jubliant applause and cries from the audience, who were mainly journalists. US forces commander in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also told the news conference that Hussein put up no resistance when he was found hiding in a three metre deep hole on an isolated farm and was cooperating with his captors. Sanchez said that the army had received intelligence late on Saturday of two possible hideouts near the village of Aghwar. About 600 special forces participated in the raid to capture the ousted Iraqi leader, who was found hiding in what Sanchez called "a spider hole". He had $750,000 with him and was not injured. **Resignation*** The hole, camouflaged in brick and dirt, had an "air vent and exhaust fan built in... to allow him to remain underground," said Sanchez. Hussein was now "under coalition custody at an undisclosed location," Sanchez said, adding the former Iraqi president appeared a "tired man and also I think a man resigned" when captured. US forces showed a videotape of the hideout. The video showed a bearded Hussein recieving a medical examination, to the applause of the journalists. Some members of the audience shouted "Death to Saddam" when they saw the video. In the Iraqi capital, celebratory gunfire rang out, radios played festive music, drivers honked their horns and passengers on buses and trucks chanted "They got Saddam, they got Saddam!" US troops stationed around Iraq cheered when they heard the news. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Picture released by US Central Command shows Saddam Hussein after his capture (R) and in an undated photo from before his ouster on 9 April presented during a press conference in Baghdad. (AFP/CENTCOM-HO)