Iraq on Alert for Saddam Anniversary [View All]

[TexasLawyer]

Source: AP

Iraq on Alert for Saddam Anniversary

By PATRICK QUINN

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of people, including many children, chanted slogans praising Saddam Hussein on Sunday as they tossed flowers onto his tomb one year after he was executed.

<snip>

In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, supporters gathered at his burial site to pay homage. Some gave fiery speeches while others just stood quietly by the tomb, in a large mausoleum in the Tigris River village of Ouja — the small hamlet just outside Tikrit where Saddam was born.

"With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you Saddam!" the children chanted, AP Television News footage showed. The tomb was covered in Iraq flags and flowers and flanked by large pictures of a smiling Saddam. He is buried next to his sons Odai and Qusai, who died in a gun battle with U.S. forces in a 2003 in the northern city of Mosul.

Saddam was hung on Dec. 30 in Baghdad. Footage of the execution, filmed on a mobile phone and showing Saddam being taunted just before he died, was leaked to the media and shown across the world. It provoked an outcry, particularly among many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, and sparked a horrific day of violence that left 80 people dead in bombings and other attacks.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD8TS2SC00