US may release photos of Saddam's dead sons

The US may have to release graphic photos of the bullet-ridden corpses of Saddam Hussein’s sons to convince sceptical Iraqis that they are dead, Bush administration officials said tonight.

Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the Pentagon was considering making public the “shocking” headshots of the men taken after they were killed in a fierce gun battle in northern Iraq yesterday.

Releasing the images was directly connected to the security of US forces as it would help convince doubtful Iraqis that Saddam’s regime was history, he said.

“The main consideration on our minds...is that it is saving the lives of American men and women who are on the line.”

Fear among Iraqis that Saddam and his sons may return to power is believed to have stopped many from coming forward with information about the continued resistance against US and British troops.

But the decision poses a dilemma for the Bush administration after it criticised broadcasters for showing footage of dead and injured US troops during the war.

Mr Wolfowitz’s comments came after the leader of the coalition forces in Iraq said dental records and independent identifications by four former regime officials showed that the two bodies were those of Qusay and Uday.

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also said that the injuries on one of the bodies matched those on X-rays of Uday taken after an assassination attempt crippled him.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed confirmation of the killings as a “very important move forward“.

He said: “These two particular people were at the head of a regime that wasn’t just a security threat because of its weapons programme but was responsible for the torture and killing of thousands and thousands of innocent Iraqis.”

US President George Bush said news of the deaths was proof that “the fallen regime is gone and it will not be coming back“.

He vowed that America would “keep its promise” to destroy every remnant of the toppled dictatorship.

But hopes that the deaths would reduce continued resistance against US forces in Iraq received an early blow today when two American soldiers were killed and eight injured in two separate incidents.

The attacks brought to 155 the number of US soldiers killed in action since the war began on March 20, passing by eight the death toll in the 1991 Gulf War.

Dubai-based al-Arabiya television also broadcast what is said to be a new audiotape message from Saddam Hussein, apparently recorded three days ago, in which he urges the Iraqi people to continue to attack military occupiers.

The bodies of Uday and Qusay have reportedly been taken to Baghdad international airport where they are to be flown out of the country.

They died barricaded in a fortified second-floor section of a villa in the northern city of Mosul.

US special forces and the 101st Airborne Division launched the attack after two attempts to arrest the men were resisted by heavy gunfire which injured four soldiers.

Helicopter gunships, armoured vehicles and ground troops then opened fire on the building.

General Sanchez said Qusay, Uday and “another adult” – reportedly a bodyguard – were probably killed by 10 anti-tank missiles fired from Humvees.

The battle ended when troops stormed up the stairs to the second floor and shot the remaining suspect, believed to be Qusay’s 14-year-old son, Mustafa.

On the streets of Baghdad, where celebratory gunfire broke out after news of the deaths, many residents said they wished American forces had captured the men alive so they could be punished for the horrors they inflicted on Iraq.

“We are happy for this, but we hoped that they would have been captured instead of killed so that they could have been tried by the Iraqi people,” said Jassim Jabar, a 22-year-old tailor.

“I hope Saddam will face the same fate soon.”

General Sanchez defended the decision to kill the suspects, saying they had repeatedly fired on troops trying to enter the home.

“That was the decision made by the commander on the ground and that was right decision. Our mission was find, kill or capture,” he said.

“We had an enemy that was barricaded and we had to take measures to neutralise the target.”

Military officials refused to name the Iraqi informant who led troops to the hideout. The man, who is now in US protective custody, stands to receive the £20 million bounty America put on the heads of Uday and Qusay.

Local reports have suggested that the informant was Nawaf al-Zaydan Muhhamad, the owner of the hideout and a cousin of Saddam.

Saddam’s sons were numbers two and three on America’s 55-strong “most wanted Iraqis” list. Their father remains at large.

General Sanchez said that the number 11 on the list – the commander of Saddam’s Special Republican Guard, Barzan Abd al-Ghafur al-Tikriti – had now been captured.