Deep doubt in Iraq over Uday-Qusay's photos

Iraqis reacted with a mixture of scepticism, suspicion and some relief Friday to the release of pictures of the bloodied corpses of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, with many still in disbelief that the dreaded brothers were really killed.

The United States announced the deaths of the brothers Tuesday after a blistering gunbattle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

But despite the release of five grisly photographs depicting the two corpses, including one image of an X-ray of eldest son Uday's left leg which was badly injured in a 1996 assassination attempt, Iraqis on the streets of the capital Baghdad were left largely unconvinced.

"Anybody can fake something like that," Bassum Shimmary, 41, told AFP of the photographs which were distributed on computer disc by the coalition in Baghdad Thursday and shown on Iraqi television in the evening.

"I don't believe it, because the Americans acted so unbelievably," he said in reference to the heavy-handed US force in Mosul which led to the brothers' death instead of their capture.