The United States authorities in Iraq were last night wrestling with the thorny problem of how to dispose of the bullet-riddled bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein after their ”touched up” corpses were shown off to the world yesterday.
In stark contrast to the grisly pictures released by the US military on Thursday, the bodies shown to a small group of journalists in a makeshift morgue at Baghdad airport yesterday had been shaved and their faces reconstructed in an attempt to persuade a sceptical Iraqi public two of the most feared men in the country were really dead.
US officials, trying to grapple with the problem of Islamic custom which calls for burial as soon as possible after death, said the bodies would be stored in the refrigerated tent at the airport until a family member came forward to claim them. This is a not completely outlandish suggestion, considering the size of their extended family, many of whom are not on the coalition wanted list.
A British spokesperson for the coalition provisional authority said they were still consulting Iraq’s governing council and religious leaders about how best to preserve the corpses according to Muslim tradition, and no decision had been taken yet.
The one person nobody expects to come forward to claim the bodies is their father. But even without his voluntary surrender, US forces in Iraq believe the net is closing around Saddam Hussein — ace of spades in the pack of cards distributed to US troops to identify wanted members of the old regime.
Following the killing of Uday, the ace of hearts, and Qusay, the ace of clubs, in a gun battle at their hideout in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul on Tuesday, US troops yesterday raided a house south of Tikrit and captured five to 10 people believed to be members of the deposed president’s personal security detail. The raid on the house in Saddam’s home town, where strong support for the deposed regime remains, was carried out after a tip from an Iraqi informant, according to Major General Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division.
Gen Odierno said US troops had also spoken with one of Saddam’s wives, although he did not identify which one. ”We continue to tighten the noose,” he added.
A group of mainly Arab journalists were taken to view the bodies of Uday (39) and Qusay (37). The brothers were lying side by side on metal trolleys, their bruised bodies, riddled with bullets and shrapnel, naked apart from a cloth covering their genitals.
US officials said the brothers were made to look as lifelike as possible, but denied there was any intention to deceive the Iraqi public, many of whom had been sceptical that the pictures of the bloodied, faces released on Thursday were those of the brothers. The officials claimed the touching up was standard military procedure, although it is almost unheard of in the Arab world.
The faces appeared waxy and heavily made up, according to one reporter. Morticians disguised a gaping wound across Uday’s face, but a hole in the top of his head was still visible. US officials said both brothers had been hit by more than 20 bullets during the shootout, and both torsos bore large Y-shaped incisions.
Uday was believed to have died from a head injury caused by a blunt object, while Qusay had two bullet wounds to his head, in and just behind his right ear, medical officials said. This ruled out earlier speculation that the wounds might have been self-inflicted in an attempt to avoid capture.
In Arasaat Al-Hindiya, a suburb of Baghdad, pictures on satellite television last night were met with a mostly positive response. ”I thought it was them before, but there can be no doubt now,” said Majda Leon, a 40-year-old housewife. – Guardian Unlimited Â