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| Qusay Hussein | |
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| Born | May 17, 1966 Tikrit, Iraq |
| Died | July 22, 2003 (aged 37) Mosul, Iraq |
| Children | Three sons[1], one of them: Mustapha Hussein |
| Parents | Saddam Hussein Sajida Talfah |
| Relatives | Uday Hussein, brother |
Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti (Arabic: قصي صدام حسين) (or Qusai) (May 17, 1966 – July 22, 2003) was the second son of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000.
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Family
Qusay's older brother Uday Hussein had been seen as the heir until his serious injuries in an assassination attempt in 1996. Unlike Uday, who was known for extravagance, Qusay Hussein kept a low profile. Qusay was married to the daughter of a top ranking military official and had three sons;[2] one of whom was killed alongside his father in the shootout with US troops, the other two are presumably alive but their whereabouts are unknown. [3]
Before the 2003 invasion
It is believed that until the 2003 invasion of Iraq Qusay was head of the internal security forces, possibly the Special Security Organization (SSO) and had some authority over the elite Iraqi Republican Guard as its supervisor and other Iraqi military units.[citation needed]
Qusay Hussein played a vital leading role in crushing the Shiite uprising in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and is also thought to have masterminded the destruction of the southern marshes of Iraq. The wholesale destruction of these marshes ruined the habitat for dozens of species of migratory birds, and ended a centuries-old way of life that prevailed among the Shiite Marsh Arabs who made the wetlands their home: the Iraqi government stated that the action was intended to produce usable farmland, while a number of outside observers felt that the destruction was aimed against the Marsh Arabs, as retribution for their participation in the 1991 uprising.[citation needed]
Iraqi dissidents claim that Qusay Hussein was responsible for the killing of many political activists. The Sunday Times (London) reported that Qusay Hussein ordered the killing of Khalis Mohsen al-Tikriti, an engineer at the military industrialization organization, because Qusay believed he was planning to leave Iraq. In 1998, Iraqi opposition groups accused Qusay Hussein of ordering the executions of thousands of political prisoners after hundreds of inmates were summarily executed to make room for new prisoners in crowded jails.[citation needed]
In response to an imminent US invasion, in March 2003 Saddam, gave Qusay the order to defend the Baghdad-Tikrit area, one of four military zones of Iraq. On March 17, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush gave Qusay Hussein 48 hours to leave the country with his brother Uday and father Saddam, or face war.[citation needed]
Death
On July 22, 2003, troops of the American 65th MP CO Airborne, aided by U.S. Special Forces, killed Qusay,his 14 year old son Mustapha and his older brother Uday during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Acting on a tip from an unidentified Iraqi, a special forces team attempted to apprehend the inhabitants of the house. After being fired on, the special forces moved back and called for backup. As many as 200 American troops, later aided by Apache helicopters and an A-10 "Warthog" close air support aircraft, surrounded and fired on the house. After about four hours of battle (the operation itself lasted 6 hours), the soldiers entered the house and found four dead, including the brothers and their bodyguard. There were reports that Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustapha was the last one to die in the battle. Brig. Gen. Frank Helmick, the assistant commander of 101st Airborne has commented that all occupants of the home were dead before U.S troops entered the home after the fierce gun battle.[4]
On July 23, 2003, the American command said that it had conclusively identified two of the dead men as Saddam Hussein's sons, using dental records. Because many Iraqis were skeptical about news of the deaths the US government released photos of the corpses and allowed Iraq's governing council to identify the bodies despite the US's objection to the publication of American corpses on Arab television[5]. They also announced that the informant, possibly the owner of the house, would receive the combined $30 million reward on the pair.[6]
The owner of the house where the brothers were killed was provided with U.S. citizenship and thereby allowed to depart from Iraq. In a likely revenge attack, his brother was killed in 2004 by unknown assassins.[citation needed]
Qusay was the ace of clubs in the coalition forces' most-wanted Iraqi playing cards, close to his father.
Notes
- ^ CTV.ca | Who were Uday and Qusay Hussein?
- ^ http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20030722/uday_qusay_030722/ CTV.ca Who were Uday and Qusay Hussein?
- ^ http://www.rferl.org/specials/iraqcrisis/kusaj-bio.asp War in Iraq ]
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31549-2003Jul22?language=printer
- ^ a b "U.S. releases photos said to show Saddam's sons' bodies". July 24, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/24/sprj.irq.sons/index.html. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
- ^ "Iraq informant set for $30m reward". CNN. July 23, 2000. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/23/sprj.irq.reward/index.html. Retrieved 2008-12-15. "Uday, 39, and Qusay, 37, had a U.S. government bounty of $15 million each for information leading to their arrest or proof they had been killed. When asked why the informant was in protective custody, the officer involved in the raid said: "People around here know who owned the house.""
See also
External links
- Gulf News: Qusay given key role in war plans, 17-03-2003
- GlobalSecurity.org: Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
- BBC News: Saddam's rival sons, 10 September 2002
- BBC News: Saddam's hated sons, 23 July 2003
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