Iraqi Government Probes Filming Of Hussein Execution

A video clip of Saddam Hussein moments before his execution (ISNA) January 2, 2007 -- An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says the government has launched an investigation into the filming by mobile phone camera of the execution of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The Reuters news agency quotes Sami al-Askari as saying officials are also looking into how guards were permitted to taunt the former Iraqi dictator in the minutes before he was hanged to death on December 30 for crimes against humanity.

The exchange was captured on video, apparently shot with a mobile phone, in which one guard invokes the name of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a relative of his who was killed by Hussein's regime.

Voices: "Muqtada...Muqtada...Muqtada."
Saddam Hussein: "Do you consider this bravery?"
Voice: "Long live Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr."

Sunni Arab supporters of Hussein have blamed officials of the Shi'ite-led government and other Shi'ite leaders, as well as the United States, for carrying out the execution of Hussein while Iraqi Sunnis were marking the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, or the feast of the sacrifice.

Hundreds of Iraqi Sunnis took part in protests on January 1 denouncing Hussein's execution.

(compiled from agency reports)