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Arab media silent on sons' death


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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- There was little reaction by the Arab media, which are mainly state-owned, to the death of Saddam Hussein's two sons.

Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay died Tuesday in an assault on a home in northern Iraqi town of Mosul. The brothers were likely killed by missiles into the building where they were hiding. (Full story)

Pentagon officials say no decision has been made about whether to release the photographs they possess of the brothers' bodies, which were undergoing autopsy Wednesday. (Profiles: Qusay Hussein, Uday Hussein)

Most newspapers and radio station in the region reported the events without comment.

"The issue is becoming very sensitive for any regime to comment because most Arab streets are filled with hatred towards the US policy, and therefore the Arab states regimes comment might back fire on them and jeopardize their position," a source told CNN.

The lack of reaction in the media is also due to the fact there is "no proof yet that sons were killed," another source said.

"If Tuesday's news was about capturing the sons instead of killing them, we would have expected few comments here and there, but the culture element here takes place, that as Arabs and Muslims we can't gloat when it comes to death and blood."

However, the media in Kuwaiti -- liberated by coalition forces in 1991 after it was invaded by Iraq -- was more vocal in its reporting of Saddam's sons' death.

The newspaper Al Qabas wrote: "A public joy all over... The removal of the nightmare of Oday and Qusay from Iraq."

One of the editorials in the daily Al Watan carried the headline: "Celebrate Kuwait."

-- From CNNArabic's Caroline Faraj


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