Saddam is buried next to his sons near Tikrit

Dec 31, 2006, 18:30 GMT

Baghdad/Cairo - Executed former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was buried early Sunday in his home village near Tikrit after his body was reportedly flown from Baghdad in a US forces helicopter.

The 69-year-old former dictator was buried in his home village of Awja next to his sons Uday and Qusay who had been killed by US troops in 2003. Witnesses said around 100 people saw the dawn burial.

His remains were reportedly delivered late Saturday by US forces to local Sunni Arab tribal leaders in Tikrit, about 170 kilometres from Baghdad. In latest violence, at least 13 people died.

The former dictator, who ruled with an iron fist for 24 years before being ousted in 2003 in a US-led invasion, was hanged a day earlier in Baghdad for crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in 1982 in the Iraqi Shiite town of Dujail.

Videotaped pictures of the execution - stopping short of the actual moment of death - were seen worldwide, as were later pictures of Saddam's shroud-wrapped body.

Meanwhile, more pictures of the execution, apparently taken on a mobile phone, emerged Sunday showing Saddam exchanging taunts with onlookers from the gallows moments before his death.

In sound from the footage, which emerged on the internet and was also broadcast by several Arab and Western television channels, one of the onlookers is heard telling Saddam he destroyed Iraq and was going straight to hell.

Saddam is heard responding that 'Iraq is nothing without Saddam'. The footage also showed some of those present taunting Saddam by hailing Shiite leader Mohammed al-Sadr and his Son Muqtada, with Saddam responding: 'May God damn you.'

Saddam was holding the Koran before he was led to the execution room, recited the Muslim prayer al-Shahada and made it to mid-way through his second recitation of the verse before the floor dropped from the gallows, Qatar-based al-Jazeera new channel reported.

A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after the execution had said: 'Justice, in the name of the people, has carried out the death sentence against the criminal Saddam, who faced his fate like all tyrants, frightened and terrified during a hard day which he did not expect.'

Across Iraq security remained extremely high Sunday as people braced for a backlash of violence over the execution.

The latest violence Sunday saw at least 10 Iraqis killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb blast in the over crowded area of al-Shawaka district in western Baghdad.

Elsewhere, three Iraqi army soldiers were killed and two others wounded an attack in Qadaa al-Howayega, 45 kilometres west of Kirkuk, Iraqi army officer Abdullah al-Gabouri said. Gunmen in cars had opened automatic weapons fire on a checkpoint.

The deadly bombings that have become part of daily life in Iraq had already resumed early Saturday, with at least 75 people killed in a series of bomb blasts in Shiite areas.

Iraqi Shiites and Kurds, who had suffered disproportionately under Saddam's rule, had celebrated the execution the previous day, while Saddam's Sunni supporters expressed outrage.