The move was seen as an attempt by Washington to diminish attacks against its occupation forces and win support of many war skeptics.

At least five photographs showing two bloodied and bruised corpses were handed out on compact discs to photographers by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority occupying Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two photos were said to be of Saddam's younger son and heir apparent Qusay, two of the feared eldest son Uday, while a fifth was an alleged X-ray of Uday's leg, which was badly injured in a 1996 attempt on his life.

One photograph, said to be of Qusay, showed him lying in a plastic body bag that has been opened at the top.

The dead man has a heavy beard and the face is heavily bloodied.

Uday

Another photo, reported to be of Uday, showed a face splattered with blood from a wound to the nose and upper lip.

The BBC News Online said a photo said to be of Uday shows a bearded man with a scar or discoloration running along his face - which might support some claims that he tried to take his own life or did take his own life rather than be captured.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led civil authority in Iraq said that journalists would be allowed to film the bodies for themselves on Friday to dispel any doubts the photographs were authentic.

Former Iraqi military intelligence chief Wafiq Al-Samra’y told Al-Jazeera TV channel that the garbled pictures undermined verifying their authenticity.

"The photos are by no means as clear," as to judge they are of the former leader’s two sons, he averred.

Iraqi political analyst Zafer el-Ani, for his part, told the Qatar-based Arab channel he was convinced the photos belonged to Saddam’s sons.

He asserted that the bodies, which were in a battered state, indicate that the two fought hard to the very end, which undermine earlier reports they were ready to surrender.

After the Arab channel Al-Jazeera aired a video tape of the bodies wearing bloodstained camouflage uniforms and some appeared to have bullet wounds to the head, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the move was a violation of the Geneva conventions.

IOL correspondent in Baghdad noted that after the photos were showed on TV channels signs of jubilation by Iraqis were fewer compared to those reported after the American confirmation of the duo death.

Although almost certain the ousted regime would never return to the help of power in the war-ravaged country, Iraqis started posting numerous questions about the circumstances surrounding the killing of Saddam’s sons.

An increasing number of Iraqis now see the American operation as "a premeditated assassination," recalling that some 200 U.S. soldiers back by helicopter gunships were amassed to battle four persons with small arms.

They were also unable to swallow reports that Uday and Qusay were hiding together, taking into account the well-known differences between them which always made Saddam keen on keeping them apart.

Most Iraqis also wondered why Saddam’s sons, who lived all their lives under heavy guard, would holed up inside such an exposed house they had frequented over the past few years.

In a related development, a group pledging allegiance to Saddam vowed avenge the killing of his sons.

"We pledge to you Iraqi people that we will continue in the jihad against the infidels. The killing of Uday and Qusay will be avenged," said one of a group of hooded gunmen in a videotape broadcast by Al-Arabiya television network Thursday.

"The occupation forces said the killing of Uday and Qusay will reduce attacks ... We tell them it will increase attacks," he said.

The group, flanked by assault rifles and rocked-propelled grenades, said they were members of "Saddam's Fedayeen" in the province of Al-Anbar, west of Baghdad, where U.S. forces have repeatedly come under attacks.

The speaker dated the videotape Tuesday, July 22, the same day of the American raid on the Mosul house.

This raised questions among some observers who recalled that until late Tuesday, the U.S.-led forces had not confirmed that the two bodies belonged to Saddam's sons.