What's Inside Saddam's Bunker?

Jan. 8 -- When allied forces fired three cruise missiles at a conference center in Baghdad on the first night of the Gulf War in 1991, their real target was underneath it: a state-of-the-art command bunker belonging to Saddam Hussein.

The missiles slammed into the conference center and it was blown to smithereens. But the newly built bunker, protected by shock absorbers and a 16-foot-thick shell of reinforced concrete, survived intact, according to a former Yugoslav engineer who helped build it.

See one of the engineer's diagrams.

"It was completely functioning. All the installations and equipment survived. It only shook from side to side when the three cruise missiles hit," the engineer said in a recent interview in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. He requested anonymity because of concern for his own security.

And what happens if U.S. forces and their allies launch a second war against Iraq? The engineer says the so-called "bunker-buster" may just do the trick in destroying Saddam's underground lair.

Surviving a Direct Hit

Saddam's bunker is modeled on one built for Marshal Tito, the late Yugoslav dictator, under a mountain in southern Bosnia, which was part of the former Yugoslavia. Tito's bunker is now maintained by the Bosnian Army.

When Saddam visited Yugoslavia in 1976 — he was Iraq's vice president at the time — Tito bragged to him about his luxuriously appointed bunker, which was built to house 500 people and survive a nuclear attack.

Saddam became president in 1979, and during the 1980s Tito sent the same engineers who built his bunker to build a smaller version for the Iraqi leader near the Republican Palace and the 14 July Bridge in central Baghdad. The engineer who spoke to ABCNEWS was a lead member of the design and construction teams on both projects.

"They both have the same degree of protection," he said. "They could survive a direct hit from 2,000 kilograms of TNT or a nuclear bomb from two kilometers away."

Protected by 16 Feet of Concrete