CAIRO: The death of Saddam Hussein’s two sons at the hands of US forces will not stop the anti-US guerrilla war in Iraq, which is led by factions with different motivations, Arab analysts said Wednesday.

“The US administration is wrong to think that the murders of Saddam Hussein’s sons or of Saddam will bring an end to the armed resistance against the occupation,” Egyptian political analyst Mustafa Kamel al-Said said. “The reasons for antagonism remain, there is no foreseeable withdrawal of US troops, living conditions are still bad, and the Americans are vetoing any political forces they deem unacceptable,” Said told AFP.

Uday and Qusay Hussein died in a lengthy gunbattle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, leading Iraq’s top US administrator Paul Bremer to express the hope that this would reduce the number of guerrilla-style attacks against US troops.

“A lot of the attacks are being based on the idea that somehow that Saddam is coming back, well they’re not coming back and now two of them are dead and it won’t be long until we get the father,” Bremer told ABC news on Tuesday.

Algerian analyst Hasni Abidi said he believed such attacks “are launched spontaneously (by individuals) with no ideological links to Saddam Hussein.”

“It is a reaction of nationalism, vengeance, national or community pride, in a situation where there is a lack of political perspective,” said Abidi, who directs the Geneva-based CERMAM research center on the Arab world.

Abidi expressed surprise that US forces did not arrest instead of kill Uday and Qusay. “The Iraqis were expecting them to be sent for trial before a local court, which the United States said would be set up.”

“With their deaths, another key to understanding the regime has disappeared,” he added.

The top US military commander General Ricardo Sanchez, said on Wednesday it was the decision of the commander at the scene to launch the massive assault on the house where Saddam’s sons were holed up, adding that it was the right decision.

Lebanese analyst Antoine Basbous agreed with Bremer’s view, saying “attacks by militants close to Saddam will decrease, because they will have lost hope” that the Iraqi strongman could ever return to power.—AFP