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Saddam is Buried Next to his Sons
Baghdad/Cairo, Dec 31 (DPA) Executed former Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein was buried early Sunday in his home village near Tikrit
after his body was reportedly flown from Baghdad in a US forces
helicopter.
The 69-year-old former dictator was buried in Awja village next to
his sons Uday and Qusay who had been killed by US troops in 2003.
Witnesses said around 100 people saw the dawn burial.
His remains were reportedly delivered late Saturday by US forces to
local Sunni Arab tribal leaders in Tikrit, about 170 km from
Baghdad. In latest violence, at least 13 people died.
The former dictator, who ruled with an iron fist for 24 years before
being ousted in 2003 in a US-led invasion, was hanged a day earlier
in Baghdad for crimes against humanity in connection with the
killings of 148 people in 1982 in the Iraqi Shia town of Dujail.
Videotaped pictures of the execution - stopping short of the actual
moment of death - were seen worldwide, as were later pictures of
Saddam's shroud-wrapped body.
Meanwhile, more pictures of the execution, apparently taken on a
mobile phone, emerged Sunday showing Saddam exchanging taunts with
onlookers from the gallows moments before his death.
In sound from the footage, which emerged on the Internet and was
also broadcast by several Arab and Western TV channels, one of the
onlookers is heard telling Saddam he destroyed Iraq and was going
straight to hell.
The former ruler is heard responding: "Iraq is nothing without
Saddam". The footage also showed some of those present taunting
Saddam by hailing Shia leader Mohammed al-Sadr and his Son Muqtada,
with Saddam responding: "May God damn you."
Saddam was holding the Koran before he was led to the execution
room, recited the Muslim prayer al-Shahada and made it to mid-way
through his second recitation of the verse before the floor dropped
from the gallows, Qatar-based al-Jazeera new channel reported.
A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after the
execution had said: "Justice, in the name of the people, has carried
out the death sentence against the criminal Saddam, who faced his
fate like all tyrants, frightened and terrified during a hard day
which he did not expect."
Across Iraq security remained extremely high Sunday as people braced
for a backlash of violence over the execution.
The latest violence Sunday saw at least 10 Iraqis killed and 15
wounded in a car bomb blast in the over crowded area of al-Shawaka
district in western Baghdad.
Elsewhere, three Iraqi army soldiers were killed and two others
wounded an attack in Qadaa al-Howayega, 45 km west of Kirkuk, Iraqi
army officer Abdullah al-Gabouri said. Gunmen in cars had opened
automatic weapons fire on a checkpoint.
The deadly bombings that have become part of daily life in Iraq had
already resumed early Saturday, with at least 75 people killed in a
series of bomb blasts in Shia areas.
Iraqi Shias and Kurds, who had suffered more under Saddam's rule,
had celebrated the execution the previous day, while Saddam's Sunni
supporters expressed outrage.
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