Confirmed!

[Widgetsx3]

Uday and Qusay Hussien have been confirmed as dead in a gun battle with US forces in Mosul, Iraq. Just now at a press conference!

[DreamWarrior]

Ummmmm.... Yay??? I mean yeah I'm glad that its been confirmed, but its kinda sad because so many ppl had to die to get to this point....

[Xica]

Wasn't that a little too quick?

[Widgetsx3]

They said the bodies were easily identified, and finger prints don't take that long...this happened 12 hours ago. DNA will take a while, but the head of the military in Iraq, made the announcement personally. He said that in tomorrows press conference, they will offer deffinative proof.

[Technologist]

It's on CNN (I'm not near a TV, someone turn it on...)!

[Widgetsx3]

It is on EVERY news station...FOX, MSNBC, CNN what do you want to know?

[Hi_Ya!]

All Right!!! They got the Ba*tards!

[Widgetsx3]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (July 22) - Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed in a six-hour firefight Tuesday when U.S. forces surrounded and then stormed a palatial villa in this northern Iraqi town, a senior American general said.

''We are certain that Odai and Qusai were killed today,'' said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a news conference in Baghdad.

''They died in a fierce gunbattle,'' Sanchez added.

He told reporters that soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were working on a tip from an Iraqi informant that the sons were present in the house.

When troops approached the building, gunmen inside opened fire with small arms. The ''suspects barricaded themselves in the house'' and ''resisted fiercely,'' he said.

[suzziq03]

wow if it wasnt for this board I wouldnt know anything bout whats going on! just turned to cnn, said they used multiple forms of identification..... im wondering if dna results will prove them correct or wrong, seems they have mistaken identity before on some people a while back, so not going to get hopes up about all this ending anytime soon.

[Widgetsx3]

http://www.cnn.com/index.aol.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein's sons Qusay and Uday were killed Tuesday in a firefight with U.S. troops in Mosul, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq said.

Uday, 39, and Qusay, 37 -- key members of Saddam's regime -- were among four people killed during a dramatic four-hour battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

"We're certain that Uday and Qusay were killed," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in Baghdad. "We've used multiple sources to identify the individuals."

Intelligence reports had indicated Uday and Qusay, who have $15 million bounties each on their heads, were in the Mosul area, and the official added: "We didn't just stumble across them." (Map)

A special military task force formed to hunt for Saddam and his top supporters led the raid, supported by extensive armor and air cover, officials said.

Two-hundred members of the 101st Airborne Division also joined the assault, and no one was captured, a U.S. official told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

The military went in and engaged in a "big firefight," the official said. (Gallery: The firefight scene)

The two bodies have a "strong resemblance" to Saddam's sons, a senior U.S. official said. The bodies will be flown to the United States for DNA testing at the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, the official said.

A senior Pentagon official said one of the other two bodies appeared to be that of a teenage boy. U.S. officials noted that Qusay has a teenage son. The other body recovered appeared to be that of a bodyguard.

A U.S. official said Saddam was not among them.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld briefed President Bush about the Mosul operation after it was over, a senior defense official said.

"Part of the reason he discussed this operation in particular was because he knew it would get a lot of attention, and that first reports are often wrong," the official said.

The initial White House reaction was cautious, although one official said confirmation that the two sons were killed would "brighten" spirits after recent criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated the former Iraqi regime's threat.

Both in deck of cards
Saddam and his sons have been fugitives since their government collapsed after a U.S.-led invasion in March. (Profiles: Qusay Hussein, Uday Hussein)

Mosul is a Kurd-controlled city about 110 miles (176 kilometers) from both Syria and Iran. Should the bodies prove to be Saddam's sons, intelligence officials said they are looking at the possibility that Uday and Qusay were attempting to find a way out of Iraq.

U.S. officials have said they need to capture the former ruling family to break resistance to U.S. forces and encourage cooperation by Iraqis fearful that Saddam could return to power.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. David Grange said that the deaths of Uday and Qusay would deal a psychological blow to Saddam loyalists attacking U.S. troops.

The hunt for Saddam in Iraq is led by a U.S. Special Operations team -- code-named Task Force 20 -- with support from the CIA. The task force, which also took part in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, includes covert special forces from the various U.S. military services. (Lynch homecoming)

Qusay and Uday are the second- and third-most wanted Iraqi leaders, and both are in the playing card deck of most-wanted Iraqis issued to U.S. troops in Iraq. Uday is the ace of hearts and Qusay the ace of clubs. (Flash interactive: Iraq's most-wanted)

Qusay has been the son widely perceived as most likely to succeed Saddam.

With Iraq preparing its defenses in the run-up to the war, Qusay was put in charge of four key areas, including Baghdad and Tikrit -- his family's tribal home.

When the war began, he was in charge of the country's intelligence network, the 80,000-strong Republican Guard and 15,000-member Special Republican Guard, which was responsible for protecting Saddam and his family.

Uday has a reputation for violence that included torturing Iraqi athletes who did not meet expectations. He ran the dreaded Saddam Fedayeen security force.

He was also in charge of the nation's Olympic committee, edited a leading newspaper, Babel, and was head of Youth TV, the country's most popular channel.

Just before the war, Uday warned that Iraqi troops would make the mothers of U.S. soldiers "weep blood instead of tears."

[SaraSmiles]

This is time to celebrate. They were very unstable man from all accounts.
Our troops Rock!!

[Victorious]

Originally posted by sarasmiles
They were very unstable man from all accounts.
Our troops Rock!!


AMEN!! :D

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Qusay Hussein, Saddam's feared younger son
Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Posted: 3:14 PM EDT (1914 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein's younger son, held wide-ranging powers over the nation's ruthless security apparatus that made him one of the most feared men in Iraq.

Qusay is No. 2 on the U.S.-led coalition forces' list of the 55 most wanted people from the former Iraqi regime, behind only Saddam himself. He is also on a Bush administration list of former Iraqi leaders who could be tried for war crimes.

Quiet but every bit as brutal as Saddam, the 37-year-old Qusay headed Iraq's intelligence and security services, his father's personal security force and the Republican Guard, an elite force of 80,000 soldiers responsible for defending Baghdad.

He stayed out of the public eye and led a substantially more subdued private life than his older brother Uday, who collected luxury cars by the hundreds and had a habit of ordering his guards to snatch young women off the street in order to rape them. Iraqis nicknamed Qusay "The Snake" for his bloodthirsty but low-profile manner. (Profile of Uday Hussein)

Qusay was far more trusted by his father and appeared to be his heir before the regime crumbled. In televised meetings with top security and military men, Qusay was seated next to his father, wearing well-tailored suits and dutifully noting his father's every word.

An exiled dissident told The Associated Press that only Qusay and Saddam's private secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, who was captured in June, were kept informed of Saddam's whereabouts. Uday was thought to be too reckless to be trusted with such information.

Experts do not believe Qusay played a significant role in the Gulf War of 1991. But he was a leading figure of terror in the conflict's aftermath, using mass executions and torture to crush the Shiite Muslim uprising after that war.

Qusay also helped engineer the destruction of the southern marshes in the 1990s, an action aimed at Shiite "Marsh Arabs" living there.

The marshes -- roughly 3,200 square miles (8,200 square kilometers) -- had provided the necessities of life for tens of thousands of marsh dwellers for at least 1,000 years. The area was destroyed through a large-scale water diversion project intended to remove the ability of insurgents to hide there.

Qusay also oversaw Iraq's notorious detention centers and is believed to have initiated "prison cleansing" -- a means of relieving severe overcrowding in jails with arbitrary killings.

Citing testimony from former Iraqi intelligence officers and other state employees, New York-based Human Rights Watch said several thousand inmates were executed at Iraq's prisons over the past several years.

Prisoners were often eliminated with a bullet to the head, but one witness told the London-based human rights group Indict that inmates were sometimes murdered by being dropped into shredding machines. Some prisoners went in head first and died quickly, while others were put in feet first and died screaming. The witness said that on at least one occasion, Qusay supervised shredding-machine murders.

On another occasion, a witness said, an inmate's foot was cut off in a prison torture room while Qusay was present. "The amputation had been carried out with a power saw during his torture under the direct supervision of Qusay," the witness told Indict.

Qusay was made chief of the army branch for the ruling Baath party in 2000, meaning virtually all the army's movements were under his supervision. Just before this year's war began, he was put in charge of defending the nation's capital and heartland.

Qusay was spared any real combat during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, although state television showed him conferring with commanders. He did not do any of the compulsory military service required of most Iraqi men.

Qusay married the daughter of a respected senior military commander. The couple, who later separated, had two daughters.

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Uday Hussein, oldest son of Saddam
Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Posted: 3:15 PM EDT (1915 GMT)
Uday Hussein is No. 3 on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Uday Hussein, the murderous and erratic oldest son of Saddam Hussein, controlled propaganda in Iraq and allegedly oversaw the torture of athletes who failed to perform.

The 39-year-old is No. 3 on the list of 55 most-wanted people from the former Iraqi regime -- only Saddam and younger brother Qusay ranked higher. The three also are on a U.S. list of former regime members who could be tried for war crimes.

As head of the paramilitary Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary unit, Uday helped his father eliminate opponents and exert iron-fisted control over Iraq's 25 million people. The eldest of Saddam's five children, Uday was elected to parliament in 1999 with a reported 99 percent of the vote, but he rarely attended parliament sessions.

Iraqi exiles say Uday murdered at will and tortured with zeal, and routinely ordered his guards to snatch young women off the street so he could rape them. The London-based human-rights group Indict said Uday ordered prisoners to be dropped into acid baths as punishment.

The Caligula-like Uday seemed proud of his reputation and called himself Abu Sarhan, an Arabic term for "wolf."

But his tendency toward erratic brutality even exasperated Saddam, who temporarily banished Uday to Switzerland after the younger Hussein killed one of his father's favorite bodyguards in 1988.

The bodyguard, a young man named Kamel Gegeo, arranged trysts for the Iraqi president -- notably with one woman who later became Saddam's second wife. Worried that his father's relationship with the woman could threaten his own position as heir, Uday beat Gegeo to death with a club in full view of guests at a high-society party, according to some reports. Other reports said Uday killed Gegeo with an electric carving knife.

Uday had once been a strong candidate to succeed his father, but he was badly injured in 1996 in an assassination attempt by gunmen who opened fire as he drove his red Porsche through Baghdad. The attack left Uday with a bullet in his spine that forced him to walk with a cane. Younger brother Qusay was instead groomed to succeed Saddam, worsening already uneasy relations between the two brothers.

Uday owned Iraq's most widely circulated daily newspaper, Babil, which he used as a platform for regime propaganda, publishing signed editorials full of bombastic rhetoric. He also oversaw Al-Zawra, a weekly published by the journalists union that he headed, and owned the popular Youth TV.

Much of Uday notoriety abroad stemmed from his position as head of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee, which was accused of torturing and jailing athletes.

The London-based human rights group Indict said the committee once made a group of track athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were beaten and threw some of them off a bridge. Indict also said Uday ran a special prison for athletes who offended him. The International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, said earlier this year that it was investigating the allegations.

Outbursts of violence
One defector told Indict that jailed soccer players were forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the 1994 World Cup finals. Another defector said athletes were dragged through a gravel pit and then dunked in a sewage tank so infection would set in.

Army officers also were fair game for Uday's outbursts of violence. In 1983, Uday reportedly bashed an army officer unconscious when the man refused to allow Uday to dance with his wife. The officer later died. Uday also shot an army officer who did not salute him.

Things were hardly better on the family front, where relations between Uday and his uncles were especially bad. Uday reportedly divorced the daughter of one uncle, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, in 1995 after she complained of being beaten. Uday shot and wounded another uncle, Watban Ibrahim Hasan. Both uncles were captured after the war and are in the custody of U.S. coalition forces.

While millions of Iraqis suffered dire poverty, Uday lived a life of fast cars, expensive liquor and easy women. When U.S. troops captured his mansion in Baghdad, they found a personal zoo with lions and cheetahs, an underground parking garage for his collection of luxury cars, Cuban cigars with his name on the wrapper, and $1 million in fine wines, liquor -- and even heroin.

Uday's obsession with sex was evident everywhere: The house was adorned with paintings of naked women and photographs of prostitutes taken off the Internet, complete with handwritten ratings of each.

There were bags and boxes of pills and medicines everywhere -- ginseng sexual fortifiers, heartburn medication, the anti-depressant Prozac -- and an Accu-Rite HIV Antibodies Screening Test Kit was in Uday's office.

Nearby was a domed house believed to be the residence of Uday's concubines, a bastion of bad taste with statuettes of couples in foreplay, couches with fluffy pillows and a swimming pool with a bar.

[justme23]

Originally posted by Xica
Wasn't that a little too quick?

My thoughts exactly... they ALL had atleast 6 body doubles (dad and the 2 kids) so I will not believe this until I see dna evidence. I would like to be able to but they 'confirmed' sadam was dead when they blew a bomb through that house however long ago and now they believe he's still alive.

[Widgetsx3]

No-one confirmed Sadaam had died, they believed he may have been in the house, but no-one said for sure. Tomorrow, they say the proof will come.