Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
with the U.S.
stayed out an night f. the first time since
Now American forces are zeroing in on the end of the war, filing celebratory rifle
th~ir main prey. With the sons disposed of, shots from the roofs of their houses and
military officials last week received flurries .ctowding around televisions in hotellobof
reportS on Saddam's whereabouts. Says . bies to watch coverage of the
Lieut. Colonel Steven Russell, commander
' raid. In the streets and suqs
of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regi- of the capital the next mornment,
which is based in Saddanîs home- ing, shop owners congratutown
of Tikrit: "Any time we have seen a lated one another with
capture or killing of deck-of-cards people,
handshakes and kisses when
we see a very positive effect, with a lot they arrived for .work. "If
more people coming forward with infor-: this street could talk, it
mation:' On Thursday, during a raid south would tell. you that Uday
of Tikrit, soldiers from' the 4th Infantry would take a girl off the
Division captured what !he Pentagon said street. and rape her;' says
were "five to 10" suspected members of Amar Abdul Amir, 45. "But
Saddam's security detail. A former butler of
no one could say anything.
Uday's, visited by a group of Saddam's rel-
Before I was afraid to talk to
atives two day's \lfter the deaths of the Baath Party members. Today
brothers, says Saddam's family is "very de-
I feel O.K:'
pressed and nervous" that the former
leader may soon be captured. "They were
very impatient to hear news from 'our uncle;"
says the butler, using a nickname
for Saddam. "They told me, 'If they get
hold of him, that's it~our end:"
The drama last week began with what
the military c~s a walk-in. Someone approached
U.S. soldiers at a camp gate to
volunteer information on the brothers'
whereabouts. U.S. forces put a discreet cordon
around the Mosul house, which is
owned by Sheikh Nawaf al~ZaydanMohammed
a member of Saddam's tribe. Shortly
befo~e 10 the neXt morning, a phalanx of
:Army humvees arrived at the house, blaring
instructions in Arabic for those inside
to come out. Witnesses say that moments
after al-Zaydan and his son emerged,
hands raised, gunfire erupted from the upper
floor of the house. About 20 U.S. soldiers
stormed the building. Inside, they
were met with a hail of AK-47 fire, which
wounded four soldiers. The Americans
called for backup. .
The brothers surely knew this was
their last stand. Though Uday in particular
was not known for his valor- "He doesn't kill
anyone with his own hand. He is a coward;'
a longtime family servant recently
.told TIME-the shooting from the second
story continued for more than an hour. At
1 p.m., American Kiowa helicopters spit
rockets into the mansion while ground
troops launched 40-mm grenades and
10 antttank TOWmissiles. A group of soldiers
eiltered the house again; it was quiet
this;'tiine, 'save for a few shots from the
bédroom fired by Qusay'sson Mustafa, 14,
who 'was killed when the troops returned
fire. In a small upstairs bathroom covered
in blood and broken glass, the soldiers
found the bodies of three others: Uday,
Q1Jsayand a bodyguard. . .
. It is' testament to the depths of the
brothers' terror that many Iraqis celebrated
the reports of their violent deaths as if
life had begun anew. In Baghdad people
U.S. commanders felt better
too. Just three days before
the raid, Lieut. General
Ricardo Sanchez, commander
of coalition ground troops in
Iraq, had looked glum as he
briefed reporters, pleading
with an Iraqi journalist that
he needed local intelligence
about where to find fugitive
regime leaders. The day after
the raid, he was radiant, announcing,
"Yesterday was a
landmark day for the people
and for the future of Iraq:'
And yet for the U.S. in Iraq,
there are few clean victories.
Many Iraqi skeptics refused to
believe the brothers were truly
dead, even after the U.S. released
grisly photos of Uday's
and Qusay's bearded corpses
as they were found, and then
let reporters film the bodies
cleaned up, retouched and
shaved. "We have to see it with
our own eyes;' said Ahmed
Ismail, a kabob-shop owner in
Tikrit. He was among a minority
who expressed hope that
the brothers were still alive.
Another merchant, Fadhil
Awda, who had dropped by for
lunch, also doubted that the
sons were dead. ''And if it is
true;' he said, "then we will be
more proud because they resis- .
ted for hours, and they were u..ly four,
while the Americans were 400:'
As American commanders had anticipated,
the brothers' deaths were followed
by a step up in guerrilla attacks. Last week
eight more U. S. soldiers died from hostile
fire. U.S. officials hope the uptick, perhaps
dnven by revenge for the deaths of Uday
and Qusay, will be temporary. But TIME
spoke to members of a Fedayeen Saddam
cell who said their support for the Husseins
is not what motivates their attacks on the
Americans. "We do it because they degrade
us, they occupy our area;' said a tribal elder
sitting at the head of the gathering. The cell
members said they operate autonomously,
"selecting their targets and timings .without
orders from any kind of hierarchy. The
morning after the Mosul siege, when a
makeshift explosive device detonated under
a military convoyas it passed through
the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad,
killing a U.S. soldier, the cell sent word to
TIME:"We did it:'
Even among Iraqis relieved to hear of
the brothers' deaths, there .was grumbling
last week that U.S. forces should have endeavored
to capture Uday and Qusay
alive, which might pave produced
leads on Saddam's whereabouts
and enabled a public
accounting of the brothers'
crimes. Plus, seeing them . ".