As mortar shells crashed into the western side of the city and US tanks rolled into town, with soldiers brazenly waving the star spangled banner, Mr al-Sahhaf did what he has always done best: he met the press and spun a story.

As cool as a cucumber in his green Baath party uniform and black beret, he delivered a triumphant message to the reporters gathered around him, saying that the Americans were “sick in the head”, that they were being “slaughtered” and were “beginning to commit suicide at the gates of Baghdad”.

Saddam Hussein’s spokesman, now seen as his public face, once reigned from a top floor in the Ministry of Information. Before the war, he was rarely glimpsed. Instead, he left the dirty work to his henchman, Uday al-Taie. The former journalist controlled which foreign journalists were let into the country and which would be allowed to stay beyond an initial ten-day period.

But Mr al-Sahhaf ultimately called the shots. An avid reader of The Times, he would not hesitate to call on his cronies to dress down a reporter if he did not like what was appearing in the papers. When Fox News and CNN were grandly kicked out of Baghdad last month, it was Mr al-Sahhaf who had the final say.

Now his role has changed and he has become the Iraqi equivalent of Ari Fleisher. He has become an increasingly popular figure among Arabs, who have been enraged by scenes of Baghdad ablaze and civilian casualties.

Mr al-Sahhaf has also introduced insults virtually unknown to the Arab public. His use of “uluj”, an obscure and particularly insulting term for “infidel”, prompted telephone calls from viewers seeking a definition.

Most reporters in Baghdad are more familiar with his temper. A few days before the war started, he was seen outside the Ministry of Information shouting at drivers and other hapless individuals who had managed to get in his way.

Mr al-Sahhaf was studying to be an English teacher when, in 1963, he joined a violent group led by Saddam that targeted opponents of the Baath party. The move marked the beginning of his political career. During a coup in 1968, he was charged with securing the radio and television stations and was later put in charge of both media. Even then, he was known for his temper and is believed to have ordered physical punishment to television and radio employees.

He has also served as Iraq’s Ambassador to India, Italy and the United Nations. Now in his early sixties, he has been Information Minister since 2001. He was Foreign Minister from 1993 to 2001.

Read my lips everybody

‘As our leader Saddam Hussein said, God is grilling their stomachs in Hell. Fighting is continuing in the main battlefields. Baghdad is secured and fortified and Baghdadis are heroes’

Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, as US forces advanced a few hundred yards away on the other bank of the Tigris

‘Baghdad is safe. The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad. There is no presence of the American columns in the city of Baghdad, none at all’

as 70 US tanks rumbled into the heart of the city

‘We have surrounded them with our troops. We will massacre them, these invaders. Their graves will be here’

as US troops seized Saddam’s New Presidential Palace on the Tigris river

‘We have fed them Hell and death’

on US troops in Baghdad

‘Those are not Iraqi soldiers at all. Where did they bring them from?’

of footage of Iraqi soldiers surrendering

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