- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Two
American soldiers were killed in ambushes in Iraq on Wednesday, denting
any U.S. hopes that the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay,
would snuff out a guerrilla insurgency against occupying forces.
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- An audio tape, purportedly by Saddam and aired by Al
Arabiya television, urged Iraqis to keep fighting U.S. forces. The tape
was dated July 20 -- two days before Uday and Qusay were killed in a six-hour
gunbattle with American troops.
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- A U.S. military spokesman said one soldier was killed
and seven wounded when two vehicles hit a mine near the northern town of
Mosul. The brothers had been hiding there in a villa which 200 U.S. soldiers,
backed by helicopters, attacked with machinguns and rockets on Tuesday.
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- In a separate ambush, another soldier was killed and
two wounded when their convoy was attacked near the restive town of Ramadi,
west of Baghdad, a hotspot of the "Sunni triangle" from where
Saddam drew much of his support.
-
- U.S. officials had said they feared an upsurge in attacks
as die-hard Saddam loyalists sought to avenge his sons. In Mosul, a dozen
youths even staged a brief pro-Saddam protest, waving his picture and chanting
their loyalty to the death.
-
- Officers said killing Uday and Qusay would ultimately
help silence guerrillas who have killed 41 American soldiers since President
Bush declared major combat over on May 1, and give fresh impetus to the
search for Saddam himself.
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- "It confirms that we will succeed in our hunt for
former regime members, and in particular Saddam Hussein, wherever they
are and however long it takes," Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez,
commander of ground forces in Iraq, said on Tuesday.
-
- Celebratory shots rang out in Baghdad overnight, but
skeptical Iraqis said they wanted proof of the deaths.
-
- Sanchez told a news conference late on Tuesday he would
provide evidence to show beyond doubt that Uday, 39, and 37-year-old Qusay,
Saddam's "crown prince," were dead.
-
- He said the two were tracked down after a tip-off from
a walk-in informant who will probably get the two $15-million rewards the
United States offered for information on their whereabouts. Mosul residents
said the owner of the villa where they were hiding may have betrayed them
to claim the cash.
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- Defiant Message
-
- Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired an audio tape
in which a voice said to be Saddam's hailed what it called the "resistance"
to U.S. occupation.
-
- "The battle is not over yet," the taped message
said.
-
- "We tell our armed forces and our people that if
America has achieved military superiority, it will not achieve supremacy
in the battle of wills against the Iraqi people."
-
- Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, said there
was a risk of revenge attacks by Saddam loyalists.
-
- "We could see attacks in the next few days as revenge.
But you have to remember that a lot of the attacks that are taking place
are being based on the idea that somehow the Saddams are coming back, that
he and his sons are coming back," he said.
-
- "Well, they're not coming back."
-
- The United States has offered $25 million for information
leading to the capture or killing of Saddam.
-
- "I think we now have a possibility of somebody coming
with the big one, somebody who really wants to get the $25 million reward,"
said Bremer, on a visit to the United States. "It will move the day
a bit closer when we get our hands on the father."
-
- U.S. officials have blamed remnants of Saddam's Baath
party and Uday's feared Saddam Fedayeen militia for attacks.
-
- But other groups have also claimed responsibility for
the attacks, distancing themselves from Saddam's secular Iraqi nationalism
and embracing the Islamist, anti-American slogans of Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda network.
-
- Many ordinary Iraqis who say they hated Saddam have denounced
the U.S. occupation and called on the Americans to go home. They say U.S.
forces have failed to restore law and order and have assaulted Iraqis during
house-to-house searches.
-
- Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday that
Iraqis detained by U.S. troops had complained of torture and degrading
treatment. There were also reports of troops shooting detainees, the London-based
human rights watchdog said.
-
- Uday and Qusay were not noticeably close in life, but
they went down fighting side by side in the violent tradition of their
clan. Barricading themselves into the villa, they resisted U.S. troops
for several hours.
-
- Two other bodies removed from the villa were a grandson
of Saddam and an aide of Uday, a U.S. official said.
-
- The deaths of Uday and Qusay will be a boost to Bush
and his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who are facing
pressure over the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction -- the
main justification they gave for going to war against Iraq in the face
of international opposition.
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