Photos of Husseins not enough to quell doubts

The Pentagon released graphic photographs of the slain sons of Saddam Hussein on Thursday evening in an effort to convince skeptical Iraqis that the brothers were indeed dead and that the Hussein regime had no chance of returning to power.

Two days after the United States announced the deaths of Udai and Qusai Hussein in a Mosul raid, American troops met new resistance. Three U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush of grenades and rifle fire in northern Iraq.

Through the night, people across the Arab world were riveted to television reports showing the bloody, bearded faces and shoulders of Hussein’s sons. Analysts and forensic experts on Arab stations dissected the images and compared them to prewar pictures of the men.

The Iraqi Governing Council was taken to an airport morgue to view the bodies. Members, including a doctor, said there was “absolutely no doubt it was Udai and Qusai,” a spokesman said.

In Baghdad, Iraqis debated the merits of the photos. For every believer, there seemed to be a non-believer. The brothers sported thick facial hair that they did not have before the U.S.-led invasion in March.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said releasing the photographs was necessary to “save American lives.” The United States has long objected to the display of photographs of American war dead.

“The Baathists and the people of that country are frightened of Saddam Hussein and his regime,” Rumsfeld said. “To get closure that two particularly vicious members of that regime are in fact dead is, I believe, something that will contribute to more Iraqi people being willing to come forward with information.”

He noted that 38 of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi leaders have been killed or captured.

In cafes, shops and houses, Iraqis scanned television screens examining the appearance of lips, teeth, weight and eyes for confirmation.

“These pictures are not clear,” former Iraqi intelligence chief Wafiq al-Sammarai said on the Arab satellite station Al Jazeera. “They don’t give a clear idea.”

Offering further proof, the Pentagon released X-rays of one body showing pins in the legs that resembled those implanted in Udai after an assassination attempt in the 1990s.

The Bush administration insisted the evidence would dispel any doubts about the men’s identities.

“Saddam Hussein’s sons were responsible for torture, for maiming innocent citizens and for the murder of countless Iraqis,” President Bush said in Philadelphia. “And now, more than ever, the Iraqi people can know the former regime is gone and is not coming back.”

The U.S.-led coalition promised to take local and international news media Friday to the morgue where the bodies are being kept and to release autopsy reports.

But on the streets of Baghdad, some Iraqis wondered why the Americans waited so long to let the public view the photos. Others had suspicions that the photos were doctored.

“I’m not sure it was them,” said Ghaydan Yatooma, 33, a liquor merchant. “All the Iraqi people are not so sure.”

The full effect of the photos will not be clear until the weekend, after newspapers publish again Saturday following Friday, a Muslim holy day.

Much of Baghdad was without power Thursday evening when the pictures were broadcast on Iraqi television at 9. While sales of satellite televisions have soared since the war, few Iraqis have access to one.

The Bush administration engaged in a long back-and-forth discussion between Baghdad and Washington before agreeing to send the pictures to news agencies via the Internet, senior officials said in briefings to reporters.

Rumsfeld said that “it was not a snap decision,” adding that he thought there will consequently be “less enthusiasm” on the part of lower-level Baathists to fight the U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq and “a greater conviction” among the Iraqi people that the Hussein regime is finished.

“If it can save American lives, I’m happy to make the decision I made,” he said.

Rumsfeld noted that the practice of showing enemy bodies is not forbidden by the Geneva Conventions on war conduct, though photographs of prisoners of war are.

“These two individuals are particularly vicious individuals,” he said. “They are now dead. . . . The Iraqi people have been waiting for confirmation of that. And they, in my view, deserved having confirmation of that.”

U.S. troops took more than 600 pictures of the raided house, the scene of a four-hour firefight in Mosul, according to military sources.

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Arab commentators speculated Thursday evening on whether showing the photos would only inflame anti-American passions and spur a violent backlash. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, acknowledged that the possibility was considered.

“It’s not a decision one lightly makes,” said Bremer, who joined Rumsfeld at the Pentagon briefing. “Our view was that it was an important matter for the Iraqi people.”

It is common among Muslims to bury the dead quickly. The Pentagon said it would consult with Iraqi leaders before deciding what to do with the bodies.

In Dubai, Al-Arabiya television aired footage of several men in masks toting automatic rifles who said they were a remnant of the Udai-led Fedayeen militia.

“We pledge to you Iraqi people that we will continue in the jihad against the infidels,” said a spokesman for the men. “The killing of Udai and Qusai will be avenged.”

Still, U.S. commanders were reluctant to pin two attacks in two days against American soldiers in northern Iraq on revenge. About 3 a.m., the Army’s 101st Airborne Division–the same division that raided the Mosul house– was guarding a convoy when it came under intense attack south of Mosul.

The military released only scant details. But the killing of three soldiers in the incident is one of the highest single tolls since Bush declared major combat over May 1.

“We knew it was likely there would be an upward spike in the attacks after the death of the Hussein boys,” a U.S. commander said. “But in the long run, we will prevail.”

Bremer, in a conference call that included the Tribune’s editorial board, said Saddam Hussein remains a crucial target.

“It’s important to capture or kill Saddam Hussein because he remains a rallying point for bitter-enders,” Bremer said, adding that informants “are coming in more frequently.”