Centcom: Uday's Olympic office bombed

Coalition aircraft have bombed a complex that serves as the office of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee and, according to critics of the Iraqi president, a torture centre run by Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Uday, the US military said today.

“Coalition aircraft used precision-guided munitions to target a regime office complex in eastern Baghdad,” a US Central Command statement said.

The attack on the office of the Olympic Committee, which Uday heads, happened at 10.30pm last night.

“The strike was executed to erode the command and control capabilities of regime leaders,” the statement added.

Centcom said the complex also housed Iraq’s Ministry of Youth.

The extent of damage was still being assessed.

Critics of Saddam have campaigned to have Iraq thrown out of the International Olympic Movement because of widespread allegations that Uday Saddam Hussein had tortured his own country’s athletes and used the Olympic centre as a site for torturing both athletes and others.

Iraq had repeatedly denied such allegations.

In January, an official from the International Olympic Committee said it was investigating the allegations.

Last year, the London-based human rights group Indict demanded the IOC expel the Iraqi Olympic Committee from its ranks.

Citing witness statements by exiled Iraqi athletes and United Nations reports, Indict claimed Uday once made a group of track athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were beaten, and ordered that some be thrown off a bridge.

The group also alleged Uday ran a special prison for sportsmen who offended him.