Saddam son condemns Kuwait 10 years after invasion

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- President Saddam Hussein's youngest son, Qusay, Thursday launched a harsh attack on Kuwait's rulers 10 years after Baghdad's invasion of the emirate.

"We remember with great pride and regard August 2 ... when our brave men went (into Kuwait) to topple the hotbed of betrayal, the al-Subah rulers," Qusay said in an open letter to his father to commemorate Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

"Kuwait was then liberated from that backward and loathsome regime," said Qusay, who controls the Iraqi Republican Guards, the main army division that carried out the invasion.

Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in the early hours of August 2, 1990 after weeks of wrangling over oil production quotas. The occupation lasted until a U.S.-led multinational alliance based in Saudi Arabia drove the invaders out in February 1991.

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"That glorious day was a great and historical achievement," he said in his letter that was carried by Baghdad radio.

"Your men in the Republican Guards pledge to remain loyal and strong and their swords are ready to defend Iraq from the north to the south," he added.

In 1994, Iraq recognized Kuwait as an independent state within the borders demarcated by a U.N. commission and has since then stopped declaring the emirate a part of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraqi newspapers continued for the second day to hit out at Kuwait's rulers, blaming them for Iraq's seven-month occupation of the oil-rich country.

Babel, newspaper of Saddam's eldest son Uday, said: "August 2 was a great day in which Iraq foiled the conspiracy." It said the Gulf War was still continuing "until a decisive victory is achieved."

The ruling Baath party newspaper al-Thawra said the rulers of Kuwait would not last for more than another decade.

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