US confirms Qusay, Uday killed in raid

BAGHDAD: The US military said yesterday it had confirmed that the two sons of Saddam Hussein, Qusay and Uday, had been killed in a fierce gun-battle in northern Iraq.

“We’re certain that Uday and Qusay were killed,” Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told a news conference in Baghdad. “We’ve used multiple sources to identify the individuals.” Sanchez said the US military had been given a “walk-in” tip that Qusay and Uday were in the villa in Mosul that was raided by US forces earlier yesterday. He said it was a six-hour operation that involved various military units including special forces. “We had a walk-in last night that came in and gave us the information,” Sanchez said, adding that they expected to pay the $15 million reward offered for information leading to the death or capture of each of Saddam’s sons. The US military was still working to identify two other bodies recovered from the villa after the battle, he said. Four coalition soldiers were wounded in the operation and were being treated, he said.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw welcomed the news that ousted and hunted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay had been killed in a firefight with US forces in northern Iraq yesterday. “Uday and Qusay Hussein shared their father’s responsibility for the many years of suffering by the Iraqi people,” he said in a statement issued by the foreign office in London. “They had the opportunity to hand themselves in to justice and answer for their crimes. They refused to do this. “It goes without saying that we would much have preferred this. But the news that Saddam’s sons are no longer a threat to the security of Iraq will be a reassurance to the Iraqi people,” he added. A foreign office spokeswoman had no comment on the fate of Saddam who is at the top of the US most wanted list of former members of the Iraqi government.