IRAQ: Some Arab newspapers wonder if the bloody and well-publicised deaths of Saddam's sons are a sign of the new Iraqi order, writes MichaelJansen.
Commentators in many Arab newspapers believe the interests of justice in Iraq would have been served better had Uday and Qusay Hussein been taken alive and put on trial.
The Jordan Times, for instance, said that the two men "should have been brought to justice" and warned that "summary executions and political killings represent the way and style of governance of the old Iraqi regime and must not be the hallmark of the new Iraqi order."
It is a view shared by many Iraqis.
The Palestinian newspaper al-Hayah al-Jadidah said that capturing the two men would have made the former ruling Baath party "swallow eternal humiliation".
The Arab News, another Saudi daily, called the elimination of Saddam Hussein's two sons a "victory for the Americans and, far more important, a victory for the Iraqi people," but said the "only way that the Americans can fulfil their international legal obligations to the Iraqi people is to stem the rising tide of violence in the country... Until that stops, Iraqis will not be able to focus on a future without Saddam and his brutal Baathist regime."
Jordan's independent daily al-Arab al-Yawm remarked: "Uday and Qusay paid the blood tax to Iraq and to their father, who can now be proud of his two martyred sons ... following their heroic martyrdom \ have become an asset to the \ president, not a liability, as was the case in the past."
Egypt's al-Ahram adopted a critical approach: "The US is trying to cover up its failure to bring the Iraqi resistance under control by making a resounding announcement over the death of deposed President Saddam Hussein's sons."
Saudi Arabia's al-Watan accused the US media of "giving wider coverage to the Mosul battle ... than it deserved, not because Uday and Qusay were killed, to save President Bush from the anger of [US families] whose sons and daughters are being killed in Iraq."
The paper summed up the view of many editorial writers, saying : "The Iraqis will not weep for Uday and Qusay. They made a lot of people cry."