Saddam's sons: Anger over US clean-up of the bodies

US occupation authorities took the apparent gamble of cleaning up the appearance of the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons in a bid to convince sceptical Iraqis that Uday and Qusay are really dead.

With morticians’ make-up, patches of hair sprouting from their scalps, the bodies showed a marked contrast to the autopsy-style photographs shown publicly the day before. It was an attempt to recreate the appearance of the brothers when they were alive.

Gone were the thick beards from both men and a gash from the face of the body identified as Uday.

Meanwhile, the hunt for their father intensified today with the arrests of 13 men believed to include some of Saddam’s bodyguards in a raid near the former leader’s hometown, Tikrit.

“We continue to tighten the noose,” said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division. U.S. officials have expressed hope that the killings of Uday and Qusay would weaken the anti-US resistance and lead coalition forces to Saddam himself.

Arab satellite media and CNN broadcast images of the bodies throughout Iraq and the Arab world.

Coalition authorities may have produced more convincing evidence but they have also offended Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere by altering the bodies and delaying burial.

“Showing dead and deformed bodies on TV is not acceptable,” said Amer Ahmed al-Azawi, a 55-year-old Baghdad merchant. “But the Americans are criminals and unbelievers. We got rid of one tyrant and we ended up with a bigger one.”

Hamza Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front in neighbouring Jordan, said the display violated Islamic custom.

“The bodies of Uday and Qusay should have been washed, shrouded and buried immediately, but the Americans have no respect for our traditions and doctrine and they acted in a very unethical manner,” he said.

U.S. officials say Uday, 39, and Qusay, 37, were killed on Tuesday in a gunbattle with US troops, who raided a villa in the northern city of Mosul, after a tip-off by an Iraqi. Two other Iraqis in the house also were killed, apparently a bodyguard and Qusay’s teenage son Mustafa.

The raid near Tikrit came on Thursday night after U.S. troops again received a tip from an Iraqi, Odierno said.

Five to 10 of the 13 people captured were believed to be members of Saddam’s personal security detail, he said, adding that it was too early to tell if the guards had been with the deposed Iraqi leader recently or could help lead Americans to him.

US forces also have questioned one of Saddam’s two wives, he said.

Their faces were reconstructed by morticians and medical personnel, a common practice in the West and not a bid to fool Iraqis, according to a doctor involved in the autopsy, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. civilian administration in Baghdad called the showing unprecedented. It drew camera crews from Arab satellite broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, as well as the coalition-linked Iraqi Media Network.

There were apparently no plans for a public display of the bodies, but members of the US -appointed Governing Council of prominent Iraqis had been there Thursday. Four former members of the ousted regime identified the bodies on Wednesday.

The viewing was a grisly affair. Where the Thursday photographs showed a long gash down the face of the man said to be Uday, reconstruction made him appear unblemished but pale. His beard was reduced to the permanent shadow for which he was known.

The beard of the corpse said to be Qusay was shaved, leaving only the familiar moustache seen in most pictures. Both men’s eyes were closed, lips pursed.

The rest of their bodies were a maze of bullet holes – more than 20 each - severe burns, black-and-blue bruises and scars from previous surgeries. Their chests had been opened, but sutured back in a neat, Y-shape. Their genitals were covered with blue surgical cloths.

Doctors said Qusay had two bullet wounds to his head, but said those were likely from the barrage fired into the villa in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad.

“We do not believe he killed himself,” one of them said.

Odai was killed when debris struck his head with extreme force, resulting in the gash, officials said. He had no bullet wounds to his head.

There was an incision on the left leg of the man said to be Odai where doctors removed a plate that had been inserted after a 1996 assassination attempt. The plate, still attached to the bone, lay wrapped in a plastic bag, sawed from the leg. The leg was limp, the foot at an odd angle.

Military medical personnel, including doctors, forensic experts and morticians, said they had examined every part of the corpses, combing the bodies for details that could confirm they were whom U.S. officials said they were.

Using dental records, seized from unknown locations, that go back 15 years, medical records and the serial and model number of the steel plate in the left leg, they said they were sure the men were Saddam’s sons.

All that remains now, they said, are the final results of the DNA testing being done at a military lab in Washington, which could be completed as soon as next week. A final report on the deaths is expected in about six weeks.

Doctors said the bodies would remain at the morgue, kept in refrigerated storage, until a family member claims them.