July 26, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1424

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BAGHDAD, Iraq July 25: US military morticians and forensic pathologists on Friday showed reporters the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein and said each body contained more than 20 bullet wounds.

The bodies had been prepared for funeral viewing by US military morticians, with their faces partially restored. The two sons of Saddam Hussein were trapped and killed inside a villa in Mosul on Tuesday.

US authorities said they had sent tissue samples from both bodies — taken from bone and muscle — to a military lab in Washington for DNA testing.

Both brothers had multiple scrapes, abrasions and burns. Uday was believed to have died from a blow to the head. Qusay had two bullet wounds to his head, in and just behind his right ear, doctors and medical officials said. They said they did not think the wounds were self-inflicted.

US officials said the bodies would be kept under refrigeration at Baghdad International Airport until a family member came forward to claim them.

The US civil administration in Iraq was still talking to the country’s Governing Council about how to preserve the bodies according to Islamic custom.

US medical personnel told reporters they had treated the bodies with the same respect they would have accorded any other corpse. A final report on their deaths was expected in the next four to six weeks, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Surgeons removed the metal rod that was placed in one of Uday’s legs during a reconstructive surgery after a 1996 assassination attempt and displayed it to reporters. They said the serial and model number on the eight-inch rod matched data they had about it.

Medical authorities said the autopsies showed both brothers were in good health. The authorities were awaiting toxicology reports.—APP