Now hunt is on for Saddam Hussein

Iraqis reading the news July 23 in Baghdad of the deaths of fallen dictator Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, symbols of the old regime's cruelty, who died in a blistering six-hour battle with US troops Tuesday. The source who provided US troops with information placing Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, in a house in the northern city of Mosul, is under US protection, the US military said. Photo: AFP

Celebratory shots rang out in Baghdad overnight, but skeptical Iraqis said they wanted proof of the deaths.

Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said he would provide evidence to show beyond doubt that the two men had been killed when 200 soldiers backed up by helicopters attacked the villa in Mosul Tuesday.

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He told a news conference late Tuesday that the deaths of Uday and Qusay -- tracked down after a tip-off from a walk-in informant who stands to gain at least some of the two $15 million rewards for information on their whereabouts -- showed that Saddam himself could not hide forever.

"It confirms that we will succeed in our hunt for former regime members, and in particular Saddam Hussein, wherever they are and however long it takes," he said.

Sanchez said the killings of Uday, 39, and Qusay, two years younger, would also deal a blow to guerrillas who have staged a wave of attacks and ambushes on US forces in Iraq, claiming the lives of 39 American soldiers since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

Paul Bremer, the US administrator of Iraq, said there was a risk of revenge attacks by Saddam loyalists.

"We could see attacks in the next few days as revenge. But you have to remember that a lot of the attacks that are taking place are being based on the idea that somehow the Saddams are coming back, that he and his sons are coming back," he said.

"Well, they're not coming back. But now two of them are dead. It won't be long before we get the father."

Many Iraqis still doubted Saddam's sons were dead.

"I don't believe they are dead because Saddam would never let his sons travel together," said Nasheet Chalabi, who owns a grocery shop in Mosul.

US officials have blamed die-hard Saddam loyalists for the guerrilla insurgency against American forces.

But other groups have also claimed responsibility for the attacks, distancing themselves from Saddam's secular Iraqi nationalism and embracing the Islamist, anti-American slogans of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Wamidh Nazmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University, said the killings would not end guerrilla attacks.

"I do not think that Saddam and his two sons are a very important part of the resistance...and if they have any role it is a minimal one," he said. "So I don't think the deaths of the sons of the former president will affect the resistance, nor even the death of Saddam himself."

Uday and Qusay were not noticeably close in life, but they went down fighting side by side in the violent tradition of their clan. Barricading themselves into the villa, they resisted US troops for several sweltering hours.

Two other bodies removed from the villa were a grandson of Saddam and an aide of Uday, a US official said.

Their deaths will be a boost to Bush. He has been under pressure over mounting US casualties and the failure to find any of the chemical, biological or nuclear weapons he used to justify war despite widespread international opposition.

Bush himself welcomed their deaths as "positive news."

His closest Iraq war ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair who is also under heavy fire over the conflict, said the deaths marked a "great day for the new Iraq."