Many Iraqis wish Saddam's feared sons had been taken alive

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqis said Wednesday they wished American forces had captured Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai alive, so the two could stand trial, face their victims and suffer punishment for the horrors they inflicted on Iraq.

The two sons, known for brutality and lavish living, were killed in a four-hour gun battle with U.S. forces Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul. They had been on the run, as has their father, since the capital fell to American forces April 9.

"We are happy for this, but we hoped that they would have been captured instead of killed so that they could have been tried by the Iraqi people," said Jassim Jabar, a 22-year-old tailor. "I hope Saddam will face the same fate soon."

In the streets of the ancient Iraqi capital, with the temperature rising toward 122 degrees in the dead of summer, residents from shop owners to politicians to athletes said they felt relief tinged with anxiety.

Others didn't believe the Americans had finally run the brothers to ground.

Ali Ra'ad al-Nasseri, 20, who claimed to be a former member of Odai Hussein's Saddam Fedayeen militia, said he didn't believe the brothers were dead.

"It's a big lie," said the visibly angry college student. "They didn't kill them."

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, acknowledged the need to prove to the Iraqi people that the sons were killed. He told reporters Wednesday that American officials would provide proof "in due time."

Safa al-Qaisi, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said he was glad, but the deaths denied Iraqis justice and revenge.

"The Iraqi people would liked to have seen the bodies of the two dead brothers shown on TV," he said. "The people would be happier if they saw Saddam captured and shown on TV."

The bodies of Odai and Qusai — long feared by most Iraqis for their roles in the military and intelligence arms of Saddam's brutal dictatorship — were taken to the Baghdad International Airport base of American forces Wednesday to be flown out of the country, U.S. officials said. They would not say why the bodies were being taken out of Iraq or to where.

U.S. officials have said they will conduct DNA tests on the bodies. Sanchez said dental records, x-rays and four former senior figures in Saddam's regime had confirmed that the bodies of two suspects killed in the Mosul shootout were Odai and Qusai's.