Saddam: Bodies too 'shot up' to ID (Details of Operation)

news24 ^ | July 22, 2003 | Staff

[fightinJAG]

Saddam: Bodies too 'shot up' to ID 22/07/2003 21:25 - (SA)

Mosul, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were "very likely" killed on Tuesday when US soldiers stormed a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, US military and Bush administration sources told Fox News.

Sources at the Pentagon and within the Bush administration told Fox News that at least four "high-level" targets were killed inside the house, a large villa that belonged to one of Saddam's cousins. A senior administration official said the US is "90% to 95% certain" that Saddam's sons were among the dead.

Officials said four bodies were transported out of the house. Three were adults - believed to be Odai, Qusai and a bodyguard. The fourth body was of a teenager - possibly Qusai's son.

US officials said there will be DNA testing to confirm the deaths. Senior defense officials said some sort of announcement would be made later Tuesday.

The US government has DNA samples on Saddam's sons, but testing may take time.

'Shot up'

One US official told Fox News that "they were shot up" so much that it is difficult to make a positive identification of the bodies. The United States now plans to talk to people who knew them to identify the bodies and look for distinguishing marks.

The house was burned to the ground after a loud, four-hour gunbattle between the people inside and soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.

Officials told Fox News that they had two pieces of intelligence that directed them toward the house and that "there was some indication that Qusai and Odai were inside".

Residents of the city, 280 miles north of Baghdad, said the American soldiers were searching for Saddam's sons, who have been reported in the area. A reporter from Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera said eyewitnesses told him that Saddam's sons were in the house when it was raided.

"Individuals of very high interest to the coalition forces were hiding out in the building," Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop of the 101st Airborne Division told Reuters.

Fire from building

"This morning we went to the building and surrounded it."

A US soldier involved in the raid told Fox News that US soldiers were fired at by people inside the house as they approached, and the Americans called in helicopters and an unmanned vehicle for assistance before storming it.

"We received direct fire from the building multiple times. We used a scaled escalation of force," the soldier told Fox News' Steve Centanni at the scene of the firefight.

The soldier said US forces couldn't get into the building because of the small-arms fire they were facing, so "we had to use bigger caliber weapons to render the building safe" - including missiles, helicopters and grenade launchers.

Centanni said the two-story building was "a mess". US forces apparently used all the weapons in their arsenal, and the building, its columns and balconies were pock-marked with bulletholes.

Tunnels

Members of Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, wouldn't who - if anyone - they brought out of the house, but all the troops "have smiles on their faces and they seemed to have carried out this mission successfully", Centanni reported.

There were no US fatalities.

Witnesses in the neighbourhood said there are tunnels below the house. US forces towed away a gray SUV from the side of house.

Mosul was believed to be the exit route for some of Saddam's family members trying to get out of Iraq and flee to Syria.

Fox News military analyst Colonel Bill Cowan said he hoped Saddam's sons had been captured and not killed.

"I think in this case, it'd be great to have them alive," he said.

"I think for the [Iraqi] population to see these two guys shackled, incarcerated and really given some harsh treatment - will have a most profound and long-term psychological advantage."

The United States has offered a $25m reward for information leading to Saddam's capture, and $15m for his sons.

Good intelligence

Cowan added that Saddam's sons might provide good intelligence on their father's whereabouts.

"It appears that good intelligence led to this raid," Retired US Army Major General Paul Valleley, a Fox News military analyst, said. "One event can lead to the other. So hopefully, this will lead to determining in some way where Saddam may be."

In Washington, President Bush's advisers were huddling around during a conference call trying to determine whether Saddam's sons were alive. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has briefed the president personally on the assault.

"He [Bush] will be kept appraised of any updates as they become available," White House spokesperson Scott McClellan told reporters. "The president is aware of the reports and is aware of the military operation that took place today."

Intelligence sources say the US task force - Task Force 20 - was going after high-level targets during the Mosul raid, but they would not say whether the soldiers knew they were going after Odai and Qusai.

'Hit team'

Task Force 20 - including Army delta forces and CIA operatives - was originally given the responsibility of finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but later it was ordered to refocus its efforts on hunting down Saddam and his inner circle. Sources confirmed to Fox News that special forces were involved with the raid.

The task force is basically a "hit team" that follows up only on solid intelligence.

"I think we're all anxiously awaiting confirmation," about the sons' deaths, Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, told Fox News Tuesday. "There's no question they were diabolical forces in Iraq."

Snowe, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the potential death or capture of Qusai and Odai shows the world that the US work in Iraq is far from over.

"I think it goes to show how important our role is in Iraq and continues to be that we have to remove these forces of fear," Snowe said. "Iraq was one of the most atrocious regimes ... no one can really underestimate the threat that Saddam Hussein posed."

I think that we all recognized that as long as Saddam Hussein continues to exist, he poses a threat to the Iraqi people - they will never be able to breathe easy if they know he's there."

Torture

Odai, Saddam's eldest son, was commander of Iraq's paramilitary unit, known as the Saddam Fedayeen, and he was also chairperson of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. He is No 3 on the coalition's most-wanted list, after his father and Qusai.

Iraqi Olympic athletes say they were routinely jailed and tortured for losing competitions or disobeying Odai's orders.

During Saddam's reign, Qusai was in charge of all the military, intelligence and security services in Iraq, including the elite Republican Guard and the Special Security Organisation, which protected the regime and its weapons.

From 1988 to 1999, Qusai often ordered mass executions of several thousand prisoners, and suppressed revolts among the al-Dulaym tribe in 1995 and among Shiites in 1997.

Both Odai and Qusai were active in the management of the general office of the military intelligence service, the Istikhbarat, and the internal intelligence service, the Mukhabarat.

Qusai was considered the more likely of the two to succeed their father.

[Normal4me]

LOL...I was thinking the same thing. When it absolutely, positively has to be done "right", use the big stuff!

I hope they get Dad-dai soon too.

[ChadGore]

	NEWS RELEASE HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND 7115 South Boundary Boulevard MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101 Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894
	July 22, 2003 Release Number: 03-07-68 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STATEMENT REGARDING OPERATION IN MOSUL, IRAQ Statement from US Central Command: On Tuesday, July 22, forces associated with the 101st Airborne Division and Special Operations Forces conducted an operation against suspected regime figures at a residence in Mosul, Iraq. The site is currently being exploited. Four Iraqis were killed in the operation. We have confirmed that two of the dead were Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay. -30-

[dead]

This article is demonstrably full of errors. (See the pictures of the building that was "burned to the ground.")

Everybody wants to be the NY Times.

[onyx]

The snakes crawling out of their bellies confirm they're Saddam's sons.

[kevkrom]

How the heck do these "iraki" fighters hold up the most elite, well trained, well stocked troops in the world for 4-6 hours??

I'm guessing that the mission was to capture them if possible, kill them if necessary.

[The Great RJ]

They must be totally evil -- they were driving a SUV. Think of the environment and the poor spotted owls. </sarcasm

[gedeon3]

This is very sick! A dog, I mean, a son of hussein is dead and you mock his remains this way? I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Are his 70 virgins included in that pics?

[Huck]

Sheepish :-)

You know, this is a good deal for Pvt. Lynch, I would think. Takes some attention off of her. Maybe lighten her burden a bit today. Weird symmetry, because I recall her story broke at a time when the anti-Americans were going full steam and we really needed a good story. I think we were "bogged down in a quagmire" and hopelessly surrounded by Iraqis at the time, according to the left press. Anyway, good news.

[Cobra64]

And the article says the house was leveled. NOT!

[afraidfortherepublic]

Witnesses in the neighbourhood said there are tunnels below the house... Mosul was believed to be the exit route for some of Saddam's family members trying to get out of Iraq and flee to Syria.

Hmmmmmm. I hope they sealed up the other end first!

[muleskinner]

Jeez, GOL! (giggling out loud)

(Arnold's voice) - "That's a good one"

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Rio?

OK, try a LOT hotter.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Whoooo-hoooo Is that announcement from Central Command for real?? Can we really and finally say that they're dead?

[grobdriver]

We used a scaled escalation of force

I love this part!
Translate to: "We shot them to hell"

[Huck]

Oh golly, I feel so ashamed. Let me just say that it is not my place to judge, not even to judge these vicious criminals. That is for God and I leave it to Him. I was just making a joke. Forgive me.

[Bob]

We used a scaled escalation of force

I love this part!
Translate to: "We shot them to hell"

Yeah, but we took our time doing it. :=)

Had our troops not been trying to take them alive, I don't think that this operation would have lasted as long as it did.

[Sacajaweau]

Guess what I WAS having for dinner??

[PhiKapMom]

LOL!!! NY Times is right! We have been watching Steve Centani from Fox News in front of the Mansion most of the day. Good thing that Centani was there or some of these articles would be taken at face value!

Fox News Channel with Steve Centani RULES the DAY in Mosul! Only broadcaster on the scene along with one print reporter. Obviously this writer didn't watch Fox News Channel!

[Tacis]

Sure, the corpses could be look alikes, diversions to make us think they were dead so they could take up a freer life elsewhere.

But, how about if the reports of their death is OUR diversion. How about f both are still alive and now the guests of the US at our lovely resort on Diego Garcia. It may be the same spot where Osama Bin Laden is vacationing.

Wouldn't it be a great circumstance if the world thought them dead while we had an opportunity to discuss weapons of mass destruction, secret account numbers, and contacts in the democrat party with them without concern for reporters, Commies Supporting Prisoners, or the UN/French?