Raghad and Rana were staying with their children at the Nadwa palace, once the home of Jordan's late King Hussein, where they moved in July, four months after the launch of the US war that toppled their father's regime.

In December they watched with horror as satellite television channels flashed pictures of a disheveled and bearded Saddam, his mouth wide open as a US soldier examined his teeth.

The daughters of the man who made Iraq tremble with fear broke into tears, saying they had never wanted to live to see this day, sources close to them told AFP.

They also ordered their drivers and bodyguards to bring their children home from school to shield them from prying eyes.

Ali was among those who sobbed when he heard the Americans had nabbed Saddam.

Four of Saddam's grandchildren go to the same school as Prince Hussein, 9, and Princess Iman, 7, the first and second born of Jordan's King Abdullah II.

In the week that followed Saddam's capture on December 13, his grandchildren did not go to school. When they did, their classmates were told by school officials not to discuss the dictator's capture with them.

A few days after their father's capture, Saddam's daughters started denouncing the way the once-mighty ruler of Baghdad fell into US hands.

Raghad claimed Saddam had been drugged -- a charge flatly denied by Muwaffak al-Rubai, a member of Iraq's US-appointed interim Governing Council who was among the first to see the former president after his capture.

She also demanded a fair trial for her father.

Jordan reacted by asking Raghad and Rana "to respect the rules of hospitality" and stop politicking if they wanted to stay in Jordan.

Since then Raghad, 34, and Rana, 32, have kept a low profile.

They have also moved out of the Nadwa palace into a luxury villa they bought in Abdoun, a posh residential neighborhood in western Amman which is also home to the heavily fortified US embassy and other diplomatic compounds.

Raghad has three boys, Ali, Saddam and Wahej, as well as two daughters Haris and Banan, while Rana is the mother of three boys, Ahmad, Saad and Hussein, and a girl named Nabea.

The sisters arrived in Jordan on July 31, from Syria, for their second exile in the kingdom since August 1995.

Back then, Raghad and Rana were accompanied by their husbands -- Hussein Kamel and Saddam Kamel respectively, who both were later assassinated by Saddam.

General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and his brother Colonel Saddam Kamel, along with some 30 members of the Majid family, spectacularly defected to Jordan on August 8, 1995.

The brothers -- along with their father and other Kamel family members -- were killed in February 1996 on orders from Saddam who had lured them back home with a promise of an amnesty.

Jamal Kamel, the only one to survive Saddam's wrath, helped his sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces settle in Jordan.

"Jordan asked a green light from the Americans. They did not have any objections because, after all, Saddam's daughters had nothing to do with the crimes committed by their father," he told AFP.

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