BAGHDAD, 1 August 2003 — The US-led authority in Iraq said yesterday it was working on burial arrangements for Saddam Hussein’s two sons more than a week after they were killed by US troops in the northern city of Mosul. “Uday and Qusay are still being looked after by the coalition authority,” a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority told reporters.
“We are holding very wide consultations with religious leaders, tribal elders and members of the Governing Council who have given us advice on how to proceed and we have contacted the relevant authorities and are finalizing plans for their burial.”
Muslim traditions stipulate that the dead must be buried as soon as possible, but the US authorities have said they would hold onto the bodies of Saddam’s sons until their relatives came to claim them. The spokesman said that a number of people in Iraq and abroad had offered to take the bodies. “But we are very aware that we are the foreigners here and we’re not in a position to decide who gets these remains,” he explained.
The United States does not want the graves of Uday and Qusay to become a shrine for pro-Saddam Iraqis, but the CPA spokesman declined to give details about the negotiations on their burial. Saddam’s dreaded sons were killed in a US raid almost 10 days ago. In a bid to convince Iraqis that they had actually died, the US military published post-mortem pictures and invited a group of journalists to view the bullet-scarred and shrapnel-ridden bodies.
Meanwhile, US forces in charge of one of Iraq’s most restive regions told tribal elders yesterday they would offer a reward of $500 to any Iraqis who hand in shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. At the first meeting of the governing council of Anbar province, a swathe of western Iraq that includes the tense towns of Ramadi and Falluja, Col. David Teeples of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment asked for cooperation in ending guerrilla attacks on US forces in the region.
The regiment oversaw the creation of the regional council, and retains the final say in how the province is run. But it appointed the council of tribal chiefs, clerics and community leaders in a bid to involve locals in decision-making. Ramadi and Falluja are hotspots in the “Sunni triangle” north and west of Baghdad, where many locals openly back deposed leader Saddam Hussein and US forces often come under attack.
Army spokesman Capt. Michael Calvert said troops had found three missiles that had fallen to earth after being fired at US aircraft in two separate attacks. Under an arms control policy introduced two months ago, Iraqis are barred from owning weapons larger than a Kalashnikov assault rifle without a permit, and are obliged to hand over such heavy weapons to police without compensation.
But US troops said the $500 reward for shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles was being offered in Anbar province because of the threat posed by such weapons. The Anbar council has no representative on a 25-member Governing Council appointed earlier this month by the US-led administration in Baghdad to help govern Iraq and oversee a promised transition to democracy and self-rule.
Regional council members said US forces must do more to restore security and basic services — a common demand across Iraq. “Electricity and water are a huge problem and the roads are not safe,” said council member Sobhi Khadlan. “People stop your vehicle on the roads and steal your belongings.”
