TWO sons in law of the Iraqi president were shot and killed by members of their family yesterday, said a television station run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday.
Lieut Gen Hussein Kamel Hassan and his brother, Col Saddam Hassan and their wives had returned to Iraq on Tuesday from Jordan, where they had defected last August. While there Gen Hassan, a former industry minister, called for the overthrow of President Hussein, who was reported this week to have pardoned him.
In a first reaction the US ambassador to the United Nations said the reported killings demonstrate that the Iraqi leader's brutality "knows no bounds."
Citing an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman, Mr Uday Hussein's Youth TV said Gen Hassan and his two brothers, Saddam and Hakim, were attacked by members of their family in their home at al Sayidiya in the Baghdad region.
The general's father also died in the shooting, which claimed the lives of two of the assailants cousins of the al Majid and Sultan branch of President Saddam's large family - and of three other unidentified people including a child. Three people were wounded in the attack.
Gen Hassan's family had sentenced him to death after he defected to Jordan. The interior ministry, spokesman said Gen Hassan's family told the Iraqi leader that "the treacherous branch of the family has been cut."
"The free pardon which the state granted them does not spare them punishment," they were reported as saying.
The report came only hours after the station announced that their wives, the president's daughters, had divorced them on Thursday. The announcement said the two women had been unaware of the men's "treason". "Raghad and Rana have filed for divorce and got it," the television station said.
The sisters had "asked to see King Hussein of Jordan to express their disagreement with the contents of Gen Hassan's press conference and asked him to return to Iraq, but nothing was done about their request," the television said.
The women reportedly said they were misled and did not know their husbands' intentions" in leaving Iraq.
The Iraqi television report described Gen Hassan and his brother as "traitors who tricked their wives." The divorce had effectively isolated Gen Hassan and his brother, who were described after their defection as "stray dogs."
Iraqi dissidents in London said last night they were not surprised by the reports. "We've been expecting that they were going to be killed, said Mr Hamid alBayat of the Supreme Council for Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
"This is Saddam's way of dealing with any opposition, regardless of their relationship," he added.
"The whole male line of the family was obliterated in one sweep," said Mr Ahmad Chalabi, of the London based Iraqi National Congress.
The opposition leaders said on Thursday that Gen Hassan had no choice to return given his lack of support outside the country, although it was likely to cost his life.
"It was in President Saddam Hussein's interests to try to reunite the ruling family, that's why he agreed to pardon Hussein Kamel," said Mr al Bayati. "But I'm sure he will get rid of him at a later date," he said then.
Gen Hassan said on Monday he had "no quarrel with the Iraqi president," and had asked him for permission to return. "I am ready to face a court, answer its questions and submit to a possible punishment," he said.
"I am ready to return to Iraq without conditions. .. Iraq is my country, even though there have been differences of opinion. We twill work for the good of our country, wherever we are," he said.
President Saddam himself approved the defectors' return at a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the ruling Baath party.
An Iraqi government spokesman said on Tuesday that Gen Hassan would be treated as "an ordinary citizen" in line with government policy "allowing the return of any defector who asks to be pardoned."
The defection was seen at the time as a blow for the President. King Hussein afterwards since distanced himself from Iraq, which had been a traditional ally, saying his eyes had been opened by Gen Hassan.
According to those close to the general, Gen Hassan returned to Iraq to protest against the US Secretary of Defence, Mr William Perry's statement that Washington and Amman were working with other countries in the region to accelerate President Saddam's fall from powers.
US officials said Gen Hassan's decision to return had caused "stunned disbelief".
"I don't think anyone is thinking that this was some kind of grand plot by Saddam," said the US State Department spokesman Mr Nick Burns, adding that "the Iraqi president was not in a position to fool the West."
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Ms Madeleine Albright, told reporters in New York that the incident showed that "the extent of the brutality of regime of Saddam Hussein seems to know no bound".
The White House reacted without surprise to the reports, without be unable to confirm them.
The US State Department could not confirm the murders but a spokesman also raised the prospect that the report could be, disinformation. But "on balance we have no reason to disbelieve it," he said.
Gen Hassan, the former head of Iraq's secret military programmes, had revealed considerable information during interviews in Jordan with Mr Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the UN Special Commission in charge of ridding Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
On Tuesday the two brothers and their families crossed over from Jordan to a welcoming delegation on the Iraqi side of the border and a few hours later Iraqi media announced that President Saddam had pardoned them following an appeal by their father three days earlier.
Mr Al Bayati said he believed President Saddam had tricked them. Mr Chalabi said Gen Hassan was responsible for murdering prisoners and draining the marsh homelands of the Kurds, he said.
The television announcer read a telegram to President Saddam from the al Majeed family asking him for clemency. It said they had had to kill the defectors to cleanse their honour, tarnished by treason.
The television later played the national anthem and broadcast praise of the Iraqi president.