US displays bodies of Saddam sons

Thre are still lingering doubts that the brothers are really dead

The United States military has allowed TV journalists into a morgue in Iraq to film two bodies said to be Uday and Qusay Hussein, in another attempt to convince Iraqis the men are really dead.

Earlier US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the release of graphic pictures showing the mutilated bodies of the men the US says are Saddam Hussein's sons.

But even this has left lingering doubts among some Iraqis that two of the old regime's most feared men were killed when US forces raided a house in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday.

On Friday US military morticians and forensic pathologists told journalists that each body contained more than 20 bullet wounds, but there was no evidence the men committed suicide.

The bodies had undergone post-mortem "facial reconstruction", officials told Reuters.

HAVE YOUR SAY The showing of the pictures of Saddam's dead sons was necessary Martyn Roberts, UK Send us your comments World media reaction

There had been much debate in Washington over releasing the photos, as the US does not usually publish pictures of dead combatants and objected when dead US troops were shown on the Al-Jazeera TV channel during the war.

Mr Rumsfeld said the publication of pictures would save American and coalition lives and prove that Iraq's former rulers would not return.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Washington says some Pentagon generals found the release "repugnant".

Mr Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday that the decision had not been easy.

However, he said, "it's important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they're gone, to know they're dead and to know they're not coming back".

"I feel it was the right decision and I'm glad I made it," the defence secretary added.

After the pictures were shown on Arabic satellite television channels, cars in Baghdad could be heard honking their horns and there was a sustained burst of gunfire.

Doubt

Iraqis began to express doubt about the photos within an hour of their being released, the Associated Press news agency reported from Baghdad.

"I'm not convinced the pictures are of Uday and Qusay," accountant Shant Agob, 37, told the agency after seeing the pictures on CNN.

Images which the US says show Saddam Hussein's sons are dead. (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

In pictures

"Even if they are, I'm not happy. I would have been happy if they were captured alive and brought to justice before the Iraqi people," he said.

Other Iraqis also were sceptical, from barbers to a former head of Iraqi military intelligence who defected to the opposition.

But several people in Baghdad told the BBC they were convinced by the pictures.

They were released on a CD-Rom that included two pictures of each brother, plus images of them when they were alive and X-ray slides.

One photograph appears to show Qusay lying in a plastic body bag that has been opened at the top.

He has a heavy beard, either as a disguise or because he was on the run, and his face is heavily bloodied, our correspondent says.

The photograph of Uday shows a similarly bearded man with a scar or discolouration running along his face - which might support some coalition claims that he tried to take his own life or did take his own life rather than be captured.