Photos of an unshaven Saddam Hussein after his capture were winding their way Friday across the Internet.

Saddam, wrists bound and escorted by Iraqi security agent, in this unofficial photo.
AFP

U.S. officials would not not comment on the photos, which seem to parallel the details known about the deposed dictator’s surrender to troops.

The sequence of photos shows Saddam pinned to the ground at gunpoint while soldiers search him and then bind his wrists. Another photo of the deposed dictator shows him in a Baghdad palace now being used by the U.S. military

One photo, CNN said, may show Saddam bleeding from the mouth, but examination of the photo has been inconclusive, the Web site said.

Pentagon officials did not release the photographs. They won’t comment on the photos or even verify their authenticity.

CNN said the photos appear to have been taken by someone in, or working closely with, the U.S. military when troops captured Saddam on Dec. 13 at a farm compound near the village of Ad Dawr on the banks of the Tigris River outside Tikrit