Saddams’ Betrayer Bags $30m
MOSUL, Iraq, Wednesday - The man whose tip-off led to the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons was Wednesday under American protection, apparently with a 30-million-dollar bounty under his belt, the US military said.
MOSUL, Iraq, Wednesday - The man whose tip-off led to the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons was Wednesday under American protection, apparently with a 30-million-dollar bounty under his belt, the US military said.
The US says it has near-perfect dental ID on Saddam sons. Dental records as well as X-rays and visual identification by four former aides made US forces certain that they had killed Saddam Hussein’s sons, the commander of US troops in Iraq said on Wednesday.
Younger son Qusay’s body provided a 100-percent match with dental records and his brother Uday’s a 90-percent match due to damage to the teeth. X-ray records of Uday’s injuries in a 1996 assassination attempt also bolstered the conclusion that the men died in a shootout with US troops on Tuesday.
Colonel Joe Anderson said the informant was under protection but declined to confirm local suspicions that he was tribal chief Nawaf Mohammed al-Zaidan, owner of the mansion where Uday and Qusay Hussein made their last desperate stand.
“He is in US custody. We’re protecting him,†the colonel told AFP.
Anderson added that he thought the informant had received the 15-million-dollar bounties placed on the heads of each of Saddam’s two sons by the US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
A neighbour of Zaidan told AFP he witnessed Tuesday’s operation, which started with US soldiers knocking on the door and ended several hours later with missiles crashing into the building, killing the four defenders inside.
But first, the American troops brought out the wealthy sheikh together with his son, Kefar Mahmud said. Then they used loudspeakers to call for those left inside to surrender.
That was when the occupants opened fire, sparking the battle.
Two platoons of the elite assault force along with special forces were involved in the battle.
“They asked the people to get out of the house. The response was bullets,†said Anderson, commander of the 101st Airborne’s second brigade combat team.
And then the fireworks started, pitting the American forces against Qusay, the heir apparent to Saddam, and Uday, the ousted regime’s hot-headed wild child.
The soldiers fired about a dozen heat-seeking TOW missiles, Anderson said.
Six hours after the knocking on the door, four charred bodies were removed and two of them positively identified as Uday and Qusay, before being transferred to Baghdad airport, the army said. Four US soldiers were wounded. The other two were said to have been Qusay’s teenage son Mustafa, and a bodyguard named Abdul Samad.
Iraq’s fledgling Governing Council yesterday described the killing of Saddam Hussein’s two sons, describing their deaths as “God’s justice.†“God’s justice was finally achieved with the deaths of the two criminals Uday and Qusay,†the 25-member council said in a statement.
A female relative of Zaidan, and another neighbour, Ahmed Habel, both said they believed Zaidan tipped off the Americans.
Zaidan was arrested without his hands bound and “seemed to be well treated by the soldiers,†said Habel, adding that Zaidan’s tribe was linked to Saddam Hussein’s family, explaining why Uday and Qusay had sought refuge with him. The two sons were listed as numbers two and three on the US list. Saddam is number one and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Another neighbour, retired army general Ali Jajawi, quoted in the same paper, said that Zaidan and son Shahlan were seen in American vehicles before the raid.
People asked him what had happened and he told them Uday and Qusay were inside the house. He had gone to bring breakfast for them, he said, and the Americans arrested him.
Yesterday, a crowd of onlookers were gathered outside Zaidan’s enormous two-storey home, behind barbed wire erected by around 50 US soldiers.
In another success, US forces yesterday captured the commander of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, number 11 on a list of Washington’s 55 most wanted Iraqis, the commander of US forces in Iraq said.
Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez did not identify the person who was taken into custody by name, referring only to hisnumber on the list.
But a Central Command statement later identified the person as Barzan Abd Al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid Al-Tikriti, Saddam’s Special Republican Guard Commander.
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The US says it has near-perfect dental ID on Saddam sons. Dental records as well as X-rays and visual identification by four former aides made US forces certain that they had killed Saddam Hussein’s sons, the commander of US troops in Iraq said on Wednesday.
Younger son Qusay’s body provided a 100-percent match with dental records and his brother Uday’s a 90-percent match due to damage to the teeth. X-ray records of Uday’s injuries in a 1996 assassination attempt also bolstered the conclusion that the men died in a shootout with US troops on Tuesday.
Colonel Joe Anderson said the informant was under protection but declined to confirm local suspicions that he was tribal chief Nawaf Mohammed al-Zaidan, owner of the mansion where Uday and Qusay Hussein made their last desperate stand.
“He is in US custody. We’re protecting him,†the colonel told AFP.
Anderson added that he thought the informant had received the 15-million-dollar bounties placed on the heads of each of Saddam’s two sons by the US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
A neighbour of Zaidan told AFP he witnessed Tuesday’s operation, which started with US soldiers knocking on the door and ended several hours later with missiles crashing into the building, killing the four defenders inside.
But first, the American troops brought out the wealthy sheikh together with his son, Kefar Mahmud said. Then they used loudspeakers to call for those left inside to surrender.
That was when the occupants opened fire, sparking the battle.
Two platoons of the elite assault force along with special forces were involved in the battle.
“They asked the people to get out of the house. The response was bullets,†said Anderson, commander of the 101st Airborne’s second brigade combat team.
And then the fireworks started, pitting the American forces against Qusay, the heir apparent to Saddam, and Uday, the ousted regime’s hot-headed wild child.
The soldiers fired about a dozen heat-seeking TOW missiles, Anderson said.
Six hours after the knocking on the door, four charred bodies were removed and two of them positively identified as Uday and Qusay, before being transferred to Baghdad airport, the army said. Four US soldiers were wounded. The other two were said to have been Qusay’s teenage son Mustafa, and a bodyguard named Abdul Samad.
Iraq’s fledgling Governing Council yesterday described the killing of Saddam Hussein’s two sons, describing their deaths as “God’s justice.†“God’s justice was finally achieved with the deaths of the two criminals Uday and Qusay,†the 25-member council said in a statement.
A female relative of Zaidan, and another neighbour, Ahmed Habel, both said they believed Zaidan tipped off the Americans.
Zaidan was arrested without his hands bound and “seemed to be well treated by the soldiers,†said Habel, adding that Zaidan’s tribe was linked to Saddam Hussein’s family, explaining why Uday and Qusay had sought refuge with him. The two sons were listed as numbers two and three on the US list. Saddam is number one and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Another neighbour, retired army general Ali Jajawi, quoted in the same paper, said that Zaidan and son Shahlan were seen in American vehicles before the raid.
People asked him what had happened and he told them Uday and Qusay were inside the house. He had gone to bring breakfast for them, he said, and the Americans arrested him.
Yesterday, a crowd of onlookers were gathered outside Zaidan’s enormous two-storey home, behind barbed wire erected by around 50 US soldiers.
In another success, US forces yesterday captured the commander of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, number 11 on a list of Washington’s 55 most wanted Iraqis, the commander of US forces in Iraq said.
Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez did not identify the person who was taken into custody by name, referring only to hisnumber on the list.
But a Central Command statement later identified the person as Barzan Abd Al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid Al-Tikriti, Saddam’s Special Republican Guard Commander.
Ends