NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- A key Iraqi opposition leader says he has information that Saddam Hussein survived an airstrike in Baghdad and escaped from the capital with at least one of his sons.

CNN: Opposition leader: Saddam is alive

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino Wednesday blamed the suicide attack against the military police and army headquarters in Nasiriya, Iraq, on Arab extremists and guerrillas sympathetic to the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

CNN: Italy blames Arab extremists

Coalition forces have now largely brought under control all of major cities of south and central Iraq, including Basra, Nasiriya, Najaf, Hillah, Karbala and Baghdad, as well as Iraq's main port, Umm Qasr, and its southern oil fields.

CNN: Saddam regime loses grip on Baghdad

In all, 12 soldiers from their maintenance group are unaccounted for -- either captured, dead or missing -- after fierce fighting Sunday at Nasiriya in south-central Iraq.

CNN: Families hoping for POWs' safety, speedy return