U.S. forces allowed press cameramen to film the dead bodies

By Subhy Haddad, IOL Baghdad Correspondent

BAGHDAD, July 31 (IslamOnline.net) – A week after U.S. forces displayed what was said to be their bodies and ousted president Saddam Hussein celebrated their death as "martyrs", some Iraqis are still skeptical Uday and Qusay are dead and even those convinced wonder why the duo were "killed" not captured.

Abu Alaa, a taxi driver, told IslamOnline.net he – like many Iraqis – is still puzzled why America’s elite 101 Airborne Division soldiers decided to finish Ouday and Qusay off rather than boast capturing them.

"The United States killed with the Hussein brothers their secrets," he suspected.

Another Iraqi, Eng. Shehab Al-Qissy, described the whole thing as a fake and unconvincing theatrical show by the American intelligence.

"Could not this huge force (some 200 soldiers) have broken into the cordoned off  house and arrested them alive and show them to the Iraqis instead of displaying waxed statues," he asked.

Qissay told IOL that the Americans have done Saddam a valuable favor by showing faked pictures of his sons thus enabling him to glorify them as "martyrs"  who fought the invaders until the last breath.

Commenting on the tape, purportedly recorded by Saddam, Eng. Sanan Shaker noted "the voice carried no sense of grievance over the alleged death of the sons which indicates Saddam capitalized on this golden opportunity to spare Uday and Qusay any future danger."

For Mohamed Fayyad Al-Deleimi, a former employee in the Iraqi Military Industrialization Authority, Saddam’s sons are most likely alive and well enjoying their time in Russia.

In an interview with IOL, the man accused the entire Saddam family of being agents to the U.S.

Uday

An Iraqi citizen, Abdel-Sattar Al-Essawy, interviewed by IOL correspondent relayed a rather more dazzling story.

He said that U.S. forces who raided a house of Amer el-Hadethi, a former secretary of Uday, in Baghdad on Tuesday, July 29, said they rather searching for Uday himself.

Essawy, whose family owns a house next to Hadethi’s, said "after U.S. soldiers completed the three-hour search of the house, my brother asked them through a translator what they are seeking for, to be answered 'Uday'."

"You mean the same Uday you released his pictures in deathbed," asked the dumbfounded brother, to be rebuffed with "Non of your damn business".

U.S. army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told reporters on July 22, Ouday and Qusay were killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after a ferocious six-hour gunbattle in which the U.S. soldiers were backed by tanks and apache helicopter gunships.

Washington then allowed TV stations to film the bodies, with the hope their deaths would slash down rising attacks against American troops.

Famed British journalist Robert Fisk said on July 23 that the killing of Qusay, Uday and even the much-hoped of Saddam himself would only give momentum to the Iraqi resistance in the days ahead.