Executed Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein Buried
31 December 2006
Executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was buried before dawn Sunday in his native village of Ouja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq.
Local officials said Saddam was interred in a religious building in the same cemetery as his two sons, Uday and Qusay, who were killed by American forces in July of 2003.
Muslim law calls for the dead to be buried within one day.
Iraqi police imposed a four-day blockade around Tikrit immediately after the ousted president was hanged early Saturday in Baghdad.
New video shows Saddam's hooded executioners taunting him as he is led to the gallows and hanged by chanting the name of his bitter opponent, Shi'ite politician and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
There has been mixed reaction to Saddam's death among the Iraqi people. Many Shi'ites celebrated in the streets while his Sunni allies mourned and expressed outrage.
Saddam ruled Iraq with an iron fist for more than two decades. He was sentenced to death for ordering the deaths of 148 Shi'ites in the city of Dujail after a failed 1982 assassination attempt. He also was being tried on charges of genocide for a military campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.
U.S. forces captured Saddam in December 2003, eight months after a U.S.-led invasion ousted him from power.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
