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| Sunday, 27 July 2003 |
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U.S. to pay $30 million for Uday, Qusay tip WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) The United States expects to pay the full $30 million reward to the informant whose tip led U.S. soldiers to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. Under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program, Washington offered up to $15 million for information leading to the death or capture of each of the sons, who were killed in a six-hour battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday. "Given the criteria that apply in this case, we would expect to pay the whole reward," a senior State Department official told reporters, declining to identify the informant for fear that he might face reprisals from Saddam loyalists. Asked if Washington might consider allowing the informant to emigrate to the United States, the official replied: "I'm sure that all that will be considered if it's appropriate." Uday, a feared rapist and torturer, and Qusay, who commanded parts of Iraq's military and security apparatus, were killed in a villa in Mosul's affluent al-Falah neighbourhood and may have been hiding there for weeks, according to neighbours. Some neighbours say they suspect their host, businessman Nawaf al-Zeidane, might have turned against them to get the $30 million price the United States put on their heads. The United States has also offered up to $25 million for information leading to the capture or death of Saddam, who was toppled in the U.S.-led war on Iraq this spring and is believed by U.S. officials to be at large in northern Iraq. Under the U.S. Rewards for Justice program, people who provide such information may be eligible for a cash reward, protection of their identities and relocation with their families. The reward for Saddam Hussein equals the $25 million that the United States offered for information leading to Osama bin Laden and his senior aides after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, blamed on his al Qaeda network, a U.S. official said. According to the Rewards for Justice Web site, in the past nine years the United States has paid more than $9.75 million to 24 people who provided information that put "terrorists" behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism. |
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