Saddam sons ‘killed’ in raid
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that he could not confirm reports that Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay had been killed in the raid.
McClellan said he was “not in a position to confirm”, the reports that the two are among the four killed.
Also yesterday, a US soldier was killed and another injured in an ambush along a dangerous road north of Baghdad in the so-called “Sunni Triangle,” a centre of anti-American resistance.
In the northern city of Mosul, troops from the 101st Airborne Division traded fire with gunmen holed up in a house belonging to a cousin of Saddam who is a key tribal leader in the region. Mosul residents claimed US soldiers were searching for Saddam’s sons Qusai and Udai, said reports from the scene.
The US military, reporting communications problems, said it had no information yet on the fighting in Mosul, 280 miles north of Baghdad.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was apprehended in the fight or how the house burned. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for information leading to Saddam’s capture and $15m each for his sons.
The soldier’s death in yesterday’s ambush brought to 153 the number of US troops killed in action since the start of the war on March 20, six more than during the 1991 Gulf War. US Central Command in Florida said the attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in the assault staged along the road between Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, and Ramadi, 60 miles west of the capital. It gave no other details. Both towns lie within the “Sunni Triangle,” home to much of the remaining support for Saddam, a Sunni Muslim who used his Baathist Party to oppress the country’s Shiite Muslim majority.
The US-led coalition’s military occupation of Iraq has been met by constant armed Iraqi resistance, resulting in almost daily deaths of American troops. Many recent assaults have been staged with remote-controlled roadside explosions.
Also yesterday, seeking to ease fears among exporters to Iraq, the US occupation administration announced it was setting up a trading bank to guarantee payment for imported goods and services, especially food and materials needed in reconstruction.
The US administration said it established the bank “to bolster confidence between trading partners that funds will be received in exchange for goods delivered.” The new Trade Bank of Iraq, the coalition civilian administration said, will have a pool of $100m to draw from, with an initial capitalisation of $5m. The money to support the bank comes from the $1.2bn Development Fund for Iraq set up by the US with UN approval of the American occupation plan. It is hoped the new bank will expedite the purchase of materials needed for rebuilding Iraq, including power generators, sewage pipes and oil field equipment.
Meanwhile, the commander of allied forces in Iraq, General John Abizaid, met with senior Kuwaiti officials yesterday.
