Insurgents remain a threat in Iraq ( 2003-07-26 16:22) (Agencies)
As Iraqis debated whether video footage of Saddam Hussein's dead sons was
authentic, explosions and gunfire rang out in Baghdad Saturday, another reminder
that attacks by insurgents remain a threat. No US soldiers were reported killed,
a military spokesman said
Brig. Ahmed Kadum, 56, the superintendent of
Iraq's national police academy, is treated for a
gunshot wound to his leg at a Baghdad hospital, Sunday, July 26, 2003. He
was leading a raid of police officers against suspected hijackers and
kidnappers early Saturday morning when he was shot. Five other policemen
were wounded, one critically. Police arrested five men after the raid.
[AP]
In Baghdad's al-Shoala
neighborhood, the commander of Iraq's national police academy was wounded in a
raid against suspected carjackers, police told The Associated Press.
It's not uncommon to hear gunfire and explosions in Baghdad during the night,
and the military had no details about the incidents Saturday morning. There were
also reports that shots were fired along the main highway leading to the
northern city of Mosul, where Saddam's sons Odai and Qusai were killed Tuesday,
but details weren't immediately available.
Iraq. Brig. Ahmed Kadhim, 56, was shot around 1 a.m. while leading a police
raid, said his assistant, Capt. Mushtak Fadhil.
He said several Iraqi police were trying to arrest five suspected carjackers
when shots were fired. None of the police were killed but Kadhim was shot in the
right calf and taken to a hospital and later released. Five other policemen were
wounded, including one critically.
Fadhil said the five were arrested.
Baghdadis have complained that kidnappings, car thefts and carjackings are
getting worse in the city, which is patrolled by Iraqi police, many of whom
carry sidearms.
Iraqis continued to debate whether videotape of the brothers released Friday
would convince people of their deaths. Both bodies were displayed to journalists
in a further attempt by American occupation authorities to prove that the two
are really dead.
The newspaper Azzaman wrote about the bodies, but pointed out that few Iraqi
journalists were allowed to see the brothers.
Arab satellite media and CNN broadcast images of the bodies throughout Iraq
and the Arab world. The corpses appeared markedly changed from the autopsy-style
photographs released a day earlier. The thick beards - grown, officials said,
during 3 1/2 months on the run - were shaved and trimmed, their faces rebuilt
and a gash gone from the face of the body identified as Odai.
The display appeared to be a calculated gamble by coalition authorities, who
may have produced more convincing evidence but who also offended Muslims in Iraq
and elsewhere by altering the bodies and delaying burial.
"Showing dead and deformed bodies on TV is not acceptable," said Amer Ahmed
al-Azawi, a 55-year-old Baghdad merchant. "But the Americans are criminals and
unbelievers. We got rid of one tyrant and we ended up with a bigger one."
Hamza Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front in neighboring
Jordan, said the display violated Islamic custom.
"The bodies of Odai and Qusai should have been washed, shrouded and buried
immediately, but the Americans have no respect for our traditions and doctrine
and they acted in a very unethical manner," he said.
US officials say Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, were killed Tuesday in a gunbattle
with US troops, who raided a villa in the northern city of Mosul, directed there
by an Iraqi tipster. Two other Iraqis in the house also were killed.
