The victim of the Rottingdean blaze was a grandmother who survived Saddam's Iraqi regime, it has emerged.

Pauline Knowles-Samarraie was found dead in the bungalow of her son-in-law Mohammad Soboh, 40, who is still being questioned by police on suspicion of murder.

Mrs Knowles-Samarraie, 71, whose Iraqi husband was murdered by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, died of a head injury.

Detectives are still working to discover exactly what killed her and how the blaze started.

Mrs Knowles-Samarraie was originally from Yorkshire where she met her Iraqi husband.

She followed him to Baghdad, where he became deputy minister for oil in Saddam Hussein's regime.

Firefighters were called to Grand Crescent, Rottingdean, at 1.30pm on Wednesday.

A fire had broken out in the kitchen of the home shared by Mr Soboh, Mrs Knowles-Samarraie's daughter Nada, 43, and their four children.

The fire service called police after they discovered Mrs Knowles-Samarraie's body inside.

Mr Soboh was treated for smoke inhalation.

Neighbours described seeing him slumped in the street wearing an oxygen mask and being tended to by a firefighter.

He was taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital and was later arrested on suspicion of murdering his mother-in-law.

A post mortem examination on Mrs Knowles-Samarraie's body was held at Woodvale Crematorium yesterday.

Police confirmed she had died of head injuries but said more work would be needed to find out how they were caused.

They said they would be unable to formally identify her body until more forensic tests had taken place.

Ms Soboh and the children are understood to be staying with friends.

Scenes of crime officers and fire investigators were working at the bungalow yesterday by but no information has been released about the cause of the fire.

Mrs Knowles-Samarraie was originally from Yorkshire where she met her Iraqi husband.

She followed him to Baghdad, where he became deputy minister for oil in Saddam Hussein's regime.

In her memoir, 'I Never Said Goodbye: A Mother's Memoir Of Love and Brutal Loss Inside Saddam's Regime', Mrs Knowles-Samarraie described the moment she first met the notorious dictator.

She wrote: "His stare was so penetrating, so focused I had to drop my gaze."

As Saddam purged his government of enemies, the couple became more and more fearful.

She fled the country with their daughter, Nada, in 1984.

Her husband, Munem, and son Mazin, then 24, stayed behind.

She later learned they had both been executed.

Mrs Knowles-Samarraie moved to Florida before returning to England and settling in Rottingdean.

Nada and Mr Soboh later moved to the village from Jordan, where he was born.

They lived in Lansdowne Road, Hove, in the late 1990s.

Mr Soboh bought the £335,000 bungalow in Grand Crescent in December 2003.

He and Nada, now 43, lived there with their four-month-old baby, a son and a daughter both aged under five and a teenage son.

They ran The Windmill Dry Cleaners between 2005 and 2007.

Neighbour Venetia Campbell, 49, said she saw Mr Soboh in the street on Wednesday morning.

She said: "He was looking cheerful and I waved. They were always very friendly."

Anyone with information about the incident should call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.