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AWJA, Iraq (AFP) - Tempers flared as the two Iraqi flags covering the earthen graves of Saddam Hussein's slain sons were stolen in the night under the noses of US soldiers guarding the cemetery in the fallen dictator's birthplace. "Nobody here would have done such thing. It is the Americans who have done that," said Walid Jassem, the local grocer in a village where most people claim allegiance to Saddam's family and were showered with luxury during his 24 years in power. The idea of US soldiers here in this bastion of the old regime burned the hearts of some....

The graves tell the story of the fall of the house of Hussein. Just off Tikrit's main street, Saddam built a gaudy mausoleum in dictator kitsch style, to give the appearance of a bond with the father who abandoned him as a child. And at the cemetery in nearby Owja, the Hussein family's tribal homeland, the impoverished mother who raised Saddam is remembered in a building whose functional architecture would suit the laundry block at an Australian country hospital. But when the Al Bunaser tribe gathered on Saturday for the burial of Saddam's sons, killed in a gun battle with...

<p>BAGHDAD — Tribal leaders buried Saddam Hussein's two sons and a grandson as martyrs yesterday in rocky soil near the deposed leader's hometown, where insurgents afterward attacked U.S. troops with three remote-controlled bombs.</p> <p>In Baghdad, the U.S. administrator for Iraq appealed to Iraqis to help catch Saddam. He blamed incessant attacks against U.S. forces on foreign terrorists and three groups aligned with the ousted Saddam regime.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The sons of Saddam Hussein, Odai and Qusai, were buried in the family cemetery in their hometown of Tikrit Saturday morning, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society and the U.S. military said. Also Saturday, the military said a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their convoy east of Baghdad on Friday. The soldier was the 52nd to die in combat in Iraq since President Bush declared major fighting over on May 1. So far, 167 soldiers have died in the Iraq War, 20 more than during the 1991 Gulf...

AWJA, Iraq, Aug. 2 - The brothers Hussein were buried today here in their hometown 11 days after they were killed by American soldiers, at a funeral that touched off an outpouring of nostalgia for their fugitive father and of angry calls to rid the country of its American occupiers. Coming out of seclusion, more than 100 members of Saddam Hussein's family gathered in a parched cemetery here and laid the bodies of Uday and Qusay side by side, and then, to conclude an emotional ceremony, buried a third relative killed in the American raid, Qusay's 14-year-old son, Mustafa. A...

Iraqi Group Given Bodies of Saddam's Sons 5 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military handed over the bodies of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s sons Odai and Qusai to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which will bring the corpses to their hometown of Tikrit, the U.S. Army said on Saturday. "The Red Crescent will take them to Tikrit and from there somebody will hopefully claim the bodies," said Cpl. Todd Pruden.

SADDAM'S SONS BURIEDThe bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay have reportedly been buried in the deposed dictator's home town of Tikrit. Witnesses said the bodies were wrapped in Iraqi flags and buried in a local cemetery, after arriving from Baghdad in an ambulance. There was a heavy US military presence and journalists were prevented from photographing or filming the burial. Saddam's dreaded sons were killed in a US raid on a house in the northern city of Mosul nearly two weeks ago. US authorities said earlier this week they would hold on to the bodies until relatives came...

Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s two elder sons and a grandson were buried as martyrs Saturday in rocky soil near the deposed leader's hometown, where insurgents afterward attacked U.S. troops with three remote controlled bombs. Despite the violence in Tikrit — a center of anti-American guerrilla resistance — the U.S. administrator for Iraq (news - web sites) declared he had not seen hatred of American troops among the country's people. Instead, L. Paul Bremer, chief of the American occupation administration, blamed incessant attacks against U.S. forces on foreign terrorists and three groups aligned with the ousted Saddam regime. He...