CNN.com - Harris Whitbeck: Saddam's sons buried in discreet service

CNN's Harris Whitbeck Story Tools

TIKRIT, Iraq (CNN) -- Members of Saddam Hussein's tribe buried Uday and Qusay, sons of Saddam Hussein, and Saddam's 14-year-old grandson Mustafa on Saturday in Al Ouja, the tribal seat of their family.

The bodies had been kept refrigerated at the U.S. military base at the Baghdad Airport since they were killed in a shootout last month in Mosul.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck is in Tikrit and discussed the scene on CNN International.

WHITBECK: The remains of Saddam Hussein's two elder sons and one of his grandsons were interred Saturday in the family plot outside of Tikrit.

The remains had been handed over by the U.S. military authority to the Iraqi Red Crescent, which turned the remains over to the chief of Saddam's tribe in Tikrit.

The funeral service itself was very small, very discreet -- it happened early this morning. That is exactly what the U.S. military authority here in Tikrit was hoping for.

The United States was concerned that if there was a large ceremony, or a large gathering of people, expressions of anti-Americanism and possible attacks on U.S. military forces in the area might ensue.

There was one attack on U.S. military forces -- a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded north of Baghdad when the convoy they were traveling in was hit by an assailant, who launched a rocket-propelled grenade.

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