As Saddam buried, 3000th US soldier dies in Iraq
Source: Reuters
(Adds 3,000th U.S. soldier dies in Iraq) By Ghazwan al-Jibouri AWJA, Iraq, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was buried in the dead of night in his native village on Sunday, prompting an outpouring of sectarian anger as the 3,000th American soldier was reported to have died in Iraq. Saddam's hanging on Saturday, shown in a video that swept the Internet, has polarised an Iraqi society already on the brink of civil war. His fellow Sunni Arabs flocked to Awja, near Tikrit, to see his grave and vent their fury at Shi'ite officials who taunted him on the gallows. The Web site, www.icasualties.org, on Sunday quoted the Pentagon as saying Specialist Dustin Donica was shot in Baghdad on Thursday, making his the 3,000th such death reported. Facing mounting public anger over a war that toppled Saddam but has left 130,000 U.S. troops caught in a spiral of violence, President George W. Bush's spokesman Scott Stanzel said: "The president believes that every life is precious and grieves for each one that is lost ... "He will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain." Bush is to unveil a new strategy in Iraq in the new year. But the sectarian passions that have pushed Iraq toward civil war since his forces overthrew Saddam could be further inflamed by a new video posted on the Internet showing Shi'ite officials taunting him as he stood on the gallows. "Go to hell!" one yelled at the former president. Saddam's body, shown swinging on the rope, was flown overnight by U.S. military helicopter to his home city of Tikrit in northern Iraq and, as agreed with U.S. and Iraqi officials, buried in haste at nearby Awja at 3 a.m. (midnight GMT). The jerky Web footage, apparently shot on a mobile phone, showed people in the execution chamber chanting the name of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr and Saddam smiling back, saying: "Is this what you call manhood?" After he falls through the trap, abruptly cut off in his recitation of the Muslim profession of faith, someone in the room cries "The tyrant has fallen!" and the film shows the 69-year-old former strongman swinging on the rope, his eyes open and his neck twisted at a 90-degree angle to his right. Seemingly accusing his captors of misrule, he replied to the taunt of "Go to hell" by asking: "The hell that is Iraq?" On Sunday in Awja, where Saddam was born in fatherless poverty in 1937, hundreds of mourners flocked to his freshly dug tomb inside a marble-floored hall built by Saddam. Many poured out their anger against the Americans and the Shi'ite majority now in the ascendancy in Iraq's government. "The Persians have killed him. I can't believe it. By God, we will take revenge," said one man from Mosul, referring to Iraq's new leaders ties to Persian-speaking, Shi'ite Iran. FUNERALS In other Sunni towns and districts, including the insurgent bastion of Amriya in Baghdad and Baiji and Dhuluiya near Tikrit, local people held funeral observances, including symbolic coffins, to show their respect for a leader who ensured Sunnis enjoyed state favour during his three decades in power. State television showed the head of Saddam's tribe, Ali al- Nida of the Albu Nasir, and Tikrit's regional governor signing a letter agreeing to bury the body immediately in Awja. Governor Mohammed al-Qaisi told Reuters the funeral, after the body was bathed and dressed according to Muslim ritual, was attended by a few officials and relatives. It began at 3:05 a.m. and lasted 25 minutes. U.S. and Iraqi troops kept a close guard. Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, killed by U.S. troops six months before their father was captured near Tikrit in December 2003, also lie in Awja, in a family plot in the cemetery. Their father's grave is dug into the floor of an octagonal, domed building he had built in the 1980s for religious festivals. Men came in groups of several dozen to pay their respects by the mound of fresh clay, with a gravestone at head and foot and a large photograph, propped on a chair, of a younger, smiling Saddam wearing his trademark black fedora hat. "All we can do now is take it out against the Americans and the government," another mourner said. More than 70 people were killed in car bomb attacks on Shi'ites on Saturday. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians are dying in violence every week. The government had said Saddam's body might lie in a secret grave for fear the site could become a shrine and focal point for Baathist rebels. A relative said the family planned to found a "presidential library" and religious school on the spot. Iraqis and much of the world had already been transfixed by film shown on state television of Saddam standing in a noose on a gallows once used by his own secret police. The Web footage was more graphic, showing him drop as he begins the second verse of the profession of faith: "I bear witness that Mohammad ..." Before that voices are heard chanting "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada" for the cleric whose Mehdi Army militia is widely blamed by Sunnis for death squad killings ravaging society. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has seen his fragile authority among fellow Shi'ites like Sadr enhanced after he forced through Saddam's execution just four days after the appeal court upheld his conviction for crimes against humanity for killing Shi'ites. Maliki urged Sunni insurgents to make peace. But many fear his death may simply prolong the cycle of violence. (Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Ibon Villelabeitia, Claudia Parsons and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)
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