Saddam sons dead

[Turkey]

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, have been killed by US troops in Iraq, a US military commander in Baghdad has said.
General Ricardo Sanchez said he was "certain" the two were killed along with two other people in a fierce gun battle in the northern city of Mosul.

"We've used multiple sources to identify the individuals," he said, adding that the bodies were in an identifiable condition.

Troops had swooped on a villa after reports that the two men were inside and they came under fire as they approached, he said.

The Americans responded with heavy fire in an operation lasting six hours. Four US soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

A search is now under way at the site, where the remaining two bodies have still not been identified.

'Great day'

Saddam's sons were numbers two and three on America's 55-strong most-wanted list, and senior figures in the former regime.


Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, described the news as a "great day for the Iraqi people and for the US military who showed their outstanding professionalism".

The BBC's Paul Wood in Baghdad said gunfire in the city on Tuesday evening was thought to be celebratory fire from those who had heard that the brothers may have been killed.

Analysts say the death of the pair is an important coup for coalition forces, and will help remove the fear that lingers in the Iraqi population that the old regime could return.

 

[Zebedee]

Good riddance me thinks. I, for one, won't shed any tears.

 

[Dunkstar]

I'm visibly upset

 

[Juan Albion]

Iraqi footballer tells of torture under Saddam
By Huda Majeed Saleh

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Losing a football game could usually cost a championship or maybe a manager's job. It also shatters the dreams of supporters.

But in Saddam Hussein's Iraq it cost much more.

Run by Uday, the eldest son of the man who ruled Iraq for 24 years with an iron fist until he was deposed in a U.S.-led war last month, losing on the pitch meant imprisonment, beatings and sometimes starvation.

"We used to play under great psychological pressure because losing the match meant punishment," Samir Kazim, a striker who played for Iraq's national team between 1988-99, told Reuters.
"After each match the assistant coach counted every player's mistakes and every mistake meant a whip, which was increased later to two whips," Kazim, 38, added.

He said Uday once imprisoned the entire youth team in a farm outside Baghdad for a whole week with no food or water.

"After four days the whole team got sick as they were forced to drink water contaminated with animal waste and eat animal food," he said. "Uday later was forced to take them out of the farm on a recommendation of a doctor who warned against an imminent outbreak of an epidemic," Kazim said.

The torture allegations are the latest told by Iraqi athletes who say they suffered under Saddam's Iraq.

Former Iraqi athletes who had fled the country and are trying to prove that Uday had sports stars tortured and killed for losing said last month they feared the evidence had gone up in smoke in air strikes on the headquarters of Iraq's National Olympic Committee, headed by Uday.

Some alleged that 52 athletes were murdered on the orders of Uday and others in the Saddam clan.

Uday was regarded as Saddam's heir apparent until he was wounded in a gun attack in 1996. His father put him in charge of the Olympic Committee and the soccer federation in 1984, midway through the war with Iran, to secure sporting success as a way to boost morale.

STILL LIVING WITH FEAR

Uday did not only punish players for mistakes on the field.
He once whipped players for buying electrical appliances after a game in the Kurdish town of Duhouk.

"One time I was hit 32 times on the sole of my feet along with 15 other team mates for bringing electric devices from Duhouk where we played a match," Kazim said.

"One by one we were admitted to a room in the first floor of the committee while others waited downstairs and as we were waiting we heard screams," Kazim said.

"I was the last one to be beaten. They beat me with a thick stick. I tolerated the first 22 strikes but the remaining 10 were so burning that I started to scream," he said.

"I walked with a hint of a limp for a week after the beating. My feet were so swollen," he said.

Kazim said he will live in fear of Uday for as long as the fate of Saddam and his two sons remains a mystery.

"A week ago an American network interviewed me but I asked them not to broadcast it now fearing that Uday might watch it on television from his hideout," he said.

Kazim said he wished he was younger so he could play in the post-Saddam era, which he hoped would be better.

"I feel sorrow that I have to quit playing. I wish I was younger to play with my old team mates who have returned to form a new soccer team without fear and without Uday."

 

[Yorkie]

Then people wonder why these people had to seek asylum.

I really don't know how humans can do this sort of stuff to other humans.

 

[Dropkick Turnip]

Terrible stuff indeed but you do know that's not why we went to war don't you?

 

[midlandseagull]

seems we went to war for the wrong reasons (quote: BBC) and won it for the right reasons (quote: Tony Blair).

Guess you pays your money..........



talking of which will the outcome of the current BBC/Government spat be the cancellation of the Beeb's iniquitous poll tax AKA "The Licence Fee"?

Fingers crossed

 

[CHAPPERS]

Good f***ing riddance. Uday was an evil, evil man.

 

[Dropkick Turnip]

Good f***ing riddance. Uday was an evil, evil man.

Plenty of evil people in power in other countires (China for one) and I don't see the Bush/Blair roadshow steaming into Beijing at the moment or even speaking about China's (to quote one example) appalling human rights record. Don't get me wrong, it is good riddance to Saddam's sons but I've a nasty feeling it's a by-product of what that war was all about.

SHOW US THE f***ing WEAPONS TONY!!

 

[CHAPPERS]

good riddance to Saddam's sons but I've a nasty feeling it's a by-product of what that war was all about.

SHOW US THE f***ing WEAPONS TONY!!

I am in very little doubt about that.

I never thought the reason we went in was to disarm Saddam, it was to get rid of him and his whole evil regime. I don't think there would have been as much opposition to the war if Bush/Blair had come out and said, ' we're gonna go bomb the shit out of Saddam and make Iraq free again'.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Run by Uday, the eldest son of the man who ruled Iraq for 24 years with an iron fist until he was deposed in a U.S.-led war last month, losing on the pitch meant imprisonment, beatings and sometimes starvation.

Couldn't we try that on Butters?

 

[Dropkick Turnip]

I am in very little doubt about that.

I never thought the reason we went in was to disarm Saddam, it was to get rid of him and his whole evil regime. I don't think there would have been as much opposition to the war if Bush/Blair had come out and said, ' we're gonna go bomb the shit out of Saddam and make Iraq free again'.

I don't really want to start an argument about the pros and cons of our government's recent activities in the Middle East, but freeing the Iraqi people from an evil dictator wasn't at the forefront of Bush/Blair's thoughts. Ridding the world of a nasty dictator was an attempt to make going to war seem more palatable to the likes of you and me. On the subject of freedom, you ask the "free" Iraqi people how they feel now that they have been "freed" and have no jobs, inadequate healthcare, no electricity, no water, no security, etc, etc.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Agree that another argument is not worth it but it will take time and there are still people out there who wish Saddam to be back in power taking pot shots at the 'Allied' troops, there is a lot more to be sorted.

End.