U.S. Troops Find Bones at Saddam Bomb Site

Reuters ^ | Wednesday, June 04, 2003 12:46 p.m | Andrew Marshall

[epluribus_2]

... Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a more thorough search of the site in the upscale Mansur neighborhood of Baghdad had begun after intelligence reports suggested human remains were buried under the rubble. ...

[epluribus_2]

tick...tick...tick... (watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam (and Osama's) fate become methodically known and the WMD program details come together with Carl Rove Flair - wait - not yet - wait - wait - NOW!)

[b4its2late]

U.S. Troops Find Bones at Saddam Bomb Site

Wednesday, June 04, 2003 12:46 p.m. ET

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops dug bones from a Baghdad bomb site Wednesday after launching a fresh search to see whether Saddam Hussein and his sons survived a bid to kill them in April with bunker-busting bombs.

Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a more thorough search of the site in the upscale Mansur neighborhood of Baghdad had begun after intelligence reports suggested human remains were buried under the rubble.

"You can imagine that if we have an intel lead that possibly there was somebody like Saddam Hussein in that location, we exploit it," he told a news conference in Baghdad. "That's what we're doing."

Gen. Tommy Franks, who commanded the war against Iraq, said in April that U.S.-led forces had DNA of the former Iraqi leader and it would be used to check whether attempts to kill him had succeeded. He gave no details about how it was obtained or authenticated.

Dust hung in the air at the bomb site as troops used bulldozers and cranes to haul debris onto trucks, which took it away for forensic examination.

"We are meticulously searching the rubble and we have found some skeletal remains," said a U.S. private at the site.

Locals in Mansur say several civilians died in the bombing, and some bodies have not yet been recovered.

Exactly eight weeks after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, the fate of Saddam and his sons Qusay and Uday remains a mystery.

Several houses in Mansur were destroyed on April 7 when U.S. planes dropped four 2,000-pound "bunker-buster" bombs after receiving reports that Saddam and his sons were meeting in a building in the area.

But a number of sightings of Saddam were reported after the air strike on Mansur. In particular, many Iraqis said they saw him near a mosque in the Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to the Americans.

Video footage of Saddam, said to have been shot near the mosque on April 9, has also circulated.

McKiernan said more effort was needed to search the site for evidence on whether Saddam had been killed.

"We did this initially, but perhaps I did not do it in great enough detail, and so we are sending some additional assets into that area to look at it," he said.

McKiernan said he blamed "regime-connected or Baath party remnants" for a series of attacks that have killed and injured several U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and the surrounding provinces in the last few weeks. But he said there was no sign that the attacks were being coordinated by former Iraqi leaders.

"I do not see any pattern of any centralised command and control in these attacks," he said. "I believe these are localized, decentralized attacks by those who were part of the old regime and will not be part of the new regime."

He said removing the rubble from the bomb site could take two weeks, and the forensic tests even longer.

"It's a big hole," he said. "There's a lot of rubble to go through."

[Carolina]

"We are meticulously searching the rubble and we have found some skeletal remains," said a U.S. private at the site.

[epluribus_2]

didn't know it was okeydokey to post the whole article... anyone know what the "sensitive" news sites are?

[Dog]

Hi Carolina!

we have found some skeletal remains

Sounds like they found more then a few bones..

[Grampa Dave]

Is this one of the sites where a left wing news service said that there were no signs of a bunker after the bombing?

[C210N]

watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam... fate become methodically known

May not matter. The left will conjure up an image of a limbless Saddam, with limbless sons, directing a growing resistance to Coalition forces, willing to bite us and give violent head nudges against our feet.

[Principled]

washington compost, la slimes AFAIO

[kellynla]

It's DNA time...wouldn't it be sweet if some of the bones belonged to Sadass...

[Carolina]

Hey, Dog!

Sounds like they found more then a few bones..

Very interesting....

[af_vet_1981]

tick...tick...tick... (watch the left completely dissolve when the details of Saddam (and Osama's) fate become methodically known and the WMD program details come together with Carl Rove Flair - wait - not yet - wait - wait - NOW!)

You imply the WH is deliberately withholding information for political reasons.

[PoorMuttly]

"...somebody like Saddam Hussein in that location, we explo...uh...exploit it."

Can Muttly have dibs on any "extra" Royal Family bones ?

It's O.K. if you're a different species, y'know. As long as they're not typing-dog bones...

...then on the other paw...

[dighton]

Related Publications in the LAT/WP vs Free Republic Settlement Agreement

[Dog]

LOL!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

They found Chandra!

[jriemer]

Look at all the bones!

[twigs]

Col. Hunt on FNC said this AM that his intelligence sources say that SH and his sons may well be dead in that rubble. I'm not sure what to think.

[don'tbedenied]

"You imply the WH is deliberately withholding information for political reasons"

Well duh!

[Howlin]

I bet it's him.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think the failure of the US to find Saddam proves that he never existed. Intelligence reports indicating the existance of Saddam Hussein were hyped. If he existed we would have found him by now.