Saddam is dead but Iraqis ask if anything will change for the better

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraqis awoke Saturday to television images of a noose being slipped over Saddam Hussein's neck and his white-shrouded body, the pre-dawn work of black-hooded hangmen. <br/><br/>In

Saturday, December 30th 2006, 4:04 pm

By: News On 6

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraqis awoke Saturday to television images of a noose being slipped over Saddam Hussein's neck and his white-shrouded body, the pre-dawn work of black-hooded hangmen.

In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and hanging Saddam in effigy. Celebratory gunfire erupted across other Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and other predominantly Shiite regions of the country.

There was no sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for the execution, and the bloodshed from civil warfare was not far off the daily average _ 92 from bombings and death squads.

Outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital, loyalists marched with Saddam pictures and waved Iraqi flags. Defying curfews, hundreds took to the streets vowing revenge in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and gunmen paraded and fired into the air in support of Saddam in Tikrit, his hometown.

Still, authorities imposed curfews sparingly in contrast to the several-day lockdown put in place after Saddam was sentenced to death Nov. 5.

The responses within Iraq to Saddam's death echoed the larger reaction across the Middle East, with his enemies rejoicing and his defenders proclaiming him a martyr. While Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the execution prevented exposure of the secrets and crimes the former dictator committed during his brutal rule.

Some Arab governments denounced the timing the 69-year-old former president's hanging just before the start of the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha. Libya announced a three-day official mourning period and canceled all celebrations for Eid.

Within Iraq and across the world, the airwaves were alive with pictures of Saddam in death, a bruise on his cheek, his neck elongated and twisted impossibly to the right _ grisly proof that the man who had tormented and killed so many during a bloody quarter-century rule was truly dead.

But some Iraqis _ like 34-year-old Haider Hamed, a candy store owner in east Baghdad _ wondered what would really change with the execution of Saddam, who was just four months shy of his 70th birthday.

``He's gone, but our problems continue,'' said the Shiite Muslim, whose uncle was killed in one of Saddam's many brutal purges. ``We brought problems on ourselves after Saddam because we began fighting Shiite on Sunni and Sunni on Shiite.''

At least 80 Iraqis died in bombings and other attacks Saturday, and police said 12 more tortured bodies were found dumped in Baghdad. The U.S. military announced six more service-members _ three soldiers and three Marines _ were killed.

The execution took place on the penultimate day of the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 109. At least 2,998 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.

Arab satellite television channels said Saddam's body had been be returned to Tikrit for Sunday burial next to his sons Odai and Qusai in the main cemetery in the nearby town of Ouja, where Saddam was born. The sons and a grandson were killed in a gunbattle with the Americans in Mosul in July 2003.

State-run Al-Iraqiya television later confirmed the body had been handed to the Salahuddin province governor and the leader of Saddam's Albu-Nassir clan.

Um Abdullah, a Sunni and teacher in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, said she would wear black to mourn the city's favorite son.

``Saddam will be a hero in our eyes,'' she said. ``I have five kids and I will teach them to take revenge on Americans.''

Police blocked the entrances to Tikrit and said nobody was allowed to leave or enter the city for four days. Despite the security precaution, gunmen took into the streets, carrying pictures of Saddam, shooting into the air and calling for vengeance.

Security forces also set up roadblocks at the entrance to another Sunni stronghold, Samarra, and a curfew was imposed after about 500 went into the streets to protest the execution.

Among minority Sunnis there was deep anger, born not only of Saddam's execution but of the loss of their decades-long political and economic dominance that began with Saddam's ouster in the U.S. invasion nearly four years ago.

``The president, the leader, Saddam Hussein is a martyr and God will put him along with other martyrs,'' said Yahya al-Attawi, who led prayer at a towering Sunni mosque constructed by Saddam in Tikrit.

There were cheers at the cafeteria of a U.S. outpost in Baghdad as soldiers having breakfast learned Saddam had been hanged.

But members of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, on patrol in an overwhelmingly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, said the execution wouldn't get them home any faster _ and therefore didn't make much difference.

``Nothing really changes,'' said Capt. Dave Eastburn, 30, of Columbus, Ohio. ``The militias run everything now, not Saddam.''

Staff Sgt. David Earp, who also fought in 1991's Operation Desert Storm, said the execution worried him.

``In my opinion, something big is going to happen,'' said Earp, of Colorado Springs, Colo. ``There will be a response. Probably not today because they know we are looking for one, but soon.''

Saddam went to his execution dressed in a black overcoat, dark trousers and a hat. It was unclear if he had been told in advance that he would be hanged just before dawn Saturday. He looked baffled and uncomprehending as one of the hangmen explained the procedure.

He refused to put on a hood that was offered before a black cloth was wound around his neck and the noose draped over his head and tightened.

After that, Saddam was taunted by some of those invited to watch him die, according to a new video apparently shot by someone with a cameraphone and broadcast exclusively on Al-Jazeera satellite television.

One of the official witnesses to the execution called out praise for Dawa Party founder and Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, who was executed by Saddam along with his sister in 1980. Al-Sadr is the father of Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, and Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a key figure in today's Dawa movement.

Saddam appeared to smile at those taunting him from below the gallows and said they were not showing bravery.