Uday Hussein assassinated in 1996

[MrHola]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 12— The eldest son of President Saddam Hussein, sometimes described as his heir apparent, was wounded today when attackers ambushed his car.

The son, Uday Hussein, was taken to Ibn Sina Hospital, part of the presidential complex in Baghdad, where he was reported to be in stable condition, Youth TV reported. The station, which is owned by Uday Hussein, interrupted its programming to announce that he was attacked while driving in the well-to-do al-Mansour district of Baghdad.

''He was the target of a cowardly attack, which led to a light wound,'' the television report said.

SHATRA, IRAQ — As Salman Sharif gave the order to open fire, he was certain he was going to die himself. You did not try to assassinate Uday Hussein, the former Iraqi president's elder son and heir-apparent, at point blank range and expect to get away with it.

"We knew we had a 1 percent chance of returning alive," Mr. Sharif says today, sitting crosslegged on a carpet-strewn floor as, for the first time, he recounts to a foreign newspaper the daring attack he led. "Strict security made this kind of operation almost impossible."

But after months of careful planning, the four man hit squad drawn from a shadowy resistance group was determined to go ahead. As Uday Hussein drove his golden Porsche slowly up a busy street in one of Baghdad's smartest districts, just after dark on Dec. 12 1996, two gunmen responded to Sharif's command with a hail of bullets from their AK-47 rifles.

"We were sure we had killed him," Sharif recalls. "We fired 50 rounds into that car." In fact, he discovered later, Uday had been hit 17 times but survived.

What if Uday was killed? Saddam just lost one of his sons. He'll probably go on a rampage trying to find the ones who did it. What do you think?

 

[TinyTartar]

For one thing, people in Baghdad will rejoice, albeit privately.

Saddam by '96 was well on the path to Islamic radicalization. Its tough to say what would happen to him if he had Qusay only in his ear. He might have been less of a belligerent dick all the time.

But he also might have been more dangerous. Having to put up with Uday's shit was a major distracting influence in his life.