The Toronto Star July 23, 2003
Saddam sons slain
Uday, Qusay die in fierce firefight Raid buoys demoralized U.S. soldiers
By Tim Harper
Uday, Qusay die in gunfight
U.S. troops, acting on a tip, stormed a private villa in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, killing Saddam Hussein's sons in a fierce six-hour firefight.
The deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein, two of the most feared figures in their father's ousted regime, represent a major breakthrough for U.S. troops in Iraq, providing at least a temporary buoy to the spirits of demoralized soldiers.
It also provides a needed boost to President George W. Bush who is facing daily attacks over both his rationale for the Iraqi invasion and his apparent inability to stem U.S. casualties in a country where Washington cannot assert control.
However, the breather on both the military and political fronts could be short-lived because analysts were split on whether the death of the sons would mean the guerrilla war against Americans would subside or intensify.
Gunfire was reported in Baghdad last night, but U.S. officials called it "celebratory," reacting to the news of the deaths of the Hussein brothers.
Uday, 39, described as sadistic, hedonistic and erratic, was the more dreaded of the two and led the powerful and notorious Fedayeen fighters.
But it was Qusay, 37, the onetime head of the elite Republican Guard who had emerged as the heir-apparent to Saddam. His father apparently regarded him as equally ruthless, but more stable.
The U.S. had put a $15 million bounty on the sons and it will likely pay as much as $30 million to an informant who reportedly walked into the U.S. Centcom headquarters Monday evening and provided the tip on where the two were staying, in a region near the Syrian border.
"This is a great day for the new Iraq," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on a visit to Hong Kong. "It is a very, very important move forward and I think it is great news," he said.
Although Bush and his senior officials have stated it would be more difficult to contain Iraqi resistance if Saddam and his sons remained at large, there is no definitive proof that attacks on Americans were being orchestrated by the sons or whether they are symptomatic of widespread resentment toward the occupying force.
L. Paul Bremer, Iraq's civilian administrator appointed by Bush, said in Washington that he thought the deaths of Uday and Qusay would bring American forces closer to the killing or capture of Saddam.
"I hope this will encourage other Iraqis to come forward now," he said. "I've said all along it's only a matter of time before we find Saddam Hussein and I hope that day is a day earlier."
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, confirmed the deaths of the two men last night.
Sanchez said in Baghdad the bodies of the two men were identified by multiple sources and more proof would be provided to skeptical Iraqis at a news conference today.
"I believe this will prove to the Iraqi people that these two members of the regime, at least, will not be coming back into power," Sanchez said.
"That is what we have stated over and over again. We remain totally committed to the Saddam regime never returning to power and tormenting the Iraqi people."
Sanchez said the U.S. 101st Airborne regiment, backed by a helicopter gunship, approached the home, believed to be owned by a cousin of Saddam, and were immediately met by small arms fire. He said four people in the home resisted efforts to apprehend them and they were killed in the ensuing gunfight.
The other two bodies were believed to be the teenage son of Qusay and a bodyguard.
U.S. troops were still sifting through the site of the battle yesterday, looking for any information on the whereabouts of Saddam, their ultimate target. A raid on a home in Ishaky on Monday failed to turn up any trace of the ousted dictator.
Four American soldiers were wounded in yesterday's shootout, Sanchez said.
A defence official said that when U.S. troops entered the home's ground floor, they almost immediately came under fire from the four people holed up in the second floor, which had been hardened against attack with bulletproof glass.
The U.S. soldiers then called in an Apache attack helicopter, which fired several missiles into the building.
The villa, in the al-Falah neighbourhood, was left charred and smouldering, its high facade riddled with gaping holes from bullets and heavy weaponry. Two adjacent homes were damaged.
Neither Bush nor his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, reacted publicly, but the White House issued a statement.
"We were pleased to learn from the department of defence of (yesterday's) action against Uday and Qusay Hussein," it said. "Over the period of many years, these two individuals were responsible for countless atrocities committed against the Iraqi people and they can no longer cast a shadow of hate on Iraq."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed those remarks.
"I was pleased to learn that these two brutal members of Saddam's regime are no longer a threat," Powell said. "The Iraqi people are safer today. We will pursue the other members of his murderous regime wherever they might be hiding."
The White House said much work remains to be done in Iraq but yesterday's killing of Saddam's sons showed progress was being made by U.S. forces.
"It was a good day for the White House," said John Pike, a military analyst with GlobalSecurity.org. "In some respects, it is more important to get the sons rather than the father to ensure there is no succession."
But, Pike said, until it is conclusively determined who has been orchestrating the guerrilla attacks on Americans, it is too early to determine whether the killings will make it easier for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.
Even on the day in which they killed Nos. 2 and 3 on the list of 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's former regime, another American was killed in Iraq yesterday, bringing to 94 the number of U.S. soldiers killed since Bush declared major combat over May 1. Of that total, 39 perished from what the Pentagon calls hostile fire.
Hours later, celebratory gunfire erupted in Baghdad. But a unit of the Florida Army National Guard, believing it was coming under fire from 30 metres away, shot a man twice in the chest and a girl in the head. As the unit retreated under orders, the girl was taken to a hospital in a passing car.
Qusay was the more deferential son, always showing Saddam great respect in public. He often oversaw the arbitrary killings of prisoners who were murdered to alleviate overcrowding in jails and, according to human rights reports, he also supervised so-called "shredder killings" in which victims were dumped into shredding machines, some feet first, to die a painful death.
Uday, the more flamboyant, was the former head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and was known to have brutally beaten and tortured soccer players on the national team who did not perform to his standards.
He was also known to have his bodyguards pluck Iraqi women from the street so he could sexually abuse them.
When Uday's compound was discovered by U.S. soldiers after the fall of Baghdad in April, it revealed a storehouse of expensive liquor and drugs - both prescription and illicit. Uday also had his own zoo, housing lions (since sent to South Africa), cheetahs and a bear.
He incensed his father in 1988 when he killed Saddam's food taster and in 1995 when he used an AK-47 assault rifle to wound his uncle Watban Ibrahim and kill several others to end a ruthless power struggle.
In 1996, Uday survived an attempt on his life, taking eight bullets from assassins who surrounded his cars. One bullet remained lodged in his spine and he walked with the aid of a cane.
GRAPHIC: STEFANO RELLANDINI/Reuters Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division check a car parked in front of a home which U.S. forces stormed in Mosul yesterday. Four U.S. soldiers were wounded as they traded fire with gunmen holed up in a house belonging to a cousin of Saddam Hussein.
© Copyright 2003, Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
