Baghdad Hangs Two Senior Saddam Aides

Ousted leader's half-brother decapitated by noose.

Two of Saddam Hussein's most trusted aides were buried within hours of their hanging on Monday in a garden outside the hall which has become a shrine to the former president since he was interred there two weeks ago. Abdullah Jubara, deputy governor of Iraq's Salahaddin Province, said the bodies of former intelligence boss Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, and former Chief Justice Awad Hamed al-Bandar were handed over to local officials after being flown to a US military base.Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Moslems were seething with anger after the former leader's half brother was decapitated on the gallows. A thickset Barzan Ibrahim plunged through the trap door and was beheaded by the jerk of the thick beige rope at the end of his fall, in the same the execution chamber where Saddam was hanged.

A government video of the hanging, played at a briefing for reporters, showed Ibrahim's body passing the camera in a blur. The body came to rest on its chest while the severed head lay a few yards away, still wearing the black hood pulled on moments before by one of Ibrahim's five masked executioners.

The two bodies - in plain coffins draped in Iraqi flags - were then driven to Awja, the village on the outskirts of Tikrit where Saddam was born, arriving soon after dark.

Several hundred mourners had gathered in the hall, where flowers and pictures of Saddam were still piled up over his grave. The two bodies were ritually washed and prepared for burial and then put to rest in the garden outside as prayers were said and mourners read from the Koran.

Like Saddam's execution, the latest hangings in Iraq angered many Sunni Arabs who accuse the now dominant Shiite and Kurdish communities of seeking revenge rather than justice in Saddam's trials.

The government's admission that Barzan's head was ripped from his body by the noose sparked considerable anger among the mourners.

Some chanted anti-government slogans, accusing the Shiite-led cabinet of being "agents of Iran," Iraq's Shiite non- Arab neighbor which is viewed with deep suspicion by many Sunni Arab Iraqis.

Bandar's son was among the mourners at the burial, along with the governor and the deputy governor of Salahaddin Province, as well as the local chief of police. Some of the mourners fired off volleys of gunfire to show their anger at the executions.

Reaction to the execution of Saddam's henchmen was mixed Monday, with the United  States and Britain saying justice had been done, while the UN led condemnation of the executions.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters that "Iraq is a sovereign government exercising its judicial system to bring justice to those convicted for brutal crimes against humanity."   

However Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed "disappointment" with the way in which the aides were hanged, saying it should have been done with "greater dignity."

Like Saddam, Barzan and Bandar were sentenced to death for their roles in the massacre of 148 Iraqi Shiites from the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a failed attempt on the former dictator's life in 1982.

Witnesses said the two trembled and wet themselves as they were about to be hanged, more than two weeks after Saddam's bungled execution triggered condemnation.

CFPA: Why should these monsters have been hanged with dignity? Is there something in the Koran that says "Kill your enemies with dignity"? So his head came off, he probably had a weak neck. Two more dead Moslem monsters and the world is a little bit better off than it was yesterday.

Created: 15 Jan 2007