Saddam Hussein last night declared that his two sons, Uday and Qusay, had died as martyrs for Iraq when they were killed in a gun battle with US forces last week, and pledged America would be defeated.
In an audiotape purportedly from the former Iraqi president broadcast on the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya last night, Saddam said: ”If Saddam Hussein had 100 sons, he would have offered them on the same path which is the path of jihad.”
The tape, broadcast by the same channel that last week played a recording of a voice which US officials conceded was probably that of the former dictator, paid condolences to the Iraqi nation for the deaths of the brothers. ”I mourn to you the deaths of Uday and Qusay and those who struggled with them,” the voice said. ”You are the honour of this nation. America will be defeated.”
The broadcast came as US officials claimed they were closing in on Saddam after the arrest of a former top bodyguard in a pre-dawn raid in Tikrit.
As well as mourning the brothers, the tape went on to say their death was good news as it was the hope of every fighter to become a martyr. ”Uday, Qusai and Mustafa [Qusai’s son] died in jihad field. In a brave battle with the enemy that lasted for six hours.”
Perversely, the broadcast may help to convince those Iraqis not persuaded by the television pictures of the bodies of Uday and Qusay that two of the most feared men in the old regime really are dead.
The broadcast came less than 24 hours after US soldiers arrested Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit, said to be a senior bodyguard of the former dictator who was brought out of retirement just before the war.
The US military said it was questioning four people after a series of dawn raids. According to the Associated Press, which had a reporter with the 4th Infantry Division’s 22nd Infantry Regiment when they made the arrests, those captured include Daher Ziana, former head of security in the town, and Rafa Idham Ibrahim al-Hassan, a leader of the Saddam Fedayeen militia.
As US forces began interrogating the four suspects, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN secretary general’s special representative in Iraq, added his voice to those calling for Saddam to be captured alive. It was too easy an end for Saddam to be killed, he said.
”It’s as if you deny the Iraqi people the right to know what happened and feel that justice has been done,” he said. ”Catching him alive is important if you want to shed light on what’s happened and re-affirm the principle of accountability for crimes.”
The raid on the bodyguard’s house in Tikrit began at 4am when soldiers fired three shotgun blasts into the locks on the door. Bleeding and barefoot Al-Musslit was dragged outside, stripped to his underwear, and put into a Humvee.
The US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, told CNN that Saddam had nearly been captured in raids on Monday. ”I think most people feel the noose is tightening”.
Iraq’s US-appointed governing council of 25 prominent Iraqis, meanwhile, announced yesterday it had appointed a nine-member presidency, highlighting its inability to agree on a single leader. – Guardian Unlimited Â