BAGHDAD, 26 July 2003 — Striving to convince fearful Iraqis that Saddam Hussein’s sons are dead, US officials showed journalists two bodies yesterday that Washington says it is certain are those of Uday and Qusay.
Unlike grisly, blood spattered photographs published by the US forces earlier, the faces had been touched up and shaved to make them more closely resemble the brothers in life.
A US official insisted the aim was not to deceive. But Iraqis, brought up in a culture of conspiracy theory, were divided on the identity of the resulting waxy corpses.
The noose may be tightening on Saddam himself, US forces said, after they rounded up several men near his home town of Tikrit whom they suspected of belonging to his bodyguard. “I believe that we continue to tighten the noose,” said 4th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno. Saddam has a $25 million price on his head.
Some 15 journalists saw two bodies, almost naked and ridden with bullet and shrapnel wounds, laid out in a tented military mortuary. They did look like the two brothers, whom US troops said they killed in a raid in Mosul on Tuesday.
The face of Uday, 39, had been repaired. The US pictures had shown wounds that officers said he suffered in the siege of a villa in the northern city, where he and his younger brother went down fighting an overwhelming, rocket-firing US force.
“The two bodies have undergone facial reconstruction with morticians’ putty to make them resemble as closely as possible the faces of the brothers when they were alive,” a US military official said. He called it standard practice, although such post-mortem work is frowned on by most Muslims.
It is not clear what will eventually happen to the bodies.
Washington stresses that it has conclusive proof of the identities based on dental and medical records, as well as visual testimony from four senior aides to Saddam’s family.
Officials said they matched the serial number on a plate implanted in Uday’s leg after a 1996 assassination attempt.
Qusay’s beard, visible in the US photographs, had been shaved but the moustache he normally wore had been left.
The gaping wound in Uday’s face, visible in the pictures, was gone but a hole in the top of his head was still visible. US officials said they had ruled out earlier speculation that he might have shot himself in the head to avoid capture. Many Iraqis, brought up on official lies and mistrustful of their American occupiers, were unconvinced.
At a Baghdad coffee shop, men smoking a water pipe as they watched the grim film on television, were in two minds.
“These are not Uday and Qusay. It doesn’t look like them at all,” grumbled Hussein Abed. But his friend Mohammed Ali Salman disagreed: “No, it’s true. These are Uday and Qusay. I am so glad we have got rid of them. We now hope we will live in safety.”
Politicians associated with the governing council, a US-appointed interim body, also endorsed the identification after they were taken to view the bodies on Thursday.
“There is no doubt that the two bodies are those of Uday and Qusay,” said Nabeil Al-Musawi of the Iraqi National Congress, a former exile group backed by Washington. Though he had never met the brothers, colleagues who knew them agreed.
— With input from Agencies
