Iraqis watch a broadcast purporting to be an audio message from toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on the Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya, at a hotel in Baghdad. Photo by AFP
An Arab satellite TV aired what it said was a Saddam Hussein tape mourning his "martyred" sons Uday and Qusay on Tuesday, as a US-backed Governing Council opted for a rotating presidency in the new Iraq. "We thank God for honoring us with their martyrdom" after a "valiant battle with the enemy lasting six hours," said the voice on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television purported to be of the ousted president. The voice said the brothers as well as Saddam's teenage grandson had set an example for the entire Arab world. "All the youth of our nation and all the youth of Iraq (will follow) Uday, Qusay and Mustafa in the arenas of jihad," it said, using the Islamic term for holy war. The tape acknowledging the deaths came exactly a week after Uday and Qusay, the latter's teenage son Mustafa and a bodyguard were killed in a massive US raid on a villa in which they were holed up in the northern city of Mosul.