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Iraqis begin damage control exercise

Atul Aneja

Outcry over the manner of Saddam Hussein's execution

DUBAI: The Iraqi Government has begun a damage control exercise following the outcry among Sunnis and influential sections abroad against the manner in which the former President, Saddam Hussein, was executed.

National security adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie said an arrest warrant against one person had been issued and two other detentions were also slated. The arrests had been ordered after an investigation was ordered on the implementation of the execution order. A cellphone recording of the humiliation that Saddam faced during his final moments in the hands of his mainly Shia executioners has generated an outcry among Sunnis, human rights groups and international observers opposing the death penalty.

U.S. praises Saddam

Mr. Al Rubaie also suggested that an Arab satellite television station or an outsider might have infiltrated the guards force inside the execution chamber and carried out the recording.

The American authorities in Iraq are continuing to distance themselves from the events in the execution chamber. After stating on Wednesday that American troops were not involved in screening witnesses to the former President's hanging, the U.S. military spokesperson, William B. Caldwell has praised Saddam by saying he "was courteous, as he always had been, to his U.S. military police guards". "He spoke very well to our military police, as he always had. And when getting off there at the prison site [before his execution], he said farewell to his interpreter. He thanked the military police squad, the Lieutenant, the squad leader, the medical doctor we had presented, and the colonel that was on site."

Violence has flared in a Sunni stronghold of Baghdad. At least 13 persons were killed when two car bombs exploded almost simultaneously near a petrol station in the western suburb of Mansour. The explosion set the petrol station on fire and burned several cars in the vicinity.

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