SADDAM SENDS FAMILY, OFFICIALS TO MAURITANIA, THE BBC REPORTS

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has sent his family and unspecified senior government officials to Mauritania in western Africa, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday.

But a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mauritania said, "We have no information that would tend to confirm that."The BBC report, which cited unidentified Western diplomatic sources, said two Iraqi Airways planes landed in Mauritania on Wednesday, followed the next day by a pair of Iraqi military aircraft.