Saddam's sons dead
By Kris Osborn
CNN Headline News
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Uday, left, and Qusay Hussein were among those killed Tuesday in a firefight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Pentagon officials say.
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(CNN) -- Central Command officials tell CNN that an operation in the area of Mosul on Tuesday involving the 101st Airborne Division and special operations forces resulted in the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein.
Before that announcement, U.S. military officials were cautious about saying whether Uday and Qusay, Nos. 2 and 3 on Central Command's list of most-wanted Iraqi leaders, were in fact killed in the operation, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
"We've had disappointment before," the official said.
Additional efforts will be made to confirm the identity of the remains. CNN has learned that DNA samples will be brought to the United States for analysis.
According to U.S. military sources, "DNA is the way to go. We have DNA samples of the Hussein family, and you can bet nobody is stalling on this."
However, before Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's official announcement that the two sons had been killed, officials were clear that, regardless of the results of the operation, the hunt for former Iraqi regime leaders is far from over.
A U.S. military spokesman said, "Even if we got them, we are still out looking for more enemy forces and personalities. After all, Qusay and Uday have had 20 years to develop clones. Evil, like-minded clones will likely step in [in] an attempt to consolidate power through criminality."
As for the impact, military officials believe that killing Qusay and Uday will disrupt the chain of command with the remaining Baath party loyalists and paramilitary Saddam Fedayeen fighters. Uday, described by U.S. military officials as violent and ruthless, ran the paramilitary group.
At the same time, coalition officials say they are certain that Saddam loyalists and Baath party members remain a large and threatening force in Iraq.
One U.S. official said, "The heads of the Baath party have billions of billions of dollars, jewels, trailers filled with money and secret bank accounts. The coalition has probably just scraped the tip of the iceberg. The Hussein family is the Arab mafia of the country. There are about 25,000 people in the Tikriti clan, all of them with their hand in the pie. Nepotism is how they controlled the family, and most of the clan is blood relatives."
