US tells Iraqis: Saddam's feared sons are dead

Former aides to Saddam Hussein as well as medical and dental records confirmed the ousted dictator's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a gunbattle with American troops, the US commander in Iraq said yesterday.

But ambushes that killed two US soldiers dented any US hopes that the elimination of Saddam's feared sons would also snuff out a guerilla insurgency against occupying forces and ease ordinary Iraqis' fears of cooperating with the troops.

An audio tape, purportedly by Saddam and aired by Al Arabiya television, urged Iraqis to keep fighting US forces. The tape was dated July 20 - two days before Uday and Qusay were killed in a six-hour gunbattle at a villa in Mosul.

President George W. Bush said the deaths of the brothers would reassure Iraqis that Saddam's rule was over for good.

"Saddam Hussein's sons were responsible for torture, maiming and murder of countless Iraqis. Now more than ever all Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and will not be coming back," he said.

Many Iraqis said they wanted proof the brothers were dead. A US official in Washington told Reuters there were plans to release photographs of the bodies to dispel any scepticism.

"We have no doubt that we have the bodies of Uday and Qusay," Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad.

Central Command said US troops had also captured Barzan Abd Ghafur Sulayman al-Tikriti, a cousin of Saddam who led the Special Republican Guard. He was number 11 on a list of 55 most- wanted Iraqis, 37 of whom have now been caught or killed.