US President George Bush on Wednesday hailed the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons as the clearest sign yet that ”the former regime is gone and will not be coming back”.
Bush called Uday and Qusay Hussein, who were both killed on Tuesday during a firefight with US forces, ”two of the regime’s chief henchmen … responsible for torture, maiming and murder of countless Iraqis”.
Still, in a Rose Garden appearance with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and L Paul Bremer, the US occupation governor for Iraq, Bush said that ”a few remaining holdouts” loyal to Saddam’s government are complicating efforts to stabilise Iraq and advance freedom.
”These killers are the enemies of Iraq’s people. They operate mainly in a few areas of the country. And wherever they operate, they’re being hunted and they will be defeated,” Bush said in brief remarks. He did not respond to questions shouted by reporters.
Even as officials confirmed that Saddam’s two sons were killed on Tuesday in a firefight with US troops, a soldier with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment died when his convoy driving between Balad and Ar Ramadi was ambushed and two more were killed Wednesday in separate attacks on convoys.
The president sought to present a progress report on Iraq since he declared major combat over nearly three months ago.
”We are determined to help build a free and sovereign democratic nation,” he said.
While the White House was exhibiting obvious pleasure in deaths of the two Saddam sons, questions continued to dog the administration over the president’s use of discredited intelligence to bolster his case for war with Iraq.
On Tuesday, the top aide to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice took the blame for allowing a tainted report suggesting Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa to find its way into Bush’s January State of the Union address.
Deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley said two CIA memos and a call from CIA Director George Tenet had persuaded him to take a similar passage out of a presidential speech in October – and that he should have done likewise when it turned up again in State of the Union drafts. – Sapa-AP