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Report: Saddam Hussein buried in Tikrit

December 31, 2006
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Baghdad/Cairo -- Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was buried early Sunday in his home village in the Tikrit area, according to broadcast reports.

The 69-year-old 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. He was laid to rest in the same cemetery where his sons, Uday and Qusay, were buried after they were killed in a 2003 shootout with US troops.

The Arabic-language al-Jazeera news channel cited Hussein family associates. A reporter for the US-based Cable News Network (CNN) who apparently witnessed the burial said that about 100 people attended the predawn ceremony.

Saddam was sentenced to death after his conviction for crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in 1982 in the Iraqi Shiite town of Dujail. Capital punishment was carried out after his appeals were rejected by a higher court.

Saddam had been handed over from US military jailers before dawn Saturday to coalition-backed Iraqi authorities, who carried out his death sentence within an hour.

His remains were reportedly delivered late Saturday by US forces to local Sunni Arab tribal leaders in Tikrit, about 170 kilometres from Baghdad. // © 2006 DPA

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