Saddam tape vows revenge

7.30am

DUBAI - An audiotape purportedly from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein aired on al Arabiya television on Tuesday said his two sons Uday and Qusay had died as martyrs for Iraq.


"If Saddam Hussein had 100 sons, he would have offered them on the same path which is the path of jihad," the tape said.


"I mourn to you the deaths of Uday and Qusay and those who struggled with them. You are the honour of this nation," it said. "America will be defeated."

This came as the Pentagon said today it had no information to confirm financial market rumours that US forces in Iraq had captured deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.



A Reuters correspondent familiar with Saddam's voice said the tape sounded like Saddam, whose whereabouts have been unknown since US-led forces toppled him in April.


The CIA has said that at least one of the previous tapes purporting to be from Saddam is likely to have been genuine. Saddam's feared sons Uday and Qusay were killed by US forces in a fierce gunbattle last Tuesday in the northern city of Mosul along with a 14-year-old boy thought to be Qusay's son and one other person. "They all died martyrs in the name of jihad," the voice said, adding that every fighter for jihad, which means holy war, would desire to die in the same way as his sons.


"God is great," was repeated several times in the tape purporting to be from the deposed president who came to power at the head of the strongly secular Baath party.


"Glory to the martyrs of the nation. Long live our nation, long live Iraq. Long live Palestine and let the Zionists be defeated," he said.


The voice on the tape said US President George W Bush and his ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, should not think they had dealt him a personal blow in killing Uday, Qusay and Qusay's son Mustafa. "If you (think you) have killed Uday and Qusay and Mustafa we tell you that these are the youth of our nation who died in the name of jihad," he said.


"Let the two liars and their aides and their sons be also defeated," the voice said. Saddam has often used the phrase "the two liars" to refer to Bush and Blair.


At the end of the tape the voice signed off with the words July 2003.


Meanwhile Lt. Gen Norton Schwartz told a Pentagon news conference that he had no information on a rumour that Saddam Hussein had been captured.


"The short answer is I have no information on that. None," Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz told a Pentagon news conference. "I have no such information," he added.

US officials have said they are closing in on Saddam after carrying out a series of raids in Iraq which have netted key figures loyal to the deposed dictator, including a top bodyguard.

- REUTERS

Reuters translation of excerpts from Saddam tape


Photos: The bodies

Herald Feature: Iraq