US releases photographs of dead men

9.30am

UPDATE - BAGHDAD - The US military has released photographs showing what it says are the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in an effort to prove to sceptical Iraqis that the feared brothers are dead.

Officers in Baghdad released two mortuary pictures said to be the upper body and head of Uday, 39, and two of Qusay, 37, along with comparative pictures of the brothers when they were alive and X-ray slides apparently used to help identify Uday.

The pictures showed the bodies of the two men lying face up on plastic sheeting. Earlier, military officials showed Reuters initial pictures showing Uday had been wounded in the face.

Uday and Qusay were reported killed on Tuesday when 200 US troops attacked their hideout in Mosul with helicopters, grenades, heavy machineguns and anti-tank missiles.

Military officers said Uday appeared to have been killed by a bullet in the head, but it was not yet known whether he had been shot by US soldiers or had committed suicide.

Many Iraqis had said they would not believe Uday and Qusay were really dead until they saw proof.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was glad he decided to release photographs of the bullet-torn bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons.

He said making the pictures public would help convince frightened Iraqis that Saddam's rule was over and that far outweighed any sensitivities over showing the corpses.

Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer, the US civil administrator in Iraq, told reporters the release of the pictures did not violate the Geneva Conventions, and they hoped the deaths of the sons of Iraq's still-missing former president could reduce the number of attacks on US troops in unsettled Iraq.

Asked whether he believed the Iraqi people would believe the evidence, Bremer said, "I think we can anticipate there will be, as there always are, programmes of disinformation put out by others. But I think most of them will believe that they're dead."

Bremer said the photographs are being shown on a US-run television station in Iraq that reaches at least 60 per cent of Iraqis.

But many Iraqis could not see them because of power cuts plaguing the country. It didn't seem to matter because Iraqis said photographs alone were not enough to prove Uday and Qusay were dead.

On Thursday some Iraqis demanded the corpses be dragged through the streets as proof the feared brothers were dead.

Iraqis never imagined that years of terror would ever end. So it comes as no surprise that they will not rest easy without even more evidence.

"We will believe they are dead when Uday and Qusay's bodies are tied to cars and dragged through the streets so everybody can see them," said Muhammad, an engineer.

Spokesmen for the US-led administration in Baghdad said some of the 25 members of the Governing Council, a US-appointed body intended to bring a measure of self-rule, were being shown the bodies on Thursday afternoon.

They said the US military hoped the Council members would help them persuade their compatriots that Saddam's family could never return to power.

The Council members were also being consulted on what should be done with the bodies.

- REUTERS