Cairo - Uday and Qusay - the notorious sons of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein who died in Mosul in July 2003 - were denied entry into Syria while trying to escape from the United States Army, the Arabic daily Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday.
The paper quoted the wife of one their bodyguards who claimed that her husband was very close to the Hussein family.
"Saddam loved him to a high extent. He could tell him all his secrets," she said in an interview to the newspaper.
The wife, who didn't want to have her name published, said that her husband had been detained one month before the two brothers were killed.
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| 'Someone informed the US forces about my husband' |
According to Al-Hayat, the bodyguard proposed to cross the border into Syria while US forces were searching for Saddam and his two sons. The bodyguard's wife said that she was also in the convoy and that they received help from some Syrian fighters and Saddam sympathisers, but that the Syrian authorities asked the convoy to return to Iraq.
"Someone informed the US forces about my husband and he was arrested one day after coming back from a visit to Syria," the woman said. The US troops found two forged passports at her place so they found out about the attempt to get into Syria.
Saddam's sons were killed by US troops one month later.
"My husband was accused of giving information on Saddam later, but my husband can never be a traitor," the wife said. "The best proof is that Saddam was arrested eight months after my husband's arrest." - Sapa-dpa