Saddam's sons buried
The bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, have been buried in the deposed leader's home village in northern Iraq.
The corpses were wrapped in Iraqi flags and buried in the Awja cemetery, near Tikrit.
The Americans mounted tight security around the site and limited the number of mourners to about 150.
The US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Saturday said the informer whose tip-off led to the killings of Uday and Qusay 12 days ago, had been relocated outside Iraq.
And he said he was confident an informer would soon turn in Saddam Hussein too, and claim the $25m reward.
"The only question is who is going to get the $25m and move to another country," Mr Bremer told reporters.
But hours after the funerals, three US soldiers were reported to have been injured in an explosion in Tikrit.
On Friday night, hours before Uday and Qusay's bodies were released, a US soldier was killed and three others injured in a rocket propelled grenade attack on a convoy north of Baghdad.
In a separate incident, an Iraqi woman was killed by US soldiers who had come under attack in Baghdad's Mansour district.
The soldiers fired their weapons when an unknown attacker threw an explosive device on a six-vehicle convoy.
'Family's wishes'
The US military handed Uday and Qusay's bodies over to the Red Crescent in Baghdad, where they had been held since the two men were killed in a shoot-out with US forces on 22 July.
Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa, who was also killed in the gun battle in Mosul, was buried alongside his father.
"We took them to the cemetery's mosque. We prayed and we buried them in the family grave," said the director of the Red Crescent Society in the Tikrit region, Thawrah Abed Bakr.
"Everything was finished by 1230 (0830 GMT). I had been told to do it secretly by the family and the tribe."
The three graves are draped with Iraqi flags and local tribesmen have spoken about erecting a shrine there, says the BBC's Caroline Hawley at the site.
She says tiny groups of Saddam Hussein loyalists came to pray at the graves throughout the day.
For most Iraqis the funeral will be a relief - final proof that two hated members of Saddam Hussein's family are gone for good, our correspondent says.
After Uday and Qusay were killed, the US released images of the bloodied corpses, and later on photographs of their restored bodies to prove to sceptical Iraqis the pair were really dead.
The BBC's Matthew Price in Baghdad says there had been concern over what to do with the corpses, with coalition forces fearing their graves could become a focus for supporters - or enemies - of Saddam Hussein.
Tikrit remains a stronghold for supporters of the former dictator.
On Friday night, US troops arrested a man suspected of organising attacks on US troops, in a raid on a house in the town.
Since US President George W Bush declared major hostilities over on 1 May, 53 US troops have been killed by enemy fire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3118737.stm
The bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, have been buried in the deposed leader's home village in northern Iraq.
The corpses were wrapped in Iraqi flags and buried in the Awja cemetery, near Tikrit.
The Americans mounted tight security around the site and limited the number of mourners to about 150.
The US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Saturday said the informer whose tip-off led to the killings of Uday and Qusay 12 days ago, had been relocated outside Iraq.
And he said he was confident an informer would soon turn in Saddam Hussein too, and claim the $25m reward.
"The only question is who is going to get the $25m and move to another country," Mr Bremer told reporters.
But hours after the funerals, three US soldiers were reported to have been injured in an explosion in Tikrit.
On Friday night, hours before Uday and Qusay's bodies were released, a US soldier was killed and three others injured in a rocket propelled grenade attack on a convoy north of Baghdad.
In a separate incident, an Iraqi woman was killed by US soldiers who had come under attack in Baghdad's Mansour district.
The soldiers fired their weapons when an unknown attacker threw an explosive device on a six-vehicle convoy.
'Family's wishes'
The US military handed Uday and Qusay's bodies over to the Red Crescent in Baghdad, where they had been held since the two men were killed in a shoot-out with US forces on 22 July.
Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa, who was also killed in the gun battle in Mosul, was buried alongside his father.
"We took them to the cemetery's mosque. We prayed and we buried them in the family grave," said the director of the Red Crescent Society in the Tikrit region, Thawrah Abed Bakr.
"Everything was finished by 1230 (0830 GMT). I had been told to do it secretly by the family and the tribe."
The three graves are draped with Iraqi flags and local tribesmen have spoken about erecting a shrine there, says the BBC's Caroline Hawley at the site.
She says tiny groups of Saddam Hussein loyalists came to pray at the graves throughout the day.
For most Iraqis the funeral will be a relief - final proof that two hated members of Saddam Hussein's family are gone for good, our correspondent says.
After Uday and Qusay were killed, the US released images of the bloodied corpses, and later on photographs of their restored bodies to prove to sceptical Iraqis the pair were really dead.
The BBC's Matthew Price in Baghdad says there had been concern over what to do with the corpses, with coalition forces fearing their graves could become a focus for supporters - or enemies - of Saddam Hussein.
Tikrit remains a stronghold for supporters of the former dictator.
On Friday night, US troops arrested a man suspected of organising attacks on US troops, in a raid on a house in the town.
Since US President George W Bush declared major hostilities over on 1 May, 53 US troops have been killed by enemy fire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3118737.stm
Comment