MOSUL, July 25: Sunnis in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday slammed the heavy-handed US tactics used here that led to the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons, and expressed disgust at the Americans.
The streets of this northern Iraqi city, thrust onto the international stage when Qusay and Uday Hussein were killed on Tuesday, were calm just days afterward, but many in the majority Sunni community, including religious leaders, continue to berate the American actions.
“What the Americans have done is barbaric. If the Americans wanted to arrest Uday and Qusay, they could have done so,” Sheikh Abdul Jawad Mohammed Saqr told the faithful during Friday prayers at Bashar Karandar mosque, opposite the shell of the mansion where the brothers made their last stand.
“But they did it this way because they want to hide some of the facts.”
The sheikh also issued a thinly-veiled call for resistance against the US occupation, ridiculing the people of Mosul for their passivity.
“We need more women from Fallujah to make us stand up and act,” he said, referring to the flashpoint Sunni town west of Baghdad where attacks against US troops have been a daily occurrence.
“Some say do not fight. Some say do not resist. Until when? Until now we have not seen any resistance,” he said.
A joint Iraq-US military team was seen inspecting the house’s structural foundation to determine whether they would need to demolish the building, which was struck by a barrage of US missiles during the raid, a US sergeant said.
“America came here and flexed its muscles in front of the world. They could only get (Uday and Qusay) out by using their airplanes and tanks,” Saqr said.
He also said a neighbour was shot dead by US troops, contradicting US Central Command’s account that there was no collateral damage in the raid.
“They killed one, and wounded four, and then the Americans say they did not shoot anybody.”
The US military has stressed it went in with guns and missiles in Mosul only after repeated attempts to negotiate with the occupants of the house, and following a subsequent shootout in which four US soldiers were wounded.—AFP