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Uday: The wild one

2003-07-22 20:24
line

Baghdad - Saddam Hussein's wild son Uday, a hated figure who narrowly escaped a 1996 assassination bid, is believed to have finally reached the end of road in a US raid on Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

He was thought to have been killed along with his younger brother Qusay when US forces attacked their hideout in a Mosul home, relatives of the house owner and a local official said. The White House declined to confirm the deaths.

Uday, who commanded the Fedayeen militia, was ranked "ace of hearts" in the US army's pack of cards of 55 most wanted Iraqis in the aftermath of war, while Qusay was "ace of clubs" and Saddam himself the "ace of spades".

The United States in early July offered a reward of 15 million dollars for information leading to the capture of Saddam's two fugitive sons, while a $25m bounty was placed on the ousted president's head.

The tall, bearded 37-year-old Uday earnt a wild-child reputation in his youth but assumed a lower profile and sought to add gravitas to his image after being elected an MP for Baghdad in 2000.

The aborted metamorphosis from wild child to a more serious but still flamboyant politician started after he was left for dead on a Baghdad street when unknown attackers riddled his body with bullets in December 1996.

Brute power

It took months of operations before Uday finally recovered the use of his legs. The attack left Uday partly paralysed and he still walked with a limp.

Uday also translated the natural, even brute power he inherited from his father into an unrivalled trading and media empire. Iraqi insiders say he controlled the highly lucrative oil smuggling trade to beat UN sanctions.

He accumulated a wealth of roles from chairman of the journalists' union to head of TV and radio stations, head of Iraq's Olympic Committee, and the country's football association.

The young Uday earned a playboy reputation, driving fast cars, hunting down pretty girls and reportedly walking lions on a lead, as he grew to adulthood under Saddam's all-powerful protection.

But that reputation went from bad to worse as defectors and opponents of the regime revealed gruesome details of Uday's penchant for violence.

In 1988, Uday publicly beat to death one of Saddam's aides, accusing the man of playing the intermediary between his father and the woman who became the president's second wife.

The ousted president's feared elder son, had several hobbies: women, cars, the internet, jewellery, weapons, the Shiite branch of Islam, alcohol and especially torture, a former aide told AFP after the April 9 fall of Baghdad.

He attended torture sessions in a prison 50km south of Baghdad run by the Fedayeen he headed, the source said, adding that Uday never practiced torture himself.

Obsessed with women

On one occasion, however, he threw a man who owed him money out of the 14th floor window, said Uday's aide.

The bombed-out palaces which Uday left behind him also revealed his obsession with women.

"Contrary to what has been written, Uday was never married and he was obsessed with women. If he spotted a woman he fancied in the street or at a reception, he would send his henchmen to fetch her," said the longtime aide.

The only person he loved was his mother Sajida, Saddam's first wife. He shared his house with her and his younger sister, Hala.

Weapons and cars were also among the maverick figure's passions. His Yacht Club pad was home to a dazzling collection of pistols, machine-guns and daggers.

"He had no less than one hundred cars, including 20 Rolls Royces," the source said.

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