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 Uday Hussein (left) laughs in this undated photo from Jordanian television.
Photo: Getty Images |
INTERNATIONAL NEWS The killing of Uday and Qusay Even as the Gulf War ended officially, guerilla action against the coalition forces and the American hunt for Saddam Hussein and his family, especially his sons Uday and Qusay, continued relentlessly. In the immediate aftermath, the forces had little success in their hunt, but the forces' perseverance paid off finally. On July 22, American forces killed Uday and Qusay in a major US military operation in Mosul, a town in northern Iraq. Also killed was Qusay's 14-year-old son, an action criticized as brutal and unnecessary. More than 200 American soldiers attacked the house, said to belong to Saddam Hussein's cousin, after the residents fired at them early in the morning. Rockets, heavy machineguns and helicopter gunships pounded the house for four hours before the troops overran it and recovered the bodies. Four coalition forces soldiers were injured. 'Over the period of many years, these two individuals were responsible for countless atrocities committed against the Iraqi people and they can no longer cast a shadow of hate on Iraq,' said a White House statement. While Uday commanded the Saddam Fedayeen paramilitary, which fought a grim battle against coalition troops, reportedly using Iraqi citizens as human shields, Qusay headed the dreaded Saddam's Special Security. Text: Ramananda Sengupta
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