Taunting of Saddam: The Iraqi government launched an inquiry yesterday into how guards filmed and taunted Saddam Hussein on the gallows, turning his execution into a televised spectacle that has inflamed sectarian anger.
A senior Iraqi official said the US ambassador tried to persuade prime minister Nuri al-Maliki not to rush into hanging the former president just four days after his appeal was turned down, urging the government to wait another two weeks.
An adviser to Mr Maliki, Sami al-Askari, told Reuters: "There were a few guards who shouted slogans that were inappropriate and that's now the subject of a government investigation."
The government released video showing the hangman chatting to a composed Saddam as he placed the noose round his neck.
But mobile phone footage on the internet showed guards shouting "Go to hell!", chanting the name of a Shia militia leader and exchanging insults with Saddam before he fell through the trap in mid-prayer.
Saddam's exiled eldest daughter and even some residents of Dujail, the Shia town whose sufferings led to his conviction for crimes against humanity, joined mourning rituals for him yesterday. Most of these were concentrated among Sunni Arabs in Saddam's home region north of Baghdad where he was buried on Sunday.
Mourners continued to arrive at his native village of Awja, near Tikrit. His daughter Raghd, who helped finance his defence from her strictly supervised exile in Jordan, joined several hundred people in the capital, Amman, in a show of solidarity.
Iraqi troops and police rushed to Mosul's Padush prison to put down a riot after visitors broke news of Saddam's treatment. The governor said seven guards and three prisoners were injured.
The Interior Ministry meanwhile ordered the closure of another Iraqi television channel, Sharkiya, accusing it of fomenting hatred. The channel, owned by a London-based businessman, continued broadcasting from Dubai.
US president George Bush plans to unveil a new strategy this month after the 3,000th soldier to die in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion was killed just before the new year. At least 112 Americans died in December, the deadliest month for them in more than two years.
- (Reuters)