An Arab television station aired videotape Monday of what it said was the dead body of a prime minister under Saddam Hussein, showing Iraqi men kicking and stepping on the head of the corpse.
Al-Arabiya said the body in the videotape was that of Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi. The individual appeared dead and men wearing boots were kicking the head and stepping on its mouth.
The men, whose legs and feet only were visible in the tape, could be heard in the audio portion of the tape saying, "step on his mouth." They used words that were Iraqi slang.
The United States military reported on Dec. 5 that al-Zubaidi, 67, had died of heart failure three days earlier in a U.S. military hospital. Two days before the death announcement that carried al-Zubaidi's name, the military had said an unnamed 67-year-old Iraqi died at the 344th Corps Support Hospital.
Al-Arabiya quoted a U.S. Army spokesman as saying al-Zuabaidi's body had been turned over the the appropriate Iraqi government ministry after an autopsy following his death in the hospital.
Al-Zubaidi, a Shiite Muslim, was a leading member of Saddam's once-ruling Baath Party and led Saddam's forces in central Iraq during the initial stages of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. He was linked to the suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War and was in charge of Iraqi forces in Kirkuk during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
In related developments:
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