IRAQ: PUBLIC REACTION AFTER JOURNALISTS SEE AND FILM ALLEGED BODIES OF UDAY AND QUSAY HUSSEIN KILLED IN MOSUL SHOOTOUT WITH US TROOPS

Record ID: 647965

  • Title: IRAQ: PUBLIC REACTION AFTER JOURNALISTS SEE AND FILM ALLEGED BODIES OF UDAY AND QUSAY HUSSEIN KILLED IN MOSUL SHOOTOUT WITH US TROOPS
  • Date: 25th July 2003
  • Summary: (W5) MILITARY MORGUE, BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 25, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF MORGUE WITH SIGN 0.05 2. SLV PEOPLE FILING INTO TENT 0.14 3. VARIOUS OF BODY ALLEGEDLY OF UDAY WITH LEG BROKEN (2 SHOTS) 0.27 4. SCU FACE OF BODY ALLEGEDLY OF UDAY 0.33 5. GV UPPER PART OF BODY ALLEGED TO BE UDAY 0.37 6. CLOSE OF LEGS OF BODY ALLEGEDLY OF UDAY AND PAN TO FACE 0.43 7. GV BODY ALLEGEDLY OF QUSAY 0.48 8. SCU FACE OF BODY ALLEGEDLY OF QUSAY AND PULL-OUT TO BODY 1.01 9. SCU FACE OF BODY ALLEGED TO BE QUSAY 1.06 10. CLOSE/ PULLIUT OF BODY ALLEGEDLY OF UDAY 1.20 11. PAN FROM BODY ALLEGEDLY OF UDAY TO BODY ALLEGEDLY OF QUSAY 1.32 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOURNALIST ANDREW MARSHALL SAYING: "Well, the bodies are easily recognisable, but that's because they have been reconstructed by the U.S. officials working there, but they have made the faces look just like they did when they were alive, so for that reason the bodies look like Uday and Qusay. It could still leave doubt in Iraqi's minds weather or not it is Uday or Qusay, because they have been cosmetically enhanced to look that way." 1.57 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CAMERAMAN HASSAN FALAH SAYING: "I can recognise the bodies of Uday and Qusay, I can recognise them. Uday has serious injuries. Yes, yes, yes, they are Uday and Qusay." 2.12 (W5) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 25, 2003) (REUTERS- ACCESS ALL) 14. VARIOUS, PEOPLE WATCHING TV AS VIDEO OF THE BODIES SAID TO BE UDAY AND QUSAY IS BROADCAST (3 SHOTS) 2.21 15. CLOSE OF TELEVISION SCREEN SHOWING VIDEO OF ALLEGED BODY OF UDAY 2.23 16. WIDE OF MEN WATCHING TV 2.28 17. SCU SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IRAQI CITIZEN HUSSEIN ABID SAYING: "As the Iraqi information network has said, these are not pictures of Uday and Qusay." 2.38 18. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABU RIVAN, AN IRAQI CITIZEN SAYING: "What we have seen on al-Jazeera Satellite Channel of the pictures of the bodies of Uday and Qusay is true. They are Uday and Qusay. Their history is very clear to the people, 90 per cent of the people are pleased." 3.03 19. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOHAMMED ALI SALMAN SAYING: "It is true that he is Uday. I was pleased when I saw him (Uday) and we got rid of him and by the will of God, a new government will be formed. We hope we will live in security." 3.19 (W5) FALLUJA, 60 KM WEST OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 25, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 20. WIDE OF SHEIKH MAKI HUSSEIN ADDRESSING FRIDAY PRAYERS 3.25 21. WIDE OF PEOPLE BOWING IN PRAYER 3.32 22. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SHEIKH MAKI HUSSEIN, IMAM OF ABDUL-AZIZ MOSQUE, SAYING: "Only the people who suffered under them (Uday and Qusay) can decide whether they deserve this treatment or not, it should be left to the Iraqi people. If the oppression is repeated it (the United States) fails our expectations." 3.58 23. WIDE OF PEOPLE AT FRIDAY PRAYERS 4.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD AND FALLUJA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA7OJA36WSA7ULMQH5ZOHUYYV04
  • Story Text: Striving to convince fearful Iraqis that Saddam
    Hussein's sons are dead, U.S. officials have shown Reuters and
    other journalists two bodies that Washington says it is
    certain are those of Uday and Qusay.

    Iraqis have watched Arabic news stations for evidence that
    Uday and Qusay Hussein were killed by U.S. forces and
    expressed mostly relief.



    Unlike the grisly, blood spattered photographs
    published by the U.S. military earlier, the faces shown on
    Friday (July 25) had been touched up and shaved to make them
    more closely resemble the brothers in life -- a U.S. official
    insisted the aim was not to deceive.

    About 15 journalists saw two corpses laid out in a tented
    military morgue. They did look like the two brothers, whom
    U.S. troops said they killed in a raid in Mosul on Tuesday
    (July 22).

    The face of Uday, 39, had been repaired. The U.S. pictures
    showed wounds that officers said were sustained in the siege
    of a villa in Mosul, where he and his 37-year-old brother went
    down fighting an overwhelming force firing rockets.

    Qusay's uncharacteristic beard, visible in the original
    U.S. photographs, had been shaved off but a moustache, which
    he normally wore, had been left. The gaping wound in Uday's
    face, visible in the pictures, was gone but a hole in the top
    of his head was still visible to reporters.

    "Well, the bodies are easily recognisable, but that's
    because they have been reconstructed by the U.S. officials
    working there, but they have made the faces look just like
    they did when they were alive, so for that reason the bodies
    look like Uday and Qusay," Reuters correspondent Andrew
    Marshall said.

    And Reuters cameraman Hassan Falah added: "I can recognise
    the bodies of Uday and Qusay, I can recognise them. Uday has
    serious injuries. Yes, yes, yes, they are Uday and Qusay."
    U.S. officials have yet to decide how the bodies will be
    disposed of, another possible controversy in the light of
    strict Muslim traditions on burial.

    Iraqis in Baghdad expressed their relief and joy over the
    killing of Uday and Qusay, sons of the ousted Saddam Hussein
    who ruled the country for 35 years.

    "As far as I'm concerned, the pictures of (bodies of Uday
    and Qusay) are correct. But the youth are sceptical, saying
    that this could be made in computers. I am fully confident
    that the pictures are true," said Baghdad resident Khadim
    Hussein.

    "Of course, the pictures are true. I think that they are
    of Uday and Qusay. ... The Iraqi people wished their killing,"
    added resident Umaid Abdullah.

    Sheikh Maki Hussein, Imam of the Sunni Sheikh Abdul-Aziz
    mosque in the volatile town of Falluja, said that punishment
    of Uday and Qusay should have been left to Iraqis.

    "Only the people who suffered under them (Uday and Qusay)
    can decide whether they deserve this treatment or not, it
    should be left to the Iraqi people. If the oppression is
    repeated it (the United States) fails our expectations," said
    Sheikh Maki Hussein.


    us/ds
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