Purported Saddam tape vows revenge for sons' deaths

An audio tape purportedly from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein aired on an Arab television station yesterday vowed to defeat the United States to avenge the deaths of his two sons by US forces.

"I mourn to you the deaths of Uday and Qusay and those who struggled with them. You are the honour of this nation. America will be defeated," said the voice on the tape, broadcast by Dubai-based al Arabiya.

"They... died martyrs in the name of jihad (holy war)," the voice said. The speech was rambling, breaking off in mid-sentence on occasions.

A number of tapes purportedly from Saddam have been broadcast in the past few weeks, but this was the first to refer to the killing of his two sons by US troops last Tuesday in a bloody raid on a villa in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The US military said troops hunting Saddam had captured three key figures loyal to the deposed dictator, including a top bodyguard, and were closing in on Saddam himself. "They are being questioned as we speak," a US military spokesman said.

Major Josslyn Aberle, in Saddam's home town of Tikrit north of Baghdad, told Reuters one of the captured Saddam loyalists put up a brief struggle, and two gunshots were heard as the raid began, but there were no US casualties.

Television pictures filmed through a night vision lens showed a man being escorted from a building by American soldiers, blood seeping through a blindfold.

US troops, who invaded Iraq and divided international opinion to topple Saddam, believe he may be hiding somewhere in the Tigris valley of dusty tomato fields and orchards.