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News of Jan
3, 2007
Saddam's Family Thanks Yemeni President for Support
Sana'a, Jan 3
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh received a message from Saddam
Hussein's family in which they voiced gratitude for his position
against the execution of the former Iraqi president.
"On the behest of the family of the martyr president of the Republic
of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, we express thanks and appreciation for your
brotherly and generous position," read the message, quoted by
Yemen's official Saba news agency Tuesday.
The message was signed by three of Saddam's nephews - Taha Abdullah
al-Hajj, Muhammad Hassan al-Majid and Jassim Hassan al-Majid - who
have been living in exile in Yemen since Saddam's regime was toppled
by a US-led invasion in 2003.
Yemen had on Friday called on US President George W. Bush to prevent
the execution of Saddam, saying such a move could set off more
violence in Iraq.
The former Iraqi leader was executed early Saturday in Baghdad four
days after an Iraqi court upheld the death sentence handed down
after Saddam was convicted for the 1982 massacre in the Iraqi city
of Dujail.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people performed special prayers for Saddam
in the Yemeni capital before they took to the streets to protest his
execution, shouting slogans against the US and the Shia-dominated
government in Iraq.
They also waved anti-US placards, with one reading: "If Saddam is
martyred, every one of us is Saddam."
Saleh's nephew, Yahya Muhammad Abdullah Saleh, attended the prayers.
Yemen angered its Arab Gulf neighbors for its public opposition to
the intervention by foreign military forces to end Iraq's occupation
of Kuwait in 1991.
DPA
News of Jan
3, 2007
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