World

Sunnis Express Outrage Over Saddam's Death

January 2, 2007 / 12:05 PM EST / CBS/AP

Sunni Muslims, angered by the execution of Saddam Hussein and the way his hanging was carried out, have taken to the streets in recent days in mainly peaceful demonstrations in Sunni enclaves across the country.

On Monday, a crowd of Sunni mourners in Samarra marched to a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine and were allowed by guards and police to enter the holy place carrying a mock coffin and photos of the former dictator.

The protest took place at the Golden Dome, which was shattered in a bombing by Sunni extremists 10 months ago. That attack triggered the current cycle of retaliatory attacks between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, in the form of daily bombings, kidnappings and murders.

Hundreds of demonstrators on Monday mourned Saddam in a Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad. Some praised the Baath Party, the outlawed nationalist group that under Saddam cemented Sunni Arab dominance of Iraq.

"The Baath party and Baathists still exist in Iraq, and nobody can marginalize it," said Samir al-Obaidi, 48, who attended a Saddam memorial in northern Baghdad.

In Dor, 77 miles north of Baghdad, hundreds more demonstrators march to a dedication of a giant mosaic of Saddam. Children carried toy guns and men fired real weapons into the air.

Mourners at a mosque in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit slaughtered sheep as a sacrifice. The mosque's walls were lined with condolence cards from tribes in southern Iraq and Jordan who were unable to travel to the memorial.

In other developments:

In the hours before Saddam was led to the gallows the U.S. ambassador to Iraq reportedly tried, but failed, to delay the execution, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. A Reuters report, quoting Iraqi officials familiar with the discussions, said ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad insisted that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki provide certain documents, including a signature from Iraq's president.

The military on Tuesday announced the death of a U.S. soldier by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad. The blast Monday wounded three others, including an interpreter, as they talked with local residents about sectarian violence, the military said.

A roadside bomb also killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded seven others in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

U.S. troops killed a suspected al Qaeda weapons dealer and two other people in Baghdad raids Tuesday, and Iraqi forces detained more than 60 suspects over the past week, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, reported Monday that 16,273 Iraqis — including 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers — died violent deaths in 2006. The total exceeds the Associated Press count by more than 2,500.

On the first day of the New Year, Iraqi police reported finding the 40 handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. A police official, who refused to be named out of security fears, said 15 of the bodies were discovered in the mainly industrial Sheik Omar district of northern Baghdad. On Tuesday, police said the found 15 more bodies dumped in the north of the city.

Sunnis were not only outraged by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence. Many were also incensed by the unruly scene in the execution chamber, captured on video, in which Saddam was taunted with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."

The chants referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shiite cleric who runs one of Iraq's most violent religious militias. He is a major power behind the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Many Sunnis are also upset that Saddam was put to death the day that Sunni celebrations began for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival. The judge who first presided over the case that resulted in Saddam's death sentence said the former dictator's execution at the start of Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law, and contradicted Islamic custom.

The law states that "no verdict should implemented during the official holidays or religious festivals," said Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd.

Rizgar presided over Saddam's trial on charges he killed 148 Shiite men and boys in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in a botched assassination attempt in 1982. The judge stepped down from the case after Shiite complaints that he was too lenient.

Monday's demonstrations came on a day that saw the U.S. military kill six Iraqis during a raid on the offices of a prominent Sunni political figure where American forces believed al Qaeda fighters had taken refuge.