2 Defectors Reported Slain by Family After Return to Iraq

Two defector sons-in-law of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were killed by clan members who stormed their residence Friday--three days after their return from exile and a day after their wives divorced them--according to the Iraqi News Agency.

Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel Majid had vowed to topple the Iraqi leader during their six-month stay in Jordan.

When they returned home Tuesday with their wives, both daughters of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi government said they were welcomed back as “ordinary” citizens.

But their welcome was short-lived.

Their wives divorced them Thursday, the news agency said. On Friday, relatives of the two men declared that their “blood should be shed due to their treason to the homeland,” the news agency reported.

Later, clan members--members of their extended families--stormed the Majid residence in Baghdad and killed the brothers in a gun battle, the agency said, citing sources in the Interior Ministry.

The father of the Majids and a third brother were also killed in the clash. Two other clan members were killed, and an unspecified number were injured, according to the news agency.

“Competent authorities are now investigating the incident,” the agency added.

Iraqi society has a tradition of “honor killings” carried out within the family when one or more members are perceived to have stained the family’s honor. This informal system of punishment is centuries old in Iraq and generally tolerated by authorities.

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When the Majids defected to Jordan in August they were the highest-ranking members of the inner circle to depart. It was a major embarrassment to Hussein at a time when the country’s 20 million people were suffering from the hardships of U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Hussein Kamel Majid had been in charge of Iraq’s secret weapons program; his brother was deputy head of the Iraqi leader’s palace guard.

But the defections never threatened Saddam Hussein’s rule, and the Majids were shunned by Iraqi opposition groups because of their close links to the Iraqi leader.

Earlier Friday, the news agency announced that the daughters had divorced the Majids, who were described as “failed traitors.”

“They are refusing to stay married to men who betrayed the homeland, the trust and the lofty values of their noble families and kinfolk,” the agency said of Raghad, who was married to Hussein Kamel Majid, and Rana, Saddam Kamel Majid’s wife.

The women made no public statement during their time in Jordan. However, there were unconfirmed reports that they had been duped by their husbands into thinking they were going on holiday when they left Iraq by road to Jordan in August.

Sources in contact with the defectors said the women became homesick and wanted to go back. Raghad is known to be the Iraqi leader’s favorite daughter.

The Iraqi News Agency’s report said that Raghad and Rana had never wanted to defect.

The two women asked to see Jordan’s King Hussein so he could “facilitate their return to their country, people and family, because they had been deceived and misled by the two failed traitors,” the Iraqi News Agency said. They never met the king despite repeated requests, the agency added.

King Hussein initially threw his weight behind the Majids, but he later kept them at arm’s length.

Before they returned to Iraq, the defectors said that “reforms” by Saddam Hussein’s government had encouraged them to go home.